Besides the central banks making everyone poorer, except for their friends, with their inflation tax, what is keeping the poor down more than taxes?
Trump has suggesting getting rid of the income tax for tariffs.
Is this better or worse?
Now, one of the things that was a point of arguments back then is that tariffs were a larger burden on the poor, and thus, we should have an income tax, that was on the rich.
Are tariffs good, or bad, for the poor? (of course, all tax is theft, and theft is wrong, but we aren't to a world without tax yet)
The big problem with being poor
Food costs about the same, if you are rich, or you are poor.
If Billy Gatez had all his money in cash, then he could buy up all the food. Unfortunately, most of his money is all in stock options, so he can't really use it that way (well, fortunate for us.) So, all he has done is buy up some farm land. (some used up, mined out farm land) He could make sure everyone was fed with his money. It is safe to say that Billy Gatez will not starve, if it is but a mere question of money.
But, for the poor, they spend an incredible percentage of their money on food.
This is even worse for poor in the 3rd world, where a few dollars is all they have per day, and it is mostly spent on food. Less than what we waste at starbuckins (its a waste + bad, burnt, coffee! Fight me)
This is the way it is with food. It is also the way it is with housing and transportation. The poor spend a great deal of their income on a place to sleep and a car to drive to work, to pay for the food to eat and the place to sleep.
The big problem with being poor is you spend so much of your money on just surviving.
And this level of money scales with every advance in standard of living level. e.g. upper lower class → lower middle class
Paying taxes
A person only needs so much of each thing, thus, each person's expenditures are roughly the same. A car is a car, an apple is an apple, a pair of pants is a pair of pants. Thus, each person, if they pay a sales tax, or a vat tax, or a tariff pays roughly the same amount. And so, the poor pay a disproportionally higher percentage in taxes.
And so it was said at the time we were discussing tariffs and income taxes.
There is just one problem, the rich don't pay taxes.
That, aforementioned Billy Gatez? His stocks and other assets do not incur a taxable fee unless he sells them. And why would he sell them? He could take out a loan against them, and then take it off his taxes as an expense. Yes, in some ways, it can be said that they rich are paid instead of taxed by the tax collectors.
The tax code, is larger than an encyclopaedia, however only a tiny portion of it is about what you pay, the rest of it is how you can get out of paying. (Not growing hogs? Well, get your not-growing-hogs-tax-deduction. You do take this deduction, right?)
And, have you looked into corporate tax? Again, tax those rich corporations! But, you can't tax a corporation. (unless it is a small mom-pop business) When you tax a corporation, all you are doing is putting a tax on the goods that corporation sold. The customers pay the tax.
Yes, that is right, every time you go to Wallymart and you buy a product, you pay sales tax (or vat) + corporate tax + import tax. It is all put in there, for you, the middle class person to pay. (and also the poor)
So really, you just get to choose how you will pay the tax. In which form shall you pay? There is no option to charge the rich a higher percentage.
intended consequences
Taxes and tax structures shape how things are bought, made, shipped…
What is the difference between a national sales tax and an import tax? Well, with a sales tax, you pay tax on every item purchased. When you have an import tax, you can avoid it by buying locally made goods. This means that you will not only avoid the tax, but also pay local workers, local wages, and that really helps the economy.
Unfortunately, today, most goods, especially those in Wallymart, are made by large corporations. (or imported by them from their smaller corporate friends overseas) and so, the money from the sale goes to the corporation, where it will NOT help the local economy much, but may (or may not) help out the nation in which the goods are made.
Today, global corporations play all kinds of games. Those "American" built cars have many parts that are built in China or Mexico. Weirdly, more of a Toyota truck is built in America, then a GM car. So, if we create import taxes, then these corporations will make it seem like things are being built in the local country, however, they will find all the ways to avoid that while also avoiding paying the import tax.
The import tax will change things. Over time, more things will be manufactured in country. Such are consequences of an import tax. More things will be created locally. Because this is what enterprising people do. They start a small company, and are usually selling it local. And thus, an import tax, instead of a sales tax will find more of people spending, affecting and helping local people and the local economy.
Is Trump intending to use the import tax to make better deals with trading countries?
Or is Trump actually looking to get rid of income tax, and the Infernal Revolting Syndicate?
Both have big advantage possibilities. But, we will be left with whatever is done. The laws and executive orders remain after Trump leaves office.
In reality, it doesn't matter much.
In the future, we will be doing a lot of manufacturing locally, just because we can, we have the technology. Further, the big, international corporations will be gone. No one will deal with any of the sociopathic entities that do harm to the environment to line their own pockets.
Also, really soon people will stop sending money to the Infernal Revolting Syndicate.
We will see that our money is paying for things that we DO NOT want. Not that our money is being spent poorly, but it is being funnelled to things it never should have.
Like, if we found our tax dollars were used to wipe out North Carolina with that "hurricane", than what would our response be? What if we find our tax dollars are used to ship children around the country for M.A.P. people to enjoy? (yes, Child nonProtective deliveryService does that) And, i bet i am not thinking as bad as what is going to come out.
It will be interesting to see what Trump does. But, it is really only a stepping stone to cleaning up our planet.