John raises some intersting points in his column today and even manages to slide in his belief that one should be taxed based upon income minus savings. Such a system, in his view (and supported in his book), would create ultimate fairness in taxation.
Likely I’ll get the opportunity to continue that debate with him at some point, but I personally like consumption rather than income based taxation. But seeing as that won’t change any time soon, the following suggestions might make massive reform in government take place rather quickly:
1) Move tax day to the last week in Oct. Just prior to elections and Christmas. (That should make elections extremely interesting).
2) Stop making businesses work for the government by making them take out taxes on employees and move the burden of payment to the citizen. Thus they will know how much they’re actually paying instead of just learning to live without it.