Death & Taxes

Tonight, I paid a guy to come to the house and prepare my returns, and everything went as expected. I knew I was going to owe some money to both the fed and the state, so it wasn't a big deal, and I'm not particularly annoyed about having to write the check. Hey, I earned some money, and it takes money to run the government, so I'm OK with pitching in. What does bother me, however, is the amount of time and money that Americans are forced to waste in order to comply with our tax system, and the fact that our tax system is used not only as a means of collecting the money needed to pay for services and benefits, but as a tool with which politicians and bureaucrats try to engineer our society and economy. If taxes are part of our lives as citizens, then every citizen should pay, and no person should pay more than another, relatively speaking, simply because some politician or bureaucrat thinks they should. That's why I believe in a national sales tax, as a replacement to the present system, not in addition to the present system. The point of our existence as humans or citizens is NOT to pay taxes. Paying taxes is not a moral act, it is a contract between people and a government for services. That's it, and if you look at it otherwise, or accept that the government has as right to your money, you have resigned your society to tyranny in the end. If taxes are collected on EVERYTHING that is sold, with the exception of food, medicine, health insurance, and a few other life necessities, and we exempt no one, it will tie the income of the govt to the prosperity and confidence of the people, and it will take one more method of abuse of power from that govt., both being desirable results. If a person saves their money, they will accumulate wealth. If they spend it, they won't. Think of how much simpler life would be. If there were no income or corporate taxes, there would be no loopholes to benefit certain groups. The poor, who actually get more from govt. than they contribute, would pay their fair share, based on the prices of things they can afford, and the rich would contribute an equal percentage, although a greater amount, based on the expensive things they purchase. Accountants would only be needed by businesses to keep management honest to owners/shareholders, etc., and to pay the taxes they collected from sales. If everything a company bought was taxed, and there were no deductions, for the purpose of the tax system, life would be better for everybody. As things stand now, entrepreneurs, inventors, business owners, and all the people who create the wealth of nations spend far too much energy and thought about taxes. Imagine how much more vibrant our economy would be, if those people focused 100% of that economic energy on doing and making things. Consider, too, the unifying effect that such a system would have, by taking away class warfare from the politicians. The poor envy the rich, and the rich resent the poor, and why is that? Who does it serve? 'Not the rich, and not the poor. As I send-off the check to Washington, DC, I don't resent the poor person who doesn't pay any taxes, because he has no money, and I don't resent the rich person who doesn't pay any taxes, because he has a good accountant. Me, I resent the people in Washington, DC, who have divided, conquered and enslaved us all to their will, and to the tax system that it created, for it's own benefit, not ours.

WHAT PART OF "WE CAN'T AFFORD ALL THESE PLANS" DON'T DEMOCRATS UNDERSTAND?

Let me ask everyone something. If I told you, you don't have enough money to buy a new car, and that you can't even pay for the car you already drive, or afford to make your house payment, or pay your utility bills, what would make you think it's a good idea to go out and buy a new Rolls Royce? Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security, to name just some govt. programs, don't balance. We aren't paying for them. You know, they put Bernie Madoff in prison for running a Ponzi scheme? Now, before we fix any of those MONUMENTAL problems, the Democrats are trying to create a new one! Do you think that's smart? If we can't afford the ones we already have? How will that work? Money and numbers don't behave differently, just because the numbers of zeros we're talking about start multiplying, and if we'll go broke under our existing entitlement programs within a few years, adding another entitlement program will only hasten our demise. THAT is the truth. No matter what Obama or Pelosi say, politicians lie, numbers can't. The ONLY thing that they will accomplish, by creating a government run health insurance scheme is, to put millions of Americans into ANOTHER substandard health program, destroy a large portion of our economy, cost us millions of jobs, AND put a lot of money into the hands of their political supporters, just like they did with the Financial Bailout, and the Auto Bailout, and all these "Czars", and the resulting bureaucracies. Write your "representative", and ask them why they aren't volunteering to join such a system, in a short term test program, to see how it works, before they try and put the taxpayers into such a program, and bury the entire nation in more debt. Don't you test medicine, or products, before you commit to their manufacture and sale? Obama and the Democrats think you are stupid. Don't prove them correct. Let all of them know, that if they support these huge programs, you'll vote them out of THEIR job, starting next year. Spreading poverty to all Americans is NOT equality.

A LITTLE SECRET ABOUT CARBON

Here's a little secret, for everyone who's worried about the amount of carbon in the air. If you plant a tree, or grow algae, or water your grass, or start a garden, you are recycling carbon, every time the sun rises and sets. It can't be destroyed, just like you can't get energy from nothing, and just like we can't limit the amount of heat that the earth receives. "Sequestering" carbon in bullshit. If you put carbon in the ground, and it's compressed, it will release heat into the earth. The earth's surface receives trillions of BTUs worth of energy from the sun, every year, and that's a fact. Once it gets here, it's here. Some of it warms the surface, and some of it warms the water, and some of it is collected in plant life. As plants shed their leaves, or they die, that biomass decays, and it creates heat, and it releases methane and other hydrocarbon oils, etc., and some plant materials are eaten by animals, and that produces heat, and releases methane, and carbon is stored in their bodies until they die, and then it starts again. If we were smart, we would be smarter about water, and separate more of it from salt, and use plant life to re-capture more carbon, so we could use it for fuel, and we would stop allowing politicians and bureaucrats to use a fairy tale as an excuse to rob us of our money and our freedom.

OBAMANATION - CALIFORNIANIZING THE USA

How can Americans watch and listen, as California sinks into the Pacific under the weight of a liberal Democratic government, and then fail to understand that President Obama's policies will result in EXACTLY the same future for the entire country? California got where is has because we have more government than we can afford, PERIOD. That's it! Every time a new agency or new program is created, it has built-in increases in budget, regardless of what the real - private - economy is doing. If govt. budgets grow at 5% per year, but the economy only grows at 2%, what do you think will happen to the State Budget? Yep, in 20 years, the budget (price) grows 100%, but the revenues (income) grows only 20%. So, the government borrows the difference, and it keeps doing this until it can't make the payroll and interest payments anymore, and then we arrive at 2009. GET IT? Wanna know what Obama is proposing? Oh, yeah, that health care thing, and that "Stimulus" thing, and all the nationalization of industries thing. But let me toss this in for you to consider. You know, that "Cap & Trade" thing? Well, it's going to bring in a LOT of tax money, so the government can borrow more money against your future earnings, but there's a fly in the ointment. It's going to make doing business in the US more expensive, and therefore make American products more expensive, so people will buy fewer of them. That'll make American makers of those goods lose business, and either lay-off workers, or go out of business, or move production overseas. So, for a short period of time, those businesses will pay taxes to support Obama's new big government, and you'll pay higher prices for almost everything you buy and use, but as American businesses contract, or leave, guess what's going to happen. The government's appetite for money will still go up at 5+% per year, while the business based revenues will go down, so the government will have to look to someone else as a source of their income. GUESS WHO THAT WILL BE! Don't think so? Take another peek at California, and think again.

Americans, a non-fixed asset.

Think of the opportunity that the Obama Years will present to foreign countries, not just in the sense of a state-to-state issue. Smart tax and regulatory policies could attract entrepreneurs and investment-class immigrants to nations wanting to stimulate their economies and brain pools. Our forefathers came to this continent in search of freedom and opportunity. Are their descendants less a people?