The Real Problem Behind the Budget
- Thread starter Tress
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TheBrew
Bah, I am plenty efficient. Though my contracting company actually hires competent people unlike, say, SAIC.
Jesus christ, you people. Instead of speculation, how hard is it to do a damn Google search?
It took two seconds for the wiki page witht he information.
Thank you Shakey. Glad to see I wasn't the only one who can use Teh Google.
It took two seconds for the wiki page witht he information.
Thank you Shakey. Glad to see I wasn't the only one who can use Teh Google.
Doesn't matter. I already heard that 80% of the military budget goes to making nuclear weapons and baby-murder. Your "facts" aren't going to change that.
School of the Arts, Institute of Chicago?
That link doesn't include nuclear weapons and research, but that can be found here. It comes to about 17b a year, still not a huge chunk.
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Chibibar
heh. well it can be use as an energy source (well nuclear tech anyways) plus it sounds better than be under military
(the above statement is post under pure opinion)
I figured, I would give some (really, really, really) rough numbers and if he cared to refute them then he could look it up. Obviously according to the two posts that show the budget, R&D is only a small part of the budget.
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TheBrew
lol no, it stands for Science Applications International Corporation.
You know, I wonder how the "operations and maintenance" and "procurement" costs break down. If a large part of those costs are contract fees/mark-up to providers or inventory management (as opposed to straight material costs), there may well be a lot of room to re-do the bidding process and streamline operations a bit.
What bidding process? I was under the impression that the Government was still awarding no bid contracts.
The bidding comes from what contractor gives the biggest campaign contribution to the Congresspeople in question.
GasBandit
Staff member
Change it from an income to a sales tax, and you just described the Fair Tax. It sends monthly prebate checks for the expected amount of sales tax expenditure of the necessities of life for your family, abolishes all your federal income taxes, and replaces it with a national sales tax. Practical upshot? The poor still pay no/little taxes, the ultrarich still pay huge amounts of it, with the bonus of nailing the Paris Hilton types who are super rich but have no actual "income" to be taxed but spend like crazy. Plus, the added benefit of having no embedded taxation means it's cheaper to hire employees, salaries can be higher, products cost less, which pretty much works to cancel out the sales tax so that you end up paying the same on the bottom line WITH the sales tax as you did before WITHOUT... only without the IRS swiping a big chunk of your paycheck every other week.
GasBandit
Staff member
Well, whatever method of tax reform we use, the fastest way to make it happen would be to eliminate mandatory withholding. If people actually realized how much of their money was being siphoned off, without it being disguised as a few hundred dollars each paycheck, there'd be a march. Or perhaps a riot.
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Chibibar
You know. If I don't have to pay any taxes and just sales tax that would be cool, but I think it would be harder to regulate with current online economy.
GasBandit
Staff member
In my mind, protecting the idiotic from the consequences of their actions is one of the reasons we're in such trouble on a number of fronts.
Added at: 11:05
Current federal taxes on productivity are embedded in the cost of everything you buy. Eliminating those taxes would mean that the cost of those goods would fall a roughly equivalent amount to what the end sales tax would be. More
So your solution is to put more people in jail then? See where the problem is here? It's not protecting the stupid, it's preventing the stupid from mucking up the entire system.
I'm sure you can just get them a cabinet position.
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Chibibar
Well, in Gas's tax system, there isn't any back taxes. You just pay the tax as you buy stuff. No more income tax, corporate tax, medicade and SS tax. So at the link he provided lets say it is a flat rate of 25% (23% seems to be the "average") then anything you buy you just pay 25% extra BUT
You don't get tax deduction from your paycheck anymore. Depending on what you put (0,1 or more) it takes a good chuck out of it.
Which, of course, would kill the poor. Can you imagine someone who makes $15k a year paying that much in sales tax?
That's my problem with this kind of thinking. It has a "Well, fuck 'em" attitude toward the people who will actually suffer under these kinds of changes. Offering to give the money back at the end of the year won't do them any good when they are starving and not making bills now. Hence, the problem with rebates.
GasBandit
Staff member
Actually, MY solution is a sales tax in which the stupid don't have to do anything at all, except maybe know how to cash a prebate check.
Added at: 12:11
It'd be less than they're already paying in income tax. As a matter of fact, their prebate checks would actually be bigger than the amount of taxes they're expected to pay. And if they have more kids, the checks are also bigger.
A family of 4 under the fair tax would not only not be paying income tax (obviously), but the goods would cost the same, and they would also receive ~$550 per month in prebate. Tell me that $15,000 salary family wouldn't LOVE that way more. Yucky redistribution of wealth and all that, I know, but hey.
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Chibibar
Couple of things. I am going to use pseudo numbers since I don't have my paystub with me.
Everyone who works in retail (usually) always pay Medicare, social security and federal income tax (usually) under Gas system, you don't pay these anymore. Now, as a single person, I usually pay around 20-30% of my check (give or take back in the day) I don't know what is the rate now.
On TOP of that, if I earn in the range from the chart above, I get a prebate check if I earn less than 10k a year (poverty level) of course that numbers go higher with + kids. So I get my paycheck with NO tax deduction (the only exception would be medical insurance that is NOT medicare and retirement fund) + 208 a month. That is a bonus to many.
Then you would pay 25% sales tax ONLY (only tax right?) That will get everyone since currently taxes are base on income and people find loophole. This way, you spend money, you pay tax.
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