Yes, I was going to mention waste. Incandescents are arguably made of natural ingredients and so no recycling required. LED's semiconductors require toxins and (micro)plastics for manufacturing. And LED recycling is dubious in many parts of the world.

Also, I was not talking about the manufacturing of AN LED bulb, I'm talking about the massive, entirety of the electronics industry, all of which is required to make an LED bulb: every employee, driving his car to every factory, mining every element, creating every chemical and shipping every component all over the world, many times over. This is never considered.

(Not to mention that there is some evidence that LEDs are harmful to health.)

Not that I want to get in the middle of your argument, but I have wondered about this: Clearly the LED bulbs draw less power to produce the same amount of light (ignoring wavelength spectra).

But even a low-skill artisan can make glass and smelt metal--incandescent bulbs were made stably, a century ago. I design electronics for a living and know about the PhDs, physics and engineering that goes into just making diodes, let alone entire circuits. Even though the LED bulbs may be more efficient, what happens to the math when one calculates the entirety of the electronics manufacturing industry when it comes to making the millions of different components?

(Looks up from screen) I'm sorry, did you say something?

How is a percentage of intake "inequitable"? I don't think the tax system should be used to try to correct societal ills--it just leads to corruption and is confusing as heck. Confusion causes waste. Waste is inefficient and eventually promotes human suffering. I am anti-human suffering. There's no evidence because we haven't tried it.

Don't guess at my goals, ask! I want everyone to be able to do his taxes on a calculator within 5 seconds. I want to be able to do my taxes without having to hire a pricey expert who knows the tax laws that change every single year. I want the corruption loopholes to end. I want our costly eternal vigilance of the systems and the people to stop. I want to stop the dubious accounting tricks that those with more money engage in. I want everyone to be confident that everyone else is engaged in fairness, and not feel like a sucker. I want people to stop pointing at the wealthy and assuming that if we can just squeeze their bank accounts a little bit more that that will finally save the country. I want EVERYONE to vote for lower taxes, every time, to where can then decide, as a unified group, how high the taxation percentage should be, versus the class warfare nonsense we enjoy now.

Right now, I'm not talking about stupid presidents, politicians, their moronic decisions and what they do with our taxes. I'm not talking about fixing the state of "the poor". I'm only talking about making everyone vote for lower taxes instead of the random hodgepodge we have now. Can you image if the wealthy used their power to keep everyone's taxes low because this percentage affected equally?!

But I already know it won't happen--this is a chat site, not a "do" site.

That's not enough, I want everything to be flat. I guess I'm not interested in those ancillary things as I see the overall waste and corruption involved everywhere, and at all levels of power when it comes to taxation. After decades of doing my own taxes on paper, I've finally hired a tax accountant recently because it's too complex and requires too much time for something that should be staid by now.

And I consider that a bonus: I think the government is made of idiot turtles all the way down and should keep their hands out of incentivizing (read "gambling with") X, Y or Z. They are not engineers and hence know not what they do most of the time. (Legislation and punishments are enough, if need be wielded.)

Forgive me if I'm skeptical.

Not just consumption, ALL cash transactions would be taxed. Loans, real estate, charitable donations, electricity bills, everything. Simple, easy, fair. Say, 0.05 percent. Everyone would then vote for lower taxes, ending this class warfare nonsense and dubious tax avoision.

This is the kind of stuff I worry about when people cry that nuclear is such a good power option today. They assume that future generations will handle the waste better than we did. ...are.

I can't imagine anything more "fair" than a simple, mathematical percentage. This is not about righting the perceived wrongs of society, this about ending a corruptible, ridiculously complex tax system. How is it fair that those with higher incomes can seek tax avoision via their accountants? That's not possible in my system: all pay, using only a simple calculator.

Near me, the poor already get much free stuff: food, clothes, medicine, phones, and as of yesterday, mental health care house calls at their homeless tents. And if the rate is something like 0.05 percent, they'll probably pay less overall, no?

And what if the amount they pay is actually less? It depends on the percentage. Could the US function with a 0.05 percent universal transaction tax? At $10T transacted per day, that's billions in revenue per day. Do we require more?

I respectfully disagree. The poor transact less and so will pay less. I propose all transactions be taxed, not just income.

Every transaction? Not just income...

Silliness. The poor spend less and so will pay less.

EVERY transaction, not just income. Loans, purchases, investments, real estate, a tiny percentage of everything.

And situations like THIS are why I want us to try a flat tax: It would be the same for every human or entity, every time money changes hands, and no more deductions, ever. No charity breaks, no loopholes, no dubious accounting, no "write offs" , no corruption. Everyone, rich or poor, would then be in the same voting boat, killing off part of the class warfare that occurs on election day as we'd all at least vote for lower taxes.