Newsgroups: alt.religion.scientology
From: raphael@fx.com (Glen Raphael)
Subject: Re: Some views on Scientology
Message-ID: <1991Aug7.204018.8446@fxgrp.fx.com>
Sender: news@fxgrp.fx.com
Organization: FXD/Telerate, Mountain View, CA
References: <1991Jul24.140607.32251@kuhub.cc.ukans.edu> 	<1991Jul28.041938.12594@parc.xerox.com> 	<1991Jul30.201557.32438@kuhub.cc.ukans.edu> 	<1991Aug2.071725.11789@parc.xerox.com> <COVIN.91Aug2161638@despair.cs.uchicago.edu>
Date: Wed, 7 Aug 91 20:40:18 GMT
Lines: 30

covin@tartarus.uchicago.edu (David Covin) writes:

>The upshot is that the less money you have, the smaller a *percentage*
>of that money you can afford to have taken away before you have to worry
>about going hungry, getting thrown out on the street, etc.  If you tax
>the rich at the same rate as the poor, a tax that the rich will hardly
>notice will cause poor people to default on their taxes or else starve.
>And sales tax taxes the poor at a proportionately *higher* rate than the
>rich.

>That is what is wrong with sales tax.

And what is *right* with the sales tax is:

1) It is simpler to collect. Can you imagine how many hours are wasted
by hundreds of Americans doing their taxes each year? If we abolished
the income tax, we could save all that time, and reduce the number of IRS
auditors and the power of the IRS accordingly. Wonderful!

2) The progressive income tax discourages people from making money, by
reducing the link between how productive you are and how much take-home
pay you end up with. This is bad for the economy as a whole, including
the poor.

>David Covin                           covin@despair.uchicago.edu

(of course, I'd like to abolosh the sales tax *too* :-) )

Glen Raphael
raphael@fx.com