Quote Originally Posted by Don Corleone
Red, again, think about it. What tax can you punish a corporation with that they're not going to just pass on to you in the form of higher prices?

I hear what you're saying, but you're confusing the rich people IN a corporation with the corporation itself. They're not the same. Using GAP accounting practices, all of the tricks they try to play to pay themselves will avail nothing, at the end of the day you'll have: Executive X making Y in the shareholders report. Even if the shareholders are dumb enough to vote for an overpriced salary, he's going to have to turn around and pay taxes, as an individual wage-earner.

If your goal is to soak the rich, and it appears to be, you have to go after the rich, not the corporation itself. By the way, 'soak the rich' means you'll see a lot more investment outside of America, but if your goal is to devalue the stock market, by all means, have at it.
I'm not interested in "punishing" them. That is where I differ from Kafir. However, I don't necessarily pay higher prices as a result of them being taxed more. Someone who *consumes* more may (assuming it is a domestic market.) However, *savers* would not be punished as much. I'm not a fan of our high leverage consumption based economic model where savers get taxed, and heavy borrowers get credited.

I'm not interested in soaking anyone. Rather I believe we need to be honest with out analysis of budget situations, and follow through on plans. The current path is completely irresponsible and is not sustainable.

People have talked of going to a "national sales tax" and all that...I don't think they realize what sort of shock that would have on this consumption based system, especially as folks quit buying big ticket items. (It would also be regressive in nature since the poorer classes spend a higher percentage of their income anyway.) Nor do folks appreciate how large that tax would be.

If we want to be in better fiscal shape, we need to match federal tax revenue with expenditures. We also need to get a handle on out of control things like health care. It consistently grows by double digit rates each year. The only time it didn't is about the time Universal Health Coverage was being discussed... The other part is of course encouraging investment for future tech, basic R&D. Without it, our standard of living is going to begin suffering greatly. We can only resist the pressure of ballooning Federal defecits, skyrocketing trade deficits, and runaway health care costs for so long before something enters runaway mode.