The Tyranny Of Old Ideas

Have you heard of the fair tax? This is a replacement of the current income tax and replace it with a national consumer tax. Many economists agree that the income tax is too complicated and confusing and that is why we as a nation spend alomst 350 billion dollars each year just to figure out what our tax burden , or return is every year. The IRS is a huge monster of an agency that is too costly to continue in its present form. Go to www.fairtax.org and get the answer. Under the fair tax, (this is not a flat tax),. you would no longer file an annual return, and the IRS would go away. The wealthiest amoung us are currently hiding and estimated 11 Trillion ,( yes, that is Trillion with a T ), off shore to hide it from the tax man. With the income tax gone, they no longer have a reason to hide this money, and it will return to our banks, stock market, and create new jobs and businesses for Americans. Corporations would now have a zero tax and businesses from all over will be flooding our shores to set up shop and hire Americans. If we truly belivieve in a free market economy then we need every corporation to do what they do best. MAKE MONEY for their stock holders and grow their businesses so they can hire more Americans. The fair tax is currently in committee in the House and if we as Americans, use our voices, we can vote for a change. Bill HR25 will do this and more. Go to www.fairtax.org and get all the facts. And for those of you that think the poor will be unjustly burdened, the fair tax has an answer. Every head of household with a valid social security number will get a prebate check each month to cover the cost of any tax up to the poverty level, so only those making more than $26,400,( currently the poverty level), will pay taxes on consumption over that amount. Even foreign vacationers that come here will pay into our general revenue , social security, and medicare plans as they spend. I TOO, was sceptical at first, but once you get the facts you will more that likely be on board. Go to WWW.FAIRTAX.ORG and get all the facts.Let our leaders knowthat bill HR25 with 21 co-sponsors need to be considered, and with enough of us yelling for change, WE CAN MAKE IT HAPPEN

Liberals/Conservatives you're both wrong. Capitalism works but, even as a former 100% Libertarian I can even see that it's not perfect. Here is what everyone (yes this is extremely arrogant but, it gets your attention), and I do mean everyone has wrong.
- People do make rational desicions about the best deals for their money on the short term but, the humman animal (on average) does not plan so well for the long term. It would be better to make a certain amount of saving (for retirement, health care, and hard times) mandatory (an verified on tax returns) than to have government administering social security, unemployment, etc.. Employers could be mandated to set aside percentages of everyones pay for things like heath care and times of unemployment. Mandated responsibility is much prefered to socialism. (I also have a similar replacement for SS).
- Government influence on economic issues is ok as long as it is on an aggregate scale that affects the masses rather than a few individuals. For example; rather than giving money to certain individuals that may be unemployed, restrict immigration to shrink the labor pool thereby increasing the demand for labor. (I do realize it's not exactly that easy and there is other issues involved but, I'm trying to illustrate my point.) Consider it influencing on a macroeconomic scale vs a macroeconomic policy.
-Capitalism is without a doubt the best provider of the food clothing and shelter that society needs but, it doesn't work in emergency situations when you don't have time to compare values. This is why- and I absolutely hate this- but Emergency health care should be made part of public services just like the Police and Fire. However! And this is a Huge HOWEVER, Non emergency services MUST remain capitalized It is the only way to keep cost down! Plastic surgey is a good example. The care there has continued to improve while cost has continued to drop.
--there is a middle road here that no one else seems to be seeing. Mandated responsibilty NOT socialism.

BobHall: "Clinton is a peon that freak is the reason that most of the countries major businesses have gone overseas with his nafta and other crap he instigated "

NAFTA was initiated by George Herbert Walker Bush. Both parties are complicit.

Many of the comments below show just how right Miller is. These guys with religious beliefs that don't reflect reality are the problem. For starters, the U.S. with its alleged great "free market" principles has lost the manufacturing industry and with it much of its national security and wealth. Countries that have taken manufacturing from us, like Japan, have looked overseas for the best tech and manufacturing methods, protected their industries, and expanded. They have industrial policies. Industrial policies can work. (One big problem in the U.S. is people who have an ideology that government can't work and then try to make that true. "Conservatives" heck, that is an honorable term that has been hijacked. They are anarchists denying thousands of years of human development. Maybe this stupidity is due to a poor education system.

And by the way, Danes and other "socialists" don't think they are not free. Quite the contrary. The important thing for the U.S. now is to do WHAT WORKS.

And how many of these foreign companies that think outside the box outsource any and every job a CEO decides can leave the country so that he gets a bigger bonus?

What we seem to be missing in the commentary is that there IS a global economy and it is going to grow with us or without us. We can choose to lead it or to be buried by it but it is not going to disappear if we simply choose to ignore it.

What bob hall seems to be missing here is that there IS a global economy and that it is going to go on with us or without us. We can choose to lead it or to be buried by it, but we cannot chose to ignore it.

The only thing that will prolong the recession is government involvement in the private sector. I do not understand why we allow these social communists to put this stuff in print. This is the destruction of our country plain and simple. "I swear --by my life and my love of it-- that I will never live for the sake of another man, nor ask another man to live for mine."