WEEKLY SOUTHERN ARTS
"Sometime the boogaloo 
  • Home
  • Guns, Faith and Murder
  • The Million Dollar Store
  • Artistic Con-cepts
  • Judy Garland - "Soul Singer"
  • Robert & Jimi and the Twenty Seven Blues
  • The Great Pretenders
  • Imagine
  • Me and Junior Parker
  • The Republican
  • Sweet Home Chicago (The Obama Shakedown)
  • The Ballad of Hunter & Joe
  • The 22-yr-old Bottle Blonde
  • Is It Alright...To Be White?
  • Resist the Devil and He Will Flea
  • Music & Reminiscence
  • Lowell George searching for authenticity
  • A Telling Lie
  • Part One: The Monster Is Summoned
  • Like Billy Eckstein Singing to an Empty Club at 1:00 AM on a Saturday Night in 1975.
  • Bent
  • Kelly Joe Phelps
  • Why The Devil Don't Come Around No More
  • Hearing Junior Wells “On Tap'' one more Time
  • Muddy and Me
  • Unwitting Hypocrisy is The Best Kind of Hypocrisy
  • Excess Baggage
  • Excess Baggage pt. 2
  • Fake News Is The New Real News
  • The Death of Billy Graham and Manufacturing Consent
  • American Youth: The Rise of The New Media
  • Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Talk About Slavery and Shit
  • Just Smoke
  • Monkey in a Box
  • How The Children of Sal and Dean Destroyed The World
  • On This Cold Winter's Morn
  • The Crime of the Century
  • Evidence: What The Hell Is It?
  • They Were Pissed: America, Jack Kerouac, and the Beats
  • Negotiating The Maze Of Life and a Blues Shuffle.
  • Everyone Is Hitler (In their own Way)
  • The Mystery of The Giant Balloon Shark
  • Subterfuge and Its Discontents
  • God Debunks Global Warming
  • Day Two: God Continues To Debunk Global Warming
  • Strzoking Russia
  • The Al Franken Effect. Or, How to Destroy America and Lose Elections
  • The Big Maybe
  • The News Apocalypse
  • The Guitarticle (Guitar article)
  • The Nation of Lucifer
  • Slurring Pocahontas
  • Why Everything Good Said About Net Neutrality is a Lie
  • .....and behold, The Cause of Your Demise Is Upon You
  • The Trans-boy That Cried Wolf
  • Believe Nothing
  • Donald Trump Blasts The Heads Off Of Tiny Woodland Creatures
  • The Problem of Hypocrites
  • Roy Moore: Serial Pervert
  • I'm So Frustrated
  • The Devil's Whisper
  • Science Can't Dance
  • You're Gonna Have To Serve Somebody
  • Louie C. K.
  • Common Sense
  • Hunting For Witches
  • Living in The Age of "tRump"
  • The Devil is a Hustler
  • The Skinny
  • Eric Dolphy
  • ISIS Rode in On a Donkey
  • "The Manafort Indictment"
  • The Truth About the Middle East
  • Dennis Budimer's "Alone Together" Revisited
  • The Halloween Edition
  • The 20th Century Was Groovy
  • The Salesman
  • The Dossier
  • Elmore James
  • Isle of The Poor
  • The Patriarchy is Alive and Well
  • Moving Napoleon
  • Guns and Guerrillas
  • Playing Four
  • Hollywood and Scumbags
  • Why Everything You Think, Is Wrong
  • Killing Yourself With Terrorism
  • Being Liberal
  • Laced With Hate
  • A Message From Occupy Democrats
  • A Taxing Dilemma
  • What Really Happened with Aid in Puerto Rico
  • Colin Kaepernick and BeyoncĂ© are geniuses. Part 1
  • When the Levee Breaks
  • The Second Coming of Anthony Weiner
  • How to Never Lose a Fight
  • Creating Chaos out of Meaning
  • Crime and Punishment
  • The Man in the Mirror
  • Guitar Gods of the Sixties
  • Entopy: A Play in One Act
  • The Ragged Tale of a Poverty Stricken Economic Genius
  • The Dreamers
  • Hey There Georgy Girl
  • This Is Not a Defense of Joel Osteen. Or is it?
  • The Ballad of Poindexter Glockenspiel
  • The Big Dummy
  • More Florida in Pictures and Text
  • How Do I Hate Thee
  • Florida in Images and More Images
  • "How To Solve The Healthcare Crisis and Why It's So Damned Hard To Fix"
  • The Big Lie
  • The Demise of the West
  • “Good Times! Good Times! You know, we talkin’ bout Good Times!”
  • "Justice My Ass!"
  • Wolves in Sheep's Clothing
  • The Coming Apocalypse and How to Avoid it: a Historical/Biblical Perspective.
  • "Muthafuckin' Chains!"
  • Lies Our Father's Told Us
  • Poetry and Politics - a few mixed verses
  • The Inner Man
  • The Vampire and The Carpet Salesman
  • Comey Speaks!
