the US should change its tax system

My opponent is correct in that the tax system does in fact bring the government revenue, which it then goes and spends on various programs. the point he is trying to bring in is "if it ain't broke, don't fix it". or It does what its supposed to, so we shouldn't mess with it. this line of thinking is somewhat flawed. Yes the tax system does what its supposed to, but it doesn't meet the needs of today's economy. think of the tax system as an incandescent lightbulb, its been around for a while, and does its job. but times change, electricity costs go up, and the incandescent is just too inefficient for modern needs. so the fluorescent bulb is then brought in to common usage. and guess what, its far more energy efficient then the incandescent bulb, so it last longer and costs less money in the long term. my opponent would have us stay with the outdated incandescent, but i would have us change to the florescent, which is more suitable to modern needs. my opponents third point is that a flat tax wouldn't work. this point is untopical, i am not advocating a flat tax, i am mearly advocating a simpler income tax process. the instructions for filing a personal income tax is 155 pages long ( http://www.irs.gov... ). most people have neither the time nor the specialized knowledge needed to file their own tax returns, so they turn to accountants. and even those professionals make mistakes 96% of the time, what hope would the average Joe have. my opponent (in attack of my first point) says that there is no impact to this, no accountant is "mandated" to prepare your returns for you. he compares this situation to that of the healthcare system, but that analogy is flawed. most people will never have the understanding of medicine needed to be their own doctor. however, the income tax code should be simple enough to be done by each person. filing your taxes should be as simple as balancing your checkbook. my opponent claims that without a complicated tax system which requires accounts the economy would collapse. (as per my opponents request for my 96% error stat, i got it out of a news magazine, i think Time but I'm not sure. unfortunately im not at home, and wont be until thursday, so i cant give a specific cite right now) it is important to clarify here that i am only advocating the simplification of personal income taxes, business' transactions are both more complex and numerous then personal ones and therefore would naturally require a professional to handle the books and prepare tax returns for the company. it seems like a vast exaggeration to say that having people do their personal tax returns themselves would collapse the economy, even if the entire accounting sector (public accounting companies) fell it still seems a bit of a stretch. my opponents attack of my second point is centered around "we have been in recessions with this exact tax system and have survived them". i reference you back to my lightbulb analogy, sure an incandescent will get you through the storm, but a fluorescent will do it better. as i said in my first post, in a recession government income goes down and expenditures go up. i also showed how the resulting deficit has a negative effect on the economy. a more sensible tax system can help to ease this burden. by eliminating some deductions on those who make more then 150000 a year, and raising taxes on those who make over 500000 a year, the government can help close the budget deficit, and thereby lessen the blow on the economy. my opponent also says that changing the system would result in lost jobs (in the accounting sector), which would worsen the recession. this argument, which i rebutted above, is ridiculous, and i ask that the judges discount it. my opponent also said "It would cheaper to buy stuff from over seas" it already is, most of the products sold in the US are made somewhere else (the electronics in Japan, clothing in Taiwan or South Korea, toys in China). its been a long time since we made the things we buy here. our economy is no longer centered on manufacturing, it is now based on service. the biggest company in the world is Wallmart, its based in the US, but most of its products are made overseas. our economy is no longer based on producers like standard oil, but on sellers like Wallmart. the tariff system should reflect that. by lessening the tariffs we can avoid more towns succumbing to the fate of Millonocket. the current tax system;s implementation is outdated, it must be changed to reflect the new economic tide, which is why i urge you to affirm the resolution: the US should change its tax system. P.S. I'm on spring break with my family right now (were going to Boston) and i doubt ill be able to get online until late Wednesday, so i ask my opponent to wait as long as possible to post his next round, so i can have a chance to respond. thanks