Government 2.0

Partialartist

So, I tend to write things when I'm in an altered mind state. Usually, it's stupid stuff like this.

If we legalized gay marriage and polygamy, the entire country could get married and receive a huge tax break.

But I wrote something down, the other day, that was somewhat interesting. I had been hearing about various proposals for tax reform, and they all had problems. I took 2 that had aspects that I liked, and put them together. This is what I came up with.

Hybrid Fairtax/LVT/modified Personal Accounts plan: Fairtax people and Georgists both know the reasons and benefits of their supposed plans. They should also be aware of their drawbacks.

For the Fairtax, it's that it creates the possibility of the the minority of the population with the majority of the wealth having the power to halt the entire economy, by simply not spending anything. It also doesn't do anything to help the squeezing of the middle class, which can be partially attributed to the constant increase in the cost of housing. This includes renting and house mortgages, plus paying a premium on improvements to the premises. They would get squeezed more if the upper crust started spending more conservatively, which would eventually create a distinct upper/lower class separation. Also, there's the fact that consumer expectation will force a stifling or reduction of wages, which makes living on the lower level harder and harder.

For the LVT, it's that it encourages increasing the value of the land above all else, especially with a greedy government. This could result in the systematic removal of all parks, playgrounds, non-profit monuments and museums, to make way for more profitable usage of the land. This is frightening, because when you remove parts of our history, parts of the ecosystem that allows us to survive, the means to explore and discover your abilities early in life, and various forms of expression, you essentially shrink the world to the uninitiated mind. This puts knowledge at a premium, which leads to strict class separation, much like the Fairtax. It also makes it infinitely easier to control a population and sway it towards your purposes.

I believe that by combining these two plans, and adding a newly modified Personal Account plan, which was origin proposed as an answer to the problem of the broken Social Security system, it's possible to counteract the negative effects of both plans and create major positives.

If you split the revenue brought in by both taxes, you cut the percentage of each tax, which is not only a psychological benefit, but reduces the negative effects of each tax. The lower Fairtax will get more people purchasing and the the lower LVT will make it bad to hold a monopoly of the land (which is the source of a lot of the wealth disparity and class squeeze, due to the increase in land value and rent, which is what Georgism seeks to counteract), but keep it profitable to own and develop land at a responsible pace. This only works with the Personal Account plan.

The plan is to put the prebate of the Fairtax into the account, along with a social security payment and an equal share of the revenue from the LVT. At first it sounds like robbing from the rich and giving to the poor without warrant, but listen to the reasoning why this isn't the case, and how this will lead to a more prosperous nation.

The justification for Georgism lies in the right to life, which is a societal axiom that can be empirically reasoned. Over the ages, this concept has been excepted and expressed in many cultures, religions and languages. The right to life implies the right to occupy space and move about the land. It implies that the owner of land may have property rights, but not total autonomy over the usage of the of the land, such as turning his or her land into a minefield. The land ultimately belongs to the entire country. We pay taxes to the government to protect it and improve it. This is summed up in one of our nation's songs.

“This land is your land, this land is my land. From California, to the New York Island. From the Redwood forest, to the Gulf Stream waters. This land was made for you and me.”

Having a monopoly on the land and increasing the cost to occupy it forces work more and more in order to live. Those with the land are in the best position to manipulate the government, ride out depressions purchase foreclosed lands, increasing their monopoly and essentially enslaving those who weren't fortunate enough to be born to land owners. To counteract this you tax the increase in value of the land and divvy it up, in order to make it harder for the people at the top to leave out the people at the bottom. It allows those who can help grow the economy to do so without being overly burdened by the ever-increasing cost of living.

Since the land is communal and the sales tax is blind, it's possible to do an even split of the prebate, the social security benefit and a portion of the LVT. It makes sense when you understand the purpose and direction of the plan. The goal is to get the government to reduce its budget to essential programs, which will be paid for by the Fairtax, and have all of the pet projects to become electives, which people will be able to voluntarily contribute to as one of the many options of their personal accounts.

Each person will have to register to receive benefits. This can be done by modifying the current Social Security system, and continuing to use the numbers. People will be able to take the money in their accounts and let it sit until they retire, invest in the stock market, withdraw and spend it, or donate it to various elective government-approved programs. Proposals for funding consideration will have to be approved by the house and the senate and meet federal standards, including having a statement of purpose, breakdown of the costs, overhead analysis, and the ability to demonstrate to auditors that the money they are receiving is being used for the intended purpose(s). People will be able to access their account online or receive a monthly paper statement via USPS, receive information on the various organizations that have program proposals, and choose how much they want to donate to each cause.

Children are given accounts that can't be touched by anyone, including their guardians, until they reach the age of majority. This will give them a startup fund, which they can use to pay for whatever they may need. They might use it to help pay for school or blow it on something stupid, but the key is that their chance at a future won't be taken away by the failures or incompetence of their parents.

This program will be available to all citizens, native or naturalized. This means that money gets added to the economy by immigration and tourism, which encourages immigrants to seek citizenship and creates an incentive to improve things to attract more tourists. Basically, we'd make money by making the country a better place to visit and to ultimately live. People will have direct control over the development of the country and the government can return to its intended purpose, which is mediating and making sure that everything runs smoothly. People will be personally responsible for their success and failure, as well as their standard of living. Those that are good with money will still end up top, and those that are so bad with it that there's no helping them will fall to the bottom.

The amount given should follow the Warren Buffet analogy. Give them enough that they can do anything, but not so much that they can do nothing. It'll reduce the need for Welfare, which can be turned into a 1-time, 1-2 year Welfare-to-Work program, which will further lower taxes. It makes peace and growth profitable, encourages the building of monuments and fantastic art exhibits, which we can use to create a cultural image and spread our cultural hegemony across the globe. It'll push for sustainability, since we want to keep our land for as long as possible. Hopefully, we can create a global peace and send all of our nukes to Mars, to see if we can get its core going and its atmosphere growing. If it works, we can terrarium it so that we can have another planet to inhabit, which will increase our chances of survival.

That last bit's a bit out there, but one can dream.

So, that's the gist of it. The idea is to turn the government into a Web 2.0-style social network, where people will be able to see and control where their money is going. Taxation with full and equal representation. The biggest issue I see is the need to improve broadband networking around the country.

This may be the dumbest idea in the world, so I'm putting it here for you guys to tear apart, or write up better plans.