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Originally Posted by Oregon Elephant
Then we hit the debate, of where is the line between "large" and "not large". Take "large" houses for example, what is the barrier that makes a house "large"? Is it 3,000 sqft? Is it 4 or more bedrooms? Obviously, to someone living in a studio apartment making minimum wage, "large" is not going to be that large. And to someone making six figures with a wife and four kids, "large" may seem very very large.
I like the idea of a spending tax, rather than an earning tax, because it would increase the incentive to earn, and decrease the incentive to spend, thus helping people choose to save their money (which our nation does not do very well).
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Quote:
Originally Posted by AHFN
Good idea, in theory. In principle? Not so good.
I play guitar, and have been playing for quite a while. In my dreams I'd play professionally; in reality I hope to at least teach on the side. In any case, what's to stop some dip**** buearocrat politician from deciding that a decent guitar over $1000 is a luxury item? What's to stop the same politician from deciding that a fast computer is a luxury item? For that matter, what about high-speed internet? Or how about any car that costs more than a Civic? Or any car at all? After all, we must "wean ourselves off foreign oil." Or any food more than the basics.
In the end we'll be paying luxury tax on everything that costs more than five bucks, or less! Never trust a politician with anything but his own skin and bank account.
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Yeah, it would be incredibly difficult for politicians to determine what should be considered "luxury" and what shouldn't. If it was subjective then it would probably get out of control very quickly.
I suppose I can think of some objective ways to maybe determine what is a luxury item.
Possibly, a survey could be done of what items people of certain income brackets normally buy. That could determine what items the rich only buy, and those items can be considered "luxury" items. If the boundary of what is considered "luxury" could be increased to a very high level, it may be easier to determine what items the rich only buy.
However, a government or even private survey like that would have many problems...
If an item is purchased for someone's business then it would still need to be included in the tax, because then items would be bought at work and used at somenoe's house to avoid the tax. However, a guitar doesn't even need to be included with the tax if the cridentials for those items is high enough.