Nashville News Blog

Our "leaders" are cowards who are afraid to do the right thing because the demagogues and horn-honkers will complain.

Lower the sales tax, abolish the sales tax on food, expand the sales tax to things which are now exempt such as legal services, architectural services, accounting services and there are lots of other loophole special exemptions given to the rich and powerful.
Then an income tax with substantial personal exemptions to keep it from being a burden on the middle and lower class.

Not only is the Income Tax not mentioned..but other, non-income tax options are never seriously discussed. What about closing corporate tax loopholes by requiring combined reporting of franchise and excise taxes? This could raise up to $200 million a year. And what about collecting 100% of the Hall Tax and sending it to the General Fund instead of back to Belle Meade? These ideas NEVER see discussion but could at least mitigate the current budget problems.

By Gilbert's reasoning, insurance premiums are redistribution of wealth.

"By Gilbert's reasoning, insurance premiums are redistribution of wealth."

No point in debating Gilbert here. He believes in a pie in the sky utopia, where if the U.S. just functioned like he believes it should function, everybody would be just la-di-da. People like that really aren't that different than Communists, in that they ignore human nature. But, there is good news! There is a country where the government is weak and decentralized and people can do whatever they damn well please. It's called Somalia. I hear that over there, it's stylish again to be a pirate.

"He believes in a pie in the sky utopia, where if the U.S. just functioned like he believes it should function, everybody would be just la-di-da."

On the contrary, I don't believe in any version of utopia nor do I believe there is any system where everybody would be "la-di-da".

I simply don't care who is or isn't "la-di-da". Each individual is simply responsible for his or her own actions and his or own welfare.

If you want to achieve "la-di-da", go do it own your own and quit trying to pick my pocket to achieve it.

Whether you make it or not makes no difference to me. I'm not responsible for your life.

Gilbert, Whatever dude! Like I said, that place that you keep describing is Somalia. You might look into buying some retirement property there to get away from "Obamalism." And you won't have to worry about any kind of authorities to "pick your pocket" or even to protect your property or life. You don't need any government of any kind to do that. You can do that yourself since you are a rugged individualist.

Perhaps Gilbert will someday voluntarily work up a more convincing, entirely self-reliant, poke-in-your-Ayn imitation of being a functional member of the human race.

Meanwhile:

This state, particularly those in it hurt most by the regressive system, has been systematically mis-educated and relentlessly propagandized by the more powerful about how "low" taxes are here and about the nightmare evils of having public efforts rise above the bottom of the barrel. They've been convinced that the governor is a "Democrat." And they've been convinced that having this little is free--when it's very expensive, wasteful--and dumb. The system hurts us all. It will take forever to fix it.

I agree, taxes should be lowered for everyone. Sales taxes on food and property taxes on primary residences should be abolished.

If we can't create a Utopia on what revenue is left, then we should set priorities, and let private individuals decide how much they donate for services currently delivered with extreme inefficiency by government.

I'll give an example. If you want to donate $100 to help hungry people in the Nashville area, by taking action yourself you can see to it that the full $100 goes to buy groceries. You can do this because your taxes are low. No fraud, no jobs for lazy bureaucrats, and five to six times the benefit to our community!

If you rely on government to do this, the $100 buys $15-$20 of groceries.

The lazy bureaucrat gets a job at the grocery store, and you feel better because you're walking the walk. That's how America is supposed to work.

People hate income tax because it touches every dollar they earn whereas sales tax feels more under their control. If you buy less, you pay less sales tax.

I believe that TN should maintain its reliance on the sales tax, but make the sales tax burden less regressive by exempting certain basic needs (milk, eggs, fruit, etc.) and raising the sales tax on 'luxury' foods (chips, candy, soda, etc.)

Similarly, the tax could be lowered on basic cars and raised on luxury cars (over $40,000).

It could be lowered on basic clothing (underwear, socks, jeans), but raised on jewelry, furs, purses, etc.

What do you think? Sensible, fair and keeps a lid on the expansion of the bureaucracy that would inevitably ensue were an income tax enacted.