Thursday, March 12, 2009

A Proposal to End Our Economic Burdens Worth Reading

This excellent article came across my screen today, sent to me by the futurist John Partridge. The piece by Isaac Bickerstaffe makes such clear sense and its argument is so powerful that I decided to post it for all to read. I do not know Bickerstaffe but I am told he is a very forward thinking economist but rather modest so does not publish much which is ironic considering what he says here.

But this is an economic proposal that should be distributed. Please forward it to others so we might find a way out of the economic depression and perhaps even some of all the punditry that is eating away at our mental health, the economy, society and especially our children and their futures.




Don't Lower Taxes -

Do Away With Them To End Our Depression


Isaac Bickerstaffe, esq

Chief Economic Analyst
The Tattler Foundation



The relationship between no taxes and having more money to spend is unquestionable. The relationship between me and you spending more is key to the success of business and the economy. So, it logically follows that with fewer or no taxes, the more we can spend, the stronger the economy and the better off we will be.


The issue then is not how much we should cut taxes, but as swift Republicans like John Kasich ask, why have taxes at all? If we do away with taxes altogether, we could spend our way out of the depression. And can’t we all live without those wasteful government programs and services?


The 27 new Columbus,OH police officers that were hired with tax dollars, will they stop crime? NO!! We have had police as long as anyone can recall and we still have crime. Do firemen stop fires? NO! Do publicly-funded hospitals stop illness? Has Medicare made people healthy and ended death? Not at all.


Do we need public schools and colleges? Not really. Kids aren’t learning anyhow and so many of the teachers already buy the supplies needed in the classroom. Cooler classrooms save on heating costs and make sure the kids stay awake to learn.


There are excellent private colleges to go to if there were no tax dollars for public universities or community colleges. Besides, state schools are not turning out enough graduates anyhow. Just look where so many important discoveries and technology are coming from? India, China, even Europe. They can supply all the new ideas we need. And technicians? We even buy most of our weapon system components from foreign suppliers. We are importing all the stuff we need so why do we need colleges to turn out educated and trained workers? Private schools were good enough for our forefathers who built this country and should be good enough for our children too.


In fact, taxes contribute to our problems. For example, if there were no taxes for road maintenance, roads and highways would fall into disrepair and the potholes and crumbling roadways would make everyone slow down. This would all but end speed-related traffic deaths. Look how well this works when we don’t plow the roads to keep taxes low.


Health inspections of restaurants just adds to the closure of small business and add to their cost of doing business. Besides, just look at the peanut situation. Did tax-supported health inspections stop that? No the market did. A few people getting very sick, I forget if anyone died, did more than any food inspectors.


Same with building inspectors. They just add to costs of building and rentals by demanding that places be up to code and “safe”. When they close up places because they are inhabitable, does that help business? If a building falls in or catches fire from poor or illegal construction or wiring, doesn’t that destruction erase the problem itself?

Has a new tax-supported stadium or arena made your favorite team a winner?


In fact, taxes do little but create problems. Trash and garbage pickup just give people excuses not to re-cycle. Tax filtered and treated tap water just encourages people to drink too much and bathe more than is necessary. We even have tax built and supported places where sewage is collected and allowed to sit in large tanks creating a health hazard. How disgusting. We have sewers and drains that could simply just dump that all in the river.

Civic organizations just encourage people to get together and find out what else they want to make their lives better and longer. That costs more money. Athletic centers encourage people to engage in sports which makes them get hurt at times thereby leading to more health costs. People who sit and watch TV all the time do not get ankle injuries.


Taxes for prisons just give judges somewhere to send guilty people. No taxes for prisons, fewer criminals and prisoners. No taxes, there would be no tax cheats or fraud. No taxes, no public offices, so no corrupt politicians to jail.


Nationally, having armed forces just leads to wars which cost more taxpayer dollars. If there were no army, we would not be in Iraq!


I am sure you have examples too and I hope you find this modest proposal to have merit and support those who oppose all taxes. But if you do not agree, do not simply waste my and others' time with foolishness such as suggesting that the administration's package should be given more time to work.


And please do not just say I wrote this because I will be in those who have succeeded in our society and make so much money that my taxes will go up. Yes, my tax bracket places me in the group that will have to pay more but fear not, I have accountants who can find the loopholes so I do not pay taxes this year either. It is with full sincerity that I can say I have not the least personal interest in endeavoring to promote this necessary work. The only motive I have is the public good of my country.I have not had to pay taxes for the past eleven years so there is nothing in my proposal for anyone to attack me for personal gain by it.


-END OF ARTICLE-


Okay, if you are like me and you feel there is a message in here that should be read by others please, by all means, forward it to others so it can gain fullest exposure. Thanks. And feel free to comment on it here too!

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Please, please tell me that you aren't actually serious. You do understand that it takes money to run a government, right?

Are you really stupid enough to believe that if every police department disbanded tomorrow, there wouldn't be any resultant increase in crime--both in quantity and severity?

Please tell me you're not *that* stupid.

Anonymous said...

By the way, don't you find it odd that the only mentions that I can find of this "Isaac Bickerstaffe" in a cursory Google search are either a pen name for Johnathan Swift or an eighteenth century Irish playwright? Where did this Isaac Bickerstaffe get his economics degree?

TimB said...

Jack,
Makes sense to me. If yoiu couldn't call the police, what would you do? Protect your self!

Unknown said...

If, indeed Bickerstaffe was a pen name for Jonathan Swift, then I can only hope that this essay was written in the same satirical spirit as Swift's "A Modest Proposal" where he suggested that a solution to the problem of overpopulation was for the poor to sell their children to be used for food for the rich.

GreatServiceMatters said...

Since Dr. Bickerstaffe does not use a computer, he asked me to reply. It is possible that he is related to the Bickerstaffe mentioned in the comment but this Bickerstaffe is very much alive.

As Dr. Bickerstaffe’s amanuensis and personal assistant for many years, I can state for certain that one will not find him on Google, Yahoo nor any internet search engine. As I stated in the introduction to his proposal, Dr. Bickerstaffe is extremely modest and has spent his career eschewing all publicity. He believes that publicity and recognition are major corruptions to scholarship and erudition. They are sought by those who seek vain-glorious ego stroking or mass media power. Dr. Bickerstaffe has noticed such in some professors who gave up sincere scholarship for the illusory momentary recognition as a media pundit. He seeks no such acknowledgment. That is why though he graduated from three world famous universities, he never sought a post in one. He did not want the tenure process nor academic politics to compromise his work.

As for the Tattler Foundation, there are many such organizations founded as tax shelters for wealthy individuals and corporations. These allow them to maximize the amount of money they can keep while appearing socially magnanimous. Most prefer to not be known until there is a particular reason to publicize the existence of the magnanimous foundation. Dr. Bickerstaffe neither minds being kept in his current position by one nor being a member of the founding family of the foundation. It, like he, does not appear on Google.

Moreover, this is the first piece he has put forward under his own name. He places that much import on the ideas. Normally, he has been able to find universities and ersatz researchers eager to take his work and money to publish under their names. He says he learned this while a graduate student when his work formed the core of a very popular book that established well the career of one of his doctoral advisors.

Anonymous said...

I suspect that Dr. Bickerstaffe is possible a descendant of the English dramatist.. and possibly you who write here for him a pseudonym.... I also suggest you draw from works of an overpriviledged, wealthy 18th century writer who sounds much like the Scrooge from that same period. Government is necessary because of the mentality of the wealthy to keep their wealth all to themselves and let the poorest among us just suffer and die. Where would you all be without the working class and poor to do yooru work.... God knows you don't do any!