  • A Word From Nostradamus about the Comey Hearings
  • The Towering Babble
  • Chain of Fools
  • I Got Ramblin' on My Mind
  • Telling Ourselves Stories
  • Shit! Make Me Wanna Holler!
  • Even More Reasons Why The Paris Accords are Total Horseshit.
  • When Life Imitates Satire
  • Jethro and Becky Sue Come To America
  • Random Apocrypha
  • Why The Paris Climate Accords Are Total Horseshit
  • Urban Stories
  • The Kingdom of God: a personal rant
  • Urban Week @ South Beach
  • Serpico Revisited
  • The Road To Surf-dumb. Or, is it The Road To Serfdom?
  • This is Not a Political Article
  • My Hometown
  • What Does This Mean?
  • We're All Fools Sometime
  • One Pill Makes You Larger
  • "What a Maroon!"
  • Secrets and Lies
  • A Tale of Wine and Murder
  • "White House Under Siege!"
  • The Amateur Narcissist
  • Like a Rock
  • The Greatest of Ally of a True Idiot is.....
  • How To Prove someone's a Witch
  • Jesus Was a Sly Dog
  • An Open Letter From The Democratic National Committee
  • The Power of Language
  • The Existential CroĂ»ton
  • Random Facebook Thoughts
  • A Play "The Poverty Racket"
  • The Demise of the 4th Estate
  • Love To Hate My Enemies
  • Feelings, Oh, Oh, Oh, Feelings
  • Art or Reality
  • The Prison Yard Blues
  • Who is Richard Spencer and Why Does He Matter?
  • __an excerpt from "The Power of Voltron "
  • A Plea From a Progressive
  • ANTIFA - The Anti Fascists, Fascists
  • Conspiracy Theory
  • 4 More Poems, 4 More Pictures
  • "Are You Freaking People Insane?"
  • 4 Pictures 4 Poems
  • The Ballad of Carlos Slim
  • Pretending What's in Your Head is True
  • The Cognitive Dissonance of a Faithful Democrat
  • The Human Snakepit
  • George Freeman - Unsung Master of the Jazz Guitar
  • The Price of Milk
  • Suspicious Minds
  • Bill O'Reilly Sexual Predator?
  • The New Soldier
  • Orwell Revisited
  • Larry Coryell - The Godfather is Dead
  • A Tiger Beat
  • South Florida - HOT & COOL
  • Jean Paul Sartre & the Existentialist Mojo
  • Culture Matters, Immigration Matters, Sharks Matter
  • Thomas Sowell
  • A Tree Falls In Central Park on a Gay Banker
  • Black Codes From The Underground
  • Does an Idiot know they're an Idiot?
  • A Poem for Pooh
  • It's All or Nothing Baby!
  • Racism is Alive and Well
  • "Shut the Hell Up!"
  • Jerry Seinfeld - Social Pariah
  • A Man Must Nurture His Pet Peeves
  • Not the Usual Immigration Article
  • Man Talk, with Donald Trump pt. 1
  • Man Talk, with Donald Trump pt. 2
  • The Bad Seed
  • Dogma Never Sleeps
  • Trump and Clinton Debate
  • Was Jesus a True Pacifist?
  • Brexit Was the Shot Heard Around the World
  • Obama, How Great Thou Art
  • War is Good
  • The Willful Ignorance of Intellectual Children
  • What about All Those Peacful Muslims?
  • Terror! What Terror?
  • Biff and Shorty Play The Blues
  • Forty Miles of Bad Road
  • How Obamacare Became the law of the land: And Other Fairytales for Adults
  • Genteel Republicans vs The Alt-Right
  • Should Drugs be Legal?
  • The Prophet Speaks
  • The Dream Sequence
  • Voting 3rd Party and the Moral Low-Ground
  • Sayonara America
  • What does Never Trump Mean?
  • Barack Obama is the Most Brilliant Man Ever to be President?
  • If God Created War, Does That Mean That War is Good?
  • Never Let Your Enemies Define You
  • Facebook, Science & Religion
  • Bullshit by the Numbers
  • Bullshit by the Numbers - part II
  • The Heated Quest for the "No Information Voter"
  • I Love The Dead
  • Those Who Lurk
  • Battered, Bruised and Beaten
  • Trump and Hitler
  • America in Black and White
  • Trans-Athletics
  • Playing a Rigged Game
  • Who was that Mass Murderer?
  • The Kidnappers
  • The Game
  • Terror in Nice: A Variation on a Theme
  • The Idiots Guide on How to Destory the World
  • Terror in France
  • A Fictional Conversation Between a Pastor and a Historian About the Bible
  • The Immoral Necessity for Scapegoats
  • Who Really Shot Those Eleven Cops? Was It Donald Trump?
  • Killer Cops and Cop Killers
  • Happy 4th of July
  • How Do You Cast Your Vote When You've Only Got a Few Bullets Left?
  • "Yes, She's a Lying Sack of Shit....but She's our Lying Sack of Shit."
