[geeks] KVM for Sun Sparc Servers with USB keyboards

[Michael Parson]

On Fri, 8 May 2009, Shannon Hendrix wrote:
> On May 7, 2009, at 18:22 , Phil Stracchino wrote:
>
>> OK, this is the basic idea:  Completely abolish all federal personal
>> and corporate income taxes, gift, estate, capital gains, alternative
>> minimum, Social Security, Medicare, and self-employment taxes.
>> Replace the above taxes with a single flat rate national sales tax
>> at 23% on all NEW goods for personal consumption.  Every month, the
>> government sends out a "prebate" to every household in the amount of
>> the sales tax on basic necessities up to the federal poverty level.
>
> I think they need to add a few things to that:
>
> - no more property taxes... you already paid for it, it is yours, and
> cannot be taken away due to "taxes owed"

While I agree with the distaste for property taxes, those tend to be a
local tax, used for funding local things.  In Texas, that's where we get
most of our funding for the public^Wgovernment schools.  The Fair Tax is
only aimed at the federal tax system.

> - no more double taxation (the used goods without tax is part of that)

The 'Fair Tax' (as outlined on fairtax.org), takes care of that on a lot
of levels.  Since there is no more federal level taxes at all, other
than on the sale of new goods to end-consumers, the over-all prices of
things will go down, as the cost of getting that product to market goes
down as well.  The end result should be lower costs to the consumer.

> I would be happy with either sales tax or a flat tax.
>
> Even if we used a flat tax system, the IRS could be reduced to about 5
> people running a computer and some printers.
>
> An fairly bog-standard modern server could probably do everyone's
> taxes easily if it were reduced to a single percentage with no other
> rules except maybe a poverty line calculation.
>
> No more errors, audits, etc either.
>
> But sales tax could be done too, but I've read that it can actually
> be hard to enforce a lot of that, and will encourage people to use
> black/gray markets to avoid it, and that it is not all that hard to do
> so.

The other thing the fair tax catches is people that these days don't
otherwise pay taxes at all.  Those that work for cash-under-the-table,
drug dealers, illegal aliens, etc.  Everyone buys stuff, and when that
purchase (of a new item) is made, even with cash, taxes are collected.

Yes, you could do most of your shopping at Goodwill, buy used cars,
and not pay taxes on stuff you buy using those methods, but there are
some things that just can't be had on the used market.  I'm pretty sure
no-one wants to buy used eggs or milk. :) Yes, that stuff would be taxed
under the fairtax, but remember, that tax would be prebated to you, so
in the end, it should be a wash.

-- 
Michael Parson
mparson at bl.org