Originally Posted by Steve_NO
Originally Posted by Spanokopitas
Originally Posted by djs
Originally Posted by GreenHornet47
A Fair Tax or sales tax would be less costly for the government to manage and certainly more equitable for the general public as ALL would contribute. A huge problem with the current system is the about 50% don't contribute anything to the federal government and thus, are happy for them to spend more because they have no commitment. The current system is also fraught with loopholes and exemptions for many --- and what's fair about that.


Yes, about 47% of US households pay no income taxes. See: http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Nearly-half-of-US-households-apf-1105567323.html?x=0

I know one person who has paid no income taxes for the past several years (at least 5) yet has an income of over $500,000 per year from municipal bonds. By the way, he is hoping that the US defaults on the debt so the interest rates in new bonds he'll buy will go up several points.



A wise man. So he has about ten million invested in munis. Nothing wrong with that.



If he's hoping that he's a dumbass.....cities are far more likely to default on their bonds than the US since they can file bankruptcy and they can't print money....as the county where Birmingham is will do next week. And if Uncle Sugar is busted, all that revenue sharing that the cities have been sucking off of for forty years comes to a halt.


Well Steve, you probably would consider him a dumbass; after all, he is an attorney (corporate merger and venture capital) who has amassed a sizable muni portfolio. He carefully weighs the strengths of the individual munis he buys and in some cases the bonds are backed by city assets (that can be liquidated). He is also my daughter's father- in- law.