What the hell do I know?

Posted by Doodface

Wednesday, May 6, 2009

I may be naive, uninformed or just plain stupid, but it seems to me that there are certain things in this country that need to be done. Don't get me wrong, I think that Obama is doing a great job moving us in the right direction. I just think that there are some real obvious problems that just do not get addressed - ever.

I read an article today that Gov. Schwarzenegger is open to hearing the debate on legalizing marijuana. To me, this is a no-brainer. And I don't smoke pot. Lets break this down to the basic Pro / Con list:

Pros:

- 10's of billions of dollars in tax revenue every year
- Decreased crime
- Police focus switched to IMPORTANT law breakers
- Lowered prison population
- Government regulation assures "clean" product (no lacing)
- Government regulation assists reducing minor usage
- More jobs created to meet the demand
- Non-addictive
- Minimal medical risk
- People use marijuana as their end-of-day relaxing time, instead of alcohol - which is addictive and causes liver damage.
- Increased output of hemp - a "green" super-material
- Weed is from da erf! God put dis here for me - and YOU!


Cons

- Harder to regulate / test for DUI
- ???

I may be missing something here, but it seems kind of obvious. Legalization and heavy taxation of marijuana would be a very good thing for this country.


Speaking of obvious, why the hell does the IRS still exist? Oh right, because the people that need to change tax laws are the same ones that benefit from the dirty tax system. The lawmakers cater to lobbyists to assure tax loopholes, and receive bribes in exchange. So why would they ever want to get rid of this system?? If they truly had the country's best interest at heart. Yeah, I know. Good luck with that, right?

So we all know that the IRS is severely flawed. I don't think anyone is debating that. So then what is the alternative? The answer to that question is The FAIR TAX if you're asking me.

What is the Fair Tax? Here it is in a nutshell (blatantly stolen from www.fairtax.org):

The FairTax plan is a comprehensive proposal that replaces all federal income and payroll based taxes with an integrated approach including a progressive national retail sales tax, a prebate to ensure no American pays federal taxes on spending up to the poverty level, dollar-for-dollar federal revenue neutrality, and, through companion legislation, the repeal of the 16th Amendment.

The FairTax Act (HR 25, S 296) is nonpartisan legislation. It abolishes all federal personal and corporate income taxes, gift, estate, capital gains, alternative minimum, Social Security, Medicare, and self-employment taxes and replaces them with one simple, visible, federal retail sales tax administered primarily by existing state sales tax authorities.

The FairTax taxes us only on what we choose to spend on new goods or services, not on what we earn. The FairTax is a fair, efficient, transparent, and intelligent solution to the frustration and inequity of our current tax system.

The FairTax:

* Enables workers to keep their entire paychecks
* Enables retirees to keep their entire pensions
* Refunds in advance the tax on purchases of basic necessities
* Allows American products to compete fairly
* Brings transparency and accountability to tax policy
* Ensures Social Security and Medicare funding
* Closes all loopholes and brings fairness to taxation
* Abolishes the IRS

Imagine receiving your ENTIRE paycheck.

Imagine Drug dealers and illegal immigrants being required to pay taxes.

Imagine the cost savings without the lumbering behemoth IRS draining our economy.

Imagine there's no heaven.


Sorry.. Got a little preachy there.


On to another hot topic in the country - the economy. Everyone seems to be grasping for a way to jump-start the economy. OK, so we all know (or should know) what caused this. It boils down to a lot of irresponsible management of money - by both consumers and banks. The consumers over-extended themselves, and relied on credit to pay for things they could not afford. The banks knew this, but still made the loans anyways. They sold the loans as higher-quality than they were. The economy was running on fake money, and eventually it was going to pop. The major cause for the pop was the high-risk mortgages that increased interest rates (and minimum payments) at a later date. This allowed consumers to buy houses that they could not afford at a very low up-front monthly cost. Once the rates and minimum payments increased, these people could no longer afford their payments, and defaulted. And so the chain reaction started.

OK - so how do we fix it?

- Support the US economy
- Create government jobs
- Teach Americans to practice responsible money management

As you all know, the government has spent hundreds of billions of dollars trying to rectify the situation. They have sent us checks, they have bailed out banks, and bailed out automakers. Good, great, fantastic. It needed to be done - unfortunately. BUT it could have been done better.

Banks should have had requirements:
- Keep interest rates below a specific number (to support the american taxpayer)
- Create regulations on how high-risk debt is handled in the future
- Requirements for future on-hand reserves.
- Quarterly detailed reports to the government

Automakers should have had requirements:
- Immediately dump any brands or models that are not profitable
- Suspend pet projects / concept vehicles that are not scheduled to be released by 2011 (unless project results in a major fuel efficient vehicle)
- Provide major incentives to US consumers (such as the cover your payment plans they are doing now)
- Renegotiate union contracts to avoid further job loss
- Use temporary factory shut downs to lower overall production cost, while reducing outright firing employees
- Renegotiate supplier contracts (we're all in this together, if we fail / you fail)

Stimulus checks should have had stipulations:
- They should have been in the form of gift cards (so that people could not just stick it in savings)
- These gift cards should have only been usable at top US retailers and car dealers (for new cars only)
- Purchases should have been only allowed for "made in the USA" items.


The president and his staff should be preaching the tactics needed to resolve this (fiscal responsibility, buy American, etc.). The American citizen helped create this recession, and we need to be involved in the recovery.

OK.. I will step of the soap box now. I don't claim to know what the hell I am talking about, but in my head, these things seem obvious.