Jophiel wrote:
Debalic wrote:
Now, I know you guys are against taxes and all, but how exactly do you expect to fund any government work? Private donations?
The usual dream here is to go back to a set-up like in the 1800s and turn of the century 1900s where the government was funded with tariffs, tolls, licenses and other revenue streams. Of course, this also requires a much more limited government -- you're not going to fund the Food & Drug Administration and Health & Human Services with port tariffs. But the dream of such thinkers is a "starve the beast" mentality where you cut off the revenue streams to the government and watch it shrink to a size you feel it should be at. Eliminating the IRS (and thus income taxes) is an extreme example of this ideology versus simply lowering taxes.
Your answer is a bit closer than Smash's, but both are wrong. When conservatives talk about abolishing the IRS, we're not talking about eliminating federal taxes. The idea is to eliminate the massively bloated process of tax deductions and credits which is largely what the IRS exists to manage. That change alone would result in probably a 90% reduction in the size of the IRS (and the attendant overhead). It would also massively simplify filling of taxes.
Of course, you can also go further and replace the existing income tax with some kind of federal sales tax. Do this and no one has to file taxes at all. And we only pay taxes on money spent buying things rather than money we put into our savings accounts. Heaven forbid we encourage savings over spending, right? Do this and there's no need for an IRS at all. No need for companies to lobby for tax loopholes, and no more arguments about which groups get non-profit status, or religious group exemptions. You know, all those things that both liberals and conservatives seem to fight over all the time. Gone.
Yeah. That would be just insane, wouldn't it? Oh wait. No. It actually wouldn't. It actually makes a lot of sense, and would eliminate a number of potential sources of corruption in our existing system. And imagine never having to file taxes. That alone makes this something to at least consider.
Edited, Mar 27th 2015 7:44pm by gbaji