Do you know how tax policy in the United States is made? Me neither. But, I've always assumed that policy makers do not just pick numbers for aesthetic reasons. I assumed that tax rates were not arrived at by the same method used to price QVC items. I mean, I doubt $19.99 is the exact optimal price for a Slap Chop, even when you throw in the free paring knife. We all know there is just a little psychology involved in the pricing of these things. I think the logic is probably something like this. $19.99 looks like it’s cheaper than $20.00 by more that just a penny, and if someone is willing to pay $17.00 for something, they are probably very nearly as willing to pay $19.99. I am not a marketing professional, but this all seems pretty obvious. Is this what the 999 thing is? Is Herman Cain trying to sell us a Slap Chop?
Let's think this through. What are the odds that after plugging data into three different methods designed to determine tax rates in three different domains of economic activity, each one would each spit out 9%? Surely, the method for determining business tax rates is different from the method used to determine income tax rates, or sales tax rates. And surely, different data from the economy would be used to plug into each system. How else would it be done?
Is there a thinking person in the entire universe that thinks Herman Cain used anything like a reasoned, economically sound approach to arrive at the 999 plan. Really, 9% across the board huh? What an unbelievable coincidence. And, isn’t handy how they all just happen to be the largest single digit number…9. I mean, it couldn’t have been the 678 plan, or the 12 21 13 plan? Oh yeah, sorry, that would just be stupid and arbitrary.
Come on folks, this is a masterpiece of asininity. You don’t have to know anything about anything to know the 999 plan is a ridiculous gimmick even QVC would be ashamed of. Don’t get me wrong, I am not a big fan of our current system either, but this is embarrassing.
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