[Dilbert San Diego]

Michael Moore said there are trillions of dollars out there, which are in the wrong hands, he says.

Michael Moore declared that all of this money should be part of our natural resources, to be used to build the economy, etc. etc.

Would Michael Moore lie or distort the truth??????

[mlocher]

Would Michael Moore lie or distort the truth??????

Could Michael Moore cause a tsunami?

[alecqss]

That's the problem with the leftist ideology - they do consider goods and services as natural resources, which happen to be routinely “stolen” by the rich, but should be distributed “justly”. They also think that taxpayer base naturally exist - you increase rate, you increase revenue.

In real world goods and service have to be produced and, if there not enough economic activity, there will be nothing to distribute “justly” or otherwise! Also, if you increase tax rate, you just might shrink the taxpayer base and get less tax revenue!

[RayChuang88]

Based on what he said, Moore should be a HUGE supporter for income tax reform right from the start.

Here's the problem: our current income tax system ends up discouraging economic upward mobility, and the rich can afford to hire the best tax lawyers and accountants to hide their net worth by offshoring a huge fraction of their net worth in offshore financial centers located beyond US borders so they can't be touched by the IRS. (Care to explain all those "banks" in various Caribbean island nations? Especially notorious are the Cayman Islands, British Virgin Islands and the former Netherlands Antilles when it comes to these "banks".)

Under Steve Forbes' flat tax proposal and FairTax proposal (H.R. 25/S. 13), such shenanigans don't need to exist anymore, since bank account interest, capital gains and stock dividend payments are no longer subject to taxation. This would bring back something like 90 to 95 percent of the (by some estimates) US$16 TRILLION in American-owned liquid assets now either participating in the underground economy or sitting in an offshore financial center as a means of evading taxes. Can you imagine what would happen to the US financial system if we can bring 90-95% of that US$16 trillion back?