06-29-2016, 12:30 PM
(06-21-2016, 08:44 AM)Anthony 58 Wrote: Call it Andy Stern meets Milton Friedman.
1. Give every U.S. citizen not in jail and over 21 a $12,500 refundable tax credit, indexed annually to the CPI.
2. Subject all income to a flat tax, say 25%, with no exemptions or credits whatsoever - no exceptions - besides #1 above.
3. Abolish the minimum wage altogether.
One side of our political divide wants to judge the poor for their laziness, while the other side wants to judge the rich for their greed.
But how about an economic policy that judges nobody?
The only fair tax system is a progressive tax, not a flat tax. Yours is the Republican proposal; it is maximum neo-liberalism. Steve Forbes, Herman Cain and Ted Cruz proposed it. Flat taxes hit the middle class much harder than the rich, because it takes a larger portion of non-discretionary income. With the cost of living so high, the middle class under this flat tax would pay more and more for the increasing costs of government, unless it is decreed (as Trump wants) that the government quickly go broke and default. Minimum wages need to be increased to $15 an hour; not abolished. Otherwise people get paid a non-living wage. I am not opposed to differences in different places, but $15 is a working minimum proposal. Hillary says $12, I believe; Bernie says $15.
The rich are greedy; that's not a judgement, but a fact. Their economic behavior must be controlled. The neo-liberals call the poor lazy, but the fact is that they have tattered the safety net so much that it doesn't matter; there is no welfare now to speak of for the lazy to live on. A refundable credit would be an expansion of the current earned income credit, which might be a good alternative to welfare.