Liking the man, the plan…not so much
Point? I don’t need no steenking point. Seriously, I saw the one picture, and the other popped into my head. ‘Sall.
About this here 9-9-9 plan Cain’s got: I don’t like it. It stands for 9% flat tax on individuals, a 9% flat tax on businesses, and a 9% national retail sales tax.
Apparently, the numbers work, but it’s that last one I don’t trust. The mechanism required to collect any national sales tax is exactly what’s needed to impose a VAT. And a VAT, ladies and gentlemen, is bad. (Read that article I just linked).
I’ve lived under Britain’s (20%) VAT for years now without really understanding how it works. Wikipedia has a good but brain-hurty explanation. Weasel version: everything here is really, really expensive.
Check out this helpful graph (from the Wikipedia article). This is what happened to Denmark’s VAT after it was introduced in 1962. See, the problem is, VAT is pretty much invisible to you, the consumer. You know shit is really expensive, but you don’t see the tax.
You think our pols could resist this upward-creeping fustercluck? It won’t be Tea Party guys yanking the levers of government forever, you know. Sadly, two party system, Barney Frank’s going to get a turn at the controls again.
I’m still leaning Cain, though. I don’t like his plan, but at least he put a solid, plausible one out there for us to kick around.
October 13, 2011 — 10:22 pm
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