  • All Apologies
  • Will the Real Jesus Please Stand Up
  • Goodbye Scotty Moore
  • If a Bluebird Plays the Blues Why Can't it Play Free Jazz
  • Terror in Turkey
  • When David Slew Goliath
  • The Life & Death of a Global Fat Cat
  • Intentionally Censoring the News
  • The Brits Leave the EU
  • Chick, Christian, Roy & Kenny G
  • Who Really Committed Mass Murder in Orlando
  • The Tale of the Prince and the Shrew
  • A Dying Father's Last Father's Day
  • Mass Murdering, Terrorist's Father is Obama and Hillary's Best Friend
  • Why Cream still Matters 50 Years Later
  • Misguided Anger and Partisan Politics
  • The Deep Guilt of the Religious Left
  • Radical Islam! What Radical Islam?
  • Denial is a River in Egypt
  • A Response to all the Haters
  • Why Muhammad Ali was my Hero (in spite of being a Racist)
  • Why Trump Matters
  • The New Progressive Racism
  • A Tragedy in Cincinnati
  • The Evil that Men do (Women too.)
  • Differences? What Differences?
  • Racism Revisited
  • Battling Immigration Straw Men
  • Blood Quantum
  • Fighting Transgender Straw Men
  • Logical Fallacies about God and Money
  • Progressive Straw Men
  • Everybody is Robbing You Blind
  • On The Road To El Donaldo
  • Dear Mark: About Donald Trump
  • Identifying the Enemy
  • Why I Will Vote For Trump
  • I Totally Agree With Myself
  • Teaching Americans Where to Pee
  • Goodbye Lonnie Mack
  • Bernie Wants You To Pay His Fair Share
  • Bruce Springsteen vs. North Carolina
  • Mr. Smiley Is an Idiot
  • Why Does College Cost So Much?
  • Black Power and Bad Vibes At Whiteness History Month
  • How Facebook Showed Me That We're Doomed
  • Muslims kill Muslims by means of White People
  • The Slap
  • America Wants a 3rd Party Candidate
  • Jesus Loved Everybody
  • Call it what it is.
  • Belgium vs. Turkey. Which One is Worse?
  • Barack, Fidel and Che
  • How He Gonna Get His Money pt. 2
  • How He Gonna Get His Money
  • The Turn of The Screw
  • Dear America: Now, about Trump....
  • The Attack of the Anti Trumpers
  • Did You Know that America is Socialism....and boy, ain't it Swell
  • Trump - Prophet or Blowhard?
  • Black Lies Matter, All Lies Matter
  • The Donald and the Debate
  • Leonardo and The Bear
  • The Thunder Rolled and the "Trump" Blows em all to Hell
  • Fragmented Fairytails
  • Cars That Never Were but Should've Been, Part 6
  • Building The Perfect Beast
  • America: A Tale of Two Cities, Part 1
  • Uncle Bernie in New Hampshire
  • The Big L
  • The Diary of a Former Leftist
  • Free Speech not Hate Speech?
  • State of the Union
  • Losing My Religion
  • Don't Take Our Guns Away Until We Kill Those Honky Bastards
  • Bye Bye Europe
  • "Trump is a Racist!"
  • "Hell Yeah! I've Got Obama Care!
  • Trumponomics
  • Woman of the Year
  • Malicious Intent and the Art of the Microaggression
  • Muslim No-Go Zones - Myth or Reality?
  • Donald J. Trump and the Muslim Migration to America
  • There Is No God But Allah?
  • Roadhouse - The Reboot
  • Sometimes You Just Can't Win
  • A Few Thoughts Regarding Trump
  • Cars That Never Were But Should've Been, Part 5
  • You Can Have My Steering Wheel When You Pry It From Cold, Daed Hands
  • The Great Debate
  • Al, Thomas and Paul - Malthusians Then and Now
  • A Prophet Debates Global Warming and other retated Dogma
  • Memes, Scapegoats, Propaganda
  • Little Hillary and Her Monsters
  • A Prophecy for America
  • The Basketball Metaphor
  • Vladimir Putin: An American Hero
  • Little Things
  • The Democrats Debate
  • It's All Ablout da Benjamins
  • Remember When?
  • Mass Shooter
  • Cars That Never Were But Should've Been: Part 4
  • Should A Muslim Be President in America?
  • The Strange Case of Ahmed Mohamed
  • Debt and Other Devious Angels
  • Bernie Sanders is Caesar not Jesus
  • An inconvenient Truth
  • Who's really a Native American?
  • The Rebirth of the Silent Majority
  • Money That's What I Want!
  • The Syrian Crisis and the Memeing of America
  • Why Societies Have Generally Valued Men More than Women
  • The Problem of Evil
  • A few Thoughts on a Few Things
  • The Authentic pose of a Black White Man
