Not a surprise. POTUS serves himself first. Besides, our finance secretaries are all bankers. We all know who gets drained.

Consumption-based tax systems tend to be regressive so hopefully we won't actually see one of them happen.

Flat tax systems tend to result in increased wealth accumulation for the super rich - and it's pretty offensive to collect $1,500 from a person who is making $15,000/year and only take $100,000 from a person who is making $1,000,000/year.

If anything, our tax system needs to be more progressive. I'm sure there are ways that we could simplify the tax code without going to an overly-simplistic approach which is mostly popular with the hyper wealthy and people who listen to right-wing talk radio.

robertGL... another excellent point. We don't tax wealth, we tax income, upon which 95% of us depend for survival! Then, we tax the capital gain if you happen to make a few shekels on an investment! This system just creates dependency on the federal government by the masses -- obviously by design because it empowers politicians.

The progressive income tax structure is completely unnecessary and really only serves to foment class-warfare in our society. This benefits politicians who use emotional arguments to jockey for votes.

A consumption-based tax is both fair and progressive in it's final result - but without the drama and gerrymandering.

I say eliminate the income tax entirely and eliminate tax-havens and loopholes for both businesses and individuals. Eliminate tax credits (except in the case of tax surpluses paid back to citizens). Enact a consumption-based tax that exempts food, clothing and healthcare.

The rich will spend significantly more and will always pay a much higher percentage of overall tax revenue. The poor basically live tax-free right up until they start to go out and buy iPads and Chevy Malibus, at which point they're not really poor anymore and can afford to contribute to society.

@Vitaliy_Kiselev Yes, the huge assortment of asset classes makes it complex (and easy to hide.) But Forbes routinely lists the wealthy and estimations of their wealth. That's at least a guideline to go by. Again, I give it a .001% chance of ever being implemented, at least before some future total economic collapse occurs.

@firstbase - last night's celebrity fund-raiser event for the hurricanes was a bit ridiculous. Rich celebrities tapping the general public for money, while most are dishing out a few thousand at most. Apple gave something like 5 million dollars, the same day that I read that it might become the first 'trillion dollar company' !

@Vitaliy_Kiselev I could care less if garden gnomes came up with it, it's a much better tax concept than the status-quo circle-jerk between business and government.

The only people I've really seen pushing back forcefully against capitalism these days are those Antifa dipshits. And they're doing a piss-poor job. They go after people's free-speech rights by trying to beat them to a pulp at political rallies and on college campuses. Then they demand folks turn their property over to them in the name of "social justice." Not a real appealing system except for the takers at the front of the line.

I think I'll stay with Austrian economics for now.

Australian economics school in one picture

paper put in US school.

And this is good text to understand it (also helps what was written in the time they want us to return to)

https://www.personal-view.com/talks/discussion/17628/good-quote-how-i-became-a-socialist#Item_1

The House passed a nearly $1.5 trillion tax bill on Thursday that would slash tax rates on corporations and private businesses, overhaul the individual tax code and eliminate taxes on wealthy heirs.

The 227-205 vote on the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act is a victory for Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., and for President Donald Trump, who spoke to Republican members ahead of the vote

Tax bill is extremely favorable to the capitalist class. One of the most obvious examples is the repeal of the “Generation-Skipping Transfer Tax”. This is the tax that individuals pay when they pass their property, including real estate, stocks and bonds, to their heir. These forms of property can be held in trusts, which are legal creations that allow a trustee to make financial decisions for the benefit of an entity. For example, a grandfather could go to a lawyer and draft a trust for the benefit of his grandchild. When the grandfather dies, under this bill all the property could be transferred to the minor tax free. As the workers generally pay higher tax rates, the wealthy “keep it in the family”. This bill is an assault on the working class by a brazen bourgeois class.