Comments by "" (@TheHuxleyAgnostic) on "VICE News" channel.

6:00 Yang is full of shit. He is either clueless or lying as to how a VAT actually works. A VAT is specifically designed to NOT tax businesses, in order to avoid double taxation. Since corporations won't pay into the dividend, they will only get the benefits of the dividend being spent. Amazon's share of US consumer spending is 2.3%. If even 2% of $3t is spent on Amazon, Amazon will make an extra $60b a year. That would, in turn, make Bezos billions a year more than he'd ever personally pay into the dividend. The same goes for Musk, and every other slimeball billionaire who gets paid in stocks and options to avoid paying back into the society that helped make them rich. Yang's VAT/UBI scheme would have money flowing to a handful of giant corporations, and their shareholders, even faster than it is now. https://ec.europa.eu/taxation_customs/business/vat/what-is-vat_en
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Yang makes it clear not all Asians are good at math. Table 1: If the final consumer pays $49 in VAT (GST) and the government receives $49 in VAT, then how much did each of the businesses end up paying? 49 (to government) - 49 (from consumer) = ? (businesses) http://publications.gc.ca/Collection-R/LoPBdP/BP/prb0003-e.htm#A.%20Taxing%20Mechanism(txt)
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@passyourielts A) If some company did decide to eat some of their profit, that would be purely voluntary, and still makes it pure bullshit when Yang claims a VAT makes it "impossible" for corporations to avoid paying taxes. All they have to do is not do that, and follow the design. B) These giant tech corporations are already operating in countries with a VAT, and they aren't eating jack shit. When the EU has made VAT adjustments, they have passed along the full change in VAT. C) The VAT pass through studies that say there's only a 50% pass through are ones looking at the whole economy ... including partially rated, zero rated, exempt, etc. Even Yang's own link to a pass through study states that when looking at just standard rated goods and services, they found a 100% pass through, which matches other studies. Most companies even "prepared" for VAT increases, uping their prices months ahead of time and simply pocketing the extra until the VAT increase kicked in.
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