Reforming the Tax Cpde

Fixing the tax code is an excellent example - a micro of the macro, of the kind of thinking and methodology described in the latest series of posts. According to Bruce Bartlett in, The Benefit and the Burden: Tax Reform-Why We Need It and What It Will Take, as discussed in the December AARP Bulletin, the US tax code is incomprehensible to the vast majority of Americans including the accounts and other experts responsible for it. The key problem, Bartlett says, is conceptual and has to do with what constitutes the tax base. This is not a problem that can be fixed by redesigning tax forms or providing clearer instructions.

 

For 100 years, taxation has been based on income and today, income is just to slippery a concept to form the basis of taxation. It is too mobile, too hard to locate geographically, too easily redefined into different forms or masked in various financial structures. The two tax bases that are best suited to the current economic environment are consumption and real property.

 

Moving from an income tax system to one based on consumption and property will be painful, complicated, difficult, politically contentious, time consuming, and will probably take decades. But if we want ‘fairness’—everybody including corporations paying their fair share, and if we want to close all the loopholes and capture most of the revenue available, then some form of a tax system to one based on consumption and property will be necessary.

A Vision for the New Year and Beyond, End/Beginning

The centralization would focus on guaranteeing the essentials of life, the decentralization to recognize and reward different degrees of individual talent and initiative. The Nation, with input from all stakeholders, would guarantee the essentials of life. Local communities, with input from all stakeholders, would determine how to recognize and reward different degrees of individual talent and initiative. Again, the resources to do this would come from recognizing the hidden costs and interdependencies and shifting those existing resources to achieve more of what we want and less of what we don’t want, less waste, corruption, unfairness and inequality to a sustainable world that works compassionately to bring out the full potential and best for everyone and everything in it.

We’d be saying, “as a citizen, irrespective of race, sex, religion, blah, blah, blah (as we’re supposed to be now and are not), you are guaranteed X. As a resident of this community, here’s how you can use your initiative and talent to have more than the minimum guarantee. It might be working with kids or senior citizens, mowing lawns, analyzing budgets, being a fire fighter or police officer.”

 

Of course there are holes you could drive a Mack truck thru in this vision. It’s inconsistent and not ready for prime time. But there is much of relevance, much food for thought, much that can be used to create a better, more effective and efficient vision and a sustainable world that works compassionately to bring out the full potential and best for everyone and everything in it.

 

A Vision for the New Year and Beyond, Part 5

Factoring in the hidden costs and considering the interdependence of our so-called ‘systems’ would enable us to more accurately see where the resources are going and what we’re getting for them (follow the money). Then we could shift resources around to get more of what we want and less of what we don’t want. Doing this analysis and subsequent shifting will unbalance current power alignments and will be resisted by these alignments. We need to persist anyway and expect this resistance.

 

So, instead of thinking in terms of an employment contract between a worker and an employer, looking at the ‘hidden’ costs and interrelationships inherent in such a concept we might perhaps realize that the most effective and efficient thing to do for all concerned—employee, government, capital, etc., would be to simply guarantee every person health care, education, and the essentials of life, then find a way to recognize and reward different degrees of individual talent and initiative.

 

How we go from where we are to this radical new view, allowing that one can even understand and accept the new view, is the challenge. In addition to committing to the idea that a sustainable world that works compassionately to bring out the full potential and best for everyone and everything in it, a mix of centralization and decentralization, private and public (a distinction without much meaning) would be needed, as well as a commitment to a benign world view based on cooperation, not competition, on both community and individuals, both spirit and science, values other that the dog-eat-dog, exploitative, original sin view of life that have created, sustained and maintained much of traditional western, christian, capitalist civilization.

A Vision for the New Year and Beyond, Part 4

So here are some thoughts on a new gestalt, a re-shuffling and re-arrangement of the relationships within and between our so-called ‘systems’ of politics, society and economics that are more consistent with the best ideals of humanity.

 

First, let’s look at the ‘hidden’ back end costs of how we’re doing things now. For example, the costs of air pollution in asthma, medical care, illness, stress, days lost from school and work, inability to learn and earn, crime, violence, abuse because children and adults couldn’t learn and earn, etc. Let’s factor these costs into our energy policy. With these costs factored in, what’s the real cost of burning polluting fuels? Such ‘hidden’ costs, costs that somehow must be paid either in higher prices, fees, insurance bills or taxes, abound in all our so-called ‘systems.’

 

Take universal health care. There’s an upfront cost associated with that, but one of the hidden costs of doing things as we are is that businesses—large and small, must pay for it and that makes our business less competitive with the businesses in countries that have universal health care. So looking at the ‘hidden’ back end costs and factoring them into our planning and budgeting will make a huge contribution to a sustainable world that works compassionately to bring out the full potential and best for everyone and everything in it. This will be difficult to do, but not beyond the range of our super computers.

