Interesting, if I hide my vast wealth offshore and evade paying taxes do you promise to come to my aide?
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Biden wants to spend an additional $80B just to get them to pay what they owe. I don't think that's too much to ask. I pay mine.
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VAT would be fair if income disparity was not so lopsided. A person earning $50,000 a year spends all his earning which would all be subject to the VAT except exclusions for food. A person earning $5M has far less exposed to the VAT because he can't possibly spend that much. The VAT places way too much tax burden on people who are just scraping by. I've never heard of an adjusted VAT, but it could work like the marginal tax brackets where there are exclusions a low levels of income and no exclusions over $100,000. But if you are one who complains that 50 percent of US citizens pay no income tax I would invite you to switch places with one of them so you can enjoy their income tax free lifestyle.
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Our country and the middle class thrived from WWII until the mid 80's with a high marginal top bracket. We don't beat up on the rich, we coddle them at the expense of everyone else.
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Thanks for the thoughtful comments. It's really the reason I enjoy writing on Medium. I like the interaction. The broadcast media is all about sound bites and sensationalism, on Medium I find people really contemplate the issues.
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I don't want to beat up on anyone. I would like a system where everyone can flourish. Here we are first thing Monday morning and I had to look up VAT to refresh my understanding of it. I like it until it gets to the end user, that's where it need adjustment to ease the burden on the low income folks.
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Thanks for reading and responding.