[AlexdeLarge]

A good ticker today. I liked this point...........

A structural change must take place.

One simple (but not politically popular with the lobbyists!) way to do this would be to pass The Fair Tax. Such a tectonic shift in Washington DC's finances would immediately tie the government's funding to GDP, eliminate the game-playing in the tax code and make The United States the tax haven of the world, bringing in millions of jobs from other nations as multinational corporations rush from places like Bermuda to the United States.

No chance in Hell with all the class warfare rhetoric being espoused by the current leadership in Washington that this will ever happen..................

D not an R

[Sixstrings]

What you're missing here is that the economy is mostly controlled by the shenanigans of the Federal Reserve, whose ability to create money isn't really limited by taxes and budgets.

Shenanigans may be a harsh word.. to be fair, the Federal Reserve has kept the ship of state pretty stable from the last GD till now.

But my point remains.. you cannot have fundamental reform without having a look at the Federal Reserve system.

[americandream]

A good ticker today. I liked this point...........

A structural change must take place.

One simple (but not politically popular with the lobbyists!) way to do this would be to pass The Fair Tax. Such a tectonic shift in Washington DC's finances would immediately tie the government's funding to GDP, eliminate the game-playing in the tax code and make The United States the tax haven of the world, bringing in millions of jobs from other nations as multinational corporations rush from places like Bermuda to the United States.

No chance in Hell with all the class warfare rhetoric being espoused by the current leadership in Washington that this will ever happen..................

D not an R

The only country to benefit from reducing the tax levy (Fair Tax, call it what you will) will be China. If we are going to embark on making Western economies such as America less "China exposed" and more internally resilient, using the opportuinity the turmoil presents in reinvesting in Westen infrastructre and systems is certainly the way to go, tax cuts would instead only filll Mr Wu's coffers. Seems rather rudimentary to me.

[Micki]

IMF Says Advanced Economies Already in Depression

Feb. 7 (Bloomberg) -- Advanced economies are already in a depression and the financial crisis may deepen unless the banking system is fixed, International Monetary Fund Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn said.

Bloomberg

[vision-master]

Does this ring a bell?

Causes of the Revolutionary War

The American people were strongly independent. They wanted to do things for themselves. Great Britain was a long way away. The American people didn't want people an ocean away telling them how to live their lives.

The British government decided to make the American colonies pay a large share of the war debt from the French and Indian War.

Through the Sugar Act, Stamp Act, and other taxes, the British tried to collect taxes that the American people considered harsh. '

The American people also thought that they should be able to send their own people to Britain's Parliament or at least vote for Britain's lawmakers.

The combination of the harsh taxes and the lack of an American voice in Parliament gave rise to the famous phrase "taxation without representation."

Patrick Henry, Thomas Paine, and others called for an independent America, colonies free from British rule and interference.

Americans started stockpiling guns and ammunition in violation of British laws. Their defense of such a stockpile led to the shots fired at Lexington and Concord and the beginning of the Revolutionary War.

[InverseBetaDecay]

AlexdeLarge wrote:

class warfare rhetoric being espoused by the current leadership in Washington

If you could tune out the right wing propaganda and see reality, I would say that the class war has been won:
(chart from UCSC)

Share of capital income flowing to households in various income categories
Top 1% Top 5% Top 10% Bottom 80%
1979 37.8% 57.9% 66.7% 23.1%
1981 35.8% 55.4% 64.6% 24.4%
1983 37.6% 55.2% 63.7% 25.1%
1985 39.7% 56.9% 64.9% 24.9%
1987 36.7% 55.3% 64.0% 25.6%
1989 39.1% 57.4% 66.0% 23.5%
1991 38.3% 56.2% 64.7% 23.9%
1993 42.2% 60.5% 69.2% 20.7%
1995 43.2% 61.5% 70.1% 19.6%
1997 45.7% 64.1% 72.6% 17.5%
1999 47.8% 65.7% 73.8% 17.0%
2001 51.8% 67.8% 74.8% 16.0%
2003 57.5% 73.2% 79.4% 12.6%

here's the site I got the above numbers from if you want it:
Link

but this info is everywhere
(except the usual disinformation sources)

"Fair" or "flat" taxes usually end up regressive when TPTB get done with the details