Are Taxes Fair?

The single biggest thing our federal government could to improve the U.S. economy is the one thing they won't do; pass the Fair Tax. If you are unfamiliar with this plan, you really should read the two books on it.

This plan would encourage companies to locate here instead of abroad, by eliminating many of the deterrents (taxes) businesses currently have to pay. This would create jobs.

Let's face it, life is not fair and so we often don't care if the taxes unfairly take from those more fortunate than ourselves. But do you ever notice that the truly wealthy, those who seem to do okay no matter what the economic situation for the rest of us, never seem to be hurting all that bad? That's because we keep getting told that those EARNING really high salaries need to pay more taxes. The people who never seem to hurt are the ones who have so much money that they don't rely on earnings. They rely on investments, dividends or trust accounts, sources of income that do not rely on them trading their time for money. Most of us don't have that luxury.

I don't care if you are earning $25,000 or $250,000 per year, you earned that money. Our government should have no more right to a higher percentage just because you earned more. Think about it; if both of the above incomes paid 15% in income taxes, the lower salary would pay $3,750 and the higher would pay $37,500. Why should we tell the person already paying higher taxes that they need to pay even more?

If you notice, the federal government is the entity that never seems to do with less. They tell us they are, but they don't. They just borrow more or print more money.

I strongly encourage you to read the Fair Tax book and then contact your senators and congressmen, encouraging them to get onboard with this plan.

Right, Left or Wrong

I hear much of the bantering back and forth about Republican vs. Democrat, right vs. left, liberal vs. conservative and never hear many people from what I would call the middle. Here's where I stand on a few of the biggies;

PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY - I believe the lack of personal responsibility is more damaging to the United States than any other one thing.

GUN CONTROL - I believe in the constitutional right to bear arms, but I don't believe every person out there should be carrying the most advanced automatic weapons.

ABORTION - I would never want my family or friends to have an abortion, but I don't think it is my place to decide that for another person. I just don't want my tax dollars paying for it. I am absolutely disgusted with the "right-to-lifers" who stand on the public street with a 3'x4' poster of a dead fetus. Which leads us to...

FREE SPEECH - I'm all for it, but it doesn't mean anyone has to listen. Therefore, if you are an idiot don't be surprised if no one listens and don't try to legislate the requirement for others to do so.

GLOBAL WARMING/CLIMATE CHANGE - There are arguments on both sides of this from qualified scientists. Many years ago there were reports of a global cooling. The hysteria created by the politicians and news media is self-serving.

HEALTH CARE REFORM - There is no constitutional foundation for the government to get into this. 60 Minutes recently did a story on the BILLIONS of dollars in Medicare fraud. If our government can't get a hold on that, how will they manage a bigger program?

China vs. Unites States

Having spent two weeks in China recently I found some things profoundly different than I expected. Our two weeks were spent in Beijing, Nanchang and Guangzhou.

If you expect China to have lots of people wearing uniforms, riding bicycles and no cars, you would be disappointed. There are an increasing number of cars (especially Buicks), lots of motorized scooters and buses. You might also be surprised to see the large numbers of people riding their scooters with no helmets, many without working lights and forget the child safety seat, little kids are tied onto the back in a milk crate and sometimes asleep. Imagine the scene of an entire family of four riding through the busy intersection on one scooter and none wearing a helmet. Here in America we're worried that two tie-downs on the child safety seat aren't enough.

China didn't seem to have the great abundance of refrigeration that we enjoy here in America either. Therefore, many foods were delivered fresh to the store each day. I don't know that this made them any better, just an observation. It was also very common to see fancy new highrises where the clothes were hung on the balcony to dry. Don't try that here, lest the condo association have you hung from the balcony. The amount of western architecture starting to pop up there was a big surprise; whole condo communities that looked like they could have been in any U.S. city on a river.

Just as anywhere else in the world, there were trashy places and pristine ones.

While there is a great deal of polution in China, I couldn't help but wonder if China were becoming more like America used to be and America more like China used to be. Consider that we have so many government regulations and impositions that we're afraid to punish our children for fear that some do-gooder will take them away. We don't take responsibility for our actions; any accident must have a responsible party (other than ourselves) and we certainly don't want to manufacture anything in America; the only jobs worthy of our time must be high paying and not require us to break a sweat. Even if we were willing to manufacture a product here, the government dissuades businesses from operating here.

Do NOT misunderstand me, I love America and believe we are the greatest nation on earth. We feed more people, protect and defend more people and rescue more populations than any other country on the planet. I just believe the time has come for us to resume our greatness.

This blog may take a while to get running smoothly, but please be patient as I'm new to this.

I work a full-time job running my own small business and have a family. If you are anything like me, you are fed up with much of what we hear everyday and wonder what has happened to our country, our families and our time. Remember how computers would make our lives simpler? Remember how we were moving to a paperless society?

I will do my best to bring some simple and very obvious things to this blog that seem to get overlooked in the day-to-day rat race.

I hope you'll enjoy this and provide feedback when you are so moved.

Have a great day!