In pursuit of happiness and to promote the human race into the millennia we need to finance a government for our mutual benefit.
Current elected leaders are befriending voters by dispensing public funds. Because they are finite and belong to all the people, we need leadership that will weigh the application of funds to the resulting benefits — not to buy votes.
We can collect more taxes from those with a greater increase in their net worth each year. It’s kinda like “income”. (Net Worth can be manipulated by the wealthy by loaning each other money to get debts that would reduce their net worth. It is a problem for tax economists, or we can just total both earned and unearned income.)
There is always the potential for negative income tax benefits. It is a tax bracket between zero and a Living Wage where dollars are paid rather than collected. There might be a zero tax bracket above the Living Wage up to the current tax cutoff.
We can ask that depreciation be partially funded by the fair market value of a committed asset to be a deduction. It could be phased in at six annual increasing funding rates of 5, 10, 20, 40, 80, and 100%, or stop at 50%, or not.
The stock market transaction tax is a no-brainer. If negotiable document manipulators want the benefit of a profit from punching a few computer keys rather than heavier physical and mental labor contributing to their community, they can compensate their neighbors for the privilege. We don’t want them to quit, just to share some of what is leveraged from our work. Their neighbor’s labor creates the cash-value of the securities that they use.
A radical idea that needs serious consideration is the Universal Basic Income (UBI). With progressive taxation where the wealthier pay graduated higher tax rates will easily fund UBI and it could reduce the cost of some of our welfare programs (government support). It would give the commerce (corporations, business) healthier workers (increase lifetime productivity), give entrepreneurs a base from which to succeed or fail (individual responsibility). It will reduce poverty and inequality (access and opportunity). UBI will advance both conservative and liberal values. The UBI amount should not exceed a living wage or be taxed, and It should not have requirements such as employment.
Our community values one of these first: 1. human labor, or 2. property accumulation. No one can accumulate property and cash-value without human labor. Property value will not sustain us through the trials of history. So the chicken came before the egg, maybe.
What do you think?
If the world gets warmer, I can buy a bigger air conditioner. My great-grandkids will be smart enough to figure that out. Really?
