>>hmmm..well in theory that doesn't sound like such a bad idea. However what would happen is there would be a pile of new complicated tax laws and by the time all was said and done these new laws would be laden with loopholes and whatever some lobbyists wanted in them and it would somehow, once again, end up being wildly complicated an unfair.
Shessh, there's already heaps of deductions... think healthcare, mortgage payments, on and on... I agree it's tricky because it could encourage inefficiency (why invest in plant or improve efficiency if you're paid to employ as many as possible) but how else can you create opportunities for the millions who cannot find work? Plus it's unlikely to cost as much in incentives as it does in welfare checks.
"... They ne'er cared for us
yet: suffer us to famish, and their store-houses
crammed with grain; make edicts for usury, to
support usurers; repeal daily any wholesome act
established against the rich, and provide more
piercing statutes daily, to chain up and restrain
the poor. If the wars eat us not up, they will; and
there's all the love they bear us."
-- Shakespeare: Coriolanus, Act 1, scene 1