Wealth distribution

[Seamus Fermanagh]

Well, my reply to GC seems to have sparked some VERY nice discussion.

I do not object to taxation. The Athenian approach, as noted above, is even more inane.

I do not particularly want higher taxes -- though fewer loopholes written for one company and such would be a nice improvement.

My objection is with the form of taxation. If the goal of a tax system is and should be wealth redistribution....then tax wealth. Taxing income only gets in the way of those trying to achieve; it does not touch the "this isn't income" plutocrats whom GC decries so much in the first place.

I have a bright chap in my comm class, b-student who owns his own tattoo parlor, who has been "paid" little or nothing since he bought a piece of the business, instead granting himself "stock" compensation in a closely held corp so that he can be taxed at 15% and not 35%.

Our current emphasis on income tax, at least as framed, fails to generate the revenues needed for sweeping improvements such as those suggested by Horetore and GC, AND manages to create stumbling blocks to wealth achievement. Trending towards the worst of both.