  • Sweden: Socialist Utopia or Progressive Madhouse?
  • Why Dogs Matter
  • Guilty Until Proven Innocent
  • Was Jesus a Socialist?
  • "The Donald" A Man for the Ages
  • Harvesting the Wheat - or - Karma's a Real Bitch
  • Cecil The Lion
  • Cars That Never Were but Should’ve Been, Part 3
  • Secrets and Lies
  • Can Minorities Be Racist?
  • I Was Just Thinking....Hmm?
  • Iran Deal - Good or Bad?
  • Jihad or Not Jihad? That is the Question.
  • "Let's Do Lunch" with Planned Parenthood
  • America The Contemptible
  • Marriage, Bigotry and Cooties
  • The Things We Care About
  • The Simplicity of it All
  • A Dissenting Opinion
  • Cars That Should've Been, But Never Were: part II
  • Live Now, Pay Later
  • I Am, Whatever I Say I Am!
  • Bernie Sanders is the Dumbest Bastard on Earth
  • Cars That Never Were But Should've Been
  • Bruce Jenner
  • The Good Society
  • A Personal Jesus For My Own
  • Take a Ride on a Hell Bound Train
  • Requiem For a Car Show
  • Obama Channels Neville Chamberlain in Dealing with Iran
  • The Short Life of a Political Lemming
  • The Strongman
  • The Broken Window
  • The Selective Outrage of The Anti Israel Left
  • When the Blind Lead the Blind
  • Top Brass With Class
  • Living In A world On Fire
  • Lying Liars and the Lies They Tell
  • What The Hell Is Esotericism?
  • Unicorns, Free Healthcare and other Mythological Creatures
  • Heroes and Dunces
  • A Few Thoughts On a Few Things
  • The Return Of Super Fly
  • Should You Ever Bet On A dead Horse?
  • Money For Nothing
  • Across The Great Divide
  • Tom, Jerry, Eddie & Sydney
  • The Folly of Foibles
  • Who really killed Eric Garner?
  • The Art of The Sale
  • Political Bullshit and All That Jazz
  • Oh, The Horror of It All
  • To Torture or Not To Torture, That is The Question
  • Selective Justice
  • Executive Action
  • Give Us Your Tired, Poor and Ambitious
  • Johnny Winter, Ahhh-Yeahh!
  • Homeless and Transgender "Let My People Pee!"
  • Are We Insane? You Betcha!
  • Ebola and Racism
  • You're a Racist, Just Admit It!
  • To Discriminate or Not to Discriminate, That is the Question
  • The Life of an Imaginary Historian
  • Why Most Debates About The Minimum Wage are Bullshit
  • The Return of the Infinite Monkeys
  • Politically Correct Genocide
  • Language and the illusion of Meaning
  • Obama vs. Reagan
  • Is Barack Obama our Most Successful President Ever?
  • White Racism Black Racism
  • The Race
  • Should People Be Free to Discriminate?
  • Science, Religion and Brother Neil
  • Welcome To America
  • The Reincarnation of Jimmy Carter and the Return of Scarface
  • SCOTUS, Condoms and Collateral Damage
  • The American Dream
  • Attack of the Bloated Leeches or "Why Does the Economy Suck pt. II"
  • Why Does the Economy Suck?
  • Jaco Pastorius - A Passage in Time
  • How can we save the world, from people who want to save the world?
  • A Short Political rant: pt I
  • Jerry Reed, Tom Jones and the Original Guitar Heroes
  • Part Two: The Politics of the Eloi and the Morlock
  • Angel: part 7
  • Wayne Cochran "Going Back to Miami"
  • Matt Damon & the Teachers Union vs. the Capitalist Pigs
  • The Last Damned Healthcare Article You'll Ever Need
  • The Gospel According to Mark
  • Angel: part VI
  • Ted Bundy & The Hunt For The Devil
  • Charlie & Clint: Dead & Deader
  • Trayvon & George : An American Hate Story
  • Jury Duty
  • Little Tommy & The Blues Kings
  • Kayaking "The Big Cypress" with Crocodlies
  • The Birth of The Jazz Guitarist
  • Gay Marriage
  • Garage Band - The 1960's
  • King Arthur, Pelagius and Original Sin
  • The Story of Ricky
  • In the News and on the Web
  • When is a Horse not a Horse
  • Hidden Miami
  • I Hate the 60's: A Personal Rock Odyssey
  • Crocodiles and Alligators in Florida: Monsters in our Backyard
  • The Legend of Robert Pete Williams
  • Saturday Night At Big Tinys
  • The Mad Hatter and the Tea Party
  • The Case Of The Infinite Monkeys
  • The American Heritage Series
  • Here Comes the Sun
  • The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress
  • Blue And Green
  • Mundi's, a Love Story

