Crazy plan X - discuss

[essentialsaltes]

California tax revenues 2009-2010 (see figure 8):

personal taxes $47B
corporate taxes $8B
sales taxes $26B

Pertinent facts:
Sales tax in my hood is a ridiculous 10.25%.
Sales taxes are regressive.
I chortle with glee when I order something on Amazon and pay no sales tax. Even if I had to pay for shipping (which I never do!) it can still be cheaper than paying sales tax. Of course, I always send a big check to Sacramento to cover all my online purchases every year!

Proposal:
Eliminate sales tax and increase income and corporate taxes.

Positive(?) Effects:
more progressive tax
encourages consumption of California goods and services
eliminates online tax loophole
pleasant shock at cash registers everywhere

Negative(?) Effects:
rich people whining
horrifying shock on paychecks everywhere
some people are unable to calculate tips

Comments

[aaronjv.livejournal.com]

I support the increase of income and, especially, corporate taxes.

There's more to life than taxes (death, I know). It's related to health care.

If we have universal health care, people won't go bankrupt making medical payments. (http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/06/05/bankruptcy.medical.bills/)

If there's more money for better public schools, people won't need to pay high tuition to send their kids to private schools.

If there's more money for road improvements, people won't need to pay car repair bills. (http://www.caasco.com/community/worst-roads/basic-facts.jsp)

In other words, if the government had more money, and used it efficiently, we citizens wouldn't need as much, and what we wanted as non-essential items, we'd be able to afford (less sales tax).

The problem with California is Prop 13. We can't increase corporate/income taxes (not without a 2/3 majority, impossible with obstinate GOP who enjoy using donations for trips to Voyeur so they can talk about preventing the lesbians they're ogling from getting marriage benefits). So we tax every little thing we can, especially sales. There's a proposal floating around that wants to increase the tax on alcohol by a shitload (my math may be off, but it's an insane amount) (http://laist.com/2010/03/26/initiative_to_tax_alcohol_could_bri.php).

These koo-koo proposals come around because
a) Baby Boomers want too much stuff, and want other people to pay for it
b) we can't increase taxes to pay for demands (the tea party wants less government, but still wants their Social Security (http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/15/us/politics/15poll.html))
c) we end up overpaying for stuff because we use bonds instead of taxes and have to pay interest

Ultimately, I think lower sales tax and higher corporate (income) taxes is a better option. A lower cost to buy goods, means other people (if they don't have to worry about health care costs), possibly even other nations, will buy more product. Increased sales means more jobs. With lower corporate taxes or income taxes, the rich get richer. They don't roll profits onto employees, just management.

I want to lower the ceiling (fewer rich people) to raise the floor (fewer poor people). If our household take-home income dropped another 20-25%, but it meant I wouldn't have to send money to my mom for her dental bills and cancer treatments, or other people didn't have to send their mothers and fathers money for treatments, it'd be so worth it.

I'm a socialist, and proud of it.