Posted on 07/29/2003 7:09:27 AM PDT by Mick2000
Just three years ago, Congress voted to allow more foreign workers into the United States. Times have changed.
Politicians are proposing tough — opponents say misguided — steps to keep jobs at home in the face of rising unemployment, a growing number of white-collar jobs being transferred to India and other countries and lingering anger over some U.S. allies' opposition to the war in Iraq.
The House has passed measures to require the Defense and State departments to buy a larger share of equipment from U.S. firms. The measure, which has provoked a corporate and political uproar, has not been approved by the Senate.
Legislators in several states are trying to bar the export of government jobs to foreign companies.
Sen. Saxby Chambliss, R-Ga., chair of a Judiciary subcommittee, plans a hearing today on possible problems in the L-1 visa program, which allows companies to bring workers to the USA from their foreign operations. Workers complain that firms are using the program as a backdoor way to replace domestic employees with cheaper labor.
(Excerpt) Read more at usatoday.com ...
Back to NRST, who decides what "necessities" are? Regular state sales taxes once exempted "services", but then these were taxed as well. All grocery store items were once exempt, but now some of THEM are taxed. I don't trust "the bastards" to define "necessities" to anyone's advantage except the taxman's. As far as I'm concerned, for example, transportation is a "necessity" (how else ya gonna get to work?) - betcha "they" will tax the heck out of any car you buy under this system!
Additionally, I have trouble with car prices as they exist - no way on earth I can afford 1/5 again as much - and there is no way on earth the car scum are gonna lower prices!!!!!!
Give me a flat tax and make some kind of exemption for capital investment, and I think you might have some of the best of each world. Additionally, ANYTHING which allows demolishing the IRS and going to a much simpler oversight function would save billions of dollars all by itself.
As for keeping jobs here, I can't see ANY system reversing the giant swing to outsourcing which is currently gutting this nation's job opportunities in many areas. As long as the profit-mongers see cheap labor elsewhere, the US is hosed in that regard. I don't have a problem with "reasonable" profit but, like the 600% petroleum industry example, SOME profit margins are obscenely out of line - no way will "profit mongers" change their "whatever the traffic will bear" approach to accomodate changes in the tax system. There is too little honor or integrity left out there for me to believe anything good about big business!
It's all well and good to say a NRST will eliminate double taxation, but I don't believe for a microsecond that the tax mongering liberals will allow this to happen under ANY system.
I'll admit it - many of my objections are due to my cynicism regarding whoever will administer whatever system might replace the crap we currently have. Mostly, however, I object to paying more than I currently do, which is WAY out of line already, and the NRST makes me worse off rather than better off. A flat tax, on the other hand, HELPS me out.
oh, well!
True statement. However, the more typical situation today is that 60,000 people indirectly own 10 shares each via their 401K mutual funds. They may not even know they have shares of Disney, and the mutual fund doesn't really give a crap. The mutual fund makes their money off of either (a) trading fees or (b) other charges to the fund owners. So -- the board members, who are usually executives in other megacorps, just play "you scratch my back I'll scratch yours" with executives that sit on the boards of their megacorps. Meanwhile, they all treat the megacorps like their personal piggy banks.
Trying to control corporations via mutual funds is like trying to push a string.
From the text of the article. It seems like the Free Trade advocates have taken a page from the Gun Grabboids lie whenever it will advance your cause.
If you are plopping money into your 401k each week you should know enough to keep track of it in relation to other funds in its class as well as the index that best matches it’s investment objectives. All this 401k cash is controlled by money managers who make or break their reputations on performance. Are there bad eggs out there? You bet you’re rear but not to the point where we need the government to create additional overseeing comities, investigatory boards, supervisory agencies, and laws while pi$$ing away our tax money in the process.
