Kill the Code - And Save the World
Apparently the national Libertarian Party is in extremis financially.
This is unfortunate.
I hope they pull through.
I have been thinking that their problem is the lack of connection between what they (the Libertarian Party) offer at the national level, and solution to life's most pressing problems.
In other words: What is the path to freedom? To some extent that is un-knowable.
We don't know what solutions unshackled people will come up with.
But there has to be a catalyst.
What starts the process toward freedom? I cannot accept that we just pull the plug on 70 years of legacy structure, and let the chips fall where they may, as some have suggested.
In my opinion, we're never going to be able to turn off programs like Social Security and Medicare until people no longer need them.
But that will take time.
Many years in fact.
And until then...
what? Hence my proposal, which I call Kill the Code...
and Save the World.
The most hated, most pernicious of all Leviathan's horrors is the IRS and its three-plus million words of rules and regulations.
How does that gum up the wheels of progress? In ways we cannot ever imagine! And most people agree that continuing to pump carbon into the atmosphere is eventually going to cause problems - maybe big problems.
I wish I had a dollar for every time I heard my old political mentor Jack Kemp say, "If you tax something, you'll get less of it, and if you subsidize something, you'll get more of it.
" Think of all the things we tax in this country.
Good things.
Things like income, capital Gains, profits, and payroll.
My idea is simple and hopefully revolutionary.
It is to completely scrap the Internal Revenue Code.
(Perhaps a popular idea as we enter tax season.
At least to everybody except accountants and lawyers.
) When it's that long and that complicated, you know the game is rigged against you, and in favor of the fast operators with their Washington lobbyists.
I propose chucking it all and replacing it with a single tax on the one thing that practically everybody agrees is a problem: Carbon.
My proposal is: Immediately enact a carbon tax of $1000 per ton of coal, $10 per gallon of gasoline or diesel fuel, and $25 per thousand cubic feet of natural gas.
However...
this cannot be done Unless the Internal Revenue Code is fully scrapped.
This is not a tax "in addition to"; it is a tax "to replace".
It replaces the personal income tax, the corporate income tax, the payroll tax, the capital gains tax, the estate tax, the alternative minimum tax and all the rest.
No more 1040s.
No more 1120s.
No more Schedule C's.
You make it, you keep it.
No other taxes will be levied.
Move fast, do it now, don't phase it in.
Take the pain and move on.
Think of how much innovation there will be.
People will be scrambling to figure out how to save on their fossil fuel emissions.
Some winners: city dwellers, people in small self sufficient towns, people with fuel efficient autos.
Losers: owners of McMansions in the sterile exurbs, SUV and big truck owners.
Cities would be revitalized.
People would want to live close to work.
Or would even telecommute.
Mass transit would be rejuvenated.
R&D on green technology would get the biggest shot in the arm in history.
Over time, people would use less.
Tax revenues would fall.
Coincident with that gradual decline would be the wind-down of Social Security and Medicare.
Then in 50 years...
maybe America's second name will be Galt's Gulch.
This is unfortunate.
I hope they pull through.
I have been thinking that their problem is the lack of connection between what they (the Libertarian Party) offer at the national level, and solution to life's most pressing problems.
In other words: What is the path to freedom? To some extent that is un-knowable.
We don't know what solutions unshackled people will come up with.
But there has to be a catalyst.
What starts the process toward freedom? I cannot accept that we just pull the plug on 70 years of legacy structure, and let the chips fall where they may, as some have suggested.
In my opinion, we're never going to be able to turn off programs like Social Security and Medicare until people no longer need them.
But that will take time.
Many years in fact.
And until then...
what? Hence my proposal, which I call Kill the Code...
and Save the World.
The most hated, most pernicious of all Leviathan's horrors is the IRS and its three-plus million words of rules and regulations.
How does that gum up the wheels of progress? In ways we cannot ever imagine! And most people agree that continuing to pump carbon into the atmosphere is eventually going to cause problems - maybe big problems.
I wish I had a dollar for every time I heard my old political mentor Jack Kemp say, "If you tax something, you'll get less of it, and if you subsidize something, you'll get more of it.
" Think of all the things we tax in this country.
Good things.
Things like income, capital Gains, profits, and payroll.
My idea is simple and hopefully revolutionary.
It is to completely scrap the Internal Revenue Code.
(Perhaps a popular idea as we enter tax season.
At least to everybody except accountants and lawyers.
) When it's that long and that complicated, you know the game is rigged against you, and in favor of the fast operators with their Washington lobbyists.
I propose chucking it all and replacing it with a single tax on the one thing that practically everybody agrees is a problem: Carbon.
My proposal is: Immediately enact a carbon tax of $1000 per ton of coal, $10 per gallon of gasoline or diesel fuel, and $25 per thousand cubic feet of natural gas.
However...
this cannot be done Unless the Internal Revenue Code is fully scrapped.
This is not a tax "in addition to"; it is a tax "to replace".
It replaces the personal income tax, the corporate income tax, the payroll tax, the capital gains tax, the estate tax, the alternative minimum tax and all the rest.
No more 1040s.
No more 1120s.
No more Schedule C's.
You make it, you keep it.
No other taxes will be levied.
Move fast, do it now, don't phase it in.
Take the pain and move on.
Think of how much innovation there will be.
People will be scrambling to figure out how to save on their fossil fuel emissions.
Some winners: city dwellers, people in small self sufficient towns, people with fuel efficient autos.
Losers: owners of McMansions in the sterile exurbs, SUV and big truck owners.
Cities would be revitalized.
People would want to live close to work.
Or would even telecommute.
Mass transit would be rejuvenated.
R&D on green technology would get the biggest shot in the arm in history.
Over time, people would use less.
Tax revenues would fall.
Coincident with that gradual decline would be the wind-down of Social Security and Medicare.
Then in 50 years...
maybe America's second name will be Galt's Gulch.
Source...