Submitted by sirius, Dec 18, 2007 18:36

"1) All taxes are tied to inflation, as your income rises so to will your taxes."

Wrong. Payroll taxes and income taxes currently are NOT directly tied in to inflation, they are directly tied in to your wages. Wages are somewhat tied to inflation, but they do not always directly correlate. Economic studies have shown that wages have lagged behind inflation for at least the past several years.

"2) Rents are what they are because that's what the market will bear..."

The rationale which fairtax supporters routinely cite as reasons prices would drop for the most part do not apply to rental properties (with the exception of federal property taxes, which are very low compared to local property taxes, which would remain. Rents are what they are due to property value & local taxes, in addition to market forces.

"3) Saying your credit card payment will be taxed, proves three things. a) you don't even know the difference between consumption & debt. b) you didn't read or understand the book so you're grasping at straws. c) you must [long disparaging remark deleted by author] than a pineapple."

You just proved that you don't know what you're talking about, and are not familiar with the details of the fairtax. Principal Interest and mortgage interest payments would not be taxed, but credit card payments indeed would be.

"4) A stock purchase isn't a consumable, it's an investment. ..."

It's a purchase, just as buying medicine is a purchase. In my opinion, it's very unfair to tax someone for something which is for some people of a life-or-death nature, yet not tax someone for purchasing something as clearly non-essential as stocks. Isn't buying medicine an investment in one's health? Why tax someone for getting sick, and not tax someone who clearly is not hurting? I realize I'm talking apples and oranges here to an extent, but to me, this is just human decency and common sense.

"4.1) The incremental rate for the wealthy approaches the 23% ...(omg, look at who am I talking to here, see 3c above) but the FairTax does effectively untax the poor up to the 'poverty level' (it's not a bigoted term)."

Not necessarily true when you factor in the 30% exclusive tax on rent and credit card payments, which would very likely be hefty increases in many Americans' budgets. The prebates are based on quite a very low economic level (I know that my $196 monthly prebate wouldn't go very far at all in my budget towards necessities), and in many cases (such as mine), not even enough to offset the tax on would have to cough up on one's rent.

The fairtax will never pass, it has far too many serious flaws, as Bush's Tax Advisory Panel found. And even if Huckabee were to somehow miraculously get elected, the predominantly democratic congress would never pass it. You do realize that Huckabee raised taxes more in his 10 years as governor of Arkansas than Clinton did in his 12 years as Arkansas governor, don't you?

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