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BS ‘n’ About…
Incentive Taxation
This ought to be a no-brainer. If we want human beings to act in a certain way, give them financial incentive to do so. We are an illogical species. We will take two hours to drive across town, spending ten dollars worth of gas in the process, just to cash in a fifty-cent coupon. We emphasize what we saved, not what we spent. ‘We just saved fifty cents!’
Unfortunately, much of our current tax structure is geared toward taxing those things we do that are beneficial to society: working, spending, and saving. Homeless drug addicts don’t pay taxes. Hard working people who stimulate the economy do.
All too often the tax debate is a rich versus poor thing with the rich winning most of the battles. One percent of Americans are millionaires. Yet forty-four percent of congressmen are millionaires. Yep. Forty-four percent. Of course they’re going to have incredible pressure and incentive to side with the rich guys on this debate.
But it shouldn’t be about rich versus poor. It should be about what is best for America. We should all be willing to shoulder our fair share of the burden as long as we can come to some kind of an agreement as to what we want the future to be. …where we want the money to go.
The Fatcats in 21st century America are living high on the hog in a Gilded Age kind of way, feeding off the seed corn, the future be damned. What used to be a middle class is underemployed, disgruntled, politically impotent, and hating on their neighbor. We deserve the mess of a country we inhabit. Sad but true.
We don’t have the proper incentives to do the right thing. As a matter of fact, the opposite seems true. We all want to get rich quick by doing as little work as possible. We want to steroid our way into the record books, ponzi our way into the penthouses, and cyber-hike our way along the Appalachian Trail. We cheat at everything we do. We are a morally bankrupt people quick to cast judgment on our neighbors. We all want our ‘fifteen minutes of fame’ so we can Paris Hilton our way off into the sunset on the proceeds. We have spent the last two generations believing it was our job to ‘consume’ while the rest of the world ‘worked’.
That’s not how Rosie the Riveter saw things. Our forbearers, the so-called ‘Greatest Generation’ worked for the things they put in our lives. They turned us into the superpower we were only yesterday, only to see us fritter it away like some idiot heir to a Euro-trash aristocrat. Our greed, fear, and laziness have squandered everything they built before the last of them are even in their graves. We ought to be ashamed of ourselves.
But is it really our fault? The system teaches us that ‘winning isn’t the most important thing. It’s the only thing.’ …And that ‘He who dies with the most toys wins’. …And that billions in banker bonuses are necessary to hold onto the ‘best and brightest’ while teachers’ pensions are the root cause of America’s downfall.
Every time Wall Street melts down in its latest round of frenzied greed we slap a few billionaires on the wrist and lay off a couple hundred thousand teachers. Every year politicians lie their way into office yet that rare bird who dares tell us the truth can’t even find his way onto the ballot.
We cheat on our income taxes. We fudge our expense accounts. We steal office supplies. We are a nation of liars, cheats, and thieves. We have gone over to the Dark Side.
So, how do we go about changing this culture of selfishness, greed, and dishonesty which has run roughshod over the America bequeathed to us by the Greatest Generation? We need to start by changing our incentives, the rewards and penalties for our behavior. And what better way to do this than by scrapping our current tax code and starting over from scratch?
Let each of us begin the New Year owing no taxes, then let our actions during that year determine our individual tax burden. Let the tax code be a constantly evolving mechanism providing us with incentive to do those things that are in our, our neighbors, and our country’s best interests.
Call off work: Pay a tax. Volunteer: Get a credit. Become a banker: Pay a tax. Become a teacher: Get a credit. Drive a gas-guzzler: Pay a tax. Take the bus: Get a credit. Bike to work and get a bigger credit.
These days there is incentive for the poorest of us to have eight kids to keep the welfare checks rolling in. Shouldn’t the incentive be to have only those we can afford, then do what we can to raise them to have better lives than their parents?
These days there is incentive for the richest of us to find tax loopholes so that they pay as little tax as possible. Shouldn’t the incentive be to see to it that those who can afford to pay the most want to do so willingly because they believe in what will be done with them?
These days there is incentive to pursue the career that make you rich, rather than the one that will fulfill you or contribute to society and your fellow man. Shouldn’t the incentive be to fill those jobs society most needs filled with those most qualified to fill them?
These days there is incentive to lay-off Americans and outsource their jobs overseas. Shouldn’t the incentive be to keep those jobs here and then ‘Buy American!’
These days there is incentive to buy the cheapest goods possible from the carbon-pollutingest nations on earth. Shouldn’t the incentive be to ‘Buy Green!’.
The list goes on and on. Our courts shouldn’t be clogged with ridiculous, ambulance-chasing, get-rich-quick lawsuits. Our hospitals shouldn’t be clogged with vanity procedures and unnecessary tests. Our neighborhoods shouldn’t be filled with money-draining franchises with no ties to the community. Shouldn’t there be incentive to do away this greedy, selfish mentality that results in all this wasted time, effort, and money?
It all starts with the tax code. By rewriting it we could address virtually every ill afflicting modern society. We all file tax returns: Every individual and every business. Every item sold has a barcode. Virtually everything we do involves the exchange of money.
We could do so much and we could do it virtually overnight. We could address overpopulation, greed, obesity, climate change, energy consumption, healthcare, poverty, crime, worker benefits, absenteeism, career shortages, military recruitment, and the overall health of the nation in one fell swoop. We could rebuild our job base, regain control of Wall Street, and return Main Street to its rightful place at the center of American life.
Use your imagination and see where it takes you. Do you see lifetime tax breaks for military veterans? How about for taking care of grandma instead of putting her in a home? …Or the kids instead of putting them in daycare? Should billionaire investment bankers be getting hundred million dollar bonuses for crashing the economy while your kids’ teachers get coupons to the Outback Steakhouse for making their students excited about learning? Should movie stars be owning five mansions when the average working guy can barely afford to pay his mortgage?
We all need to want to be better people or we’re going to be spending the next few decades presiding over the fire sale of this once great nation of ours. Before we could even begin addressing the problems in a the ways outlined in the last few pages, the words “unfair” and “unpatriotic” would be reverberating along the canyons of Wall Street and from the ruby-throated Fox News shills they so handsomely pay. So let us acknowledge right up front that every system of taxation ever devised has been unfair. Deal with it. Then let’s move on.
Hopefully the ends will justify the means and we’ll end up a better and stronger people for it. If the internet is used correctly, perhaps we can all be heard and have some input into the restructuring. Perhaps, just perhaps, if we manage to distribute the burdens a bit more equitably and give each of us incentive to pull our share of the load, this great nation we know as America might just manage to move forward a few more decades or centuries before collapsing. Nothing lasts forever. Rome fell. The Soviet Union fell. Someday, so will we.
If we want that to happen later, rather than sooner, we need to do something and we need to do something big. It is going to hurt. We need to look deep down inside ourselves and ask whether America is worth saving. If the answer is yes, then we need to ask ourselves what we are willing to do. Us, not the other guy. Some of us are rich. Others are poor. Some of us label ourselves conservatives. Others: liberals. The one thing we all are is American. United we’ll survive. Divided we won’t.
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