Today is tax preparation day…. could it be any more appropriate?

Which brings me to the topic of the day…. the US Tax system.
####Rant on Taxes

First off, let me say that I, like just about all Americans, feel that I pay too much in taxes, and that people that make more than me are somehow getting off easy. Why do I feel that way? Well, I think it’s rooted in fear…. fear that there’s a set of tax loopholes out there that, if you know the secret handshake and password, you have access to and that they will magically lower your taxes to zero.

But the real problem is that our taxes here are currently based on what should be considered private data: income. It is nobody’s business how much I make annually, let alone tax me on this amount. We need to find a substitute that is already part of the public domain.

Consumption.

That’s right. How much you spend is public disclosure… you have to make a transaction with another party. If we had some sort of value added tax instead of (not in addition to) our income tax, those that spend the most would pay the most, and since there is a direct correlation between income and spending levels, those that make the most would pay the most.