Hey, How 'Bout Some Late-Afternoon Class Warfare?

And now, this exchange with one of my favorite correspondents, upset at my use of the adjective "regressive" to describe sales taxes:

THERE YOU GO AGAIN!   "SALES TAX IS REGRESSIVE, HARDEST ON THE POOREST"....SPREADING THE LIBERAL PROPAGANDA THAT SALES TAXES ARE REGRESSIVE TO THE WORKING POOR.  SUGGEST YOU READ MORE FROM THE WORKS OF NOBEL PRIZE ECONOMIST.....THE LATE MILTON FRIEDMAN THAN THAT NEW YORK TIMES COLUMNIST WITH THE SAME LAST NAME!

THE LAST TIME I CHECKED, THERE ARE NO SALES TAXES ON FOOD, MEDICINE AND MEDICAL CARE WHICH CONSTITUTE A LARGE PORTION OF THE WORKING POORS SPENDING.  IF THE WORKING POOR DECIDE TO BUY A BOTTLE OF JIM BEAM OR A SIX PACK OF BUD.....THEY SHOULD BE TAXED LIKE EVERYONE ELSE.  THE POOR HAVE LESS MONEY FOR DISCRETIONARY SPENDING AND THEREFORE PAY LESS TAXES.  THATS FAIR.  PERCENTAGES MEAN NOTHING -- ACTUAL TAX DOLLARS COLLECTED ARE THE IMPORTANT CRITERIA.....AS I SAID IN A RECENT LETTER TO THE EDITOR.......YOU PAY MORE TAXES ON A YACHT THAN A CANOE.

BY THE WAY........DO JOURNALISM MAJORS IN NORTH CAROLINA TAKE ANY COURSES IN ECONOMICS?

ALL THE BEST.......JOHN H.

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Don't you use all capitals to ME or make snippy comments about economics courses or how you are so smart and I am so dumb, Mr. H. The sales tax is regressive any way you cut it and all your harrumphing does not change the actual fact.

Even with exemptions on food and medicine, the percentage of disposable income spent on taxes in Florida increases as income level decreases. Studied to death. The reason is we all have taxable necessities, such as the clothes on our back; the more discretionary money that we have on the other hand, the more we spend on non-taxable items.

Hence I laugh out loud at the assertion that the poor are taxed "like everybody else." Good God, what nonsense! Simply put, Florida taxes the things that EVERYBODY has to buy, and we do NOT tax things that only people with more money buy. We have created hundreds of loopholes in the sales tax for that very purpose. We tax the poor man on a can of Raid, but we do not tax ME for having pest control. And so forth.

And since we have so sweetly capped the sales tax at purchases of $5,000, it helps to make sure Mr. Mercedes pays the same tax as Mr. Ford Taurus, in the same way that I pay exactly the same Social Security taxes as Bill Gates -- what could be more fair, the Mr. Hs of the world would ask sweetly?

Somebody smarter than me said something like, "The rich and poor are punished equally for stealing bread.''

Comments

there is a sickness in our country, manifesting itself in some "well-to-do" people who want to actively punish the poor for being poor. these same people look the other way and say nothing when some of their millionaire friends continue to collect social security or take advantage of medicare, programs that are taxpayer-funded. being poor seems to be interpreted as a punishment from god for sinfulness - a very strange and warped theological concept found in so many "religious" people these days.

[gatorted]

while i am sure m. friedman was a nice person, loved his mom and his dog liked him, his economics provided a refuge for the curel, heartless and souless among us.

THERE IS NO SUCH THNG AS A FREE MARKET!!

if there is, then why are companies, industries and eveyone else with a few dollars to spend, pumping them into lobbying legislators for special breaks, favors and dispensations for their particular, o, so-important-and-vital-to-america business or industries?

YES, that's right!!

to gain competitive edge with the governments help.

FREE MARKET, MY BUTT!!

they know there is no such thing as a FREE MARKET, how come you missed that fact?

and one might just do a bit of reading in american history to see exactly how many "brave and self-less" pioneers and explorers went out exploring with money from their governments subsidizing their explorations while those same governmenats expecting a big payback at the end of their explorations.

yes, sonny-boy, no matter how long and loud you yell it, a sales tax is REGRESSIVE and the tides will come in and go out like clockwork!!

now, of course, if one wants an impoverished and economically threatened population, the fantasy of a FREE MARKET is ideal, aint it?

[Val Green]

Dear John H.

Have any of your friends bought an Escalade perhaps and taken the $25,000 write-off because they use it for business? Perhaps you can show me a comparable perk for the poor?