Subj : Re: Um...no comment? To : Daemon From : Finnigann Date : Tue Sep 20 2005 05:55 pm -=> Daemon wrote to Sam Alexander <=- Da> Re: Re: Um...no comment? Da> By: Sam Alexander to Mrproper on Tue Sep 20 2005 01:49 am Da> Ah... I missed Syncedit... Had to reinstall it from a backup since Da> it wasn't in the new version of SBBS. > opinion on this. I honestly think there should be a tax based on the > percentage of what you make and not on what you buy. It seems that we often Da> Why? Da> I'm for a flat tax, percentage-wise, but would be perfectly happy Da> with a tax on consumables as opposed to income. No more "cigarette Da> tax" or "gas tax" or whatever tax... Just a plain old vanilla X% Da> across the board, and goodbye to a huge piece of the beaurocracy AND Da> the concept of "tax shelters" and/or "tax evasion" all at once. A sales tax wieghs more on the poor or lower income folks, as they pay a higher percentage of their income as sales. Let's tax stocks. Just the income producing ones. If your loosing money with stocks, it wouldn't be fair to havea tax on 'em too. > in what the government thinks we owe we pay in more. Plus what's with all > the fee's like to fish, get married, etc. I can see paying a fee to enter a > park or church for the services, but why does the state/government get it's > chunk? Da> Odd. Personally, I take literal offense to the idea of paying to use Da> a public park, find the idea of "paying" for church services immoral, Da> and see a benefit at least so far as being able to gauge wildlife Da> protection/control via permits, etc to a limited extent as being a Da> reasonable solution to the problem/question. In Michingan I pay to park overnight - $20.00 a year (I think it went up this year but I didn't get the sticker) I know my tax money also supports this resource but it's slightly wieghted for the user. I wouldn't want to (nor is it the policy) pay for day use. I also pay to rent the camping spot So, my taxes make it posible for the state park to exist, my annual parking sticker helps defer the parks expenses and my caming fee covers my expenses for that weekend. Some - more - all. Da> I DO think, though, that funds generated in the interests of wildlife Da> protection/control should go to wildlife protection/control and not Da> into a general fund, but that's a very broad gripe of mine against the Da> government at large anyway. At different times in the past I would buy the fishing license and stamps to help the DNR with it's ongoing battle to preserve our wonderful resoures. But that's just me. Da> Lottery funds, for instance (in NY anyway - no idea about anywhere Da> else) are supposed to go STRAIGHT to educational funding. But it Da> doesn't. It goes into a general fund. I think in Michigan they are a little bit more deceptive. In that they have the fund adn the money makes an apperance there but it's got a back door adn it never has enough cash to do much... Da> That huge tobacco settlement a while back, similarly, was supposed to Da> go towards health-related expenditures, particularly those directly Da> related or caused by smoking. That goes into the general fund, too, Da> though, despite court orders to the contrary, and in some cases (like Da> for instance Erie County where I live) the government borrows against Da> those funds at high interest purely for budget balancing reasons, Da> financing their own inability to do math to our DOUBLE detriment Da> (firstly by neglecting that which is supposed to be funded, secondly in Da> interest payments that drive municipal and county credit ratings down). It's sad really, the educational spots helpped keep kids from lighting up the first one... But they went away for some reason. I guess it take alot of courage to see all that money sitting in the coffiers and not touching it. Da> The two-party money shuffle is FAR more expensive than we are led to Da> believe, and a lot of that damage is done by NOT allocating funds where Da> they're supposed to go. So, wouldn't getting out of debt (nationally) be a good thing? I heard discussions where they said it was OK as it was only a little bit and it's like a credit card... a float. BS ÕÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ ³ "We live in a society exquisitely dependent on science and technology, ³ in which hardly anyone knows anything about science and technology." ³ - Carl Sagan ³ .... "We're all washed in by the very same rain" - Pat Humphries --- MultiMail/Win32 v0.46 þ Synchronet þ Bits-N-Bytes BBS Onehellofa BBS bnb.dtdns.net .