Comment Re:We Don't Have To Cut... (Score 1) 609
The "Fair Tax"
There is no such thing as a "fair" tax other than a simple per-capita fee. Taxing income isn't "fair" because it's essentially a limited form of slavery (a portion of one's labor is forcibly appropriated by someone else). Taxing consumption isn't "fair" because consumption is a different fraction of wealth for different populations.
But people don't really want a "fair" tax; they want a "tax everyone else more than me" tax.
A much better system is probably something like an income tax based not on income, but on accumulated wealth. So an organization (individual or corporation or trust, etc.) with zero assets would have zero tax, but if there are equivalent assets of $10M per person, the income tax should be close to 100% (after all, $10M is enough for $100k for 100 years!)
Such a system would help the poor, would help address income equality issues, and is inherently progressive since taxation is not in any way related to consumption. When applied to corporations it would result in lower costs for everything or higher incomes for employes, as companies would have less incentive to simply accumulate massive profits. It's also self regulating, since if you have zero income then the taxes decrease each year as the assets are utilized (for instance, if you are drawing down savings). This system also doesn't tax activity - which is what any income or consumption based tax does. Instead, it taxes accumulation.
Now, this is a radically different system than anyone has ever implemented, so will probably find no support - especially not among the rich who will scream that it affects them negatively (and they'd be right; this is not a "fair" proposal).