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Liberals: start offering new ideas. For ex: Flexible federal tax

craigfarmer

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Newliberals are here to offer Liberals and America new ideas that work:


We as liberal democrats don't have to accept the status quo as a given, but instead could work to find ways to advance progressive and newliberal ideas. This must be done in a way to attract mainstream America, whose interest in politics and policy is fleeting at best.

First and foremost a liberal is a person dedicated to accepting facts and pursuing logic towards a positive result. This requires a willingness to divorce ourselves from the interest groups and political alliances of the past that may not currently be offering what's best for America today. Our support and advocacy of any position should ultimately be because it is Right for all Americans.

First idea: FLEXIBLE FEDERAL TAX. We are often promoting expansive ideas that cost a great deal, and the tax and spend liberal label is applied negatively upon us. We can offer great ideas, and pay for them in a more creative way. (BTW, newliberals believe most great ideas involve giving people a great opportunity, and a chance, rather than a govt. plan than manages the outcome through rules and bureaucracy)

We should eliminate the Personal and Corporate income tax, and all state/local property taxes. The average individual and/or business should not have any contact or concern with the government over taxes.

We should collect all the revenue, that we as a people through our Government decide is necessary, through a FLEXIBLE FEDERAL TAX that would be collected by an
INDEDEPENDENT GOVERNMENT BOARD similar to the Federal Reserve Board.

Their job would be to find creative ways to raise revenue in the least intrusive way as possible.

Their main tool would be the ability to PURCHASE ANY HIGHLY DEMANDED GOOD/SERVICE at the retail price, and AUCTION them at a market price.

So for example, last week when the Star Wars movie opened to sold out shows, that represented an opportunity for the IGB to purchase 10% of the opening night tickets, and resell them at the highest price.

This process could be repeated thousands of times per year at:

-Super Bowl, NBA playoffs, and other high demand/low supply events
-hot, novelty gift items for Christmas or other holidays where supply routinely sells out.
-any situation whether local, state, or national where the public wants to buy a good or service, but it is clear there is a limited supply capacity.

People wanting to see popular, first time, rare events have demonstrated throughout the years a willingness to pay high prices for the pleasure.

The IGB would simply be able to buy the first 10% of any good/service it deemed would be easily resold at a high profit because of excessive demand.

The other revenue would be collected only by businesses that dealt with luxury and leisure activities.


The tax code would be reformed completely with the emphasis on ZERO taxes for people's: income, and basic living expenses, while luxury, and leisure would be taxable.

There would be different categories of activity, and only luxury and leisure would be taxable:

alcohol, cigarettes, and other leisure drugs would be taxable
INCOME WOULD NOT BE TAXABLE
eating out at a restaurant would be taxable
YOUR PROPERTY WOULD NOT BE TAXABLE
name brand clothes, high-end expensive cars would be taxable
REGULARLY PRICED CLOTHES, ITEMS, CARS, ETC. WOULD NOT BE TAXABLE
vacations and amusement parks would be taxable
NORMAL EVERYDAY ACTIVITY WOULD NOT BE TAXABLE
movies would be taxable

In addition we should legalize all adult victimless crimes, regulate, and tax them. This would include gambling, sex transactions, scalping tickets (government would be the #1 scalper!), and drugs that could be used without harm to others.



At the end of the year, if anyone felt they paid too much in taxes, they could simply change their luxury/leisure behavior.


Once Congress, and State/local governments determined their desired level of taxation, the IGB would determine the best route to collecting it.

By eliminating the IRS from average people and business lives, we will rid ourselves also of unproductive avoidance behavior, with people finding creative ways to lower their burden. Those resources could be redeployed to grow our economic output.


The end result would be an ability to do more good through the government like:

universal healthcare with maximum choices for each person.
universal education k - college in a marketplace system w/o govt bur.
gun control and gun/crime enforcement that attacks crime
affirmative action that deals with not only race, gender, but ideology, geography, body type, etc.




without the resentment from the earners in our society of taking their tax money.


Craig Farmer
making the word "liberal" safe again!
 
Yeah, this is not liberal by any means whatsoever. Liberals want to make it fair for all, and taxing activities has always been seen as regressive by liberals, and you would know that if you were one.
The tax code would be reformed completely with the emphasis on ZERO taxes for people's: income, and basic living expenses, while luxury, and leisure would be taxable.

