I actually wish we would try the following experiment in this country: Zero Tax of corporations Abolish the IRS Tax Consumption Reduce Defense spending by at least half I say let it run for one presidential cycle. If it works, great. If not, we could get on with a fair system ONCE AND FOR ALL.
I don't understand how we can model the evolution of the entire Universe over 14 billion years on computers, but we can't model the above to see what happens with revenue, unemployment etc.
* IRS... cut it down a lot and outsource the remaining few functions, but manage it well. * Tax consumption... good in theory, but needs a strong income/feedback loop to help mid/low income people who "consume" their last dime to live. * Reduce defense... cut the fat, OK, but a lot of hostility is brewing globally between the haves and the have nots, not to mention between the civilized world and terrorists, which makes this old and sweet dream quite unrealistic, at least for the next couple of decades.
Well said. What's the "optimum" taxation level for a given economy? It's a solvable problem, at least mathematically.
Yeah, but you know what they say about giving someone something and then trying to take it away. The first three would work great for the upper echelon but, as you imply, not so well for anyone else. Imagine the lobbying then to keep the new normal. Of course, if businesses don't wish to pay corporate income tax then they shouldn't be corporations. If it means that much to them, then they can reorganize their legal structure and deal with the varied consequences of their choice. And, as most would agree, a consumption tax would be crippling for the lower echelons, but no doubt the rich could live with that and several influential of their number would seek to maintain the new status quo. I know you mean well, nitro, but you give a Rightster an inch and, well, you know the rest.
I know that politics is the art of the incremental gains. That is why I suggested computer modeling. I never hear of this sort of modeling.
Hard to calculate the amount of theft, corruption, misappropriated money, etc., etc. And yes, as the Bern would say, that's a HUGE factor.
An interesting idea, but I'm not sure you can model human behavior in that manner with meaningful precision.
Sanders Gains Ground in Nevada, Testing a Clinton Firewall "Alicia Hernandez sat on a sofa in a re-purposed Las Vegas strip-mall store on a sunny Sunday afternoon listening to a step-by-step explanation from a Bernie Sanders field office director about how a presidential caucus works. Hernandez, 23, a daughter of immigrants who’s studying floral design at the College of Southern Nevada, received an e-mail about the training session from Sanders’ campaign after liking what she saw on his website. She came to learn how to caucus for the Vermont senator instead of Hillary Clinton. “Hillary doesn’t feel as genuine as Bernie Sanders,” Hernandez said, ticking off his support for free college tuition, universal health care, the middle class and immigration. “We want things to change.” Sanders needs a lot of voters like Hernandez in Nevada to overcome Clinton’s advantages in the state, which holds the third Democratic presidential nominating contest on Saturday. But there are signs on the ground, such as his ability to rally people like Hernandez to his campaign, that Sanders is gaining on Clinton in the state, which she was counting on as a western firewall after losing in the New Hampshire primary and squeaking out a narrow victory in the Iowa caucuses. As a caucus state, Nevada is notoriously hard to poll and there are few reliable indicators of how the contest will go. Jon Ralston, a long-time observer of Nevada politics who publishes the Ralston Reports website, wrote in the Washington Post Tuesday that Sanders has been furiously funneling resources into the state. As a result, he wrote, Nevada is no longer a lock for Clinton and that within her campaign “panic is palpable.’’..." http://www.bloomberg.com/politics/a...s-ground-in-nevada-testing-a-clinton-firewall
http://www.fox26houston.com/news/local-news/92232732-story This is like adding TNT on a jet fuel fire. The anger is going to go ballistic.