What can we do to make taxes acceptable?

Question

There are many suggestion in the past: Stop helping other countries with their problems, pull our troops out of foreign land, stricter immigration laws, reduce illegal aliens, tax the rich not the poor, reduce spending and borrowing within U.S. , stricter spending laws, a governemnt within a government to oversee unnecessary programs. There are so many arguments towards those suggestion but they have either been implemented and not worked or has been deemed inappropriate. What can we do to prevent more taxation? Are we doomed to have tax problem until the end of time?

Answer 1

I think we are doomed until the end of time when it comes to taxes. The government doesn't care what we think of taxes. Here, where I live in Canada, the taxes are increasing and such things like welfare and medical spendings are decreasing. We might be getting new taxes implemented all together. The government is always going to want the most amount of money is can possibly get.

Answer 2

No nation is free of taxes, but the US enjoys the lowest rates in the world thanks to conservatives. That said, there is more work to do.
First, the income tax should be abolished and replaced with a national sales tax. 10% on everything whether it is a candy bar or a Bentley. No one is exempt. We save reams of paper on a ridiculously bloated tax law and equally bloated accountants.

Second, reduce the corporate tax to create even more jobs here and keep them here. A company that saves money from taxes, creates jobs and pays well. Remember, you are an employee if you are not the employer.

Foreign aid should be dealt with like charity: individual donations. Government does not belong in the charity business.

Reduce the size of government. At least half the current bureaus could be eliminated and the other half consolidated.

The military's job is protecting the homeland, including the borders, airports, ports, etc. Foreign intervention should be authorized by Congress with an Act of War and implemented by the President, the CIC.

We can save a ton of money and put a lot more change in each citizen's pocket and bank account where it will do a lot more good.

Answer 3

No more taxes. The government provides services and those services are paid by those who use them. The government has to compete with the market for those services.

- Stop helping other countries with their problems
With this idea, you help other countries only if you want to put your money to it. Helping other countries could be a good idea. Japan spent a lot of money developing the productions of goods in other countries that helped its growth during the post war.

- Pull our troops out of foreign land
Absolutely. Those who want to fight against other countries can use their money to buy equipment and go by themselves or pay mercenary armies to fight.

- Stricter immigration laws, reduce illegal aliens.
It doesn't make sense. Taking the money out of the government there's no more social welfare. Whatever you need, you pay with your own money. People from foreign lands will migrate if the cost/benefit ratio is favorable. Without social welfare only the hard working ones will be fit.

- Tax the rich not the poor
That's unfair. Everyone should be taxed the same. Paying for services is the way to make it fair. If you want to go and live in the wild, you're free to go and, unless you request service from the government, you have nothing to pay for.

- Reduce spending and borrowing within U.S, stricter spending laws, a government within a government to oversee unnecessary programs
The government can't get in debts. The spendings are for those services the government provides and the balance has to be positive all the time. Otherwise, the prices of the services will increase and the market will take over putting the government out of business. The government within a government already exists in the private market and it's called management.

The government should be the administrator of the republic, the res publica, the public thing. If you think roads have to be public (I don't) let the government do that. If you believe in public safety, let the government do that. Pay for what you get from the government and if they fail, take your money somewhere else.
That's fair! The money you earn working is yours to keep. You want services, pay for what you get.
With today's socialist democracies, the government owns your hard earn money and let you have some. In return, you get nothing.

Answer 4

I am not a citizen of USA nor a resident. But I have a genuine idea for any country which levies taxes.

1. Announce how much taxes are levied against how much collected publicly.
2. Have a fixed date to do so. May be before the annual state budget is announced in parliament or state houses.
3. Announce exactly how much of the collected tax money is spent against which purpose and why, to the public..

This way governments would become more accountable for the taxes they levy and collect. Public awareness would cause the elite intelligentia to discuss such issues in the dailies and weeklies and media debates. This would eventually make them change or translate their electoral promises in to efficient and effective public spending reform steps.

Answer 5

Taxes are just fine as they are, but they can be lowered a bit for the needy so that Americans won't go homeless...

I suggest that taxes should be cut by...
* Enforcing immigration laws (so that Americans can spend less on non-citizens who have to rely on government help)
* Stop scammers (example: food stamps should only be given to those who truly need it, not those who choose not to work simply to live off Uncle Sam)
* Stop giving tax breaks to liberal Hollywood celebrities (so that we can watch the news and hear about civic issues, community events, and major weather events, not trashy celebrities like Paris Hilton and the like)
* Hand over unnecessary programs to the states (in other words implement the United States Sunset Advisory Commission Act of 2007)
* Educate ourselves right (so that we don't scam the government by faking our lives (e.g. claiming we are disabled when we are really not))

That's what should be done to make taxes acceptable.

Answer 6

Americans are relatively lightly taxed compared to our friends in other industrialized countries. The biggest department by budget in the US government is the Department of Health and Human Services. But the Department of Defense is 2nd, with a *declared* budget of about 1/5th of the total federal budget; when you factor classified programs and "emergency" spending, it's probably closer to 1/3rd.

HHS could reduce its budget by being able to negotiate drug prices with pharma companies. A sweeping nationalization of the US health care system would probably decrease HHS's total budget for administrative overhead, since many programs would be consolidated or eliminated under a single banner.

DoD's budget could be safely cut if we stopped getting involved in cowboy wars the way we have been recently. Consolidating the branches of the armed forces into a single, unitary military would also save a lot of overhead and equipment spending. But even as a liberal, I wouldn't feel comfortable with a wholesale slashing of the defense budget. America's first strength should always be diplomacy and good will, but a strong military is necessary when good will fails.

Answer 7

Advocate individual rights. As there is no such thing as a right to violate rights, whether directly with a gun, or indirectly by means of an agent or through a gang etc, there can be no such thing as an 'acceptable' TAX. Tax means to take money by force...

If government was limited to it's proper scope and function (Military, Police, Courts) you wouldn't need any TAX at all. There are many systems of voluntary contribution that would adequately fund a proper government.

Answer 8

Many,many ways. One way is to get control of the bureaucracies in our government. One of the answers I read was to eliminate the war on poverty. 60% of the money allotted fot the war on poverty is gone before one dollar is actually delved out for the purpose of eliminating poverty. That money is used for wages, assigned government cars that are used 24 hrs. a day by those that have the assigned cars, credit cards to fuel those cars & whatever else they want to buy. New furniture to adorn elaborate offices. Not to mention the small palaces built to house these offices.
Then there is the pork weaseled into every bill that goes thru congress. If you really want to stop the waste of your tax money replace every member of congress & start anew. IF your representative does not do what is right for the WHOLE country, vote them out!!!
It wouldn't take long for congress to straighten itself out. American people would actually get their monies worth with these changes.Taxes would be readily acceptable with that senario.

Answer 9

Remove the Cap on the Wage Tax. That will allow the Rich to pay in at the same rate as the rest of us. It would also fully fund Social Security.

Answer 10

Vote republican. We have spent 6 trillion on the war on poverty and it has only grown. So that program obviously needs to be changed. Democrat politicians are back more immigration and not implementing the laws we have on the books. The top 1% of wage earners are paying 70% of the taxes, so I think we are nailing them quite enough. You need to look at all these issues one at a time and get an understanding of them. You will vote Republican.