HEALTH CARE AND TAXATION

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POLICY: HEALTH CARE AND TAXATION
SEE: Ben Stein's smack down of Cavuto: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nWpC_D7jXyc

See also http://www.newsmax.com/morris/obama_healthcare/2008/07/21/114994.html.

REMEMBER -- Aristotle’s warning: Given that poorer citizens always outnumber the rich, political philosophers worried that government based on majority rule could lead to organized theft from the wealthy by the democratic masses. If the majority distributes among itself the things of a minority, it is evident that it will destroy the city.

TAXING AS SOLUTION: Were virtuous and wise philosophers our governors, perhaps increasing the size and financing of government could lead to better civilizing policies. However, philosophers are as mortal as politicians, scammers, and gangsters. Government must always be carefully considered and watched, because increasing its financing is often counterproductive, sometimes ruinous, and always distorting. Power to tax is power to destroy.

GOLDEN GOOSE: To mix metaphors, unless stressed or tempted to “the lemming point,” it is unlikely politicians would fail to heed Aristotle’s warning (or tax a “golden goose” into extinction).

ASIDE: BENNIE AND THE JETS
“Say, Candy and Ronnie, have you seen them yet
But they're so spaced out, Bennie and the Jets
Oh but they're weird and they're wonderful
Oh Bennie she's really keen
She's got electric boots a mohair suit”

NEO BENNIE AND JETS:
BENNIE: See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bennie -- Recreational stimulant users often use benzodiazepines as a means of "coming down".
JETS: See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fallout_2 -- The game's overall theme matter is more R-rated, with drugs and prostitution becoming major elements of the setting and the drug "Jet" as one of the major subplots. Profanities are also encountered more often. During the course of the game, players can join the Mafia, become a porn star, and engage in adultery. Slavery also becomes an important subplot, and players can either side with the Slavers or join their opponents that try to stamp slavery out.

PANDERING POLS: Obama (as well as “Bennie and the other jets”) knows enough to demagogue and pander, but also that money talks and bullsh*t walks. Growing up immersed in Machiavelli, Politicians well know how to PRETEND to give the proletariat what they want (or at least how to entice them to believe that what they are getting is what they want).

WHO PAYS AND WHO RECEIVES: Some suggest the top 50% “pay” 97% of taxes. See http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives2/2008/07/020953.php. (Someone once noted there are three kinds of liars: liars, damn liars, and statisticians. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lies,_damned_lies,_and_statistics.)

Of course, much depends on how one defines “taxes.” After all, most of corporate taxes are simply passed on in higher prices charged to middle class consumers (which is another reason for replacing the income tax with a consumption tax). And, if those of the middle class "made" more money, they would pay more in income taxes.

In any event, is it not more appropriate to consider who is “taxed” to contribute labor and INNOVATION to the operation of our commonly shared governmental services? (After all, how many patents did stockholders invent for the corporations that hold them?)

Regardless, to say that those who are paid in the top 50% pay 97% of taxes is another way of saying that, for politicians for whom money talks and bullsh*t walks, the bottom 50% must be listened to mainly for lip service, not substance. To peddle such piffle is merely to add insult to injury --- any substance in such piffle would consist only in "faux substance," employed merely to lead the proletariat to want what their rulers want them to want.

IN MYOPIA, WE ALL LOSE: At one time, did not America lead in steel production, appliance and media technology, motor vehicle production, and research in robotics and artificial intelligence? Well, that was yesteryear. Faithless, moneyed pimps have enticed our politicians to sell out trade policies that could have preserved our lead.

NATIONAL VISION: Someone has probably said that the science of the 21st Century will be the science of consciousness. Well, who is the new world leader in robotics and AI? (Japan.) And, if low taxes and big corporate salaries are keys to innovation, why does most production and innovation seem to be transferring overseas? To lead in innovation, why do Japanese not need to pay corporate leaders 2400 times (sounds "Enron'ish) what is paid their average workers?

CONSUMPTION TAXES:
We should eliminate the income tax altogether. In its place, we should have (1) a national sales tax (rates to vary, depending upon desirability of encouraging production of particular products) and (2) a very progressive national consumption tax.
Then, for corporations to generate wealth, they would need to produce much more in respect of what middle class buyers could afford. Instead of conditioning entrepreneurs to yearn to be conspicuous consumers, they could be led to aspire in respect of more socially redeeming, civilizing purposes.
In wallowing in conspicuous consumption, golden parachutes that are counterproductive to the interests of anyone who does not hold them, and corrupt political sell outs, America’s corporate leaders only make themselves, and the rest of us, fat and easy targets --- quite unlike Japanese or Indians.

MARKET ARBITRATION OF FAIRNESS:
Who is given keys to “the market” for buying politicians and earmarking special regulations?
Who benefits most by imposing hidden environmental costs on everyone else?
Apart from regulation, does not even the Mafia leech out a sort of “fair market” niche?
To say whether what someone is paid is “fair,” I do not take it as enough merely to refer to “the market” ---- unless the market is regulated. After all, is what the mafia makes “fair,” merely because it is derived in respect of a market?

AYN RAND:
Those, like Ayn Rand, who believe only in markets for determining how a civilization should avail its produce, often pretend to make proof merely by restating assumptions.
But one hardly “proves” selfish self-interest is best among economic systems merely by stating one “believes” it so.
“Proof” justified only on belief hardly renders it superior to any faith based religion.
Libertarians, Republicans, and Democrats are fond of mining favorite facts, as springboards to unsupported conclusions, pretending to prove apples from oranges.
However, much of civility and politics necessitates more than cold, false syllogisms, pickled from picked facts.
We need to get beyond false syllogisms.
Syllogisms are necessarily false when they purport to “prove” superiority of any one system of economics over all others.
Using false syllogisms hardly clarifies reasoning.
When it comes to weighty non-trivialities, such as choices among policies and systems, we must bring more of experience to bear than picked facts and false logic.
We must also bring to bear taste, discretion, history, philosophy, intuition --- and Enlightened Empathy.
In philosophy, we would do well to consider: What would best serve the mental and physical health of an evolving civilization of sentient beings; what civilizing system would tend most to sustain us, be sustainable, and help lead us towards fulfilling surpassage?

BTW --- Does Leona Helmsley’s dog, Trouble, “deserve” gains on any investments of her inheritance? And where do Atheistic-Globalistic-Capitalists get off, pretending to justify anything, even markets, in terms of “should?”
Red Alert Moderates must call bullsh*t to account, whether of the brand of Libertarians, Republicans, or Democrats.