Skip to main content

Beyond Good and Evil

Death, taxes and the Kardashians are three inescapable realities of this mortal coil. To deal with the first (Death) we turn to God. To deal with the second (taxes) we turn to politics. To deal with the third (Kardashians) we turn to the KOTCB blog. When it comes to taxes a little history is in order and in my view For Good and Evil: The Impact of Taxes on the Course of Civilization by Charles Adams is required reading. Too lazy to read the book then here's the short form published in the NYTimes in 1992 (23 years ago!!!) which says in part:
If taxation sustains civilized society, it also represents a potential danger to civilization, Mr. Adams believes. "When we tax," Mr. Adams says, "we are dealing with fire, and without proper controls and care, we can easily burn down everything we have built."
Income creates jobs, he argues. When the state takes away income from an enterprising man or woman, it takes away his or her capacity to generate employment and wealth for society.
The lessons he derives from history are more than economic. The ancient Greeks, who developed the concept of liberty, discovered that excessive taxation bred despots.
Unfortunately, Mr. Adams says, when the need for revenues collides with ideals of freedom, ideals give way. During the reigns of certain pharaohs and late Roman emperors, tax collectors became virtual slave masters. He's worried the situation may recur in the United States today.
"I believe we've lost something when we tolerate the degree of public intrusion that we do," he says. "Our tax system is now a spy system." The problem, he argues, is that American taxes have lost their sense of fairness. "When you feel the system is a rip-off on you and a loophole for somebody else, then it loses its moral persuasion, and the Government has to fall back on heavy criminal penalties."
Revenue-Neutral
Did Presidents Clampett, W or 0 correct what was an evident problem by the end of the GHWB Presidency? No. If anything the situation has grown worse and the dreamy solutions proposed by "reformers" from both Left and Right have done nothing to alleviate the general feeling among Americans that "the system is a rip-off." The IRS just keeps taking money from We the People and buying God knows what in an effort to keep dollars circulating in the economy - a necessary extortion to be sure, but one with well hidden benefits. Though watchdogs bark the hounds are safely fenced in the back yard while the burglar picks the lock on the front door, jimmies windows, tunnels into the cellar and, dressed as Santa, shimmies down the chimney to take what's his. Oh, you thought it was yours? You heartless, selfish, unpatriotic fool - get with the program.

Enter Donald Trump who has released a tax plan and explains its purpose in yesterdays WSJ. Say what you will about the pros and cons, but this is a tax reform that could actually pass the Congress and get signed into law. It's not one of those meaningless wish list tax plans that's "so obvious" that everyone but the most evil Republicans/Democrats (take your pick) should support it. It's real and it's substantive and it's achievable. As with any tax plan critics pipe up from far and wide - maybe more so because it's Trump's plan - addressing them all is a heartless, selfish, unpatriotic fool's errand, but one criticism must be smoked on the KOTCB blog - it's the one that claims that Trumps plan is just a gold plated version of the JEB! tax plan. That might be true (though since it appeared in Slate it probably isn't) but one things for sure, Trump would have a better answer than JEB! when asked about tax "fairness".


"That's just the way it is" is NOT the answer Americans are looking for no matter what the question is - especially not a question about taxes. You just know that Trump would have swatted this one into the bleachers, leisurely jogged around all three bases and doffed his cap (Make America Great Again) when touching home plate. Now that The Donald has called off his Fox News boycott perhaps he'll teach Chris Wallace how the game is played.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

The Real Story with Gretchen Carlson

She was "sexy", but "too much hard work." I'm a regular Fox & Friends viewer (mostly in protest of the other insipid morning programs like Today and Good Morning America) so over the years I've gotten to know Gretchen Carlson pretty well. Stuck between Steve and Brian she always seemed a prudish scold with an irritating, self-righteous demeanor that I simply put up with because I figured some people in the Fox audience actually liked her persona. It was obvious that Steve and Brian did not, but they were stuck with her like so many talking heads and had to make the best of it - which they did. Besides, she was no worse than any of the other women on morning show TV - I mean, you're only going to find a certain kind of person to do this kind of work and that kind of person is the Gretchen Carlson kind. Then, one day, she was gone and replaced by Elisabeth Hasselbeck and the F&F ratings began to climb, and climb and climb - in two months view

Psycho Killer, qu'est-ce?

I came into this wicked world in the early 1960's and as a result I have born witness to America's 50 Years of Failure which includes the modern age of mass shootings by psychotic men who "go off" on a given day, for no reason at all (except "guns"), and kill scads of innocent bystanders. Back in August of 2019 a KOTCB blog post titled " Reciprocity City " explored a young  gunman  named Patrick Crusius  who drove 9 hours through the west Texas flatlands to shoot up El Paso, TX The KOTCB has commented on many of these shootings, bombings and knifings over the years -  The roots of the Boston Marathon Bombing ,  the Emanuel AME Church shooting ,  Syed Rizvan Farook and his bride Tashfeen Malik ,  Ft. Lauderdale Airport shooting ,  Nick Cruz lovesick Parkland shooting ,  the Iranian, PETA activist, Vegan Bodybuilder, YouTuber's attack on Google  and now this very oddly timed and placed "lone wolf" attack on Walmart shoppers. This list

Who voted for this guy?

Who voted for this guy? It's been ten days since the results of the Maricopa County, Arizona ballot audit were released to the public and presented at a hearing held by the state senate. This exercise in democratic accountability had been going on for months and, if reports are to be believed, was completed well over a  month before the September 24th hearing where   overwhelming proof of an illegitimate election was presented to lawmakers . The audit showed multiple irregularities, fake ballots, duplicate counts, errors, omissions and egregious acts of sabotage and obstinance by the Maricopa County board of supervisors who did everything they could to withhold and destroy evidence of wrongdoing from the citizen sleuths. The misfeasance of Arizona's political leaders was clearly defined, shocking and (for some) beyond belief but somehow these facts were discovered, organized, packaged and suppressed for MONTHS by the Cyber Ninjas who were attempting to "get to the bottom&q