[quote=urbanrealtor][quote=CA renter]The fairest tax of all is one where ALL income is taxed at the same, progressive rates.

Everyone is taxed the same under this plan, and nobody can claim that there is any favoritism. If you have income that is high enough to be taxed at an unusually high rate, get on your knees and thank God/your higher power that you are more fortunate than all those other people.[/quote]

That was originally to be one of the key provisions of Reagan’s tax reform.

I don’t think that selling stocks or houses or whatever should ever be taxed at a rate below what a McDonald’s worker pays.

Its just plain wrong.[/quote]

Technically it’s not. Capital Gains is either 15 or 20%. A McDonalds worker is going to fall into the 10% tax bracket and after deductions won’t pay any federal tax.

The problem with tax policy is it’s used heavily to create social engineering. Capital Gains tax was designed to encourage productive investments which would be good for the economy unfortunately it encourages short term speculation just as much as productive investment. We encourage people to buy houses, to have children, to hand money to wall street 401K money managers, ant the real question is want to do we really get out of that. Does it even work to produce the expected result?

I think a simpler tax code would be great. I prefer a consumption based tax but a simple progressive tax on income without deductions would also work. Government isn’t free so everybody should have to pay something and I prefer that something to be obvious. I also want to see a balanced budget because money printing deficit spending is really just a hidden tax. The lose of purchasing power through currency debasement is really no different than an outright tax. I want people to see what it actually costs to fund various entitlements and spending. That’s the only way to figure out what’s really important.