read my thread on the fairtax and then vote on whether it would be good or bad.

If we go to this, we must first cut federal spending or else we're gonna end up with $20 cheeseburgers on McDonald's $1 value meal.

Perhaps we should get rid of Social Security and propose a different approach to retirement? I'm not talking that private savings crap which no one ever does either.

I can't help but see how this might affect inflation and other areas of the economy, too. In reality, I'm all for as little taxes as possible, and the government can probably live very happily if we only gave them half of what they get (they just need to stop spending so much on military). But maybe we should first pull ourselves out of recession and then deploy it?

This post was last modified: 11.05.2008 09:19 by FutureFilmmaker.

well i am only 20 and already have a private retirement savings fund. im talking 401K, i put a little over $1500 into it every month. but the current tax code doesnt reward people for their hard work. what i mean is that it taxes people more if they make more, therefore making people who struggle financially less willingly to make more money and using food stamps and crap like that.

The UnfairTax would be a disaster.

Doesn't sound very social, does it?

what do you mean by social.

Fukie - You shouldn't be sinking all your disposable income into a 401k, which is tax deferred. You will be paying a huge amount in capital gains taxes when you retire, not to mention if the company you work for goes bankrupt, the first things to disappear are the 401k accounts. Try using a Roth IRA which is tax exempt (you’re already taxed on the income when you get it, not when you take it out.) And where are you getting $1500 a month for retirement savings as a 20-yr-old?!?!? Either you’re incredibly rich or are redistributing an excessive amount of your income.

As for the Fair Tax initiative, it’s a wonderful plan, but one that would never make it through Congress, especially the necessity of a 2/3 majority. The current tax system is full of loopholes for the wealthy and poor, and really hits the middle class hard. Washington cares nothing about the middle class (except in the 6 months prior to an election where they make empty promises). Being that most members of Congress are millionaires (usually many, many millions), there is no incentive for them to change the system which favors themselves and their wealthy campaign backers.

Should the US Government even have an income tax? That’s what we need to question, as the 16th Amendment was never properly ratified and thus illegal.

Good point, donovius. If there was a way for the government to survive without taxes, could it be possible?

The problem that I as european see is that if you choose to tax the american people only with a sales tax than everyone of the american poeple will spent the same percentage of their income on that tax.
The millionaire will spend the same percentage as the barkeeper, but the barkeeper has to spend the majority of his income on living costs, the millionaire don't.
The millionaire can reinvest a larger percentage of his income, the barkeeper will be very lucky if he can invest anything at all, because the living costs are the same, so the millionaire will become richer and richer, but the barkeeper will have problems to not get poorer thanks to inflation.

i work for delta air lines in Atlanta, but i am also involved in some other businesses on the side, all in all i am making a little over 6K a month. my company puts an automatic 4% into my 401K and matches me up to 8% so they are putting an extra 12% into my 401K every month, thats something they wont do with the roth. i have looked into the roth and i plan on having one of those as well.