(04-05-2012, 08:57 PM)kandrathe Wrote: Well, what are food stamps?
An infantilizing device for controlling poor people, so that they don't spend their money on things the government doesn't like?
Quote:The debit card wouldn't need to be neon red/white/blue and play the star spangled banner. And... I don't see it as the same. The idea would be that everyone pays the government the same lower tax rates, except those who are poor and need relief. The current scheme is to attempt to extract as much from the income side as possible, but because of special interests the laws eventually erode to exclude more and more of those with the money to buy influence. What ends up happening repeatedly is that the middle carries almost all the burden, since they don't have lobbyists in DC.
Okay, so just don't charge the poor the taxes in the first place - progressivity. No middle class person is going to get a lobbyist in DC on the basis that we raised their taxes. What would change in the new system, that would prevent capitalists from just using it to their advantage all the same?
Quote:The problem I have with our current Progressive scheme is that our multi tiered system masks enough complexity to hide their intricate corruption. I'm in favor of making it really, really simple with only exceptions for poor people.
Simple, almost everyone can agree on. But, it's as Chomsky said about peace - everyone's for it, but nobody can agree on the conditions.
-Jester