RE: My definition of Socialism and why you do not need force to realize it
You mean the many people that don't know their history
to be fair the America referred to in this saying is the corrupt corporate mafia with an ambition that emerged as United States after WW2.
I did not know there was one person that managed to introduce FED and taxation. Would you say that taxation in the form of taxacting only the good you purchase but not on the work you do is a step in the right direction? It is no the tax free utopia but it shifts tayes to the place where it belongs: consumption instead of creation.
And yes I do know you have been at war countless times before in between and after the world wars. I just don't know many details, to be fair many European countries were trying to conquer the world in the shadow of the industrial revolution and the renaissance.
Now really the only reason taxes are an issue at all is due to the government needing them to exist. So I will answer your question based on the current paradigm where we do have governments.
This was how it was essentially done before the IRS was implemented in 1913. I have said often we should tax goods, and things that are considered luxury items could be potentially taxed a bit higher IF such tax was going to exist. You think you need that yacht? Fine. It has a nice luxury tax on it. You think you need that third home? Same thing.
I believe a person should have one home tax exempt free. I believe some basic food goods potentially should be tax exempt.
I think we could totally pay for everything simply with sales and luxury taxes. Even better since they are paid at time of purchase they are voluntary, you can choose to buy them or not. They do not offer loopholes, tax shelters, etc.
The reason I believe some items like basic non-luxury food items should not be taxed this way is because people must eat. Thus, it is not a voluntary tax.
Yet something like Caviar, Fancy Ice Cream, Alcohol, etc. Such things should have a sales tax on them.
Yet, if you don't want to do that then even just a flat sales tax on everything would likely be more effective than income tax.
Ultimately, if we had no government and crowd funded our needs then those taxes would be unnecessary as well.
Wow, I did not think you where that much of a socialist xD
Cool to see that you would see the taxation of goods as a step in the right direction. I had a very similar line of thinking, when I heard the idea (no more tax shelters, less bureaucracy, tax hit "the right people") . I was never someone who cried about the high tobacco taxes. If a cigarette is really expensive I might value it higher and not smoke 10 per day. Decent beer and decent water are around the same price tag in Germany, btw. Buying a can of coke is usually a little more expensive than a bottle of beer...
If we must have government and we must have taxes then VOLUNTARY taxes are the only kind I support.
Though ultimately I don't think we would need a government and I think to some degree we are making strides towards that. Yet present day VOLUNTARY taxes (voluntary also means not required to survive, not coerced, etc) are something I would support. I also know it could easily fund governments. They are very wasteful at the moment primarily because they CAN BE and no one stops them and the claim of "classified, secret, national security, etc." allows fraud and corruption to go unaudited.
I don't actually believe the government has much need of secrets.
In a democracy a government should not be allowed to have any secrets towards its people.