Why doesn't the US government contract out to have all of its land in Nevada turned into one giant solar panel farm (or whatever the right terminology is). Maybe this could be done for $10-20 billion. I would think all those square miles of panel collecting solar power could satisfy a lot of the country's electricity needs and change the entire dynamic of the problem. The nature of the location is such that no one's life would be disrupted. When its done the electricity would seamlessly originate from a different source.
Why doesn't the US government farm out things like department of health, education and just about everything else to the state level? They could provide the money but shut down their offices, give the employees two years salary as a severance and save quite a bit of money I suppose.
The department of defense would be an exception as would energy and treasury. There may be more that should be excluded from this big shut down but these are the first three that come to mind.
Why don't we have a flat tax? How about we pay nothing on the first $35,000 and 7% on everything above $35,000? No deductions, no exemptions, no capital gains, no AMT, no nothing.
The form might look like this;
What did you make_________
Subtract $35,000 _________
Multiply by .07 _________
Send it on in _________
That would be the entire form. Maybe it should be $40,000 and 8%? The billions spent on IRS that would be saved might help shrink the deficit.
Why don't they teach kids in high school how to balance a checkbook, fix a toilet, change the oil, mix concrete, use credit wisely, hammer a nail properly, gun safety (this can be done without any guns in the classroom), how to iron a shirt and the absolute basics of personal finance.
This post is more tongue in cheek than anything else, I certainly have knowledge gaps on these things but still, I'm just saying.
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22 comments:
I'm not sure what to think about using Nevada as a solar panel but the rest of your rant sounds like me. Just ask my wife.
Ron Paul.
I'd be afraid of losing the solar heating of the land. Everything we do on such large scale has an equal "echo" that we don't understand.
I agree about the Federal government should be turning over the funds to the state level. Not that the states run things great, but better than the Federal.
As for the list of things to teach in school... where are the parents in this? I can't teach biology, chemistry, algebra, geometry, calculus (although I did take them all). But I can make sure my kids have changed the oil, changed a tire, and balance a checkbook.
However, for a rant.. it was a good one! Enjoy the rest of the holiday weekend.
The Democrats would never be in favor of your proposals, as your ideas would practically eliminate the "victim" scam which is a large part of their constituency.
as a teacher, i'm all for the 'realistic' education of our students. i wish someone taught me the basics about personal finance and investing when i was 15 years old. i'd be so much ahead with my investing now!!
also being from HK, our tax system is more or less like you said. it took me 15 mins to file my tax info last year..gotta love the flat tax and no capital gains tax:)
I do not count on the sheep of society to educate my kids as they are home schooled. They are taught the basics of manners, initiative and responsibility. Aside from balancing a checkbook, how about learning to work for something without doing a shady deal?
Let’s face it; the US Feds should also take over the airlines. I flew US SC”Air” this past week out of LGA and I it very well could have been an old Russian Aerflot as the service was horrible and plane itself was dirty and disgraceful. The airlines seem to get bailed out about every 7 years by……anyone…anyone…Yes the US Tax payer. An once we bail them out they can start the cycle all over again.
I have to laugh at someone having to bring the democrat-republican argument into Roger’s Rant. It just illuminates the real sheep of this society who cannot notice the fact that both the republicans and democrats run the same show. When will the people of this country realize that the two party systems is nothing but a façade for the rich to protect their own interest?
I AM ALL FOR THE FLAT TAX :)
Bravo! You have way too much common sense to be a politician. Sorry. There's no class and race warfare to be had if things were run that way. This is the basis of political power. Also, the original intention of our founding fathers was for a very small federal government and for most things to be run out of local and state governments. That's been turned on its head, obviously.
Also, you may want to consider the FairTax over the flat tax proposal. fairtax.org has a lot of info.
Yup. Our edumacation and horrific tax system are two reasons for our relative decline. I'd add in imperial overstretch. All empires decline because the king needs more and more gold for his distant wars.
As far as solar goes, some sort of centralized thing like that doesn't seems as plausible as something more distributed: solar panels on top of every house and building. Make them so they look exactly like shingles or whatever everyone is used to. Sort of like how hybrids used to look goofy but now look ok.
Nice rant.
During my large urban hs principal years,I requested a required one semester course in basic finance living skills as a requirement for graduation. The State Department of Education rejected the course and requirement. Why? Because they did not offer teacher certification in basic finance, the business certification did not cover that area and therefore it could not be taught. I then submitted a proposal to teach the course myself in a seminar because as a Principal I could technically teach any class - but the teacher's union filed a grievance.
It is my understanding that today less than 5% of public high schools offer a basic finance course as an elective.
Off topic,Ron Paul is interjected into commentary from time to time. Is he related to Rue Paul, the transvestite stripper who had a television show a few years ago? Are they one and the same?
Ron Paul is one of the 4 or 5 conservatives left in the Republican party. As such he is even more of a oddity than Ru Paul. Looks like a Solon compared to Multiple Choice Mitt or Benito Giuliani.
