Flat tax - 16%. Period. No sales tax or other taxes. 16%, period. No deduction, expenses, etc. 16% of gross income, period. Let the tax professionals, including accountants and tax lawyers, eat cake.
Have you ever been to a Walmart or Costco? No way, these people are way to simple. I would bet as much as 50% of current homeowners have little to no real idea how the math of a mortgage works
You can't force people to save, nor assume that they will have the cash on-hand to meet an unforeseen expense. Any more than you can guarantee you won't blow-out on your next trade if the market gaps through your stop. The blame lies with originators and the banks. It's assumed the banks are more experienced and understand the risks better than Ma and Pa Kettle, but it didn't save their collective asses from writing off $50B, did it? There are plenty of people who took 15-year IOs and hedged with GE or other STIRs; Euribors, etc...
Case in point. My brother took out a $4mm 15-year first-mortgage on his primary residence. He's never had a mortgage. He took the proceeds and shorted the HGX synthetically and took $300k to trade bear-reversals on Notes and STIRs among other trades. He would pass the test, as would anyone who reads English. Again, what's the point of the test. How do you police stupidity?
Some will fail so there will be no soup for them !! How many people have failed citizenship test? They will study hard to get credit card or home mortgage. I can ask the same question: What if 99% of people fail driving test?