[Rhodes22-list] Taxes & Politics

[General Boats]

Sorry for tardy response to some questions asked of me - been away.

Names mentioned in this piece: Wally, Bill (Effros), Ron, Rick, Michael,
Roger, Bill (Berner), Robert (Quinn), Paul, Russ, Alex and Charlie.

Wally:  Bill and Ron expressed it better.  Not a cop out.  Just tried to
point out that if you cut taxes for some, you raise them for others.  It
is just part of the endless political struggle to take the costs the
country must have to exist and decide who pays them.  The day after my
tirade I read the very thing I mentioned; the Baltimore Sun reported
that the state was considering higher gasoline taxes and that FL
university enrollments were falling (higher attendance costs).  Russ
Miller discovered that Rutgers is being forced to increase tuition - a
form of discrimination weeding out the less affluent. Sorry I got you
off with the word "stupid" - it made you miss the point.

Re your wish for a flat tax, Bill B points out that in effect we already
have that.  More tax cutting will make the low end pay even a higher
percentage of their earning towards their total tax burden compared to
the wealthy end.  Remember, you heard it here. Keep this up and it will
eventually backfire.  That is why the knowledgeable rich are not in
favor. You say you do not know any wealthy ones to ask.  Try Bill Gates
father who has been outspoken against these cuts.  I know a lot of
variables influence Wall Street but it does represent wealth and so far
it is not applauding the tax cut.

Corporations should Not pay any taxes.  They are not people and only
pass on the cost of their taxes to the buyers via higher product prices
which results in the buyer being double taxed.  This would also do away
with the unfair double tax on dividends. There should be no Tolls.  In
my management consulting days I had a glimpse behind the scenes of the
NY Thruway.  Toll delays create air pollution for everyone and health
hazards for collectors, waste drivers' productivity time, waste gasoline
and create costly duplicate tax collection administrations.  It is so
bad a tax revenue attempt, it prompted me to do a piece called "For Whom
the Tolls, Toll".  But the politicians know this but can't extricate
themselves.  I am against collecting taxes via charities.  When Rose was
nursing, one job was with the March of Dimes.  She said only 10% of
collections got to do what the charity was intended for.  I am against
sales taxes in any form and by any name. (They are going to soothe your
pain and call it a value added tax when they hit you with it to make up
for the tax cuts).  It is just another of the non progressive little
taxes that are rearranging who carries the needed costs of government.
But this one is a deal breaker when a buyer faces it at the end of
negotiating for a big ticket item (like a sailboat). There is only one
way to fairly pay for the cost of running a country and that is a
graduated income tax.  With one bureaucracy instead of dozens, it can be
run more efficiently and better policed.  Cutting income taxes under the
guise of making the economy work via the trickle down theory just does
not work.  I have been there several time under several
administrations.  It does not work.  Our brightest Rhodies, Michael and
Roger are looking for work.  I have to give back a large deposit to an
IBM employee who was laid off, etc.., etc.  The first thing Clinton did
was appoint Rubin of Wall Street to the Treasury and they raised taxes
and the rest was history - argue all you want.
We think of how many hours we work to cover our tax payment but few
think of how many hours they are really working to pay interest on the
debt.  When I was called in by giant corporations from Kaiser Aluminum
to Farichild Camera or Merck Drugs and American Airlines down to Neiman
Marcus and Prenge Department stores, I began to realize that management
really wanted me to back their already taken position - that is, if they
liked what I reported, they used my reports to support their position to
the upper powers - if they did not like my position, they threw it
away.  When Greenspan was called by Congress to tell how to use the
surplus, I listened to every word.  He said, first pay off the debt -
then if you want, cut taxes.  They threw out his advice that they did
not want and used the rest, citing his support.

Brad, I agree.  I work very hard - recently been sleeping at the plant
to save the traveling time.  So these kind of diversions are fun for me
- sort of therapy.  So Rick, thanks, but I am easy.

Paul, thanks.  Contrary to Alex's view of the rules, I thought if there
was a subject title anything was OK.  After all he did not object to the
posting of the profs point of view.  I think Alex was being a bit
discriminatory since he did not take his position with Ron or Bill (both
of whom made my point much better than I).

Robert, thanks for both responses.  Although not truly parallel, the
image of Chaplin pops into mind in Modern Times as he picks up a red
flag that has fallen off the back of a delivery truck, innocently waving
it trying to give it back to the driver and a group of activists come
around the corner marching in back of him while he unknowingly leads
their parade waving his red flag and ending up in jail.  These
expressions of different views are fun - the no fun part comes when you
feel bullied not to express yourself and the few begin leading the rest
of us by default.  So, if my picking up the red flag gets a few more to
think a little broader, I feel like a good citizen.

Jefferson said that education is the key to a successful democracy so
let's make education free,  like our government did in the days of land
grant colleges (like Purdue), not more costly, as tax cuts are forcing
states to do today, so we won't have all those "suckers born every
minute" out there, that many of you complain about.

from the left, stan your holistic boat builder.