             A Taxing Dilemma 

Be wary of strong drink.  It can make you shoot at tax collectors... and miss.  ~Robert Heinlein

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The Robin Hood myth is often used as a way of justifying the transference of wealth from the rich to the poor. In reality, it's a story about how the government (the king and the aristocracy who were, in fact, the government) used their power to enrich themselves. It was the corrupt government that Robin Hood was fighting—and heavy taxation was the issue. 

The story of Jesus is, likewise, seen as a wealth redistribution parable for Marxist-minded folk, but it was essentially the Pharisee, the Sadducee and the corrupt priesthood that were described as the enemy of the poor Jewish peasants in the Gospels. They were the government, just like Robin Hood's corrupt aristocracy. It was the relentless taxation used to produce a radical disparity of wealth, as evidenced everywhere in Jerusalem, that was Jesus' primary target. The Romans, yet again, were another layer of tax redistribution. 

Between the ruling elite in Jerusalem and the Romans, with whom many of Israel’s leaders colluded, poverty and illiteracy became the overwhelming norm in the world of Jesus' time—and military power, as well as the varying layers of taxes, were the primary method used to achieve that goal.

The Pharisees didn't begin as corrupt rulers, but increasingly became that way as they grew in power. They began as something akin to home bible study teachers helping to preserve the Jewish identity in the face of the Roman occupation. As their popularity grew, however, they were changed by the love of money and power. What started with the best of intentions was corrupted and the people eventually became their enemy—the sheep to be managed by treacherous shepherds. 

What then, is the lesson that history is attempting to teach? That power corrupts, and that absolute power corrupts absolutely? 

From Aristotle to Christ and on to the present day, the story has always been the same. Greed, whether for more money or power, or both, will always need governmental force in order to extend its cause. There is no more powerful institution in the world than government. It is always the greatest threat to the people. Not corporations, nor the rich, but the collusion of the two. The wealthy, moneyed interests, empowered by government, that is at issue.  It is the ability to tax, and the police power necessary to enforce it, that is the primary method used. It, apparently, has always been that way and, unless we’re willing to learn from the past and change our present course, it probably always will be.


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A common question by many on the Left is “why don’t the rich pay their fair share in taxes?”  

