The Unnecessary Depression

Submitted by Bill St. Clair on Mon, 02 Feb 2009 11:39:30 GMT  <== Politics ==> 

L. Neil Smith has a simple solution to the world's economic problems: eliminate taxation as a concept, and stop printing money. But don't expect our "leaders", who are stupid, insane, or evil, to get a clue any time soon.

Government is doing the exact opposite of what really needs to be done. George Bush and Barack Obama have pumped trillions more in counterfeit currency and credit into an economy already deathly ill from such treatment. If it goes on, we stand to suffer hyperinflation (all inflation consists of, no matter what they told you in Economics 101, is government generation of phony money) followed by another, very possibly terminal depression. Before it's over, the country--if not the whole world--will be locked down under brutal military rule, and our species likely will never again know freedom, progress, or prosperity.

What needs to be done, instead?

It depends on how far you're willing to take it.

A real economy based on real wealth must be allowed to rebuild itself. Those participating in it must be able to do so with a degree of confidence that everything they've built, or will build in the future, won't be destroyed again by political barbarians and their hangers-on.

The place to begin is with an absolute tax amnesty, under which all past due taxes of any kind are considered paid in full, without penalty. This alone might be sufficient to slow the slide into the abyss, but we are looking for more, something that will reset the scale of events, swamping out the current mess with real wealth and productivity that will make the present downturn look microscopic by comparison.

Corporate and capital gains taxes must be abolished immediately and permanently, if the country is to rebuild its capital reserves. It always infuriates me to hear Americans criticized for not savng money. Remove the outrageous penalties for doing so, and record savings will commence. Those (like me) who are unfond of corporations should know that no corporation ever really pays taxes--their customers do--and that they'll be put in their proper place when we outlaw limited liability.

The next step must be a year-long tax holiday, during whch nobody is required to pay any taxes of any kind. Given a breather like this, the economy would likely return to full health, albeit on a temporary basis.

To make the cure permanent, we must eliminate taxes altogether. Taxes are a barbaric remnant of ancient times in which early farmers, tied to the land, no longer able to roam freely, unable to fight back with awkward agricultural tools the way they once could with hunting implements, became victims, first, of itinerant plunderers, then of bandits settling down beside them to become the governments we know today.

It's time to find another basis for society. What does it teach kids to learn civilization is based on theft? The news that serious minds all over are working on the problem, could create a boom by itself.

Add comment Edit post Add post