But a flat tax won't end it either. If you ask me, the reason why the middle class are getting hit hard and the poor are getting poorer is for a multitude of reasons.
'the poor are getting poorer' is a myth. the poor are merely getting richer
slower.
One, if you ask me, is how necessary the use of living off of a debt is in this nation. We require debt to get a college education or professional training and we require debt to get shelter.
i could see the argument for purchasing a house (though not renting); but we certainly do not require debt to go to college or get professional training. i'm 2/3rds through a Masters degree, and i've never taken a student loan. nor do we need debt to purchase cars, or furniture, or groceries, or any of the myriad items that we foolishly use it for. I had a guy a couple of days ago tell me how great his credit card was because it only charged 13%, and that's why he used it instead of cash. I tried to explain to him that he was
paying for the priviledge of using
his own money; but he just sort of looked at me like i'd wacked him in the head with a 2x4. then he mumbled something about a
FICO score..... oie :doh
On one hand, the flow of credit in the U.S. allows those who are poor a way to lift themselves out of their poverty
unless they are getting investment for a small business, then no, it isn't; it is a trap. there is a reason that payday loan type establishments target poorer neighborhoods; because the poor are stupid enough to use them.
What is the ultimate solution to this?
get Americans unhooked from living in debt; become a nation of savers rather than a nation of consumers. maintain a small federal government with a balanced budget funded by a tax scheme that is at once simple and light.
Another reason is the sheer number of tax exemptions available to people. While conservative pundits like to blame Democrats for giving the poor for all these exemptions, Republicans are also to blame for giving exemptions to their poor supporters, most poor social conservatives who get tax breaks for children.
if there is one thing we should give a tax exemption for, taking care of American citizens who as of yet cannot support themselves is it. but yes, the
vast majority of exemptions need to go; one of the reasons i'm a fairtax fan is that it reduces the huge amount of pork that is represented by the current tax code.
But why should people with children get more tax exemptions when they use more tax-provided government services, such as public education for their children?
because of the myriad costs associated with raising children; costs those parents incur when they provide for American citizens who cannot provide for themselves.
Maybe we should increase taxes on couples with children since they consume more government services than singles without children.
well if you want to reduce the number of children born in America and ensure our collapse as a society, that would be one way to do it.
But that would be against the "family values" of social conservatives who love kids so much they despise birth control, and would call any Republican who supported it a RINO.
:shrug: i'ma social conservative, me and my wife use birth control. I have no beef with folks who don't, but i think you are misrepresenting the right here. what we hate is using
abortion as birth control
So the reason why the middle class is suffering and the reason why the poor stay poor can't be reduced to the system of taxes we use.
it is a cause, especially inasmuch as it inhibits growth.
but directly as well. if you are bringing in 20K a year, you are getting taxed at a 15% rate from federal income taxes. but you are also paying payroll; economists are pretty much unanimous that employer matches come out of compensation, so that comes out to an additional 14.7%. you're paying almost 30% of your income to the Federal Government on those two alone, before you try to save/invest the money you've
already paid taxes on, purchase gasoline, or any other of the myriad things the government now taxes. The Fair Tax is - if anything -
more progressive than the current tax structure, you pay no tax whatsoever if you spend at the poverty level; if you spend (which means that you have made more than) twice the poverty level, you are still only paying 11.5%; a little over a third of the amount paid above.