So it's regressive? Even better..

Direct from yangs site (https://www.yang2020.com/policies/value-added-tax/)

> This VAT would vary based on the good to which it's applied, with staples having a lower rate or being excluded, and luxury goods having a higher rate.

That's the beauty of a VAT. It can be tuned to reach the desired result.

> That's the beauty of a VAT. It can be tuned to reach the desired result.

But who will do the tuning? My guess, as a former corporate tax lawyer, is that it would be done by industry lobbyists, seeking preferential treatment for their clients' products.

Yea that's the problem with tuning these things, same with tarrifs, just leads to companies having a rational reason to spend money on lobbyists. IMO the VAT would be much simpler as a flat tax than trying to tune it, but it's not as popular with people who then complain when the price of goods go up (despite the fact that you'd have to be spending something like $120k a year in order to offset the losses of a 10% VAT with 100% pass-through (in Europe it's only 50%) with a $12k/year UBI)

This sounds like more of a criticism against our representative democracy than it does against UBI or a VAT.

Well, duh. How else do communists exert control and power?