In the spirit of bipartisanship, President Hillary is going to make me seriously look into moving to Australia.
Mike Gravel supports flat tax. I agree with you Roger on just about everything you wrote.
Liked your rant, especially about schools. I was educated in Germany and observed the same thing. No teachings about checkbooks, basic investing or even knowledge about the financial markets; Let alone other functional things that just about every guy I met here in the U.S. knows: How to fix a car.
thank you for all the great comments.
this things are all more about an attempt at common sense things, even if they are flawed.
simple is much better.
You sound like a candidate to fill in for Andy Rooney .... thanks!
Roger.
Please let me know when your ideas here cease to be a 'humor attempt' so that I can start my "Roger Nusbaum for President" campaign.
(Maybe we can get some of your buddies in New York that run hedge funds to finance the campain. You know; out of their pocket change.)
Please send me a usable photo so that I can change my current campaign idea:
http://www.nobodyforpresident.net/
Power from solar panels is dramatically more expensive than any other generation source you care to name. Turning Nevada into a solar panel farm would dramatically increase power costs in the US. Furthermore, you would have significant transmission problems in moving the power to the load. This is a pretty terrible idea.
The rest of your rant sounds pretty good.
The most serious proposal for a flat tax was put out Dick Armey back in 1997 (He introduced a bill, that died of course).
I'm afraid that the numbers he and his staff and consultants came up with is a bit larger than the ones you (I know, semi-humorously) offered.
For a flat tax to be revenue neutral, i.e. not a tax cut, it would have to initially take 20% of all income past a personal deduction of $13,100 and $5,300 for each dependent. Income would include all wages, salaries and pensions. His idea was that eventually the rate would fall to 17% assuming that government spending was effectively frozen (only rising for inflation adjustment). The deductions mentioned above would the only allowable ones.
For the bottom two-fifths of households, this plan would have been a tax break, and also for the top fifth. The 40% in between would probably see a net increase in federal taxation. A majority of Americans would be better off, but the core of the middle-class would be hurt. As they say, that pig ain't gonna fly...
But, his idea to apply a flat rate to corporate taxes (the same rates as for individuals) is an interesting notion. It would eliminate most federal business subsidies, and make American corporations more competitive internationally.
Love the Rant. How come I never get to sit by guys like you on a plane? I went to the libertarian party a couple years back (USA). I got to the point where I could not tell an elephant from a donkey. I wish I did not need to use a CPA either, but, property, biz income etc force me to... but with my 2nd CPA in as many years the IRS sent me a correction letter. What am I paying these guys for?! Flat tax or fair tax, either would be a big improvement. Mikey
I like the fair tax better because it removes the invasive income tax. With the income tax, the government gets way too much into my business for my comfort level. The fair tax gets moved from income to spending. I think saving should be rewarded, not punished.
The benefit of our current tax structure is that it allows the government to incentivize behaviors that most of society deems important rather than mandate it. It is much better the government reward me for making a charitable deduction via a tax credit than mandate it or worse, raise taxes to account for the deficiencies left when unincentivized giving fails to meet the needs of society. Just because the current tax system has major flaws doesnt mean it should be junked entirely.
My problem with the flat tax is not with its flatness, but that it is tough to define income, and that is what adds the pages onto the tax forms. Now, granted, by taxing at multiple rates, varying by class of income, and trying to implement social policy through the tax code, the problem is made worse, but the central problem is defining income.
An income tax, unlike a sales tax, is fair. We benefit from society in proportion to the increase in our net worth. We should not want the government to favor saving over spending... that's just another aspect of government interference in our lives. Saving is most effective when fully voluntary... and even for societies, overly high savings rates are bad things... it leads to overinvestment and malinvestment, as happened in Japan and the former Soviet Union.
I appreciate your rant, though, and wish we could just go back to the Tax Reform Act of 1986. Simplest code we have had in decades.
My own crazy proposal on taxation can be found here. It will never happen, but it would be fair.
We have a flat tax. It's called the Payroll Tax. It's flat and it’s - mostly - used to cover the annual deficit.
Another flat tax we have is the Alternative minimum tax. Folks on The Right complain that "the Liberals" put it in tio soak the rich but now – if they didn’t “fix” it each year - they’re soaking the Middle class. Bbut the Right has tinkered with it and increased (e.g. Reagan did, and he increased the payroll tax tax too.)
The other problem is the flat tax is what does it solve? You can't calculate a progressive rate if you make 50K then another at 100K and another at 200K etc.? What's so hard about that? What you really mean is tax simplification. How about a ten year phased in dollar for dollar reduction of the payroll / income tax and replaced with a carbon tax?
I agree with the GOP/Dems thing earlier. The problem with people who love one party or the other is their emotions. They tend to shade the importance of and issue and say one thing about "their" party and a different thing in the same situation for "the other" party. The parties are marketing machines.
Solar idea doesn't work, since there is a transport problem and it's not cheap power, but also because there is a huge shortage of solar cells.
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