What is a liberal Part 2. The Great Experiment

What is a liberal Part 2.

The Great Experiment

In a recent blog I gave my definition of a “liberal” as someone who is willing to discuss the problems we share in an effort to find mutually compatible solutions. This requires that everybody make the effort, at least to talk honestly, and to share the burden of providing clean water, streets, highways; and do the research required to learn how to protect ourselves against floods, earthquakes, hurricanes, disease and meteorites.

I asked myself how can I convince conservatives that they have nothing to lose, and much to gain, by discussing some “liberal” ideas?

The answer was clear – I should start by discussing a conservative idea. Surely there is some conservative idea that makes enough sense so that everybody would agree. And, if the idea made sense I could even end up by agreeing with it!

At that time the conservatives were attempting to sell an idea they called the “fair tax.” It is simply the sales tax. Liberals didn’t like it because they say that it is regressive. That is, poor people pay a larger percentage of their income in necessities, so they will pay a larger percentage of their income in tax.

On the other hand, perhaps people should pay for what they take away from the economy. How do you take something out of the economy? By buying it! An income tax taxes labor and capital, These are the tools that create wealth. Taxing them seems like killing the goose that lays the golden eggs. A consumption tax taxes the things people want to buy, Perhaps that is the way to go. When you buy a house you are taking it out of the system. That raises the price everybody else has to pay for houses.

Well, it occurred to me that a sales tax need not be regressive. If people receive a rebate of the tax they would have to pay for necessities than people who bought only necessities would pay zero tax.

“Aha,” I thought I will point this out to all my friends and the liberals will surely see that I am right and perhaps we will all proceed to consider how other conservative ideas can be made palatable to liberals and vice versa. Yes! A sales tax makes more sense than an income tax.

But it didn’t work out that way.

First – a short time later, Mike Gravel, a Democratic candidate for president in 2008 described exactly the same idea during a debate. I thought – “good” “Now the Democrats will show how they can recognize a good idea and work for it. Unfortunately they let me down. The other candidates (and everybody else I might add) ignored Mike Gravel.

Deeply disappointed I decided to talk to my friends about this. I would explain why the sales tax need not be regressive and the liberals and conservatives would all understand and begin cooperating.

I suppose I don’t really need to tell you. It didn’t work out like that. I explained the idea and they all listened quietly. Then the liberals got up, one after the other, and explained that they couldn’t support a sales tax because it is regressive. The conservatives said nothing. One person in the group did say that he sup[ported my idea – but I think he is a conservative.

But maybe not all is lost. In the recent debate between the Republican presidential wannabes former Governor Gary Johnson (NM) and African-American businessman Herman Cain gave strong support to replacing the income tax and payroll tax with a broad-based consumption tax (the Fair Tax) that has a "prebate" to assist lower income people with the purchase of essential goods.

Maybe common sense will have to spring from the Republicans. If we can just get them off their favorite hot topics.

You shall not make wrongful use of the name of the Lord your God

In a recent blog I quoted a letter to the Boston Globe by James Yeaton of Malden. He wrote:

"FOR YEARS I have been a paramedic and emergency nurse in Medford. As such, I felt attacked by a sign I saw outside the New England Baptist Church on a recent drive through Medford Square. It read, 'Homosexuality is sinful behavior by choice. Trust the Bible.' “

There is much ancient wisdom in the Bible, the trouble is that the people who quote it generally do not understand it. For example: Deuteronomy 5.11 reads (in an English translation) “You shall not make wrongful use of the name of the Lord your God, for the Lord will not acquit anyone who misuses his name.”

This is interpreted by many true believersas meaning that we cannot write the word GOD, but must, instead, try to trick God by writing G_D as though God would be tricked by this childish evasion – as though GOD might possibly give a damn about how one spells His name (in a language that didn’t exist when Deuteronomy was written. Such an interpretation trivializes God. Anybody who worships such a trivial God should be ashamed of himself and of the God he/she claims to worship.

The meaning of the commandment is clearly “Do not use the name of God to justify ungodly acts, such as the Crusades or the sign: 'Homosexuality is sinful behavior by choice. Trust the Bible.'

Gus

What is a liberal?

            If you have been paying attention you know that I am a flaming liberal. I am so far gone that I really cannot understand what “conservatives” think. Why are issues like birth control, drugs, alcohol, gambling, abortion, contraceptives, religion and the immigration of people who want to work cheap so important to them?

            I joined our group in an effort to understand the conservative persuasion better. I listened intently for several years and finally I decided to ask outright “What is a liberal?”

            Helen offered a response that took my breath away. “A liberal is someone who wants to raise my taxes.”

