Wednesday, May 27, 2009

VAT Explained

When you want less of something, you tax it.

A "VAT", or "Value Added Tax", is a tax on activities which add value.

Can you guess who likes that idea? Democrats. Well, some of them. The Citizens for Tax Justice don't like the idea. They say that if you tax things people buy, that's regressive, so we should instead tax the corporations who sell them things, which is different somehow. It's different because when they use different words to describe the same thing, they have different feelings about it. I guess there's "empathy" involved, or "nuance".

Thanks to Lumberjacks.

2 comments:

NotClauswitz said...

It's different because when you tax the awful-horrible corporations who sell things they don't just turn around jack up their price to the public - uh, er, wait a minute. (see: Phone and Cable TV Company...)

Retardo said...

Ahh, but when they do, then you can just impose price controls -- THAT always works! Just drop by a grocery store in Caracas and ask anybody! They'll have lots of time to talk, since the shelves are all empty.

Thanks for stopping by.