Now we're robbing people who can barely afford anything to begin with of even more so we can make sure that corporations don't suffer from market forces which mean the government collects less from that industry. That's no different than setting a minimum revenue requirement and then taxing until you reach it.

of more war, drug war, corrections and national security spending, and equally true that it costs money to run a government at the local, state or federal level. Just as true is the fact that we depend on these government services very much, even if we don't really think about them.

Taxes aren't always a bad thing.

In fact, I'd happily pay more in taxes to fund Medicare for all Americans.

And I'd be very happy if the US Congress forced multi-national companies like Paccar, Mattel, Wells Fargo, GE and plenty of others to bring back the trillions they have squirreled away offshore and untaxed. It would be really great if these corporations paid THEIR FAIR SHARE of taxes, because then we could afford to make college more affordable, provide more subsidies for childcare, and create jobs programs to upgrade our crumbling infrastructure.

But if we want the services the government provides; if we want to turn on the tap and have drinkable water come out, or flush the toilet and know it is going to a sewage treatment plant so we can avoid disease. If we like driving on smooth roads with clearly painted lane lines. Well, all that and more. K-12. Police (yes we need them but we need to spend some serious TAX money on better training and body cams for them to reduce brutality). Fire fighters. The national weather service. The EPA (when they aren't themselves fouling rivers by mistake). The National Center for Disease Control. The Food and Drug Administration, so that when you open a can of peaches it won't poison you.

Stuff like that.

Would you be willing to pay 75% of what you earn to get those things? There is a point, somewhere that would be your "NO!" line. A point where you would tell them to get their crap together before you are willing to pay another dime.
"Well, I'm living on the street because the $12 I take home after taxes won't allow me to get a place to live, but thank goodness for the FDA."
Where is your line?

Those who toe the same line you are tend to believe that we live in a world of scarcity. That's what the establishment wants us to believe so they can go on picking our pockets. The establishment WANTS us to believe that so the rich can keep more of their money without paying tax on it.

That said, if:
1) corporations paid their fair share of taxes instead of being allowed to keep trillions in untaxed profits offshore, and
2) the deduction for 'performance based pay' was repealed, and
3) we put a small transaction tax on stock trades, and
4) raised the top tax rates for people who earn over $350K per year to what they were in the Clinton era, and
5) taxed capital gains as regular income,

We would have enough revenue coming in so that we wouldn't have to pay all that much more. Remember that we're ALREADY paying 'taxes' out the nose for healthcare. This tax is called 'premiums,' and goes to greedy insurance companies who would rather maximize earnings for shareholders than give us proper medical treatment.

People forget that - if we take in enough revenue; if we get everyone to pay their fair share, then the weight of it isn't much.

As to Social Security, the 'fix' for that is to simply remove the payroll tax cap so people who earn over $112K pay the full amount instead of skating on any excess beyond that.

And let's not forget the military industrial complex - the forever war we've spent trillions on should be cut back. In fact, over the next decade we should incrementally reduce the war budget to 1999 levels, and we should reduce the domestic spying budget, make them report line items, repeal the stinking Patriot Act, get rid of the forfeiture laws, which are unconstitutional, and above all get rid of private prisons. The profit motive is in direct conflict with the correctional mission. It doesn't work and has created a system of brutal places right up there with Solzhenitsyn's gulag archipelago.

We also should stop wasting our tax money on vouchers so rich kids can get religious indoctrination in charter schools. That isn't OK. We need our tax dollars to go for public education for all kids, and we need to adjust school funding mechanisms so EVERY pupil is funded at the exact same level. We should also get rid of the de facto segregation which is worse now than it was in the fifties, and reinstitute busing. Do that, and we'd end racism in a generation.

So how much is too much? Well I've had ENOUGH of these corporate parasites sucking up all my dollars so I have less and less purchasing power as the years go by. I am already being nickel and dimed to death by the capitalists who downsize their products and charge the same price, 'improve' the product so it is more poorly made, and spew filth into the environment. We've got to force changes in corporate charters to end the primacy of the shareholder, and instead hold shareholders, labor (without which there could be NO profit, period), consumers, communities and the environment all equally valuable.

Do these things and the world would be a boatload better. NO CEO should be earning $20 or $30 million when his/her people on the floor are working their asses off for $12/hr. That's got to end.

I think the primary reason physical media sales are down by half is because the media companies doubled the price of physical media.

Buy a fuel efficient car? Sorry, we're gonna have to raise the fuel tax. Buy an electric car? Sorry, we're gonna have to charge you a tax per mile driven. Go solar? Sorry, we're gonna have to tax the sun. Buy a windmill? Sorry, we're gonna have to tax the wind. Collecting rainwater? Sorry, we're gonna have to tax you per raindrop.

It. Never. Fucking. Ends.

And the rise of internet technology has siphoned off some revenue sources. I have no problem with this.

I trust you won't mind covering for my neighbors and I? Let's see...there's something to the effect of 80 units of us. So...you think maybe $400/month would suffice?

Lemme know, I'll hit you up with my paypal.

I do not think it is a new tax here.

I think the reason they do not collect it on internet purchases is due to the technical difficulties.

Fuck yeah. That should tax the fucking poor into extinction .

Services include things like CPAs, attorneys, and plastic surgeons that they spend a hell of a lot more on than we do. I propose that we do this AND lower the overall tax rate.

Pick a class, we all ain't in it ...

Let me ask Three Questions ...

If we fund things based on sales taxes rather than income (including investment income) then as more and more things become digital, those revenues will drop.

It's another reason that we should tax based on income rather than sales taxes which are inherently more regressive.