Political translation

If you read any political commentary, if you follow the news at all, if you pay any attention to the running of our country, you are aware that our nation is extremely divided, possibly more so than at any time since the Civil War. The conversations between liberals and conservatives, when they happen at all, are about as useful as having someone who only speaks English trying to carry on a conversation with someone who only speaks Chinese. Over time the English and Chinese speaker could find ways to communicate, but unless forced to they would probably get so frustrated that they would just give up before that happened. This is where we are in the US right now. Conservatives and liberals speak different languages even though they are using the same words. If our nation is to effectively move forward we have to find a way to understand each other. Well let me start trying right now.

I want to take one issue that there seems to be some agreement on and see if we can build from there. The issue I think we should start with is tax policy.

National polls are now showing pretty strong agreement that we need to change our tax policy. People on the right and left both seem to agree that we need to make our tax system more fair. The question is, what is "fair"?

Those of us on the left think it is unfair that a few individuals are multi-billionaires and control so much of our economy while others are working but still having a hard time keeping their families housed and fed. We look at fairness as a matter of proportion. We don't mind that some have more than others, but to us it seems unfair that some have more than they can ever use while others have nothing.

On the right fairness has a different meaning. If there is a set of rules that we all have to follow, and we all follow them then fairness will be the outcome. If you work hard and follow the rules you will succeed and prosper, this is fair. If you don't work hard or try to cheat the system you won't succeed and should have to deal with the ramifications of your decisions. This also seems fair. Income inequality is not a problem to be fixed by rigging the system, it is a problem to be fixed by having individuals realize that they are responsible for their prosperity or lack there of.

We all want our tax system to be fair but we have two different definitions of fairness. Lets see if I can't translate my liberal beliefs on taxation into a language that speaks to my conservative friends.

When we talk about raising taxes on the wealthy the question always comes up, is that fair? Well no, it isn't. What it costs you to be part of our system shouldn't be decided by how much you earn. If a millionaire and a school janitor both walk into McDonalds and each purchase a Big Mac they will both pay the same price. That is unmistakably fair. SO why should the millionaire have to pay a higher tax rate? Well think about it this way, if the janitor buys a Big Mac, but the millionaire travels further down the street to a restaurant where he enjoys a porterhouse steak and escargot, shouldn't the millionaire pay more for his meal?

What we pay shouldn't be based on what we make, it should be based on what we receive. Look at it this way, almost all of us use the roads in our country and almost all of us pay taxes for the construction and maintenance of these roads. Our janitor friend uses the roads to travel back and forth to work, if he is lucky he might be able to use the roads every few years to take his family on vacation, and of course he uses the roads to go back and forth to places like McDonalds and the grocery store. Our roads make his life better and easier, he receives direct and indirect benefits from our roads (there are things to buy at the grocery store because trucks used the roads to bring the items to the store). Since he receives benefits from the roads it is only fair that he helps pay for the roads, but what about our millionaire friend? It is easy for most of us to see the benefits our janitor friend receives from using our roads, are the benefits any different for the millionaire?

Let's imagine our millionaire. He studied hard in high school and was able to get into a really good university. He left the university and worked hard at a company and moved up through the ranks. With his official education and the continuing learning he did in his work he felt that he was ready, took out some of his savings, got a loan, and opened his own business. His business was very successful and grew to the point that he had a large number of employees and a large number of stores selling his products. So how does this relate to roads?

Without our roads our millionaire friend wouldn't be able to easily get his products to the stores that sell them. Without our roads our millionaire's employees wouldn't be able to easily get to work. Without our roads there would be no place to put the billboards he advertises on and he would have to increase his ad budget to cover TV commercials. Without our roads the people buying his products wouldn't be able to easily get to the store to buy his products. Oh yeah, our millionaire also uses the roads to get himself to work, to the grocery store, and to take his family on vacation.

It is obvious that our millionaire is getting a steak dinner out of our roads while our janitor friend is only getting a Big Mac. What we pay shouldn't be determined by what we make, but by what we get. Our millionaire also benefits from the public school education most, if not all, of his employees received. He also benefits from government funded research which allows him to improve his products. Our millionaire receives more from our collective tax dollars than our janitor, so shouldn't he pay more?

Of course there are those that find themselves supported by our social safety nets who are receiving more than the average person. In theory they should pay more as well, sadly that would be like trying to get blood out of a turnip. They can't pay what they don't have. This is an unfortunate complication, but we have to play the cards our society was dealt.

So should we raise tax rates on the wealthy? Probably. We must first look and see if they are paying a price relative to the value they are receiving when compared to the other tax payers across our nation. We might also want to look at why we tax wealthy individuals who don't really work for their money at a lower rate than those who put in a lot of long hours to be successful (think of people like Paris Hilton, what is it she does for her money? And the tax rates that some wealthy individuals pay on income generated for them by hedge fund managers and investment bankers, others are doing all the work, they just reap the benefits and then get taxed at a lower rate for it). We can fairly raise taxes on the wealthy and if we can we probably should. Have you seen our national debt lately?