As it is we already have the SEC and that should be sufficient unless corporate accountants/auditing consultants are cooking the books. That is a crime and creating more bureaucracy in the Fed wont stop them if this is their intent.<
A product now costing say $100 contains about $25 of embedded tax costs. When the income tax and its associated costs are removed, the cost of that product may go to $75 (or the costs can be realized in higher wages or improved ROI).
There is also all the individual income tax and payroll tax that are eliminated. This is made up by the broadening of the tax base. Consumption, besides being a far broader tax base, is also more stable than income.
Nobody is trying to lie to you - you just don't see the whole picture yet, nor do I believe you ever will.
So there is no magical appearing or disappearing...income, payroll, and embedded tax is swapped with visible sales tax. Nothing hard there.
It's not my system, nor is it magical. When did you start thinking it was my system??? And to be magical? How could that be? No, the numbers work. I have plenty of research done by industry experts and economists from all political tilts telling me so. On the other hand, I have an emotional, paranoid anonymous poster asserting otherwise - whom I am anxious to hear from... I only wish you would support any of your assertions with any data from anywhere. You "gut" feeling is not good enough for me when put up against studies by those who have been involved in taxation and economics for decades and are widely recognized as experts.
Again, please provide any data you have supporting your claims that this is "magic".
I am not an NRST person as you claim, only one who is knowlegeable about its details. I happen to think the flat tax is easier to pass, so you're wrong again labeling me.
How about any state in the union?
Uh, last time I checked there were several states in the union which operate on sales tax alone. Hello?
The nrst is a replacement. It replaces hidden taxes and a narrow based income tax system with a broad based sales tax. Perhaps you aren't new to the nrst, but I do say you're new to the facts.
Each individual decides this, not the government. The goverment does decide what each family size is likely to spend on necessities. That table can be found here on this page.
Not all families will have the same necessities nor will they have the same necessity spending. The function of the "rebate" is to untax necessities as much as possible. The worst thing would be exempting this item but not that one, etc. EG doritos are a food and not taxed in Ga, but Fritos are a snack and are taxed...nightmare.
Prices won't change. When income tax costs are removed and then the tax is added back, not only does the price remain stable, but profits of the retailer remain stable too. They have no reason to increrase in price any more than they have a reason to do so today. If they want to make the same profit, they must keep their price the same. If they go up then they lose market share.
The reason I got in this thrread though was to point out that by eliminating the income tax we could keep more jobs here. Increase prices of imports, decreased prices of exports (no sales tax paid on exports), and most importantly, there would be every reason to begin bring all your profits to the USA.
I have a two year old. Gotta go!
Give me a system which allows demolishing the IRS, and I'll be at least marginally (no pun intended) happy - LOL!
Roger "two year old"! Got a coupla grandkids about that age - sigh!
So true.
hehe - I wish the monkey were animated ;)
Well said and unfortunately true.
Its good to come to FR and see a freeper who really understands the political process in America.
It's not the government jobs we need to protect. Foreigners can't be any less productive.
It's the industrial and technology jobs we need to protect.
That's stating in another way two-trillion in money out of thin air.
Companies that have a small profit margin, and make up the difference in volume are not going to give you 25% savings. FICA is only 7% or so of labor and labor usually isn't the largest expense. Most everything else gets deducted as expenses. Why do you think so many people got upset because corporations like Exxon and Cargill had years where they paid little or no income taxes? Because they had great tax accountants and lawyers that found ways to expense everything. I would love to see a breakdown of expenses for something like purchasing a carrot or television and showing where 25% of the costs of the goods are income tax related.
Uh, last time I checked there were several states in the union which operate on sales tax alone. Hello?
Read this chart and then I await your apology.
The following states do not have an income tax: AK,FL,NV,NH,SD,TN,TX,WA,WY. NH Has the fourth worst property tax, TN taxes dividend income, AK,FL,NV,NH,TN,TX,WA,WY have state property taxes. SD has county/city land & personal property taxes. So tell me which state is only a sales tax? - Or is this one of those NRST lies that advocates hope go unchallenged?
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