Living in the Scoot Utopia

From the patio at Harry's Country Club late last night, a political debate among three guys (in a nutshell):

1: "The estate tax is bullshit. If I work hard all my life I should be able to pass that money along to anyone I want."

2: "Yeah but 98% of the people who work their whole lives will never be affected by it, the threshhold is too high. It's a tax on born money and not a tax that affects real people."

1: "That's a bunch of crap. Besides, it's double taxation. I've paid taxes on that money as I accumulated it, and then it gets taxed again when I pass it on."

3: "Using that logic I shouldn't have to pay sales tax, then, since I've already paid income tax on the money I'm spending."

1: "Not the same, sales taxes are enacted by the state and the city."

3: "But my state and city both collect income tax."

1: "It doesn't have to be double-taxation. Itemize the hell out of it. The government wants to make it easy to take your money, they aren't going to tell you you don't have to pay income tax on your sales tax. In fact, there is no law on the books that says you have to pay income tax."

3: "That's a myth."

1: "No, it's true! I challenge you to show me any law requiring you to pay income tax. The US Supreme Court even overturned it. The IRS still just sends its thugs out knowing that for most of us it's cheaper to pay taxes than to fight them..."

1: "This country was in a golden age until the income tax was enacted, it's been all downhill ever since."

3: "But if we got rid of it then something else would have to replace it or society would collapse."

1: "Raise tarriffs! That would end our trade imbalance and keep us a propserous world power."

3: "Oh lord, then we'd wind up back to a society where guys with twirly moustaches tie damsels to train tracks and evict orphans from their homes."

Okay, so it was a lot funnier and more logical at 1:00 in the morning with empty beer glasses on the table. :)