Eliminate the Income Tax and You Still Have the Same Federal Revenue as 10 Years Ago

Ron Paul has said this several times, and it turns out to be “mostly true,” according to this site. It would be nice to eliminate those other taxes as well, but it does put into perspective how much the era of big government is not over.

__________________
"All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident." - Schopenhauer

While I disagree with Paul's ideas and with the alleged "Fair"tax, I think I'm starting to come along to agree with lowering or perhaps getting rid of the income tax.

I favor a land value tax and/or taxes on the use/consumption of natural resources, including energy use and pollution.
Taxes are least harmful when they attack inherent unfairnesses rather than the fruits of people's labor. Land and natural resources cannot legitimately belong to anyone, so taxes that acknowledge this are just.
Some people may argue the implications to free trade.
Why not tax US entities for their consumption of natural resources no matter what country? It's about nonownership, not ownership.

In this way, public goods and services are supported by the taxation of those who use the most of that which can only belong to the human collective- if anyone at all.

__________________
"It's never over... BOY!"
The Tall Man, Phantasm III
what your pet really thinks of you...

__________________
"If the substance of life is information, transmitted through genes, then society and culture are essentially immense information transmission systems, and the city, a huge external memory storage device."

Purists are intolerably dull-thinkers.

Gene, the font and size of the letters make your post hard to read. Can you fix it?


What an unliberal thing to say!

__________________
Order without liberty and liberty without order are equally destructive. - Theodore Roosevelt

T-B, it's "mostly true" if you think that being off by 30% is "mostly true." As I've noted before. He's short by 12% in absolute terms, but off by 30% when factoring in inflation.

__________________
Scarred survivor of the April 2008 Mod War.

Nah. I'm getting more radical these days.
What I don't like is how the current class conflict pushed by the parties today is one of middle class and semi-rich ("petty bourgesie" if you prefer) against the poor while the super-rich and business interests pass stuff by on us.
We've grown so used to the income tax that we think tweeking it back and forth is the way to get people power... Really it just pits the lower classes against one another. The upper 1% aren't all that affected by income tax and wouldn't be affected much by sales tax.

We are becoming more and more of a de facto plutarchy mainly due to the apathy of the people, which is supported by a lot in our system. And when Democrats babble about tweeking the income tax to fix it... you know they're just pandering for votes... or they're naive.

__________________
"It's never over... BOY!"
The Tall Man, Phantasm III
what your pet really thinks of you...

According to the graph income tax began in the 70's, I thought the 16th amendment passed in 1913. Please educate me. Replacing income tax with federal sales tax doesn't help anyone. Get rid of federal income tax. We're not in a world war anymore, the federal reserve can loan out it's own money.

A national sales tax would be great because it doesn't tax incomes as everyone said but the only problem is that it will tax the poor even with a reinbustment for every family. Maybe if there was also an added luxury tax or something then the idea would be fine. Taxing the poor is never a good idea especialy if welfare exists because than there is a tax to pay the same person.

Please, can someone--hopefully Java or someone equally articulate--explain to me his objections to the FairTax? I've looked it over and think it a very solid idea; I'm just curious as to the objections. Thanks.

__________________
"Has this world been so kind to you that you should leave with regret? There are better things ahead than any we leave behind."

-C.S. Lewis

Income tax was heavily implemented during WWII, when rates for the upper classes reached around 94% to pay for the war. Very few objections occurred and we failed to recognize the importance of taxes on a 'need to finance' basis. Meaning, after the war was paid the correct route would be to disband (or decrease to a trickle) the income tax unless situations of certainty arose wherein the government needed money. This would have prevented those wars of attrition such as Vietnam, Iraq, and others because the fed's first and main objective is to run itself from the revenue it receives. Debt is a simple sign the government, or anyone, is stretches beyond its means of finance. Debt is increased when accessibility of funds increase, those receiving funds become greedy, and the result is a corruptly powerful behemoth of bureaucracy.

__________________
"Fools rush in where angels fear to tread." - Alexander Pope