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by unreal37 13 days ago
I think the main problem is that this will not survive very long once implemented.

Politician A will promise "no VAT on bread" to get elected. The next guy will promise "no VAT on essentials". The next guy will promise "no UBI for the rich". And so on.

And you end up with the next politician dismantling the whole system as unfair.
4 comments
orwin 13 days ago
What will happen will be 'no vat on rice, flour and vegetables', which in my mind is very ok. Maybe if a demographic crisis happens, vat on baby care will be removed.

But VAT is a dumb tax anyway. Anybody with high enough wealth can evade it, you just have to found a company that will pay for your computer, car and probably other stuff. I'm pretty sure I could pay for a 3d printer without paying any VAT. If I was devious, I would start a 'sailing course' company and buy my wings/sails/foil through it, while teaching once a year or so.

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gaiagraphia 13 days ago
If exemmptions need to be made, the tax isn't taxing the essence purely. With the 'no VAT on bread' example, we need to work out why. How can we quantify why bread shouldn't be taxed?

I'm guessing eventually we'll work out that 'fresh food' shouldn't be taxed, and the processed food should be. It's here we can work out that certain chemicals, processes, facilities, etc, are actually what should be taxed at source, and through doing so, we can save the world billions in accountancy bills.

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DemocracyFTW2 13 days ago
So what you're saying is basically we should stop implementing reasonable measures as a government because there will always be a Ronald Reagan or Maggie Thatcher who will dismantle it out of spite, greed, or both? Surely if we never do anything right or good the baddies will stand no chance of being what they're best at, namely being worse than everybody else. This for sure is a wise plan to stop bad people in their tracks.
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hattmall 13 days ago
Sort of but that's actually ideal, I don't think it will be completely scrapped if implemented, some parts will remain. Those being the ones that make the most sense to the most people.
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