[QUOTE=Revenant Threshold]
Then I would ask why it is that vices need to be specifically addressed? What makes them worthy of addional taxation whereas virtues are not?
[/QUOTE]
I am not talking about additional taxes. I am talking about the vices that are not currently regulated and taxed.
I am saying we should regulate and tax vices like we do any other endeavors.
I am
ItS
r~
[QUOTE=rwjefferson]
I am not talking about additional taxes. I am talking about the vices that are not currently regulated and taxed.
[/QUOTE]
Liquor is taxed. Tobacco is taxed. Gambling (where legal) is taxed. The only untaxed vices are illegal ones; you can’t tax them without first decriminalizing them, which is not likely to happen.
[QUOTE=Der Trihs]
What are you trying to say ? This is incoherent.
[/QUOTE]
Only god has just authority to judge and condemn sins.
Render to the state, that which is the state’s: To secure liberty and justice for all.
Render to god, that which is god’s: Judgment and condemnation of sins and sinners.
Liberty is the peaceful and well regulated pursuit of happiness.
Crime is the denial of liberty.
Crime is not the same as sin.
The state has no business prohibiting sin. Denial of liberty is crime.
It is the duty of government to secure liberty for all through regulation and justice.
Regulation is not the same as prohibition.
Vices should be regulated and taxed like any other endeavor.
ItS
Peace
r~
[QUOTE=JohnnieEnigma]
no. how would we tax drug dealers when what they do is illegal? And why is Huckabee still in the race?
as far as prostitution, it’s legal in Rhode Island, so I’m sure the R.I. tax department gets a “piece” too. hahahaha! 
[/QUOTE]
Well, I guess we would just have to recognize the separation of church and state and that prohibition is both unconstitutional and unjust.
Mike Huckabee is still in the race because he hides his mark under his cloak of Righteous Words.
Why are any of the republican tyrants still in the race?
Same reason.
ItS
Peace
r~
[QUOTE=rwjefferson]
Crime is the denial of liberty.
[/QUOTE]
Crime is whatever the state prohibits…it’s whatever the state defines as crime.
[QUOTE=Beaver Chunks]
I think you misunderstood the clip you saw. Mike Huckabee is a FairTax advocate. Under the Fair Tax, everyone is taxed, even drug dealers and prostitutes. While these people’s income may not be legally earned, it is still taxed at the cash register. Every time a prostitute goes to buy clothes or a pack of cigarettes, she’s being taxed. She can’t duck the IRS, or claim no taxable wages, etc. because it’s not the same system.
[/QUOTE]
I did not misunderstand the clip. I have already stated that Mike’s way of taxing vices is wrongheaded and will only increase crime. Under Huckabee, every time a prostitute goes to by anything, she will buy it on the black market and funnel even more money into criminal organizations.
Yet regulating and taxing vices would indeed help both the economy and the fight against tyranny and terrorism.
ItS
Peace through Liberty
r~
[QUOTE=zircon in the rough]
Dealers and pimps, yes. Addicts and Working Girls, no.
I think to prevent vices we have to tax those who get the easy money.
Want to reduce gambling, tax the casinos mre, not the gamblers.
Want to reduce usury, tax the check cash places more.
[/QUOTE]
I said nothing about increasing taxes to reduce vice.
I am talking about getting the government out of the religion and morality business all together. I am talking about finally demanding that our government get into the business for which it was instituted – to secure liberty and justice for all – even sinners.
Our government is destructive to these ends. We need to make it clear to tyrants of all parties that We know their mark and that We stand against tyranny in all of its forms.
ItS
Peace
r~
[QUOTE=Captain Amazing]
Crime is whatever the state prohibits…it’s whatever the state defines as crime.
[/QUOTE]
Liberty is the peaceful and well regulated pursuit of happiness.
Crime is the denial of liberty.
No matter Words or Law or precedence to the contrary.
Laws that prohibit liberty are themselves criminal.
I am
ItS
r~
[QUOTE=rwjefferson]
I did not misunderstand the clip. I have already stated that Mike’s way of taxing vices is wrongheaded and will only increase crime. Under Huckabee, every time a prostitute goes to by anything, she will buy it on the black market and funnel even more money into criminal organizations.
Yet regulating and taxing vices would indeed help both the economy and the fight against tyranny and terrorism.
ItS
Peace through Liberty
r~
[/QUOTE]
You’re being ridiculous. Are you really suggesting that “criminals” are going to buy milk on the black market? Pregnancy Tests? Items that find themselves on the “black market” will have already been taxed under the FairTax plan, anyways. It’s not going to funnel more money to criminals. Unless of course you’re asserting that the government are criminals, but that’s a different thread. Under the current system, the vices that you despise, are going untaxed, as criminals find loopholes in the system, or just evade altogether. One wonders how anyone ever thought the IRS was a good idea in the first place.
[QUOTE=rwjefferson]
Liberty is the peaceful and well regulated pursuit of happiness.
Crime is the denial of liberty.
No matter Words or Law or precedence to the contrary.
Laws that prohibit liberty are themselves criminal.
[/QUOTE]
Why? What makes your ideosyncratic definitions right and all the “Words or Law or precedence to the contrary”? And all laws prohibit liberty and impose values to some extent. Even saying that “the peaceful and well regulated pursuit of happiness” is a virtue is a value statement.
[QUOTE=Captain Amazing]
Why? What makes your ideosyncratic definitions right and all the “Words or Law or precedence to the contrary”? And all laws prohibit liberty and impose values to some extent. Even saying that “the peaceful and well regulated pursuit of happiness” is a virtue is a value statement.
[/QUOTE]
Prohibition is not the same as regulation. Of course we have to regulate our pursuits because our rights are equal, they do not supersede, the rights of others.
Just laws protect liberty and equality.
It is the corrupt definitions of tyrants that are idiosyncratic. “Crime is whatever we say is crime” is corrupt and idiosyncratic. “Crime is the denial of peaceful and well regulated pursuit of happiness” holds both for individuals and governments.
We hold this truth to be self-evident.
All are endowed with equal right of liberty.
Tyrants do not.
Its
Peace only through liberty
r~
Tax vices?
Sounds like an intriquing idea.
Let’s start with a particularly heavy tax on Vice President Cheney.
[QUOTE=rwjefferson]
I am suggesting exactly that government has no business legislating a certain view of ‘morality’.
[/QUOTE]
Is that not part of your own moral worldview?
[QUOTE=JThunder]
Is that not part of your own moral worldview?
[/QUOTE]
You may call it whatever your want.
Yet I find it to be self evident that the denial of peace is strife.
My own moral worldview is that I serve In the Spirit of peace. Yet as I am able, I will stand against those deny peace in this world.
I am
ItS
r~
[QUOTE=kaylasdad99]
Let’s start with a particularly heavy tax on Vice President Cheney.
[/QUOTE]
There is no tax that will ever come close to pay for his terrible vice of judging sins as crimes.
ItS
Peace
r~