Leftist economic ideas are based on the worst human emotions, the UK edition

[Razgovory]

I thought a flat tax was tax that applied to everyone equally and not graduated therefor "flat".  Sales taxes function like that correct?

Perhaps Yi can walk me through how a person who spends all of their income does not pays a higher percentage of money on sales taxes then a person who spends only a quarter of their income.

I get the very strong impression your being purposely obtuse.

You told me "No".  I would like to know why that is is incorrect.

[Valmy]

No Raz.

No?   How can the answer to this possibly be "no"?  This is pretty basic math Yi.  Maybe you do not understand the scenario?  Somebody who spends all their money on shit will pay a larger percentage of their income on sales taxes then somebody who doesn't.  Because...obvious things are obvious?

[Admiral Yi]

DGuller will be very happy to answer everyone's questions.

[Valmy]

DGuller will be very happy to answer everyone's questions.

Well color me confused.

[Martinus]

I thought this was what Marty was getting at.  A sales tax is a de facto flat tax though, since everyone pays the same.  So under this system a person who must spend more of their money just to live is in fact paying a higher percent of their money on taxes, correct?

No, I was discussing income tax only. Not saying that you are wrong but my argument that the purely flat income tax is de facto regressive works even if you do not have any sales taxes or other taxes of a similar nature.

[Sheilbh]

Sales tax is not considered flat.  It is not an income tax at all, so it's neither flat nor progressive.  That said, it is recognized fairly widely that it is rather regressive, unless a whole lot of basic necessities are excluded.

There's zero-rate VAT on a lot of necessities here. I believe the ONS said that it's still, over a lifetime, regressive.