Yang wants a value added tax.

@RoboGraham I stand corrected. However, a value added tax still ends up increasing the costs of goods to the general population. Assuming the costs of the taxes are passed along in the final price tag of the item, the customer still ends up paying those costs. As a general tax to the consumer, it is still wholly regressive.

@racocn8 It does pass the cost off on the consumer and therefore does increase prices. i'm not sure that I understand it fully but from what I've read, it puts a taxon a good each time it changes hands rather than just at the point of sale. So when the mining company sells silver ore to the refinery, the refinery pays a tax, and when the refinery sells the silver to a wholesaler, the wholesaler pays a tax, and when the wholesaler sells the silver to a jeweler, the jeweler pays a tax and when the jeweler sells the finished product to the customer, the customer pays a tax. So much more revenue is generated because tax is being collected at each link of the supply chain.

Yang says that this will force giant corporations like amazon to pay more taxes because they can't dodge this tax as they do the income tax. He says that basic commodities will be exempt because he doesn't want to make things even more expensive for poor people. The tax will apply to luxury goods and non essentials. Will the increase in revenue collected justify the increased cost of goods. I don't know. But every other country with an advanced economy like ours is using a VAT tax so maybe there's something to it.

Robert Rathswohl Australia does not need a leader sniffing the arse of an idiot with 27 military bases around Iran (Number two oil reserves in the world) and a press telling us assassinations and bombings are for the general good of our species. Why in 2020 do we suffer propaganda and war mongering for the resources of others? How can we allow history to repeat itself over and over again. Many of us on this planet know what is happening the problem is that the majority do not! America is the garbage of the world and we should align ourselves with New Zealand rather than a reality TV star.

@rathswohl If I were one of those flag waving ultra-patriotic Americans, I'd be insulted. I'd probably say something like, "Son, if it wa'nt fer us yankees, you'd be speaking Japanese rite now." But that's the older generation. The majority of us youngans despise Trump for all the same reasons you do. We support Bernie Sanders and we are doing what we can to fix this.

I'm proud of my countries accomplishments but I'm also critical when we do fucked up shit in regions of the world where we don't belong. I don't blame you for wanting to turn away from the American empire and align with other nations. We have been alienating many of our allies of late and if we keep this up, we will find ourselves alone with nothing but our aircraft carriers and bombs to keep us company as the rest of the world turns against us.

Please keep in mind that not all of us are arrogant, greedy, ignorant, blood thirsty assholes. There are loads of positive things about the USA. We've allowed power to go to our heads and we elected a reality TV idiot as our leader. This is a low point for us but as I said, the younger generation is opposed to all of it and we will turn it around in time.

@RoboGraham Thank you for that I appreciate your honestly, my original post was aimed at Trump supporters on FB and when I failed to get any grinding of the cogs I copied and pasted it among my kind with the hope a stirring up some criticism on the upcoming invasion of Iran. Trump and I have something in common in that we are both the sons of a German father the only difference is that my father did not give me 1m$ to get started however I wonder if we all would not be speaking German and not Japanese. Any way you got Wernher Von Braun and Trump but we got you with Ken Ham! I hope you are laughing at this point!

@rathswohl Yup. And you've got massive wild fires while we have a fucked up, for profit healthcare system.

Is ken ham that idiot who built a boat on land in Kentucky? Isn't Rupert Murdock one of yours also?

@RoboGraham yes thanks for that should have mention Murdoch haha yep he is the one who built the boat haha so lucky to have got rid of him.

@rathswohl Another Aussie told me that most Australians don't care much about politics and don't pay much attention to the news. He said that you guys are too focused on cricket and getting rowdy at the pub to give a shit about whats happening in the rest of the world. Is there any truth to that?

@RoboGraham I don't go to the cricket but I like to watch it no seriously we get big turnouts to Richard Dawkins and Strauss and we are probably a bit ahead on % atheists so I would say generally it is not true. We are very concerned but we also have so many ignorant people so the main differences are environment, Oceans, beaches, war, abortions similarities are propaganda (Murdock) owns our press as well and idiot leaders who pray to invisible men in the sky and corruption.

I'd count mayor Pete out. The only thing keeping him afloat at this point is all the unwarranted positive media coverage.

Ok I am frustrated as an australian I have attempted to insult you guys without success. I want progress before I leave and do not see it while 27 military bases surround Iran and our press tells us assassinations and bombings are for the greater good of mankind. Oil as in Iraq can not be the basis for more wars can it? We have a chance to brush the world clean of reality TV show personalities but I do not see anything happening?

@rathswohl Is your media as corrupt and terrible as ours is?

@rathswohl There were anti-war protests across the country today.

Some opposition (Democratic) legislators were willing to call this what it was: an assassination. A handful even pointed out that war is always at the behest of the elites and carried out by the middle class and increasingly the poor and people of color. Too many of them merely fussed about Trump not notifying congress or having a plan, but compared to the low bar of patriotic BS set by the GOP, that's pretty good, too.

Sanders and Khanna introduced a bill to block funding for any unauthorized war. It will probably pass the house and die in the Senate, like everything else does these days. And Trump would veto it anyway. But it's a symbolic gesture at least.

@RoboGraham yes we get the same shit you do

@rathswohl thank goodness for the interwebs.