 

Next, as mentioned earlier, consider the interrelationship, interdependence and interconnections within and between our so-called ‘systems’ primarily the political, social and economic. Stop viewing these in isolation each with its own set of rules, principles and outcomes, but as a whole, valuing them only if they contribute to a sustainable world that works compassionately to bring out the full potential and best for everyone and everything in it and tweaking and changing them if they don’t.

A Vision for the New Year and Beyond, Part 3

Dealing with these systems in isolation, ignoring the interrelationships and interdependence is bull shit! It’s a big part of the problem and its solution. We just can’t afford to keep doing that. The lack of parenting skills (you need a license to drive, but not to be a parent or own a gun), violence, child and spousal abuse, being macho, drinking, eating junk food and soda (cause they’re cheaper), stress at work, no work, guilt about being on ‘welfare,’ the disappearance of the so-called ‘safety net’, the cost of insurance—car, home & medical, the disappearance of retirement benefits or even the option to retire, too much leisure time or not enough leisure time, more crime, more prisons, more money for prisons, prison corporations and their lobbyists in legislatures, boring classrooms, too much emphasis on testing, the disappearance of parks, libraries and community spaces, lack of preventative medical care, polluted air and water, global climate change, all of these things are interrelated and interconnected and we pay for them (especially their lack of performance – it’s like paying twice—once to get them to perform and the second time when their lack of performance impacts some other ‘system’), don’t kid yourself, one way or another they cost and we pay, front end, back end, on line or offline, they cost and we pay.

 

But in spite of all this, we can have more of what we want and less of what we don’t want; we can get there from here, but only if we think differently about how things are and take responsibility for making them as we want them to be. If we always do what we always did, we’ll always get what we always got. We have the technology, the technology that is rapidly disrupting our traditional views of politics, society and economics. We can use this technology to have more of what we want and less of what we don’t want. It’s up to us to choose. We can see the disruption of traditional relationships as a breakdown or failure, or we can choose to see the disruption as an opportunity for reform and the birth of new sets of relationships more consistent with our ideals. Now is the time! Now is all there is. Try breathing for five minutes into the future. If not now, when?

A Vision for the New Year and Beyond, Part 2

No more ‘trickle down,’ no more ‘survival of the fittest,’ no more ‘winner take all,’ no more ‘good guys and bad guys’—only guys and gals doing their best, making mistakes and learning to do better, no more, ‘silent majority’ or ‘99% and 1%’, no more heaven and hell, sinners and saints, and no more religious and other justifications for discriminating against human beings, no more ‘white trash’ or even the idea that human beings are disposable and can even be trash, no more ‘if you want to make and omelet you’ve got to break some eggs—none of that, only win/win, cooperation, compassion, inclusiveness and community, honest and sincere gratitude, fearlessness and equal opportunity.

 

Do we really need the so-called ‘criminal justice system’ to work the way it does, so many lawyers, so many people in jail, so much punishment and so little rehabilitation, so much inequality, rich guys and big corporations getting away with god knows what and you and me going to jail for wising off to a cop?

 

And the ‘educational system,’ how’s that working for you? Happy with the quality of our schools and colleges? Think we’re getting value for the dollar, especially in college? Does the best medical system in the world (not) really need to be so expensive? Must we really have the biggest, best most expensive military in the world? If we’re so great and strong militarily, how come we’re still fucking around in Afghanistan and worrying about Iran?

 

Seems like we’re not getting much value for what we’re paying. The list of so-called ‘systems’ that aren’t systems and aren’t working is the same as the list of ‘systems’ we rely on. We’ve patched them, bandaged them, and covered gaping wounds with band aids. All of these ‘systems’ are barely functioning and are being held together with bubble gum and duct tape. It’s only a matter of time….

 

A Vision for the New Year and Beyond, Part 1

A vision for the new year and beyond.

 

A vision, a sense of the possible, a sense of hopes, dreams and values realized, a set of intentions, a desired future, and a vision of the strategy to achieve the vision. It is not a fully operationalized, totally practical step-by-step, do this then that view. It is a vision, a dream a set of desired outcomes and strategies.

 

The vision/outcome is a world that works for everyone and everything—a sustainable world that works compassionately to bring out the full potential and best for everyone and everything.  At its heart, this vision is based on a benign world view, one based on cooperation, not competition, on both community and individuals, both spirit and science. This vision is based on values other than the dog-eat-dog, exploitative, original sin view of life that have created, sustained and maintained much of traditional western, capitalist, christian civilization.

 

How can we re-arrange our current political, social and economic relationships so that they contribute to a sustainable world that works compassionately to bring out the full potential and best for everyone and everything in it? How can we look at our current political, social and economic relationships, not in isolation--each with its own set of rules, principles and outcomes, but as a whole, valuing them only if they contribute to a sustainable world that works compassionately to bring out the full potential and best for everyone and everything in it and tweaking them and changing them if they don’t.