| > Many essentials like food and bus tickets have lowered (or zero) tax rates That's charity, not progressive taxation. Besides, VAT is fixed-rate, which makes it regressive in practice. > it's printed on every receipt you get But nobody is taught how it works, in school or elsewhere, and unless you run your own business you'll never find out. Also, because it's segmented, atomic changes to different segments are usually reported under "business news" (unless it's for stuff like petrol and tobacco), the sort of thing most readers will skip. Honestly, the more you look into VAT, the more you see how it's always been used to raise taxes on employees without making them aware. > Taxing wealth has big problems with transparency and evasion Preying on the weak is obviously easier, that's always been the case. It doesn't make it right. > a combination which does hurt income equality. Amen. |