High is relative but yes I consider what I pay to be a lot. I didn't say I was for high taxes or raising taxes or I liked what our government does, I'm not & I don't . I was just making a point, not stating a position. Back in 1980 at the office I worked at an old guy there was sending in his quartetly taxes and his check he made out was for $25,000 for the quarter, I about choked and that was 28 years ago. So in the terms of what he paid I don't pay a lot but compared to most people I pay a lot.
There's lots of misconceptions that appear everytime this is discussed here. "The FairTax Act abolishes all taxes on income." (page 75 "The FairTax Book".) Almost every question you have would be answered if you would only go out and pick up a copy of the book. It is a simple to read short (about 200 pages) book.
This is off the point, but generally applicable I think.... "The REAL reason we got off of the gold standard"... Years ago and in order to convince the world they should accept our paper money, our paper bills were "redeemable for gold on demand". Whenever the Gummint got goosey with spending and debt, the holders of our paper money would rush to the banks and redeem their paper US currency for gold and drain our gold reserves. In effect, they were "holding the Gummint's feet to the fire of fiscal responsibility and accountability". Gummint didn't really like that, so one day the "redeem for gold" feature was abandoned so the Gummint would effectively be held to no standard at all.... which of course, they liked. Same thing with deficit spending. If they could not deficit spend and had to have a referendum for higher taxes whenever they wanted to be spendthrift, taxpayers would say, "Hell no, I don't want to pay higher taxes for THAT". So instead, Gummint deficit spends.. "charging it" to the tax payer and his children, grand children, etc. And we don't complain too much because it's not clear to the average American how the Gummint is screwing us over... just the way they like it.
I have read about about the legality or lack thereof of the income tax extensively off and on for the last 6 years. I have come to the conclusion that while it was never ratified and it is voluntary it is easier to pay and use the write-offs at hand to my advantage. As I have posted before the IRS has more guns, money, and general resources than any individual citizen. In order to take them on effectively you would have to dedicate your life to it and trading is my passion not battling the IRS in court. Joe Banister has won some important battles, but then look at Irwin Schiff. In federal prison for the 2nd time. A tax on consumption is the way to go IMO, but we need to look at the big picture. How do we close the loopholes fo ppl. that buy on Ebay and pay no tax? Does anyone realize that in the short term this will cause a significant recession IMO? Has anyone traveled outside the US, as I have, and seen taxes of 20% approx. on goods your purchase? It makes one stop and think if you really want that item that bad. This is a good thing, but since approx. 70% of GDP is consumer spending this could create a serious impact in the short run, prob. up to 12 months IMO. This current system is broken patchwork of loopholes and needs to be fixed. Hopefully in my life time it will.
That is a lie, it was ratified and upheld by the courts. The rest is a conspiracy theory peddled by snake oil salesmen.
Shiawww... I know. But there are a surprising number of ET'ers who think, "The Gummint is good, Bush is good, Hillary/Obama is good, Greenspan was just GREAT, etc." How gullible...
I just heard that Super Tuesday tomorrow can very well lock up the Republican nomimation for one of the candidates -- meaning that the rest of the states that vote after tomorrow won't matter in the delegate count. So, if you feel the way I do about this, please get out tomorrow and show your support for Mike Huckabee. This is probably our only chance in this life time to turn this thing around.