Message-ID: <325478B0.4B67@iscs.nus.sg> Date: Fri, 4 Oct 1996 10:38:40 +0800 From: "Dr. CJ Meadows" <mailto:meadows@ISCS.NUS.SG> Subject: Re: Value-Added Tax To: Multiple recipients of list DEVEL-L <mailto:DEVEL-L@AMERICAN.EDU>
Dear Reinaldo,I'm sure 20 other people will give you a similar response, but here goes, anyway....
As I understand it from my old economics classes, Value-Added Tax, like sales tax, in reality ends up being regressive in nature (higher % of income paid by the poor) and goes against the principle of the-rich-should-pay-more (in % terms as well as absolute). Luxury tax, aimed against certain rich-people-stuff escapes this problem but then can evolve into the government telling people what they shouldn't do (smoke, drink wine, take vacations, etc.) and can even extend into stuff like PC's and modems which get local people global information (the benefits of which have already been posted during the appropriate technology thread on this list).
Dropping the Income tax would cut down on wasteful bureacracy (in the eyes of some, anyway), which would be great, but which could also be accomplished by a flat % income tax (changed for different income brackets, if desired), with no exemptions & "loopholes." But then, so much income can be hidden in cash and foreign bank accounts (no country names, please) that the whole system might might not achieve what it was designed for, anyway.
Yes, everyone should pay their share, but the details of "their share" are hellish.
And how would it make people more conscious of public money mismanagement, anyway? The press & word of mouth does that. The real goal sounds like action -- cleaning up public money mismanagement, which must be done top-down (genuine mandate & cleanup from the President), bottom-up (revolt by the people & a stink in the press), inside-out (which requires top-down support), or outside-in (again, needs top-down support such as setting up an honest, independent body to police money mismanagement).
'Just thoughts,
CJ
Reinaldo Vicini wrote: >
> Dear Friends:
>
> Value-Added Tax is charged every time a purchase of any kind -goods or
> services- is made, so, whoever consumes more, pays more. However,
> *everyone* pays. Would it be right for a society to drop Income Tax and
> just leave a high Value-Added Tax? Don't you think that if everyone pays
> his/her share there would be more conscious of the importance of public
> money mismanagement?
>
> Reinaldo Vicini
> mailto:interext@anditel.andinet.lat.net
> http://www.colomsat.net.co/rotarios.bogota
>
> Como todas las cosas están llenas de mi alma
> emerges de las cosas, llena de alma mía.
> Mariposa de sueño, te pareces a mi alma,
> y te pareces a la palabra melancolía
> _____________________________________________
>
> Poema 15 - Fragmento Pablo Neruda
> 20 Poemas de amor y una canción desesperada
-- *******************************************************Dr. CJ Meadows National University of Singapore Department of Information Systems and Computer Science 10 Lower Kent Ridge Road, S16, #04-09 Singapore 119260 Phone: 65-772-6561 Fax: 65-779-4580 E-mail: mailto:meadows@iscs.nus.sg WWW: http://www.iscs.nus.sg/~meadows/