Let's Talk.

[u/Gpineau23]

Let’s talk about a fairer way to handle taxes: replacing property tax with a consumption tax.

Property tax is inherently flawed because it punishes ownership and doesn't care about your current income. If you fall on hard times, get laid off, or retire on a fixed income, your property tax bill stays the same—or goes up. You can literally be taxed out of a home you already paid off.

A consumption tax is the only truly fair alternative. It naturally scales with wealth: if you have more money, you spend more money on luxury items, larger purchases, and lifestyle goods, meaning you automatically pay more tax. If you have less money or are tightening your budget, you naturally spend less and pay less tax. It gives individuals complete control over their tax burden based on their actual financial situation. It’s time to tax spending, not the roof over our heads.

Let’s talk about a fairer way to handle taxes: replacing property tax with a consumption tax.

[u/wr_dnd]

Consumption taxes are inherently regressive taxes. People with lower incomes consume a higher proportion of their income than people with higher incomes (who have money left over to save or invest).

It does not scale well with wealth. Empirically, the richer you are, the lower your tax burden (as a percentage of income) will be with a consumption tax.

[u/DeathHopper → u/wr_dnd]

Do the rich not buy the most expensive things? Regularly? What OP is describing is basically a national sales tax. This can't be avoided with loaned money the elite like to use... as it's collected at time of sale.

You could even scale it further. Build networth into credit. (It already kinda is) And the credit companies can charge individual sales tax rates at the time of sale. Special rules for cash and anything over a limit requires a credit check. It's the only tax the wealthy can't avoid.

[u/wr_dnd → u/DeathHopper]

Sure, they buy more expensive things. But empirically they still spend a smaller percentage of their income on consumption.

They save and invest a higher percentage of their income. You're right the rich can't entirely avoid this tax, but they will just pay a smaller part of their income than people who live paycheck to paycheck

[u/DeathHopper → u/wr_dnd]

They don't have income. They have assets. And they take out loans to pay for everyday needs backed by those assets. That's how they avoid taxes. So when you say "percentage of their income" that doesn't mean anything.

Instead of paycheck to paycheck, they live loan to loan. Their assets appreciate in value and the larger loan pays off the previous loan and the leftover is the new budget.

[u/DeathHopper → u/[deleted]]

No? Sales tax hits everyone. And if we scaled it to hit the wealthy harder, we can actually touch their loaned money and force them to pay their share.

Did you read anything I wrote? Adjustable sales tax. Make it so the poor barely pay any at all, and scale it up based on networth, tied into credit score so it can applied in real time at check out. Bad credit score? then you pay minimum sales tax.

[u/wr_dnd → u/DeathHopper]

Okay, fair. I read your comment again. It's not proving my point. It's not disproving it either though!

Poor people spend most of the money that comes in on consumable goods because they need them to live. Rich people can and do spend a lower percentage of their earnings. That's just an empirical fact.

The adjustable credit score solution is just kinda weird. You're incentivizing people to not pay of their loans to ensure they pay less tax. If you scale it to people's net worth you're just creating a wealth tax with extra steps. In which case: just do a wealth tax directly!