Different Slants

Sigh. It’s really depressing thinking about the mess we’re in, and the unlikelihood (given the political situation) that anything substantive will be done about it. For instance, here’s 10 things that I think would begin to turn things around. Read them and you tell me the likelihood that any of them will happen.

1. Return to America’s original foreign policy. George Washington warned against entangling foreign alliances. Then two world wars happened. After the first, we rejected the League of Nations and returned home. After the second, it’s an open question as to what the extent “the world” needed us to remain extended overseas to serve as a bulwark against International Communism. But what the heck are we doing, now? That doesn’t mean we can’t strike fiercely at dirtbags who blow up buildings. We did that to the Barbary Pirates in Thomas Jefferson’s presidency. But 1 Trillion dollars for nation building in Iraq? Are we nuts?

2. Get rid of the IRS. I favor a two-pronged approach to allowing the government to have a limited amount of revenue to do the few things it needs to do. One, repeal the 16th amendment and replace it with one that authorizes a flat, no deductions of any kind salary tax that is limited to under 10%. That should appeal to America’s religious roots as well — if God only gets 10%, government gets less. I say salary tax because I’d make employers pay it — no sense trying to police tips and cash income, it’s the IRS police state we’re trying to eliminate. As part of the new amendment, I’d put in a clause that says “under no circumstances will taxpayers be required to save and produce records of any kind for tax purposes”.  How liberating is that? To get more revenue, I’d institute a national VAT tax constitutionally limited to 10% with food and medicine exempted.

3. Treat energy independence like the Manhattan project. (That was the crash program during WWII to produce the atomic bomb just in case you didn’t know). The payment of hundreds of billions of dollars to purchase oil overseas is wrong on so many levels it’s hard to begin. We should tax the importation of oil (which will be ameliorated by the great reduction of income taxes) at least 30%.  All new home construction should have solar energy, etc. This is a no-brainer, isn’t it? Hybrids, biofuels, pebble-bed nuclear technology must be given Manhattan project importance and schedules for development. Then, our trade balance will improve and we can tell Middle Eastern insane countries to eat sand.

4. Institute real free trade. Not the so-called free trade that is anything but that which we have now. Many foreign countries refund the VAT to their companies which export goods. We should put a tariff in place that taxes those goods by the exact amount they get refunded. Many countries practice currency manipulation that pegs their own currencies to the dollar artificially low so that they can export easier. Again, a tariff which neutralizes that advantage would be in order. Many countries have labor and other costs which are extremely low in part because they exploit their own labor force (lack of rights and protections), and they allow environmentally harmful industrial policy. Tariffs to neutralize these are in order as well. Don’t get me wrong; I believe the ideal is truly free trade and open borders. But that is a long way off given the current state of the world. If we make it clear that as these impediments to real free trade are removed, our tariffs come down quickly and reliably, we can help bring about these good things to the rest of the world (and it’s cheaper than sending in the Delta Force, which is how we usually try to do it).

5. Decriminalize much. Look at Rick’s previous post on Amsterdam. Are they much worse off because they don’t try to throw hookers, drug users, etc. in the pen for draconian sentences? No, of course not. The best way to get rid of evil people capitalizing on prohibitions is to end the prohibitions. Did we learn nothing from prohibition of alcohol? Abolish the DEA.  Abolish the BATF. Let states decide what is acceptable public behavior.

I’ll give the other 5 ideas later. I’m still depressed over realizing that none of these things are likely to happen any time soon.