Remove personal income tax and put a fee on spending instead

In 2007 there were about 120M US Consumers (I guess a lot of people do not consume?). Anyhow, the avareage consumption was $49K/year giving a grand total of consumption around $5,880,000,000,000 or 5.8T.

The new Obama budget is $3.5T which is projected to result in a loss of $1.75T leaving projected Revenue (taxes, fees etc) of $1.75T.

The stimulus plans are rapidly approaching $2T and probably will end north of $4T when all is said and done.

1. The current stimulus will cost more than all the annual revenue at least the next two years

2. Removal of ALL personal income taxes would result in a "loss" of $1.T (based on 2006 data).

3. A 10% Federal fee (let's get rid of the word tax please) on consumption would result in Federal revenues of $580b (a little over 50% of total personal income taxes collected).

How about we severely scale back the stimulus or remove it all together, get rid of personal income tax once and for all ("the country of the free" and all that) and then add a fee on consumption?

The immediate jolt would be in the next paycheck. Even better and fair is the fact that people are FREE to purchase the goods and services they choose and contribute to the Federal government as a percentage of their own purchasing decisions.

Let's not have the discussion over who can afford what, put that decision into the people through their purchasing. The rich can purchase more but then they will contribute more. Consumption is a good thing as it creates jobs.

This plan has no earmarks and no special interest groups involved, it is simple, fair and can be implemented virtually overnight.

Jolting the economy Mr. President?

Jolting, by defenition, is something immediate. The stimulus bill does not seem neither fair nor immediate so I have a simple suggestion or two:

1. Abandon personal income taxation for 24 months. The inpact is as immediate as people's next paycheck.

What about the people who don't have jobs or do not pay taxes you say? Well, this immediate addition to all taxpayers cash will certianly be used in part to buy products, that will increase demand and in turn save/create jobs VERY quickly.

What about the vaue of the US Dollar? The dollar will certainly take a hit BUT is that really as bad as some claim? Let's see, demand will increase, the dollar will fall, hmmm - sounds to me that the result will both increase US exports and increase demand of US products as they due to currency rates become more competitive with forign made goods.

What about all the IRS employees? Well, how about having them work on making all parts of the government more efficient? How about training them on technology for example? I'm sure these people can be put to good news, the glass is half full.

2. Freeze all mortgage rates at 3%, new and old. This will also have an immediate impact on every mortage-holders pocketbook starting with the next payment. Furthermore this will create a demand in the housing sector and stabilize prices.

What about the banks you say? Well, since we the people (US Government) currently lend money to banks at 0% they will have a 3% margin - financial institutions have and can sustain themselves on 3%.

3. Make the government more efficient. I don't know about you, the US Senators or members of Congress (who, by the way, I am not seeing taking any pay-cuts or personally contributing in any way - these people still fly the jets you banish the executives for flying) but have you ever been to a governmental office? Boy are these employees as ineffficient as they come and boy are their jobs secure. In business that would never be toerated and neither should it in the Government sector. I bet a reduction of 50% of government employees would have zero effect on the service-level (some sectors can be cut way more and some we cannot cut at all so I am talking average here). Why can we not use technology much more as opposed to having to go to an office, snail-mail applications and the like? We want to modernize the way we work but we do not take advantage of the technology available to us.

I would love you to say to all facets of goverment: "Look how you can MAKE money so we can avoid TAKING money (read:tax)". Is anyone in charge of looking for new revenue streams for the US Government? Somebody should be working on that in concert with somebody working on efficiency.

While I'm at it: Forbid lobbying, we all know that is legalized bribery.

Perfect? I think not. Jolt? I'd say so.

Just an idea from one of "the people"

ps - that was not even 1 page compared to the 1,000+ pages you guys put out :-)

Depression medicine

1. 2 years of zero income taxes: immediate effect for every working individual in the country

2. Mandatory reduction of all mortgage rates to 3%: Immediate reduction is cost for all mortgage holders while still mainatining a 3% retrun to the bank as they now borrow funds from the FED at 0%

Too easy? Not enough "pork" for the Hill?

I like it.

discussion forums meet email

This is pretty interesting. I never thought of the large groups of people that take part in discussion forums such as the ones that follow the Rambus stock for example.. With WrapMail Social one can create a wrap such as this one, each image on the left side is linked independently to the site it represents (or directly to the Rambus foum on that site as is the case here). Whatever the forum and whatever the topic email is still the most trusted medium as long as it comes from someone you know. What a great way to marry networks such as discussion groups and email.

I'll probably put this up on IV, many there I am sure would appriciate it. Maybe we can help Rambus spread the word through the most viral medium of all: email!

Social Networks + Email = WrapMail & Free Awesomeness

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