[ralphrepo]

Because of the huge nursing shortage, should nursing be made a federally tax free profession, as a way of encouraging more people to join it's thinning ranks?

Yes or no?

Thanks for all responses.

Ralph

[teeituptom]

No Never

Paying taxes is your responsibility and privilege. Enjoy it.

[Roy Fokker]

Income taxation = theft of property.

liberatarianly yours,
Roy

[indigo girl]

Originally Posted by Roy Fokker

Income taxation = theft of property.

liberatarianly yours,
Roy

I SO AGREE and for the same reason!!!!

[GooeyRN]

No, not b/c there is a shortage. I don't like paying taxes, period. Not b/c I'm stingy, I would prefer to have a say where my money goes. (And who argree's 100% w/ any politician?)

[sunnyjohn]

Let me tell you about my recurring dream- A postcard size tax form that takes 10 minutes to fill out, put a stamp on and walk to the mailbox. A simple tax code with no loopholes that doesn't require me to fork over 33%+ (I'm being generous) to an Uncle Sam, I never meet and doesn't seem to like me!

We have too many tax loopholes as it is and the dudes/dudettes in DC and state office are spending money like drunken sailors!

[fergus51]

I don't like paying taxes either, but I recognize that it is my responsibility as a resident of this country. So, no there shouldn't be any tax exempt professions as far as I'm concerned if they meet income requirements.

[elkpark]

(Mildly) interesting question/proposition, but the shortage doesn't exist because of a lack of people interested in going into nursing ... Nearly every nursing program has long waiting lists. (Further) incentives to attract people to the field won't do anything except create longer waiting lists.

BTW, I'm with teeituptom on the basic "taxes" question -- IMO, it is our responsibility as citizens of a (supposedly ) civilized nation, and I'm happy and proud to contribute my fair share. (Which doesn't mean I agree with everything in the current tax code, but I'm talking about the basic principle here ...)

[llg]

No.

(1) Taxation is necessary for the provision of necessary services (e.g. fire & police protection, public roads, public schools, etc.) If nobody paid taxes, those things wouldn't exist. We all have an obligation to pay our fair share. I don't enjoy paying my taxes, but recognize that no one has found an alternative way to provide the services we need.

(2) Where would it stop? Would we try to remedy every workforce distribution issue with tax exemptions? Police? Fire? Teachers? Pharmacists? Physical Therapists? All of these people are in short-supply in my town. Would they ALL get the exemption?

(3) Rebellion would break out as some people would get exempt and others wouldn't. It would get ugly.

(4). How long would the exemption last? Would our society face a series of temporary exemptions as first one career and then another faced a shortage. That would cause economic instability.

(5) What would happen once the shortage was resolved and the tax exemption eliminated? More economic chaos.

(6) Who would decide which professions merited a tax exemption today? That's a whole other can of worms that could cause turmoil within our society.

All in all ... it's one of the worst ideas for solving the nursing shortage I have heard in a long time.

Just my $0.015 -- That's my $.02 after taxes.

llg

[Roy Fokker]

Originally Posted by llg

No.

(1) Taxation is necessary for the provision of necessary services (e.g. fire & police protection, public roads, public schools, etc.) If nobody paid taxes, those things wouldn't exist. We all have an obligation to pay our fair share. I don't enjoy paying my taxes, but recognize that no one has found an alternative way to provide the services we need.

That's not true:

The first federal income tax was imposed by Congress in 1862, to finance the Union's waging of the Civil War. The Civil War income tax was repealed in 1872, but a new income tax was enacted in the late 1800s.


However, the Supreme Court struck down the income tax in 1895.


Untill 1913 and the ratification of the 16th Amendment, there was no income tax.

Are you saying we didn't have roads, firemen, police etc. untill the ratification of the 16th Amendment?


If I stick a gun to your face and take half the money in your wallet, use that money to feed myself or take my kid to the doctor, is it right? Or how about I donate it to charity? I'm using the money for a good purpose.

Ofcourse it's an entierly different argument of why should the government have to provide for schools and hospitals etc.

Eliminating income tax for nurses just might make more people take up the profession - as it'll certaily make the profession very attractive. But I don't think the problem of the current nursing shortage is that anyways. Besides, we need to overcome the bottleneck of too few nurse educators and insitutions with limited capacities.

Besides - everyone can't become a nurse.