Agreed. But that was not the argument.
When GST was first introduced here, there was a huge argument about the
iniquity and inequity of introducing a tax that was identical to rich and poor
- so much so that eventually, fresh food was made GST free. Thus a supermarket
chicken is tax free but the cooked chicken next to it is not. I always thought
that pointless as the middle classes were more likely to cook fresh and the
poor more likely to frequent Macdonalds. But the main thrust was that no
tertiary economy could survive with introducing a tax on services. I wonder in
my ignorant way if the US is beginning to feel that lack.
I would suggest that on any measure at all, the massive disparity in wealth in
the US would throw up similar numbers. It's not great here but the poor aren't
quite so poor, or numerous, I think. It's hard to judge because in the massive
blanket of US television that we endure here, the poor are pretty much
invisible.
Andrew Fildes
afildes@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
www.soultheft.com
Author/Publisher:
The SLR Compendium:
revised edition -
http://blur.by/19Hb8or
The TLR Compendium
http://blur.by/1eDpqN7
On 13/12/2013, at 4:20 PM, Moose wrote:
> Even without that, any estimated comparisons of wealth distribution based on
> income tax statistics alone will be
> inaccurate to the extent that there are significant differences in other
> taxes.
--
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