There would be different categories of activity, and only luxury and leisure would be taxable:

alcohol, cigarettes, and other leisure drugs would be taxable
INCOME WOULD NOT BE TAXABLE
eating out at a restaurant would be taxable
YOUR PROPERTY WOULD NOT BE TAXABLE
name brand clothes, high-end expensive cars would be taxable
REGULARLY PRICED CLOTHES, ITEMS, CARS, ETC. WOULD NOT BE TAXABLE
vacations and amusement parks would be taxable
NORMAL EVERYDAY ACTIVITY WOULD NOT BE TAXABLE
movies would be taxable
What do you mean normal everyday activity? It is unfair for almost everyone and I believe that it is regressive. What is regularly priced? Why would it only be leisure. Etc, etc. Too much government involvement and too much ambiguity, plus I believe that it would bring down the amount of money brought in each year, already not enough to conver the bills.
 
I am a true liberal.

Though I'm not a leftist as many self proclaimed "liberals" really are.

They are reflexively for/against certain policies as ideologues, rather than being open-minded and ready to support what's best.

www.newliberals.org shows what I'm about.


1. Liberals need to stop the regressive/progressive debate. In general it is a loser because it is a zero sum game argument that pits the earners/achievers vs. people who are struggling to get there. Most normal people aspire to be wealthy, and aren't interested in that perspective.

Instead, we can raise taxes through creative means:


When Cabbage patch toys were the hot Christmas item, they were guaranteed to be sold out.

The govt. could have bought 10% of them, and resold them in an auction.

The people who bidded on them would be happy to get the item, and our taxes would be more voluntary than mandatory.

2. We can raise as much revenue as needed through a Flexible federal tax.

There are literally thousands of high demand/low supply goods/events that routinely sell out in the market-place every day.

There are:
-the first printing of popular books (Harry Potter for ex.)
-the first showing of at least one hot kids movie each year
-new sneakers endorsed by the most pop. athlete (new Jordan's or Lebron james for ex.)
-there are thousands of sold out sporting events each year
-broadway shows routinely sell-out

If for some reason enough revenue couldn't be collected this way,
in addition:
all leisure and luxury could be subject to a tax.


The political debate in our country would change from the current level where Democrats routinely lose to one of whether a particular item or activity is a leisure or luxury and should be taxed. This debate can be won by either party.


3. Normal everyday activity that is taxed today, but shouldn't be are : work and income, investment, many groceries, regular clothing, property ownership, any items used for middle class living like a grill, comb, television, computer, gifts that we receive, etc.

These all affect us daily.

Instead we should reform the code so that a person could more easily control their tax burden by reducing their luxury or leisure purchases/activities.


Imagine a modern democratic party offering to reduce the mandatory taxes of all Americans, and raise the revenue in a much more painless way.


Craig Farmer
making the word "liberal" safe again!
 
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Craig, I am a conservative and don't think you have too bad of an idea there, but why not just go with a national sales tax and either exempt or cap taxes on necessities.
 
LaMidRighter said:
Craig, I am a conservative and don't think you have too bad of an idea there, but why not just go with a national sales tax and either exempt or cap taxes on necessities.


Any type of national sales tax would be felt everyday.


The main idea here is to eliminate taxes from as much of our routine as possible. The Principle is that anyone who didn't want to pay taxes could easily avoid them through a change in their leisure or luxury lifestyle.

Ideally, there shouldn't be any taxes on any goods/services, but instead having the IGB engage in millions of PURCHASE/RESELL IN AUCTION activities.



I haven't done a numerical analysis but it is possible that the the IGB's PURCHASE/RESELL IN AUCTION could get enough revenue for what we the people through our govt. desired. This would allow a completely "tax-free" environment.

Additionally, the government could work with business to create small supply/high demand circumstances where people would gladly pay more.

Two examples:


1. Everyone hates to wait in line for Drivers licenses, and other govt. bureaucracies. Each day/week the agency could set aside one or two hours of appointments, where a person is guaranteed to be in and out. This TIME could be auctioned to the highest bidder. There are literally thousands maybe millions depending on the bids who would pay an extra $20-$50, maybe hundreds, to be able to: walk into the DMV at 9:00, renew their license and be out at 9:15.


