Would you support a flat idiot tax?

[Robb]

I need to never speak to people again, for I fear they are all idiots. :eyes:

I think we can bring this economy around with a flat idiot tax. Who's with me?

[Kamika]

1. I don't get it

I thought idiots had to pay tax already..

[Donkeyboy75]

13. I don't either

That's why I voted that Robb is a dingbat

[Onlooker]

2. Yes! Yes! Yes!

Yes, if the tax was based on the value of one's assets, not just one's income. So, say, for instance, it was a 2% tax. Someone who owned a $200,000 home and earned $50,000/year might pay $5,000, while Bill Gates (who's worth around $50 billion) would pay $1 billion. I think that would be fair!

[Rabrrrrrr]

4. Ugh, totally unviable

I hope we never go to an asset tax, because with you 2% flat tax on assets, that means any person A would have their assets eventually liquidated within about 43 years; though they would have had to sell their house at about year 15 in order to come up with the cash to pay the tax on it as their own cash supply finally depleted itself.

No, very unrealistic to have an asset tax.

But on the other hand, it would be an EXCELLENT first step in reducing the mass consumption and consumerism that is hurting the world's environment and collective psyche.

[Onlooker]

6. I agree its unrealistic ...

I agree an asset tax might be unrealistic, but primarily because it would be awfully hard to enforce, but if it was fixed at a particular %, I don't see how someone's assets would eventually get depleted. As their assets declined in value, so would the tax. Am I missing something.

[Rabrrrrrr]

7. Why would their assets decline in value?

A house will go up in value. Their stocks and bonds and land would go up in value.

But then again, if all capital was being taxed on its value, the value of housing and land and any object might very well go down, since no one would want them any more.

Just because you pay a 2% on the value ofyour house doesn't mean that the next year the house is worth 2% less. Unless, as I said, the value of all capital spiralled downward as everyone dumped their belongings in order to avoid the taxes; though of course, with your system, cash is also an asset, so even that would be taxed.

[rock]

3. Where do "flat idiots" come from?

And why do we want to tax them?

[mlawson]

14. Perhaps they do not understand the nature of steam rollers.

And BIG Mack trucks???

[Rabrrrrrr]

5. Yes, an idiot tax would be great

Maybe a nickel a shot. That way, almost every freeper post would earn the government a nickel, and that's gotta add up to a lot of money quickly.

Every Coulter/Hannity/O'Reilly/Rush/etc. book would have a special $3 tax attached to it (since if it was a nickel for every idiocy, it would be like a $50 tax, and then no one would buy the book, and so no tax would be collected).

Or whenever someone just does something stupid, like the people who enter a door, blocking traffic, and then decide that's the spot they need to look in their purse. Or the ones who get to the subway turnstile to enter AND THEN start looking for their metrocard while people are building up behind them.

Or the idiot cop I met last night who, after I had a confrontation with a homeless drunk guy on a subway platform (not a bad one - there wasn't anything to it, really, it was just odd), the cop comes up to me after the homeless guy moved on and said, "I watched that whole episode from the booth. You really should be more careful, and not get so close to these people. You never know what might happen."

Dick. Would love to have dinged him a dollar if we had an idiot tax. I so wanted to say, "So why didn't you come out, dickhead?" But I didn't, I just ignored him.

[Dudley_DUright]

8. We already have an idiot tax

It is called the lottery.

[thom1102]

9. A progressive idiot tax...

the bigger the idiot the more they pay!

[SOteric]

10. Why not. We already have a tax on the mathematically impaired.

We call it the Lottery.

[Lizz612]

11. What on earth is your sig?

Looks like a bunch of "E"s and dots, is it supposed to be something?

[Robb]

12. It's Morse code!

;)

[nuxvomica]

15. It should be very easy to pass an idiot tax

All the idiots would go for it after we told them it would make them smarter and promised them that as they got smarter, their taxes would go down. It's a win-win: if it discourages idiocy, people will make better decisions and society improves; if it doesn't (as I suspect would be the case) the idiots don't have enough money left over to donate to Republicans.