[geeks] KVM for Sun Sparc Servers with USB keyboards

[Michael Parson]

On Fri, 8 May 2009, Lionel Peterson wrote:
> On May 8, 2009, at 3:08 AM, Shannon Hendrix <shannon at widomaker.com> wrote:

<snip>

>> 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.
>
> A high national sales tax would be hard to enforce, and would be 
> labeled as unfair to those that spend all their income (or even more 
> than their income) on an annual basis.

The fairtax covers that base pretty well with the prebate.  The only
paperwork you file with the federal taxing authority (the IRS, or
whomever would take over should this tax pass), is something certifying
how many people are in your household.  Your monthly prebate is based
on that number, not your income.  Every household of 2 adults and 2
children would get the same prebate, which would be calculated on how
much a family of that size would pay in taxes on neccessary goods.

> A flat income tax, applied to every dollar earned with refunds for the
> first 'n' dollars would likely be viewed as fairer.
>
> What I mean is, rather than tax consumption at, say, 25%, tax income
> at 15% and refund 100% of all taxes charged on the first $50k,
> then 50% of all taxes paid on the next $50K - the refunds would be
> automatic, as soon as you either crossed the $50K or $100K threshold,
> or at the end of the tax year.
>
> This would have the desired effect of reducing paperwork, and would
> pass the "fairness test", IMHO - a perso making $100K with a tax
> system as I describe would pay $7,500, a $50,000/yr employee would
> pay nothing in federal taxes, and all taxes witheld would be returned
> immediately at the end of the year ($7,500). Of course you could
> make refunds quarterly or at smaller thresholds (every $12.5K up to
> $100K)...

That's just a variation on the progressive tax system we have now.  Tax
brackets and refunds, punishing those who make over a certain amount.
But with less paperwork, for now...

-- 
Michael Parson
mparson at bl.org