Tax Reform (part one)

Grandpa was sitting at the computer one night composing a speech he was to give at the local Tea party gathering being held in the town near us. As I was reading it over his shoulder I couldn’t help wonder what he was proposing. The following is what I was reading to myself.

“My dear friends,

We are gathered here this day in protest. But saying that we are protesting the burden of taxes that the government has placed upon our shoulders isn’t enough. The only thing that shows is that we are nothing but complainers and whining. We need to let them know that certain taxing policies are unacceptable but we must be willing to defend ourselves by knowing and being able to declare why they are unacceptable.

What kind of taxes would I impose to support our governments? The question is not an easy one to answer. For, regardless of how you impose a tax, someone with a legitimate gripe will oppose it. The most common gripe is that it hurts the poor in some manner or another. We need to be able to address those concerns or have a good argument as to why those concerns are not valid.

In recognition of its necessity in a civilized society we must ask ourselves a couple of questions, the first one being, from where do all taxes derive? The simple answer to this is that all taxes are derived from the profits of private enterprises. Not a single penny of tax is derived from a public enterprise.

The next question would be, who pays all the taxes? The simple answer to this one is that the individuals of society pay all of the taxes imposed upon society, whether it is directly or indirectly.

If we, the people, are to be taxed then those taxes should be transparent and simple in form so that we can know exactly how much the government is depriving us of the fruits of our labor. Taxes should also be imposed equally so that the people are united in their cause rather than divided in their cause as the present structure does now. In other words we cannot allow our own personal greed dictate our cause.

As taxes are structured now it is the rich who are taxed. It is the middle class who is taxed and it is the poor who are taxed. The living and the dead are taxed. There are taxes on what the individual produces as well as taxes upon the labor that was expended on that production. Then to top it off there are taxes placed upon the sale of what the individual has produced. There are even some taxes that are paid on top of the taxes that we pay or have paid. Each are taxed differently and none are treated as individuals who works for their own betterment of life and the betterment of his family.

We must understand one more thing. If we are to recognize that it is the individual who pays all of the taxes then we must also understand that all taxes are a tax upon the assets of the individual regardless of how you define those assets. When we recognize and accept that then we can see that taxes has but one end result. It makes that individual poorer. This fact and this fact alone should demand that taxes should be uppermost in our thoughts when we demand transparency in government and demand it, we must.

So, from this we can see that if we want true tax reform we need seek a reform that encourages the betterment of those enterprises from which taxes are derived. We need reform that encourages those persons who pay those taxes to better themselves. We need reform that honors those that are successful and respects those who have succeeded but to a lesser degree. Envy and pity have no place in our governments.”

Then I heard grandma say, “Time for bed, boy” and grumbling a bit I stopped reading and said good night to each of them and headed off to my room with a promise to myself of getting up early so that I could finish reading grandpa’s speech.