2-4-8 You May Appreciate
October 19, 2011
Letters Editor,
Newsday nailed Herman Cain’s 9-9-9 plan as, “not worthy of implementation
but … worthy of discussion†(editorial “Nein, nein, nein …†Oct. 13, 2011).
Like Mr. Cane, the Occupy Wall Street demonstration seems to be also groping
for some type of fundamental tax change, albeit one that expects more from
the wealthy and which is less onerous on the poor and upwardly mobile. The
so-called Fair Tax is an extreme example of radical reform that seeks to
replace the federal Income Tax with national sales tax. Cain’s mathematical
and political genius comes from a bold suggestion to fix the Income Tax
inequities with a single rate of 9% for all and to join it with a 9%
national sales tax rate (rather than the 23% rate suggested by the Fair Tax
proponents).
What is missing from this much needed discussion of tax reform is a serious
intellectual consideration of including a net wealth tax in the mix. My
“2-4-8 You May Appreciate†plan to the President’s Advisory Panel on Tax
Reform (Aug. 2005) showed one way for tax equanimity to be achieved.
Assuming a political epiphany; let the federal government tax Net Individual
Wealth at 2%, Consumption/Sales at 4% and Income at 8% (with deduction only
for state and local taxes).
Wall Street must continue to help make wealth and the Occupy Wall Street
protesters should come in from the cold and consider uniting behind a plan
to tax individual net wealth. Unlike 9-9-9, the 2-4-8 plan would bring in
much more than current $2.2 trillion, and I am confident that the extra
money could be put to good use.
Eugene Patrick Devany
Massapequa Park, NY 11762
eugenepatrickdevany@gmail.com
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