I am less certain it there is an ultimate failure to reform though, especially when the opposing party is in such disarray

there are so many ways the Democrats could splinter

I already see people mad that Biden is being groomed as the nominee because he's white and male

if the identity politics/corporatists result in Trump winning reelection they will be utterly discredited and booted from the Democratic Party

Trump has been at least partially successful. The Rust Belt area I'm in has seen a good economic recovery, which was the reason a lot of blue-collar union workers voted Trump in. As long as we don't hit a major recession/depression the Rust Belt will reelect him. The wall is generally supported, but not nearly a big deal as the economy.

As long as Trump can keep blue-collar workers voting for him, we'll likely win. Biden is the most dangerous, since he can undermine Trump amongst the blue-collar union workers.

Regardless of which party aegis it is under, the next stable government in the US will have policies that swing to favoring workers and in general have higher taxes.

I think Biden is likely to win Iowa, but won't fare well outside the Rust Belt. Bernie will win New Hampshire, Kamala will win California, and it will devolve to a clusterfuck.

I'm increasingly warming up to the idea of a VAT

I favor things that raise wages, employment, etc, over gibs

VAT is standard everywhere but the U.S.

A chemical VAT to throw commies in? I prefer helicopters, but a chemical VAT will work too.

I do think that local and state sales taxes should be replaced with VATs

lol

and the income tax, as Roosh mentioned

shift the burden of taxation away from individuals and onto corporations

@phinami Trump's tried to do that, but by favoring national companies at the expense of global companies.

I like getting rid of income taxes and going to sales type taxes. A VAT isn't my first choice but can live with it. Even better the CiC style vat

or hell, changing the income tax to a flat tax would be an acceptable compromise

Hungary has a 15 percent flat tax and it boosted the economy big time

Agree CiC, now we need more of that type of thing

Just be careful about my type of vat. You don't want to make a bunch of Jokers.

I'd favor tariffs over taxes. Replace import quotas with tarriffs and use the additional income to lower personal income taxes.

Agree CiC but I'm being pragmatic and am ok with a mixture of things if we can get rid of income taxes. Income taxes unfairly target what is left of the middle class

And cut aid and foreign military adventures. A lot of countries would be fine with us cutting aid as long as it meant we got out of their hair at the same time.

Only working and middle really have income. The top brackets make their money on their ownership/stock/options

May I ask what a VAT is?

Value-Added Tax

@phinami Florida does that. A modest corporate income tax, moderate sales taxes, and no personal income taxes.

@ian, it is like a sales tax but takes place all through the supply chain, not just at retail

^ What @phinami said.

I'm not an economist, but wouldn't raising taxes on companies just cause them to jack up their prices to equalize it out

corporations were taxed heavily during the New Deal era yet prices didn't mysteriously explode

I agree that is likely what happens Immune to Coochie, which is why I favor the sales tax, but because of that, they are essentially the same thing. Probably easier to sell VAT as it is 'going after the corporations'

Matt I think there are other factors to pricing in the depression. The Youtuber Academic Agent made some vids on that recently

I'm not talking about just the Depression but the New Deal Coalition era in general: 1932 to 1980

prices didn't inflate in the 1940's or 1950's in response to high corporate taxation

I don't think VATs lead to inflation

given that most of the big companies are multinationals now with their corporate HQs in other countries (Apple is based in Ireland, for example), there are a myriad of ways they could be dealt with

Inflation is more a monetary phenomenon

there's also a social element to these kinds of arguments