tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8190325705234726468.post685564600121362538..comments2008-11-07T09:35:55.898-08:00Comments on Every Week Essay: Tax InequalityUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8190325705234726468.post-27928087490488834752008-06-04T13:15:00.000-07:002008-06-04T13:15:00.000-07:00Sometime you will have to tell me about this new p...Sometime you will have to tell me about this new political ideology of yours.<BR/><BR/>When I used to hear people talk about how the game had been fixed, I nodded and thought, "Yea, but that's history." I was thinking usually of historic repression of Africans and their decedents through slavery, women through social practices and property rights. I saw institutional racism dieing off. And I still think, overall, that these trends are ongoing and good.<BR/><BR/>But these issues distracted me from the less obvious game-fixing - tax structures, effects of regulation, zoning laws, etc. I didn't pay all that much attention to the details, and got caught in my mind where many people get stuck: Taxes, regulation, zoning, etc., are either good or bad. As you know, I never really believed these things should be abolished. I came to realize that things are not "free" or "determined by the government." There are always rules, codified or not. Perhaps "rule" is not the right word. "Freedom" as the stereotypical libertarian would have it is a type of relationship, a type of social compact, but a compact none-the-less.<BR/><BR/>But I was never really as aware as I have recently become of how bad some of these policies are implemented. Its not that I was completely unaware, but I wasn't as acutely aware as I am now. <BR/><BR/>With the coming energy shortages, I am currently looking at local government and communities for the answer. As much as I like him, I am still very, very skeptical that Obama can change the Federal government in a way that many people hope he can. If elected, I see him making great improvements in transparency and honesty (not that it will take all that much to improve on Bush), but at least for the next 5-10 years, I don't see any revolutionary changes coming from the federal level. We need a different method of drawing congressional districts and picking presidents to really help, but that's another subject. <BR/><BR/>Until then, I see many mayors and governors, along with local business interests and activists leading the way forward.Markhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08565266565590778100noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8190325705234726468.post-39981735258369458542008-06-02T23:51:00.000-07:002008-06-02T23:51:00.000-07:00These are exactly the kind of facts that made me b...These are exactly the kind of facts that made me blame the failures of capitalism on government interference when I was still feeling particularly Libertarian. I used to strongly believe that given fair taxation, less union resistance, and a more fair playing field between corporations and consumers that libertarians really had something going. However, while I am still concerned with these facts, I am able to see larger sociological forces at work and have changed my political ideology accordingly. <BR/>Anyway, back to the things that you were actually writing about:<BR/>it is amazingly disturbing how the current tax system in the US is extremely detrimental to the middle class. I think that arguments for decreased taxation on the rich fall apart rapidly under even a little scrutiny; by providing them the tax breaks, the government is merely insuring that those who already own everything will be the ones to continue to own the means of production and continue to be the investors or tomorrow's industries, thus insuring that the income gap continues to grow and that wage slavery becomes inescapable for the poor.Danielhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11427937207982606712noreply@blogger.com