The Rants of Issachar

I found something interesting over at K5. Someone over there want to institute an asset tax (called FairTax) in the US. I'd like to say that it seems like a nice idea in theory, but I can't. Although it does sound similar to the Islamic Zakat. On the other hand, just because it's an old idea doesn't make it a good one. I still think that straight income tax is a good way to go, with no deductions except the basic. A nice basic deduction of $20K, no other deductions and an income tax with as few brackets as possible. The most obvious upshot is that it makes doing your taxes ridiculously simple. To my mind it also seems the most fair. Everyone pays, and everyone gets their basic living ($20K is just a guess) tax free. Of course a big problem with this is that you can't hose the middle class to get tons of money, but that seems to my mind to be a good thing. Glassware has a good assessment of it as well. Someone also linked to an interesting Washington Post article, although that'll probably disappear of the net in fairly short order.