If you don't want to pay those taxes, then you can continue to stand in line for 2-3 hours like most people do.


2.

Contract with famous groups, such as the casts from a popular t.v. show like "Desperate Housewives" or a soap opera "all my children", and have them travel to different towns, and auction off tickets to interact, get autographs, etc.

The more creative we can get, the less mandatory taxes there will be. The power of computers and the instant auction can allow our outdated tax system to be eliminated.



Liberals need to think "progressive" which means towards the future and towards a better reality rather than fighting past battles.


Craig Farmer
making the word "liberal" safe again!
 
Wouldn't be just easier to cut spending back to necessities?

I don't want my government involved in anything more than it needs to be and that includes eBay.
 
There is a major problem though Craig and it is that the market, while reasonably stable, can change at any time, it seems like your flexible tax system relies on a stable demand, one quick trend change and the government takes a huge loss, that is the risk with speculative economics.
I still think it's a better idea than the capital gains tax, and probably could work in combination with some kind of constant revenue collection.
 
LaMidRighter said:
There is a major problem though Craig and it is that the market, while reasonably stable, can change at any time, it seems like your flexible tax system relies on a stable demand, one quick trend change and the government takes a huge loss, that is the risk with speculative economics.
I still think it's a better idea than the capital gains tax, and probably could work in combination with some kind of constant revenue collection.




If there was an independent board similar to the Fed which had the Right of first refusal to purchase any good/service at the retail price, then this plan works under any condition. Every day of the year hundreds if not thousands of events, items, goods, services are exchanged where the demand far outpaces the supply.

What we know about human nature, and part of what makes America great is that almost all of us want MORE and NOW. This has lead to our leadership in so many areas. People will always want to be included in something, or will always be willing to pay more for convenience.

1. Imagine a person going on vacation July 1st for the fourth of July, but needs to renew their license. They would be willing to pay $100 in order to walk into the DMV at 10 am. and walk out with a renewed license by 10:15 am. If someone else found this to be riduculous, they could do the usual, which is to "pay" by waiting for hours....

2. The Super Bowl sells out every year. 73,000 tickets would be sold to the public. 7,000 (some of the best ) tickets sold to the IGB, which in turn auctions them to the highest bidders.

likewise for thousands of sports, theatre, events... there are thousands of staples in our society that rarely if ever change.


3. Government could work with business to delay the release of the "new" version. For example the next X-box system. If it is scheduled for a Christmas 2005 release. The government could purchase 10,000 of them for a special Spring release, and auction them. This would also allow computer errors to be found, and product momemtum to build.

That the market and our economy constantly changes is why we need professionals to find the least intrusive way to raise revenue.

Think about how motion pictures at movie theatres have survived in the era of VCR's, t.v.'s, and other competition. They adapted, and will have to continue to. The government's revenue raising should do the same.

Remember the pay per view market for boxing, and movies on digital cable and satellite systems, thrives on the same principle. People willing to pay more to get what they want.

The only groups that would have an interest against this Flexible Federal Tax would be accountants and tax professionals. Yet, all of those billions of dollars and man hours could/would be redirected toward more productive activities. So assuredly our economy would grow as a result of less tax distortions/avoidance.


Craig Farmer
making the word "liberal" safe again!
 
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shuamort said:
Wouldn't be just easier to cut spending back to necessities?

I don't want my government involved in anything more than it needs to be and that includes eBay.





If you claim to support the Lib. Party, there wouldn't be any reason not to support this idea.

The essence of it prohibits the government from taxing:

income
property
investments
normal everyday purchases

It removes the need to report to the government each year about your life.


Instead all revenue would be collected using the same buy low/sell high principles that have made America great.

Collection of revenue from:

Concert tickets, Nascar races, traveling religious shows, popular books, blockbuster movies, release of new designer clothes line, etc.

allows the government to get out of the lives of Americans, including the IRS enforcement activity.

Remember, millions of people pay $49.99 for a boxing match they know will be available at no extra charge the next week.

This can be harvested to the benefit of liberal democrats like me, libertarians, republicans, and all.

Craig Farmer
making the word "liberal" safe again!
 
I just don't see it, you might as well tax everything. But we can agree to disagree.
 
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