            It is concise, to the point and difficult to answer because it is true.

            I do want to raise her taxes. I believe that people should pay for what they consume and that if we are willing to pay for it we can live in a world with no hunger and little poverty or disease. I believe that the people who went to the moon can live a storybook life on earth if they are willing to pay for it.

            People who don’t pay their taxes are taking advantage of society to supply clean drinking water, highways, inspected food and drugs, a public transportation system that their parent paid for and that they are not even willing to maintain. Nobody wants to be a free loader

            I have been trying to think of a better definition, and I think I have one. At least one that suits me better:

            A liberal is someone who is willing to discuss the problems we share in an effort to find mutually compatible solutions. This requires that everybody make the effort, to listen and  to talk honestly, and to share the burden of providing clean water, streets, highways; and the research required to learn how to protect ourselves against floods, earthquakes, hurricanes, disease and meteorites.

               This is not as easy as it sounds. Once we start talking and take a position we feel it is important to “win” whatever that means. Once we start trying to win we stop listening and reason goes out the window.

               What do you think?

Gus

What will happen to the unemployment rate when the wars wind down?

It must have occurred to many people that our troops will have trouble finding jobs when we bring them home, Do you think this thought may have occurred to some of the people in Washington and may influence their opinions on whether we should wind the wars down?

Sales Tax vs Income Tax

We all need the government to maintain our roads, inspect our food and the quality of our medicines and hospitals, purify our drinking water, educate our children and the children of the people who work in our markets and factories, pay our police and our fire departments and much, much more. Industry would be impossible without the government. We all benefit from the government but who should pay the tax required to support it? Various methods have been tried to get the funds that make government possible.

Today we use three different methods of taxation; a land tax, a sales tax and an income tax. In the 18th and 19th centuries England, Scotland and Great Britain taxed households on the number of windows in their houses. Some houses from the period can be seen to have bricked-up window-spaces as a result of the tax. Many more methods have been used and are still being used!
Contrary to popular opinion wealth is not found lying in the street waiting to be claimed by the first person who finds it. It is produced by the hard work of laborers, documented and undocumented who invest their sweat in its production and by people who have accumulated a certain amount of wealth by their past labors who choose to invest it in the production of new wealth.

Every discussion of sales tax versus income tax always ends with the assertion that the sales tax is regressive – that is that low income families would have to pay a greater percentage of their disposable income to purchase the necessities of life, food, clothing, rent and medical care.

On the other hand it is argued that people who consume our wealth should bear the lion’s share of the cost of the government that makes it all possible. Taxing income puts the entire burden on labor and investment which are the sources of wealth production. Doesn’t it make more sense to tax consumption rather than production.

But there is a way to make sales tax progressive. I call it Sales Tax with Rebates.

I prefer a Sales Tax to an income the income tax discourages production.

People should not be penalized for working (investing their labor) or investing their money.

On the other hand\, consumption uses up the produced goods. It should be taxed.

But a taxation system that makes low income households pay a greater share of their income than wealthier households is intolerable.

Here are some examples of how it might work:

Joe is retired and trying to get by on his Social Security. He spends $10,000 a year for his furnished room and board.

The Sales Tax is $3,000.

He gets a rebate of $3,000.

Tax rate: Zero.

Amy is a single mom. She has two daughters and spends $60,000 a year supporting them all.

The Sales Tax on $60,000 at 30% is $18,000,

Each member of her family is entitled to a $3,000 rebate.

So she ends up paying a tax of $9,000 which is %15 of $6,000.

Mike spent $1,000,000 last year, on which the 30% sales tax is $300,000, He has a rebate of $3,000 so he has paid $297,000 in taxes -- a rate of 29.7%.

Upstairs Downstairs

You probably know that Upstairs Downstairs was one of the greatest TV productions of all time. For several years it told the stories  of an Upper Class British family for the period from shortly before the sinking of the Titanic and through the first world war. I recently borrowed the entire series (I think there were three years) from NetFlix. It was a moving experience to watch them again, stopping only to eat and sleep.

 It told the stories of how the Upper Class family (upstairs) and their servants (downstairs,} dealt with the introduction of the automobile, the telephone, electricity, the doorbell, And the depression at the beginning of the twentieth century, the awakening of class consciousness and, of course, WWI.

It will continue tonight through, at least three more episodes (I understand there are more to follow.) It will start during the depression that followed WWI and I think it will carry the families through WWII.

I urge you all to watch. You won't be sorry. 

In my area it will air at 9PM tomorrow (Sunday April 10).

Enjoy

Gus