TIME TO TAX CONSUMPTION

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TIME TO TAX CONSUMPTION:

From http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/10/opinion/10brooks.html?_r=1&oref=slogin :

Sixty-two scholars have signed on to a report by the Institute for American Values and other think tanks called, “For a New Thrift: Confronting the Debt Culture,” examining the results of all this.
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The agents of destruction are many. State governments have played a role. They aggressively hawk their lottery products, which some people call a tax on stupidity.
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Credit card companies have played a role. Instead of targeting the financially astute, who pay off their debts, they’ve found that they can make money off the young and vulnerable. Fifty-six percent of students in their final year of college carry four or more credit cards.
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Congress and the White House have played a role. The nation’s leaders have always had an incentive to shove costs for current promises onto the backs of future generations. It’s only now become respectable to do so.
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The tax code should tax consumption, not income ....

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CONCERNS: Have energy, trade, deficit, and debt policies driven us to a point such that the world now coordinates an increasing price of oil with a declining value for the dollar?
Has lack of national health policy pushed the burden of financing health protection onto corporations, rendering them non-competitive with corporations of nations that do have national health policies?
QUOTE --- Henry Ford (during the Depression): “these really are good times, it’s just that few know it.”

COMMENTS:

BEGUILEMENT To Conspicuous Consumption has led us to various means and ends, as follows.

MEANS:
1) Undermining respect for traditional and family values;
2) Undermining of governmental legitimacy (by Marxist academia class and holdover hippies within professorial and journalist class);
3) Loss of faith and breach of trust from pyramid-scamming class (by Madison Avenue types, bent towards devaluing substance in trade for fluff);
4) Disloyalty to country and territory (by corporate class leaders' over-projecting of lines of influence, leading to thinness of military);
5) Sell outs (by greed-connivance class and corrupt politicians, selling out advantages of regulations and national resources and secrets);
6) Disloyalty from welfare and grievance class to common ideals (manifested in capitalism's enemies' grievance-mongering-extortion of other people’s money);
7) Impotency from addict and hedonistic class (resulting from surrender of integrity to instant gratification);
8) Undermining of society and posterity (by spendthrift class’s increasing proclivity for hawking children’s futures).

ENDS:
Imaginative justifications of treason; Energy dependency (oil); Porous borders; Over-extended military; Loss of American industries and jobs (steel, appliances, cars, robots); Inability and unwillingness to engage in common cause for long term planning; Overburdening of national debt; Borrowing against future; Stagnant economy; Increase in work hours, loss of vacation time; Loss of parent at home (two earner families); Loss of health care; Widening gaps in social and political influence (Gini index); Machiavellian pretenses of democracy; Failing adequately to address mounting concerns (relating to: environment, population, famine, rising religious radicalism and terrorism, rising nuclear thug powers); and tumbling loss of sense of spirituality and purpose.

RENEWAL:
We need to seek and inspire renewed empathy and faith in the spiritual value of pursuing civilizing purposes that are stable, sustainable, and worth the pursuing of surpassing fulfillment.
We need a modern Jimmy Stewart character, from “It’s A Wonderful Life!” We need to re-value and re-measure ourselves --- in relation to more than envy, wealth, and conspicuous consumption. We have had quite enough of modern Democrats, Libertarians, and Republicans!
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1) Consumption taxes could mitigate or lessen the gulf in political power and social resources between "haves" and "have nots."

2) National sales taxes could facilitate promotion of socially desireable products while discouraging production of harmful products.

3) Tarriffs could reset scales of fairness, to protect American industries from predatory foreign competition.
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Mining revenue to fund any nation requires a dance, both delicate and rough, harmonious and conflicting, among various ideals and methods for taxing occupants.

To counter or reduce the undemocratic exercise of disproportionate wealth and political power, a progressive consumption tax is recommended. Businesses should be precluded from making political contributions. Political contributions made by individuals should be taxed to them as forms of consumption.

To counter the rise and establishment of stubborn, undemocratic aristocracies, progressive death taxes are recommended.

To facilitate governance of inducements and discouragements of various forms of production and consumption, various sales and transactions taxes are recommended, for imposition both on individuals and businesses.

To reduce temptations for black markets and tax evasion schemes, various forms of gift taxes may be recommended.

To preserve a viable, competitive nation, protect industry, reward allies, and discourage enemies, national taxes on various imports and exports may be recommended.

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(Continued above, under "Managing Volatility with Sales Taxes and Tariffs.")