Tax Sucks

Recently, a book was written advocating the abolition of income tax and all of it's frustrating complexities for a national sales tax:
Eliminating the income tax in favor of a national sales tax is only a tax shift… all of the expenditures and bureaucratic inefficiencies are still there. Why not eliminate the national income tax, and make the national sales tax somewhere around 10 to 15 percent? We could phase out many superfluous programs like Medicare and Medicaid; privatize social security (see my attached plan), and cut pork.
It frustrates me to see my money going towards lawn mower races in Hoboken, New Jersey in the form of kickbacks… er, sorry, “Pork”… and it doesn’t matter how they get my money, just that they get my money irritates me.
Not to go off on a tangent, but regarding sales in general: The government wants control of your personal life. If they can’t micromanage your personal decisions via income tax deductions and breaks, then they will do it with a national ID card, required for all purchases that they deem interesting.
Think about it… an electronic record for the big brother attorney general’s office to look at and say, “Hmm… he checked out a book called ‘Understanding Islam’, time for a wire tap! Look! He also purchased a 24 pack of Trojans yesterday! Hey Alberto, get a kick out of this!
Either way, it is wrong. We need less government, and fewer laws, not more. A smaller government means smaller operating costs means lower taxes all by itself.

The Privatization of Social Security

The privatization of Social Security would be exceedingly simple, if we just go and do it. All payments into the system stop as of December 31, 2007. Whatever you have paid into it by that time, plus interest accrued on those funds while they were held by the government, are paid out to you upon retirement.
Haven’t paid any in yet? Then you never will, and you never will get any out.
What if I am 50, and want the full benefits of Social Security, OASDI, instead of only what I have paid in? Then, comes in option two: the government writes you a check equal to the amount you have paid into the system over your life, adjusted for inflation. Now, you can invest that money into whatever you like, let it earn you interest, and retire on that.
If you’ve paid in for the last 35 or so years, that should be quite a bit.
So in the end, everything is balance d out. Take what is in there, and send it back to those who have given it in the first place. If that person is deceased, then it goes to the spouse. If the spouse is deceased, then it goes to the general fund for use wherever Congress appropriates it.
Problem solved. People use their own money. If they are wise, and invest it, and save it, then they will have a comfortable retirement. If they are foolish, and do not, then it is not my fault nor problem when they have nothing to retire on.
When people spend their own money, they are responsible. When people spend other people's money, they are not. Give me my own money, and I'll spend it how I want.

The election results are in here in Idaho

And once again; we are arguably the most republican state in the nation.
The democratic revolution that has given the democrats control of the house and more representation in the senate has not made it's way to Idaho... and the reasoning is quite plain: Idahoans are more fundamentalist in their ideology than almost anywhere else in the nation.
I'm not saying that it is a good thing; I'm not saying that it is a bad thing. Personally, I'm not a huge fan of either party. However, what I do think is bad is the basis for the choices my fellow Idahoans are making.
Religion.
Many of the votes that went to the republicans yesterday were not cast for the candidate most qualified for the job (the incumbent state superintendent of public education who has been in the system for years was replaced by a republican challenger that has never taught); but the candidate that was most alligned with their religious zealousity (he said publicly that he supported having the bible in the classroom).
Let me say this once and for all... religion is fine, as long as it is kept in the church. What I do in my house (specifically say, the bedroom) or what you do in your house should stay there... it is not a matter for public or government concern. My "sins" do not affect you; your "sins" do not affect me. Period. And just because you hold something dear doesn't mean I do, and visa versa. Therefore, it is irrational and fascist to impose your particular sect of religion onto the rest of the country.
And saying that it is okay just because most of the country believes in it is a logical fallacy... argumentum ad popularum. Google it. Since it is a logical fallacy, you can not use that logic argument.
Ditto with, "that's how our country was founded." That is a fallacy as well; argumentum ad antiquatem.
There are no rational aguments to allow for religiously based laws.
We need fewer laws, not more.
And that's the final word.