Posted: Jun 07, 2005 By: Ken Menzies

Subject: What to Tax

Comment: A necesary down side to any tax is that it will weigh down some part of the economy. If it's income you weigh down production, if it's estates you weigh down savings and investment, and if it's transactions you weigh down consumption. The question, seems to me, is which of these three economic factors is the least harmed by the weight of a tax. The answer doesn't seem to be all that hard. Production can move over seas or just stop all together. The rate of savings in this country is already at alarmingly low rates. The one economic factor that simply must always exist and has been shown again and again to be the most hardy is consumption. If a consumption tax is practical, which I believe the committee already has mountains of evidence to suggest, then a consumption tax is clearly the best way to tax.