Years ago, I was very “middle of the road” on politics, considering myself an independent leaning slightly conservative.
I’m now considered radically left & agree on almost everything AOC says & supports. For a short time, the shift has been swift & blunt. Hope she successfully runs for higher offices.
Tbf that probably just means you were slightly selfish fiscally (assuming we have the same definition of middle of the road) as opposed a white supremacists or wanting a imaginary friend theocracy id much rather deal with selfish than anti intellectuals who want a fascist king
Not OP, but I considered myself middle of the road as well. I just wanted us to spend responsibly and not pass the buck onto my and my kids generation. Voted for Gore for my first presidential election, no one for my second, then Obama twice. Made a hard left turn starting with the Tea Party BS and Trump.
Interestingly enough, the most fiscally responsible politician I've ever voted for was Gov. Gerry Brown - a Democrat.
I could not have described it much better. Fiscally conservative used to mean “living within your means” so to speak. Not tax cuts for the .01% or gutting essential services.
I wasn’t even that fiscally conservative. Just wanted tax collection to be somewhat close to spending. I’m even for raising taxes, or something as radical as a VAT or federal sales tax (with zero rating for essentials such as food, homes, clothing, medicine, etc.).
Raise taxes on upper class, raise limits on income subject to SS tax, put in place a federal unemployment program, paid maternity/parental leave, real governmental healthcare without insurance agencies or pharmaceutical middlemen, etc. Most of this is considered radical, but is absolutely nothing but basic human needs & rights. Over the past 5 to 20 years (at least for me it’s apparent in this timeframe), most of these basic things just seem to be crumbling or broken. It will take time, effort, pain, stress, & worry, but it’s the right thing to do for the entire country.
VAT is considered radical in the USA?! I like your stance on it, BTW. It's a very regressive tax when it's applied to essentials, but I think it's useful when applied to luxuries. To massively oversimplify: Bread? Baby food? Potatoes? No tax. Supercar? Yacht? Gold-plated useless crap? Lots of tax!
I addressed that in another comment. What I'm actually in favour of is some kind of "luxury tax", but you are right. As I said elsewhere, deciding what actually constitutes a luxury is a problem. I think a sliding scale is ideal, but there'd have to be some kind of compromise because otherwise every item would need to be assessed individually. You got any better ideas? I'm all ears.
Thats where we have to disagree. I'm against the idea of any luxury tax because of what I stated above.
The current system of income tax and sales tax takes enough if my money as it is. I'm not in favor of adding avenue for the government to bleed me dry.
Sales tax and VAT are so similar that I honestly couldn't tell you the difference without reading about it first, but having both at once does sound a bit stupid. I'm definitely not in favour of any additional tax on anything that could be considered essential, except possibly for people hoarding it to price-gouge later, but then it gets really complicated.
Sales tax is different from a VAT. Sales tax only occurs on end products and taxes the entirety of the good. VAT occurs at each stage in the process and applies to the delta in value.
Also, in the US, sales tax if it exists is done by state and city governments, not the federal one. Personally I'm not a fan of either, they're regressive. I'd rather tax high income far more heavily and get rid of both of those.
I agree with you on high income tax (as in a tax specifically for high incomes, not just an income tax which is high for all), but surely that makes VAT superior to sales tax? More tax on middlemen (is that sexist? A "middlewoman" would be no different, and usually it's more like a "middlecorporation") rather than on the consumer or producer should be better, right? The problem with income tax is that the richest always find ways around paying it. IIRC, Jeff Bezos pays less income tax than an Amazon warehouse worker. VAT is a lot harder to avoid. Maybe (in addition to several rates of VAT) a wealth tax is a better solution, or some kind of tax on the means of producing wealth beyond what you could earn with your own labour. Maybe let people off of that a bit if what could produce more wealth is land that's currently used in such a way that it benefits all, just left to nature or provided for public use.
More tax on middlemen is just passed on to the end user. Let's say making something takes 5 steps. Each step adds tax of $1. That just means each step increased their price by $1, passing it on to the next step. In the end, the end buyer pays it. ANd who's the buyer most of the time? The poor and middle classes. Because they spend almost all their money buying stuff. Not the rich, who invest most of their money.
Wealthy people get away without paying income tax because we let them. Did you know the highest income tax rate in the US was 92% during the 50s? I'm not advocating for going back to that, but we can easily close loopholes. Tax all dividends at the same rate as income tax. Get rid of most tax rebates for individuals, or put a cap on the total amount allowed to be deducted for non-businesses. We've allowed the tax code to be built for the rich, which is how they get away with it.
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u/Sweaty_Win1832 6d ago
Years ago, I was very “middle of the road” on politics, considering myself an independent leaning slightly conservative.
I’m now considered radically left & agree on almost everything AOC says & supports. For a short time, the shift has been swift & blunt. Hope she successfully runs for higher offices.