The simple answer is that the rich pay everything but a small percentage of all income taxes. The top 1% of wage earners pays 37% of the nation’s income tax, while the top 15% of earners pays 85%.  Approximately one half of the country (47% to be exact) pay no income tax at all.  So much for the old canard that the rich don’t pay their fair share.  But that won’t stop people from resurrecting the lie to gain an advantage.  These numbers aren’t hard to find.  So, why do they keep beating a dead horse?  Because it’s about higher taxes for everybody, not just the rich—and with it, greater government control.


“How about people like Warren Buffett?  He pays less income tax than his secretary does.  How’s that fair?”

Warren Buffett’s income isn’t based on a salary like his secretary’s, but comes from capital gains.  This means that he has no guaranteed income, unlike most people who earn a regular paycheck.  His wealth comes from investing money with the hope that it will eventually be profitable.  And, like all such investments, there’s no guarantee that it will.  He may invest for months, even years, with no financial return until he sells his business or stock at a profit.  Meaning; if Buffett buys a company or stock and sells it for a $50,000,000 gain, he’ll pay approximately $10,000,000 in capital gains taxes.  That amount will certainly be less if he reinvests his profits.  Like all professional  investors whose livelihood depends on continued investing, he'll buy a new company or stock and create more jobs, producing an immediate benefit to the economy.  But, no matter how you choose to look at it, in the end, the amount paid  in taxes will be a hell of a lot more than his secretary pays in terms of actual dollars and cents—and by a radical margin.   

Capital gains laws don’t just affect men like Warren Buffett.  They also impact average people.  If you sell your home in order to pay for retirement or sell a stock to pay the bills, capital gains taxes can be the difference between a comfortable retirement and a marginal one.  In fact, they’re far more likely to negatively impact average people than billionaires like Buffett.

This is only one of the many popular fallacies regarding taxes. Mitt Romney, for instance, may pay a smaller percentage of his income in taxes than a single person with no deductions because it comes primarily from capital gains. Very few people, however, actually pay taxes based solely on their income bracket.  All people, and I do mean ALL have tax deductions.  If they don’t use them, society shouldn't be held to blame (Although I’m sure the government can suggest that they need help from Uncle Sam because they've been deprived in some way!).  And, with Uncle Sam’s help and all of the new taxes levied to pay for that helping hand, the deprivation will only increase.

The key to filtering out the nonsense regarding "Tax Fairness" is in understanding the different ways in which people earn their living.  
By lumping the various categories together you can create a false impression about who pays what, without explaining why.  

What about corporate tax rates?  “Don’t some corporations pay no tax at all?  How about other businesses? Why should I have to pay income taxes, but not some Fortune 500 company?” 

The top corporate tax rate is 35%.  Many corporations pay less. In fact, many corporations pay almost no taxes.  Why do they pay less or nothing at all?  Because, they’re not people, although, for the sake of legality they have the status of immortal persons in order to protect the rights of future shareholders.  Corporations are not living, breathing entities, but are comprised of shareholders who already pay taxes on their corporate profits. That would be a simple answer. Your car doesn't pay taxes, neither does your dog.  Although, you’ll pay taxes on both—and your income. If all of the profits made by shareholders and employees are already taxed because shareholders ARE the corporation, taxing the corporation, yet again, is comparable to being taxed twice.  Money that would be reinvested to create new jobs is funneled to a middle man named Uncle Sam—so you’re “Uncle” can pay for his staggering interest on all his debts, the result of entitlements, military expansion, etc... 

 In a competitive business climate the only way to insure your company’s survival is to expand.  To grow big enough to fend off your competition, which requires capital. Make no mistake, your competitors will be doing the exact same thing.  This heated competition may be Darwinian, but it’s also an efficient way of cutting waste, which creates more working capital.  This is how an economy actually grows. Not as the result of some wizened Washington bureaucrat making business decisions a thousand miles away.

The less compelling story that corporations aren't evil overlords, but are owned by shareholders, both big and small and make food, clothing and shelter—the most basic of necessities—affordable in
a way that mom and pop businesses simply can’t is lost in endless rounds of propaganda.  “Tax the bastards” is a clarion call of the dispossessed, which inevitably leads to people wanting to tax someone else in an effort to lower their own tax burden.  But, does that really work?

