“resulting in even more cheating, to the point of total collapse.”

Don’t we already have that going on? I mean, there are numerous corporations and citizens who don’t pay any tax and many more who cheat them. I’m not a fan of the “fair tax plan” but that’s a lame argument against it. And, if you compare our current tax plan to the fair tax plan I’ll take the fair tax any day. I mean, income tax for state and federal, sales tax, gas tax, road tolls, phone bill taxes, airline ticket taxes, electric bill taxes, cigarette tax, Social Security tax… We literally pay a tax every time we take a sh!t…. and it’s definitely more than 30% of my income when you include the cost of accountants and all the other expenses of keeping tabs on it all.

I’ll take a “fair tax” over our current “unfair tax” any day.

As per the original blog post, Megan McArdle pointed out “It will end up being quite regressive, with the highest effective burden falling on the lower tiers of the middle class.” As a Fairtax supporter (caution: biased poster), I was naturally eager to read more about this claim. Sadly, the italicized sentence was perfectly literal. All she did was point it out, she did not provide facts or supporting reports on that claim. It may as well he her opinion, hardly the conclusive stuff I was eager for.

With the Fairtax you need to keep the prebate in mind. No one pays taxes up to the poverty level, including the rich and wealthy. So if you are spending below the poverty line, your purchases are tax free. If you are lower-middle class (just above the poverty line) and spending like it, you only pay taxes on the purchases over the poverty line, or a very small percentage of your purchases. If you are rich and wealthy (regardless of where your income comes from) you pay taxes on maintaining your lifestyle.
So the more you spend, the more you pay in taxes. That makes this a progressive tax plan.

The only way this tax plan becomes regressive is if you spend beyond your means, then you will pay more taxes vis a vis your income. As this is one of the contributing reasons (the fact we are a debtor nation as a whole) we are in the financial crisis we are, having a tax policy that trains people to save and invest might be the best way to prevent this sort of thing in the future.

I will not even go into the other bonuses of the Fairtax this time. In the future, no such promises!

Be that as it may, the “unworkable” meme is just as silly. Really, folks, the reason you tax is to raise money for the government. And, you try to NOT harm the economy while doing so.

The income tax, specificaly that applied to business, is more aptly called the “employment, entrepreneurship, and productivity fine”. It is simply a means of placing domestic business at a financial disadvantage as compared to imports. Domestic business pays the tax (and the even greater cost of attempting to comply with the insane tax code) ,but not imports, and then passes it along in its entirety to the consumer in the form of higher prices. Many countries with large imports to the US have very low or minimal corporate taxes, and generally do not tax productivity or growth (the growth tax, where we punish people for improving or upsizing their business is called “capital gains” ,among other things).

For some reason, there’s a certain segment of our political class who thinks it needs to punish, abuse, and if possible, destroy our business base, by doing everything in their power to place them at a disadvantage for having the audacity to engage in domestic evils… like, employing people.

http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/Well-Great-Depression-2-2011/story.aspx?guid=%7BB28B49B5%2DEFD1%2D4941%2DB57E%2DA2BA1545BA09%7D&dist=SecMostRead

Along with it comes lower pay and reduced benefits. Expect to fully fund your health insurance and retirement.

Also, if anyone doubts our government’s ability to aid corporations, take a look at the $4.28 trillion bailout of the financial sector.