4 ms·

Considering poor people have to both have some of their money taken away due to income tax, and pay a tax on whatever they purchase, having just one of those co

• dragonwriter 12y ago
  Not if it was revenue neutral -- consumption taxes (because the poor have a higher marginal propensity to consume) are weighted toward the poor. Income taxes are weighted toward the more well off (really, the upper middle class, because the upper class earns most of their income from capital, which is specially favored income in the tax systems). Shifting the tax burden from the exisitng mix to all consumption tax would increase the relative tax burden on the poor and lower middle class and decrease it on the rich and upper middle class. And if it wasn't revenue neutral, so you just took away income tax and left existing consumption tax, then while the absolute tax burden on the poor would be less (as it would for everyone), either the national debt and deficit would skyrocket, or massive cuts to government operations that would cause the most immediate pain for the poor (but long term pain across the board) would have to be made.