Born Free - Taxed to Death

We have this federal tax system that punishes productivity and capitalism, and rewards sloth and debt. No wonder the world is upside down.

If you have two jobs to help put one of the children, or a part of the extended family, through college or graduate school, you risk throwing yourself into a higher tax bracket.

Bust a gut building a business, foregoing a really cool life for years or decades, and once you reach a meaningful level of profitability, you have the opportunity to hand large parts of your productivity to the federales in the form of income taxes. States and local municipalities get in on the action as well.

Stay at it long enough, and you can learn how to convert income into a meaningful asset base. If you learn enough, get good at making decisions and getting good counsel, and live long enough, you will have something to pass along to the next generation. Except the tax man shows up with his hand out, wanting a part of your estate when you die. The federales really don't want stock in your business, or acres of your farmland. They want cash. So...you gotta figure out how to convert those assets to cash.

Now, the insurance industry has figured out how to help with this, which is all well and good. However, Judge Learned Hand, in the late 19th century, suggested that when you tax a man's income, he becomes your slave.

In America, we have become a nation of slaves and serfs, as we have quietly allowed the politicians and bureaucrats to extract through payroll deduction large portions of our income. It is crucial that we remove ourselves from this slavery, and in fact abolish the IRS.

It is time in America for the FairTax. The idea is one of a consumption tax. We must do away with taxes on earned income, taxes on unearned income of all sorts, and taxes on assets, both individual and corporate. One proposal for a consumption tax would have that tax set at somewhat north of 20% of the price of the item sold. My suggestion is that we set the national tax at 8%.

Two reasons for the 8%. First, an 8% national sales tax keeps the number in single digits. Second, there is absolutely no reason to give Congress an equal amount of revenue as they now have to squander. They must be put on a fiscal diet, and learn to allocate within the dollars we as taxpayers are willing to give them.

Check out www.fairtax.org, and choose to be involved.

Until next time...

Randy