Quote from: BitMagic on November 04, 2011, 04:02:08 PM

Quote from: notme on November 04, 2011, 07:28:41 AM

No no no.... Not a probate on expenses.... Just on the sales taxes for those expenses. Same as we have now in the US. You don't pay taxes if you are below the poverty line.

Ah, gotcha. Also not a terrible idea, but it's largely unpopular with American conservatives, who believe everyone should pay something in taxes.

I was talking about fixed percentage income taxes, but we can talk about sales taxes, too.

At what point do you set the "poverty line"? I know how it's set here in the US. So you tax someone who spends 89% of their income on food, rent and health, but not someone who spends 90%?

The issue is around fairness. Graduated fairness based on what you need to survive.

Quote from: notme on November 04, 2011, 07:30:37 AM

And you deserve it if you earned it. If daddy (or mommy) gave it to you, then it depends on the individual. Rich brats cause a lot of problems.

What if you earned it by siphoning CPU cycles using embedded javascript code? What if you were exploiting child labor in China (where it's legal), and your customers didn't know? In short, does it matter how you earned it to deserve it? Who decides and enforces that?

I'm not sure what you're getting at with 89 vs 90%. I'm saying everybody gets a prebate at the same level, regardless of income. Yes, there are situations where people earn money unfairly, but I don't see that as something the government should be responsibile for policing. (police-ing... Policing looks weird to me, so I want to be clear). That should be left to social forces. The problem with governments saying they will take care of things is they don't, yet everyone quits worrying about it because it's supposed to be taken care of.