Is repealing the 20th century such a bad idea?
Income tax revolt is slowing making its way to the ballot in Massachusetts, and it's picking up a few enemies along the way. According to a letter in the Boston Globe: "So when Libertarian leader Carla Howell launched a new effort to junk the income tax earlier this year, the powers that be made it clear that this time they would do everything they could to discredit it."
An opponent of the prior attempt to repeal the tax (Howell tried to repeal the tax in 2002) is none other than Michael Widmer of the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation. As the letter notes, "(T)he Taxpayers Foundation is a business lobby that often opposes broad-based tax relief."
This quote from Widmer regarding the prior attempt clearly defines the issue: "Essentially (Howell's) trying to repeal the 20th century."
Repeal the 20th century? Hmm. So, what's the problem here?
note: Here in Ohio, the income tax is only 35 years old, while a number of states have no income tax at all.
Comments (11)
I am moving to a non-20th Century state as soon as I am finished with the degree thing.
Published: January 13, 2008 8:37 PM
Carla Howell is also sexy.
Just putting that out there… I mean like real cougar material.
Published: January 14, 2008 1:29 AM
Oh the delicious irony of the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation which routinely lobbies for higher taxes.
Published: January 14, 2008 6:00 AM
It's not ironic if you live in Massachusetts.
Published: January 14, 2008 10:12 AM
The lack of an income tax is one of the reasons I moved to Washington State. Despite the lack of an income tax, we've still got a budget surplus.
Published: January 14, 2008 1:17 PM
I keep reading about people wanting to do away with income tax, but I do not understand the alternatives. I'm from Canada, Income Tax has been around longer than I've been alive, so I can't conceive of another way to do it.
Could someone direct me to some reading on "how to fund a government"?
I have always thought that Income Tax is one of the more fair taxes I have to pay. One of the things I like about income tax is that it is objective, whereas some of the other taxes I pay are determined in a rather subjective way.
Not prepared to debate (I don't know enough), I just need to a source to educate myself (there's a clever rhyme in there somewhere).
Published: January 15, 2008 6:32 PM
Well Kavius, the ideas propounded by Austrian economics (and you are on the Mises website) involve no government, or a minimallistic government (protecting our rights, and maybe a small national army), which could easily fund itself with a flat tax on income of less than 5%.
However, Austrian economics also elevates the importance of savings as opposed to consumption, as an essential aspect of economic growth, as opposed to the neoclassical view (which simply leads to debt-based growth and a worsening boom-bust cycle).
As such, since the income tax would take away from an opportunity to either save or consume, and since saving always seems to occur far too rarely in today's world, it would seem reasonable to have a flat tax rate of 5% or so on all commodity and services prices, effectively acting as a stimulus for consumers to save.
Although I think eventually (without government intervention) an equilibrium would come about between the savings and consumption of consumers, the fact is that the last 4-5 or so generations have pretty much lived their whole life in debt, and debt seems like the way to achieve everything in life nowadays, so a small incentive to save might be preferable to a flat income tax.
Hope this helps.
Published: January 16, 2008 11:55 AM
So you would suggest funding government through "income tax" or "sales tax"? Can you suggest some resources for this subject?
Published: January 18, 2008 9:43 AM
To be honest I don't know. Most of my conclusions I came to by reasoning it out myself, given various other information. Here is a link though to an essay by Ron Paul. In the same category you will find a few others concerning taxes, although they are probably more political than economic.
Published: January 20, 2008 3:16 PM
http://www.ronpaul2008.com/articles/106/end-the-income-tax-pass-the-liberty-amendment/
Published: January 20, 2008 3:18 PM
That has to be one of the best answers I have heard on the matter, and it doesn't even answer the question.
I have a socialist friend from high school. We were discussing taxes. His simple statement was that people are all for cutting taxes, but they complain very loudly when government services are cut. He is absolutely correct. Most people want services, but do not want to have to pay for them.
I am genuinly interested in any "Tax Theory", if such a thing exists. My biggest problem with taxes is not so much that we pay them, as they are arbitrarily assigned. I think it is important that I get value for money I spend.
I think I am in the same boat. I came to most of my conclusions by reasoning it out myself as well. Unfortunately, I have not been able to find anything other than
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FairTax
only to come across this...
http://mises.com/forums/p/358/3545.aspx#3545
I haven't read it yet, but this would be the place to openly discuss it.
Published: January 23, 2008 9:57 AM