Sometimes you give me reason to believe that you have one of the slyest senses of humor around ...

Then how would you pay for the war machine you are so proud of? Also defense contracts are just another form of wealth redistribution. What about those?

*Dons Devil's Advocate Cape*

As an aside, wouldn't it be great if every government legislation didn't get finished until it was moot. [img]graemlins/1ponder.gif[/img] I mean, it's bad enough they waste our money, but to have them actually pass laws and impact our lives is rather disturbing. If they're going to be inefficient, I think it's better for them to be so inefficient that they really do nothing. :D

Then how would you pay for the war machine you are so proud of? Also defense contracts are just another form of wealth redistribution. What about those? </font>[/QUOTE]<font face="COMIC Sans MS" size="3" color="#7c9bc4">
Oddly enough, National Defense is one of the few things the Federal Government is Constitutionally authorized to work with...so you do not need income tax to maintain the military. All you need is a National sales tax INSTEAD of the tax tied to what you earn for yourself. But you already know this and must really like seeing me repeat it :D </font>

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I can agree with that :D </font>

Then how would you pay for the war machine you are so proud of? Also defense contracts are just another form of wealth redistribution. What about those? </font>[/QUOTE]<font face="COMIC Sans MS" size="3" color="#7c9bc4">
Oddly enough, National Defense is one of the few things the Federal Government is Constitutionally authorized to work with...so you do not need income tax to maintain the military. All you need is a National sales tax INSTEAD of the tax tied to what you earn for yourself. But you already know this and must really like seeing me repeat it :D </font> </font>[/QUOTE]A tax is a tax. They are going to take your money one way or another, so way does it matter how? Also, you did not address the wealth redistribution effect of defense contracts. So I guess you are in favor of certain types of wealth redistribution but not others?

We have one that just left office here in Quebec. He's very loud mouted and he can only talk about two things: how the Federal government is erroding our Country by not giving us back our money and "la Separation...". Do you want him? We'd be happy to ship him to B.C. free of charge :D :D :D :D

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A tax is a tax..except that by taxing "income" you are taxing some people more than others. If you use a national sales tax or some other type of "consumption" tax...then every single individual will pay the same amount.
Income taxes target people who work hard and not those who do nothing....sales taxes target everyone the same.

As for the second issue..I didn't address it because it is a bogus statement and I wont bother to get into it except to say, "Even the Government has to pay for what it wants to buy" and since they are gettingtheir money fromt he tax payers..Im all for them having open competition for the lowest bidder.
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[ 06-18-2003, 03:02 PM: Message edited by: MagiK ]

Damn Rokenn, I thought I was cynical. While I agree that spending on government (not just defense) is highly inefficient and loaded with fat, to to view it as wealth redistribution is way out there. Contracts produce something. Wealth distribution just shuffles money from one person to another for little practical purpose. You may argue that defense spending has little practical purpose, but that is a differnt issue.

As for how a dollar is taxed .... well with multiple levels of taxation, all you do is decrease the value of that dollar at each level - forcing everyone, gov included to loose out.

No, sales taxes do not target everyone the same. Sales taxes fall much heavier on the lower income brackets then the upper (this is known as a regressive tax structure). As a percentage of income the lower incomes pay much more then people in the upper income bracket, since they are generally living paycheck to paycheck. So, it does not target everyone the same.

[ 06-18-2003, 03:29 PM: Message edited by: Rokenn ]