th their rapid transfers of capital across borders, has made it more difficult for any country to impose substantial taxes on capital income requires convergence between the tax systems of the developed countries. U.S. trading partners rely upon consumption taxes, while the U.S. utilizes an income tax. The OECD countries collect about 30% of their tax revenues from consumption taxes, but the U.S. collects only 17% of all federal, state, and local revenues from consumption taxes, with the federal government's share being extremely small.
Fourth, rates of savings and investment in the U.S. are low compared to those of our international competitors. The net rate of national savings as a percentage of Gross Domestic Product in the U.S. is currently below the savings rates of virtually all OECD nations, and the U.S. average of 3.6% net savings rate in the decade of the 1980s compares poorly with the 10.2% rate of West Germany and the 17.8% rate of Japan during the same period. The U.S. investment rate has also long been lower than that of
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