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There’s a big problem with the “Hey, I pay taxes, I want everyone else to pay more taxes, so I don’t have to” approach to tax fairness.  The more any business pays in taxes, the more those costs are passed on to the consumer in the form of higher prices.  In reality, by demanding higher taxes for business, so you can lower your own tax burden (which is the theory), you've simply increased prices on everyone, including yourself. You may not see it as a tax hike, but that’s exactly what it is.  Who's most negatively impacted by these increases?  The poor, who now are forced to use what little money they have to pay higher prices for everything. 

For those who believe that government is the driving engine of the economy, less than 8% of Americans are employed by government.  Leaving more than 90% of the jobs created to be the product of private investment. To the degree that government increases as a primary employer, it only does so after taking taxes from individuals, not as the result of creativity and innovation, which are the fuel for any economy.  In fact, high taxes and excessive regulation are the two most common things that stifle business investment, leading to slow growth and fewer jobs.

The idea of a kind of Darwinian Capitalism insuring the survival of a particular business, is no less true of government.  The only way to protect "Big Government’s" supremacy is for it to get big enough to fend off its enemies—meaning anyone that opposes it.  Like an occupying army or a hostile police force, it begins to view the citizenry as the “Other”—the competition for limited resources.  The same people who produce all of the wealth through their labor and pay all of the governments bills become potential enemies of the state.  Unfortunately, the only thing governments actually create is more government—more prisons, more military, more laws to protect the people from themselves and more bureaucracy. All of this requires more taxes.  It is a case of the dog viciously chasing its own tail.  

The prevailing notion of government as the primary solution to any and all problems is always the last bastion of leftist thinking.  If people can’t be trusted to act fairly (fairly as defined by politicians), then they should be forced to act fairly. If prices are too high, they should be forced to lower them.  If wages are too low, they should be forced to raise them. It should require no effort to see that the essential ingredient is “Force,” meaning legal coercion backed by the threat of imprisonment as a means of compelling righteous behavior.  


In America, it’s increasingly seen as unreasonable to expect people to act on their own behalf. They, apparently, need a thriving nanny state to do that.  If ducks and wildebeests can act according to self interest, humans, the apex species on the planet, should be able to do likewise—and they've
 done just that for thousands of years.  Just not according to advocates of government as the primary solution for every social problem  

Even more problematic is the increasing numbers of Americans who have no idea of how their country was founded.  Or, the radical, egalitarian nature of its democratic ideas, except to say that it was racist White Men that were at the malevolent root of it all.  Similarly, many Americans have no idea how an economy works, what money is, how wages and prices are established—except to say “It’s all about greed.” 

Government, then, becomes the hero on the white horse.  Business is the evil landlord tying the fair maiden to the tracks, just waiting to extort from the poor, widow and orphan the last vestiges of their labor. In reality, it’s government that has occupied that role since time immemorial.

This tends to be true of conservatives as well.  Even if the cause is seen as different from the typical “racist white men” argument.  Prayer in schools, illegal immigration and a longing for a return to a predominately White-Christian nation, with an overwhelmingly powerful military are sufficient substitutes.  In other words, it’s okay to spend excessively for the military, but not for the poor, who tend to be lazy.  The ignorance from both sides enables a divide and conquer strategy, which politicians exploit to their full advantage. Inevitably, higher taxes are required to pay for it all, regardless of the Left/Right dynamic.

The historical reality is that, when the wealth of a nation increases, freedom and charity become possible in a way that previously wasn't feasible. Poverty decreases and is redefined based on the aggregate wealth of its people. Poverty in the U.S., for instance, isn't the same as poverty in Mexico or Haiti.  And, by comparison to much of the world, it barely qualifies as poverty at all. 

Poverty, however, tends to increase as government digs its claws deeper into its citizens pockets. All good pick-pockets understand the need for a diversion, a sleight of hand, in order to carry out the theft undetected.  For politicians, war, racism and class warfare will do just fine and are used in equal measure by both Democrats and Republicans.  


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The debate over how taxes should be spent, whether entitlements for the poor or military spending, is important.  Financial accountability is equally applicable to both, not either/or, which is how the debate is often defined.  The differences between Republicans and Democrats is more a variation on a theme than any substantial departure from radical tax and spend practices held dear by both parties.  And, while the rest of the nation is struggling to fund local and state government, The Federal government in Washington is awash in lobbyists and truck-loads of taxpayer’s hard-earned money. Teaching us once again that even the lowliest of predators knows to follow the heard to the life-giving watering hole—until it dries up.  

Mark Magula

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A Taxing Dilemma