When I worked for a management consulting company, I discovered that when tax laws were being proposed, companies like the kind I worked for helped craft the laws or at least lobbied for wording in the law.

After the new tax laws were put into effect, management consulting companies could then sell their services to clients (BigCo’s) to find ways to end-run the new tax implications using the built-in loopholes.

I came to realize that as long as the IRS system is in-place, all tax laws will have loopholes. The only way to eliminate loopholes is to have a tax system where everyone pays taxes that earns any kind of income starting at $1.00. No exemptions, no tax deductions, no loopholes.

The trick is to find a way to generate the the funds this country needs for itself.

I realize people have different views of what this country needs. Some would want drastic reductions in some programs and huge increases in others. But that’s a different debate.

As a corollary, I came up with this idea for voting in national elections to determine the focus of expenditures…

Let’s just focus on voting for a President. As it stands today, a President is elected and begins to work on the platform they were elected upon.

Instead, we vote for a person to be President and we also vote and rank up to 100 areas we want the person elected as President (no matter who it is) to work on those 100 ranked areas. The 100 areas are somehow correlated and ranked according to the popular submitted selections in the final vote tally

In that way, regardless of who is President, they have to follow the popular will of the majority of the people for the top 100 areas of citizen interest in the order of priority 1 to 100 of that list.

I doubt this election process will happen, but that’s my 2 cents on the way the process should work, in my humble opinion.

Don

I can imagine a system in which everyone earning (regardless of the source of income) between $x1 and $x2 pay y1% toward their medical care until the premium is paid. Thos earning between $x2 and $x3 pay their full premium plus y2% toward Social Security (or, perhaps, whatever replaces it) until that is paid up. Those earning more than $x3 pay their full medical and S.S. premiums plus y3% to the general fund. Any kind of tax breaks or deductions apply only after emdical and S.S. is fully paid. A flat tax on income sounds fine to me. The simpler, the better.

Rick

Yes I would include prescription drugs, vision care, and basic dental care as part of the plan. I would also include mental healthcare and treatment forr substance abuse. The plan would not include coverage for optional tratments such as cosmetic surgery, hair transplant, etc.

Rick

In our current tax system, we allow certain groups of people to avoid taxes. Some are very rich, some are very poor. But, people in those groups use services, so they should pay taxes.

The issue is how to have people pay taxes. I’m for a flat tax or a value-added tax and eliminate the IRS.

I don’t know how to manage the health system. I’ve seen too many government programs misused and mismanaged including fraud on a huge scale.

Don

Does the Munden Plan include these three items or are they considered to be the individuals responsibility? A person who needs any of the three items above, and doesn’t receive them could quickly become a public burden instead of a contributor to the common pool. Do you agree?

I would like to read your thoughts about this, please.