From: raphael@fx.com (Glen Raphael)
Newsgroups: alt.religion.scientology
Subject: Re: Some views on Scientology
Message-ID: <1991Aug9.235304.27205@fxgrp.fx.com>
Date: 9 Aug 91 23:53:04 GMT
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christir@mentor.cc.purdue.edu (Christi) writes:
>raphael@fx.com (Glen Raphael) writes:

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

>   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.

>faulty logic.  the progressive income tax does not discourage people
>from making money, but rather distributes the tax to those who can
>handle it.

*Any* tax discourages people from making money. The higher the tax, the
less the incentive to work. A progressive tax discourages rich people
more. Look, if you want to buy a really cool stereo for $1000, you can
either structure your lifestyle so you: 

(1) work harder and make $1000 a year more, or
(2) be thrifty and spend $1000 a year less.

Either way, you come up with the extra money you need. In the absence
of a tax, those two are equivalent. But in the current system, if you
work hard enough to make an extra $1000, you only get $660 of it and
have to give the rest to the state. This might tip the balance for you
so that working for it is no longer practical. You *don't* get the
extra job and work nights. The GNP is reduced by $1000 because you
didn't work. Your labor fails to improve the general standard of living.

>the flat rate tax that appears to be proposed would discourage poor
>people from owning anything.

No more than it would discourage rich people.

>also, you make the assumption that the only reason that people are
>poor is because they don't try hard enough, or they are discouraged
>from making money.

Nope. I just assume that it is *a* reason, not the only one.

Glen Raphael
raphael@fx.com