How to solve the problem of the IRS

Glenn links to this:

Marco Rubio files amendment to punish IRS agents who leak taxpayer docs

– but that is just papering over the problem. The problem is the tax system itself– ridiculously complex and riddled with perks for those with the money or the power to game the system. Ordinary folks need not apply. We need a tax system that is evenly allocated and forces everyone to comply, no exceptions. A national sales tax would do that – a tax on consumption, not income – which would apply equally to a Michael Bloomberg or to me. No exemptions, no deductions, no VAT. No forms to file.

The infrastructure is already in place; it would be relatively painless to implement.

States should also be forbidden an income tax; they, too, would have to rely on a sales tax, and would be forced to be careful how high it was, risking driving business and citizens into lower-taxed states.

The price increases would look painful at first until you realized that nothing was being deducted from your paycheck. The cost savings from reduced overhead would be enormous.

And to me the greatest benefit of all would be the masses of government employees who would have to find jobs in the private sector they so despise. The actions of our government in my lifetime- Democrat, Republican, whatever- have convinced me that a wholesale housecleaning is long overdue. IRS, EPA, DOE, HUD, etc., etc., – I’m talking about you.

It will be wrenching. But if we don’t take back our country we are going to lose it- in our lifetimes. The signs are all there if you have the guts to see.

Throughout history, poverty is the normal condition of man. Advances which permit this norm to be exceeded — here and there, now and then — are the work of an extremely small minority, frequently despised, often condemned, and almost always opposed by all right-thinking people. Whenever this tiny minority is kept from creating, or (as sometimes happens) is driven out of a society, the people then slip back into abject poverty.

This is known as “bad luck.”

      — Robert Heinlein

 

Or, in today’s case, taxed out of existence.