How would our wise leaders of the past feel about the income tax and the FAIRtax?
Too often we neglect to check in with our history and wise elders of the past as it relates to solving today’s problems. Today we will focus in on the U.S. income and payroll tax system relative to the wisdom offered by some figures from our past.
Current State of Affairs
While our nation began by collecting sales and excise taxes on things like carriages, sugar and tobacco, our 108-year-old income and payroll tax system has turned into over 75,000 pages of court rulings, tax regulations, rules, forms, and legislation with approximately $1 trillion in annual illegal tax evasion. The income tax has ballooned the federal government in every shape and manner imaginable, including having 81,600 IRS employees as of 2021. Thomas Jefferson noted that “A government big enough to give you everything you want, is strong enough to take everything you have.”
Let’s call this our first inflection point as it relates to the wisdom of years past.
Our U.S. tax code is a labyrinth, a Frankenstein of regulations that is impossible to consistently and accurately decipher or apply. All of these facts prove that our tax code is truly a camel, and we all know that a camel is the result of government officials attempting to design a horse, by committee, as Sir Alec Issigonis once famously quipped.
“Government is a necessary evil in its best form, and an intolerable one at its worst.” Thomas Paine’s words are no less true today than when he uttered them 245 years ago. The question is where our current U.S. income tax system falls on this spectrum of government performance. Anyone who has had to deal with the myriad of IRS tax returns, forms, instructions, tax attorneys, or the IRS itself instinctively knows the answer to this question. Spoiler alert, the income tax falls on the intolerable side of this equation.
Do some politicians that propose the thousands of income tax law changes every two-year congressional cycle have good intentions? Surely some do even outside the distorted campaign contribution cycle of lobbyist-proposed tax law changes. However, Milton Friedman noted that, “One of the great mistakes is to judge policies and programs by their intentions rather than their results.”
The results of our income tax system- its size, breadth, bureaucracy, incoherence, astronomical annual evasion and everchanging lobbyist-promoted modifications, speak for themselves. We have essentially put our most precious and personal financial details on file with a government agency that offers virtually no redress of grievances, as guaranteed by the First Amendment. Perry Barlow famously said that “Relying on the government to protect your privacy is like asking a peeping tom to install your window blinds.”
One of the current system’s most egregious components is the regressive payroll tax that brings in approximately 40% of all U.S. treasury receipts, and in an outsized way, hurts the working poor tremendously. Abraham Lincoln said that “The best way to get a bad law repealed is to enforce it strictly.” That being said, it appears that there is more we must do to bring about an end to the income and payroll tax while simultaneously ushering in the simple, visible, and efficient FAIRtax. G.K. Chesterson said that, “Tolerance is the virtue of a man without convictions.” Given this truth, is it fair to ask whether we all have the proper convictions as it relates to our country’s system of taxation?
Going forward
Questioning our convictions can be humbling, but take heart, because there is a way forward! We have all heard the typical response we often get when speaking with someone about the FAIRtax for the first time - “That sounds great, but it’ll never happen.” That response lacks all passion, vigor, foresight and conviction. However, if it feels like we haven’t made enough progress, let’s use that feeling to motivate us, remembering that winners are losers who get back up. Don’t ever lose sight of the fact that we are promoting the best possible tax system relative to the income tax. And as great salespeople always say, it is easy to be a great salesperson when you have a great product.
Ralph Waldo Emerson said, “Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.” As we ring in 2022, let’s make the choice to create and leave a trail for the FAIRtax. C.S. Lewis said that “You can’t go back and change the beginning, but you can start where you are and change the ending”. Let’s all employ this mentality, doubling our efforts to educate others about the FAIRtax.
This will be important as we strategize how best to put appropriate pressure on our elected representatives and move them toward the FAIRtax. And understand that it is going to take some pressure. Merely presenting a good idea to them isn’t enough. Let’s all pledge to reach out to our Congressional representatives and encourage at least two friends to do the same. Espousing the benefits of the FAIRtax and pointing out the ridiculousness of the income tax must be an ongoing process. The pressure we must bring must relate directly to our representatives’ primary personal interest, which is most often their re-election.
Remember what Benjamin Franklin famously said about causing someone to act, “If you would persuade, you must appeal to interest rather than intellect.”
As we wrap up this halftime locker-room speech, let’s remember Nelson Mandela’s admonition that “It always seems impossible until it’s done,” and Eleanor Roosevelt who said, “Nothing has ever been achieved by the person who says it can’t be done.”
The FAIRtax will get done and the camel will be laid to rest!
CONCLUSION
What can each of us do?
We can write letters and make calls to our elected representatives and attend Zoom town hall meetings demanding that if they really want to allow Americans to “TAKE BACK CONTROL”, the first step is to eliminate the income/payroll tax system and enact the FAIRTAX!
We all should remember Edmund Burke’s warning that applies to our efforts to TAKE BACK CONTROL, “Nobody made a greater mistake than he who did nothing because he could do only a little.”
If you want to prevent the IRS from being further weaponized to punish those of us who may object to the D.C. opinions and dictates of what is good for us, then help us PASS THE FAIRTAX!
The IRS will be gone and we will pay our taxes when we make purchases. WE and not D.C. Elites will decide how much federal tax we pay!
If you have friends who don’t know about the FAIRtax, send them to FAIRtax.org. Have them watch the white boards under “How It Works” and, if they agree, ask them to please join us.
Then contact your Members of Congress and the President and demand that Congress pass -the FAIRtax—the only fair tax.
Remember, if we don't continue to tell the truth and demand a change, then this quote from George Orwell's 1984 may foretell our children's future:
“If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face—forever.”
Is it hopeless? When confronted with a seemingly impossible problem, remember the statement attributed to the author George Bernard Shaw who wrote, You see things; and you say “Why?” But I dream things that never were; and I say “Why not?”
Isn’t it time for us to ask, “Why not?”
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