Warren Buffett and other grandstanding "rich" say they want to pay higher taxes.
Whose stopping them?
But replacing the current IRS Code with a consumption tax, containing appropriate but limited personal exemptions for food, clothing and shelter, would insure that they did, and achieve the following additional desirable objectives:
1. It would eliminate with something simpler and more fair the current pornographically complex IRS Code, which is an affront to free men and women;
2. It would truly increase taxes on those who should have taxes increased (i.e., "the rich") when they purchase non-essential goods and services;
3. It would ultimately cut wasteful government spending by focussing all citizens' attention on the cost of government at the point of purchase. Believe me, there would be a political revolution within six months of its enactment;
4. It would stimulate the economy in magical ways; and
5. It would shrink the currently expanding gap between rich and poor and offer hope by opening up the channels of upward mobility.
Any other approach is chimerical. Why? Because rich people like Buffett (whom I admire in some ways - but not all) for decades have been utilizing the services of battalions of tax accountants and tax lawyers who are practiced in the arcane arts of tax deferral and tax avoidance. There is little reason to suspect that these habits of the rich would change under any fresh attempt to capture their wealth through higher INCOME taxes.
Consumption taxes are another matter.
