Good government is inefficient government in the realm of tax collection.
THE LAFFER CURVE
Arthur Laffer recently wrote a defense of the corporate VAT tax substitution being proposed by Rand Paul and Ted Cruz.
Dr. Laffer understands that there are conservative opponents of his flat VAT tax plan. He doesn't seem to know why. I know why. The reason is expressed by Dr. Laffer.
The U.S. government should collect taxes in the most efficient way possible so as to do the least damage to the economy.
This sounds good. In fact, it is conceptually inaccurate and highly misleading. The opponents of Dr. Laffer's famous curve -- I am among them -- line up against "the most efficient way possible" for the government to collect taxes. Why? Because we do not want efficient tax collection. We want inefficient tax collection. Why? Because we want the least damage done to personal liberty. (The economy can look out for itself.)
Good government is inefficient government in the realm of tax collection. Here, waste is good -- morally and technically.
Arthur Laffer recently wrote a defense of the corporate VAT tax substitution being proposed by Rand Paul and Ted Cruz.
Dr. Laffer understands that there are conservative opponents of his flat VAT tax plan. He doesn't seem to know why. I know why. The reason is expressed by Dr. Laffer.
The U.S. government should collect taxes in the most efficient way possible so as to do the least damage to the economy.
This sounds good. In fact, it is conceptually inaccurate and highly misleading. The opponents of Dr. Laffer's famous curve -- I am among them -- line up against "the most efficient way possible" for the government to collect taxes. Why? Because we do not want efficient tax collection. We want inefficient tax collection. Why? Because we want the least damage done to personal liberty. (The economy can look out for itself.)
Good government is inefficient government in the realm of tax collection. Here, waste is good -- morally and technically.
Do I favor the idea of zero federal income taxes? Absolutely. I'm not really sure about the State side, however. I've lived in a state which had no income tax (as does my brother right now), and all that it does is shift taxation to property taxes. One can argue that one can have more local effect on property taxes because of representative government, but I'd be curious to see if that premise really holds, as in my experience, I find that assertion of extremely dubious credentials.
With a consumption tax, as explained elsewhere, the citizen controls taxes and therefore government expenditures by spending decisions.
One is fascist smal 'f' in that it is useful for those who want government over citizens and choose the method that says any means and completely - control.
One is the opposite and lives up to the principles of freedom for those who choose citizens over government.
Nothing more than that.
Point is with the flat tax, the enhanced tax, the diverted through business tax government controls you. with the end user consumption tax you control that Mayor without resorting to buying the election results.
??? I'd appreciate a little more into your thought process here. The problem with raising taxes is that the more you raise them, the larger the costs on the economy as compared to the payback up to the point where all future increases actually begin damaging the economy. I don't really see that as a sliding scale subject to manipulation by politicians, but maybe that's just because I'm an idealist.
And trust me, we've been dealing with a Democratic Mayor for quite some time now who tries to keep insisting that the city needs to raise taxes and impact fees and all kinds of things in order to facilitate a larger budget for social services, so your analogy isn't lost on me. We do have a major university here, but most of our business is high-tech.
Short story about Ashland, Oregon home of Sock or Southern Oregon State College which is now a University. For a town with that much brain power one wonders about the following.
City fathers decided to have a sales tax and used restaurants or prepared foods as the camel's nose. One of the provisions was 1% but with 90 days notice the city council could raise it to 5%. After all only the tourists will pay it. It was narrowly defeated. Next up was an unfunded mandate from the feds for new city and water systems., Complete everything. City couldn't afford it in the time allowed. Think of the fines and besides we'll get almost automatic grants to help pay the bill but it's ...not ...quite...enough. But if we had that 1% tax then all is golden. This time it narrowly passed, The next day the 90 day notice was filed and three months later the locals began going to the next town to dine out the word got around and he tourist trade slacked. Eventually it recovered and last I heard the first sales tax in Oregon was widened to include other forms of business.
For a college town they sure had a lot of dumb asses.
That's income tax., Slice it. dice it, remix it, repackage it redefine it. It is still a gun to your head and so is this new version VAT on business only.
Are you from a college town?
http://www.cato.org/publications/comm...
Note that he presents the theory of the Laffer Curve, but he emphasizes that it isn't actually the revenue-maximizing point of the Curve we should focus on, but the economically-maximizing point.
He also makes a great argument for the flat tax here: http://www.unitedliberty.org/articles...
Give me back Vincent Price!
By the way, if you are a movie buff, go see "Victor Frankenstein." It's filled with subtle references to past Frankenstein movies. Which reminds me of, the horror senator from Minnesota, Al Franken(stein).
I wish I had a stuffed full size doll of him so whenever I feel frustrated by someone using his tactics, I'd take a bataka and beat the living crap out of him.
I wish that they were so inefficient that they would stay at home
and collect no taxes at all, some days. . most of the stuff which
the government does with my bucks is illegitimate! -- j
.
The more inefficient the better? I like it. Wish I had thought of it. However, since I fear the government (they have more guns than me) Inefficiency also means mistakes, and mistakes made on citizens in a negative way can irrevocably damage them. The IRS is a lumbering monster but also a quick draw artist who shoots first and asks questions later. It has been used by the powers-that-be in Washington to scare, intimidate and destroy perceived enemies.
"there's a helluva good universe next door -- let's go." -- e. e. cummings
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