A broad based and transparent tax on consumption would be an excellent idea for our federal government, but that’s not a VAT. A VAT is essentially a tax on production not consumption, and that makes it a little tough to take. But if you could only have one word to describe a VAT it would have to be obscure. Once a VAT is implemented it becomes almost impossible to determine what portion of a product’s rapidly increasing price is due to taxation.
They political classes in Europe love the VAT because it allows them to tax the living daylights out of the private sector without any political consequences. It’s a broad based tax so the money comes rolling in for them, but since no one can determine the amount of taxes they are paying or when they are paying them, they don’t know who to blame. So instead the political discussion becomes about which political classes have the clout to ram through some new special treatment or government delivered perk.
The VAT is a boon for leftists, because it hides the mechanism of taxation, while keeping the money flowing. It’s a catastrophe for anyone who thinks that the government does too much already because it will fundamentally change the relationship of between the citizen and the government. After a VAT is implemented, reducing government’s size by any peaceful means will effectively become impossible.
You’re going to hear a lot of information about VAT’s in the next few months. You’ll hear that it taxes the poor the same as the rich, and that it will raise consumer prices and lower our standard of living. All of that is true, even if it is somewhat away fro the central issue of a VAT. But we should still use those points and any others we can find to oppose the implementation of a VAT. If the far left gets this, it will be more of a long term game changer than any other issue; even nationalized healthcare. If you love liberty, then you need to do all you can to prevent the VAT.
The VAT commission.
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