tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20417751.post808044004432058371..comments2024-01-22T18:22:29.391-08:00Comments on hedera's corner: Beer Taxhederahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01696592301686568456noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20417751.post-23909454684607641802008-04-30T08:50:00.000-07:002008-04-30T08:50:00.000-07:00How's this for science fiction: If you never got ...How's this for science fiction: If you never got to see the same person twice? A life of inexhaustible ennui.<BR/><BR/>Who wants to prevent twins? <BR/><BR/>China got it right. But they probably started too late. They're busy screwing up their country, even if their population does stabilize.Curtis Favillehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06213075853354387634noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20417751.post-19188061213306467392008-04-29T15:37:00.000-07:002008-04-29T15:37:00.000-07:00How are you going to prevent twins?How are you going to prevent twins?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20417751.post-77467577432116101072008-04-26T19:26:00.000-07:002008-04-26T19:26:00.000-07:00I think the problem here is that we're using an ar...I think the problem here is that we're using an argument "against" underage drinking and logically challenged college students to support a regressive tax. I'm certainly not in favor of "no taxes"--but taxation has limits.<BR/><BR/>Our society has allowed itself to become bankrupted by allowing big capital to chase profit margins outside our borders. It has even been led to encourage this process by giving perks and incentives to do so. This has had the predictable effect of squeezing the tax rolls across the spectrum, from the corporate and business sector, right down to the garbage man. The real percentage of GNP subject to tax has been shrinking in real terms for at least four decades. That means that no matter how fast we increase tax rates, no matter what we tax, we can't keep up with the ordinary expenses government--at al levels--became accustomed to funding over that same period. And to top it off, of course, Republicans have been steadily trimming the obligation of the rich and super rich, while enforcement of existing tax laws has been allowed to languish. <BR/><BR/>In other words, no matter how big the deficits become at any level of government, they'll never be able to tax what is left of the running economy to make up that difference. <BR/><BR/>It's another way of saying that the wealth of the planet, which is finite, has undergone a titanic shift. Americans must realize that because we no longer produce things, no longer generate products in significant numbers, we'll no longer be a well-off society. Everything we depend upon--schools, roads, police protection, social welfare, etc.--is going to decay. It's inevitable.<BR/><BR/>So taxing beer, or taxing gas, or taxing the freeways, or taxing the lady who paints your nails, at whatever rate, isn't going to "save us" from this dilemma. <BR/><BR/>We have to acknowledge that in order to preserve the standard of living to which we had become accustomed during the immediate post-War period, we're going to have to legislate--or mandate--capital investment AT HOME. We have to say to capital, simply, if you screw Americans in their jobs and health care and pensions and environment, you won't thrive. <BR/><BR/>I sincerely doubt that we have the political will to bring this off. In the meantime, though, there is more or less general agreement, that as the pot shrinks, the pigs will get leaner, and the belts will be cinched tighter.<BR/><BR/>I'm entering my dotage. Like everyone else, I want to grab as much of life as I can before I leave, and if that means enjoying the fruits of the last vestiges of a dwindling prosperity that I'm legally entitled to, I'm going to do it. I'm not going to enter the Peace Corps and go to Africa to teach English or how to dig a decent well. We already pay something like 40% of our income to taxes, and I'm not counting the sales and homeowner taxes and use fees and all the other nicks and chisels that we get hit with. <BR/><BR/>Taxing beer? Come on, guys. We've tried legislating morality before. It doesn't work. I'm certainly no Republican. But beer is the least of the world's problems. Let's bite the bullet and admit that our society's tax systems are completely fucked up; let's get back to a graduated, indexed, system, and make business pay its share. <BR/><BR/>If you walk the street they'll tax your feet....<BR/><BR/>In the meantime, one child per family, for every couple on the earth. That's for starters.Curtis Favillehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06213075853354387634noreply@blogger.com