Photo credit: CNN
After living in Indonesia for four months I’ve come to despise the Indonesian government. As an outsider, it’s easy to see how the government here keeps its people extremely controllable: Deny them education and medical care and they will spend their entire lives in survival mode.
There’s no such thing as public education here—parents must pay to send their kids to school. This means many Indonesians are under- or un-educated. Uneducated people are less likely to get jobs that pay enough to pull them out of survival mode.
This is particularly scary to me because I’m watching, from afar, the U.S. turn into Indonesia. Debt downgrade, debt ceiling, spending cuts—these are the top news items about the U.S. The federal government is trillions of dollars in debt and most states are billions of dollars in debt. We’re broke. And many of us are in survival mode. Too beaten down to stand up.
I’m in debt. It sucks. It’s scary. And I can tell you there is one reason only that I’m debt: I spent unwisely beyond my means.
Our governments—state, local and federal—can’t continue to live beyond their means. It’s not sustainable. Lawmakers are handcuffed, to some extent, about raising revenue. Who wants tax increases?
Inspired by the showing of “Yes Men Fix the World” at Ubud’s Yoga Barn, I’ve decided to try my hand at fixing the U.S. Here are my suggestions:
- National Sales Tax with no exemptions, no loop holes, no breaks, credits, deferments, no way around paying taxes on everything except food and medical care.
- Eliminate income taxes completely. Eliminate the IRS. How much money does the federal government spend on paying IRS salaries? How much money does it pay to have its employees draft a 240,000 page tax code? Taxes are, of course, an industry: CPAs, tax lawyers, H&R Block—the need for all of these would be eliminated if I were allowed to fix the U.S. But a national sales tax in lieu of income tax would be the fairest way to tax people.* [caveat, see below]
- Stop spending on all foreign matters. No more invading oil rich countries. No more financial aid to any country. I’m in debt; I can’t afford to donate much money to charities, so I donate my time instead. It doesn’t make sense for a country that is trillions of dollars in debt to the Rothschilds (European banking family who OWNS the Federal Reserve Banks of the United States of America. That’s right, our Fed is run by a European trillionaire—terrifying) and China to give money away to anyone who is not a U.S. citizen.
- Shore up the borders. Pull our troops out of every country other than U.S. and put them on the borders. Give them domestic jobs. They can fight the war on the drugs and the war on poverty and the war on child abuse instead.
- Enact policy that the U.S. is not allowed to wage any kind of weapons-related activity on any country unless there is a direct threat of attack from that country.
- Take all the money we save from invading other countries or helping them out or supporting their noble rebel efforts and develop solar energy. Florida, Arizona, California, Nevada, these are states that get, like, 361 days of sun a year. Why aren’t they completely solar-powered by now? Because the oil companies will not allow it. It’s hard to make a profit on sunshine.
- *Require the foreign workers of all outsourced jobs by American companies to pay income tax to the U.S. That’s right—if Apple and United Airlines and AT&T are going to outsource their jobs to India and the Philippines, those employees should be paying taxes to the U.S.
- Model our national policies on a country like Switzerland, which is prosperous and sane, rather than on a country like Indonesia, which is completely fucked up.
- Give every child in the U.S. a free, high quality education, including college. The last thing any country needs is a bunch of poorly educated people running around with their Constitutional right to bear arms. We’ve already proven that does not work.
I have other ideas too. But this would be a good start, in my humble opinion.
I agree with some things here, but not with others. For instance, a national sales tax as the only way of raising money is incredibly regressive, falling much more heavily on the poor, who have to spend much more of their income to survive. The government would raise much more money by closing the loopholes, raising taxes on the rich to where they were in 1999, and taxing capital gains at the same rate as income. Social Security would be sitting pretty if we didn’t have a cap of how much of one’s income gets the 6% tax.
Financial aid to other countries is a tiny percentage of the US budget. I think it’s worth it to stop people from starving or dying of malaria or AIDS, even if they’re not American.
I read an article yesterday in the NY Times that said in the 80s and 90s, when the border between the US and Mexico was more open, for every 100 entries, there were 85 returns. Once it got harder to cross the border, migrants stopped going back to Mexico, because they didn’t think they’d be able to get back if they needed to. I don’t have a policy recommendation here, it’s just interesting to see the law of unintended consequences at work.
Fund solar energy by taxing the oil companies at an appropriate rate. All corporations, actually. If Google paid more than 2.3% of its profits in taxes, we wouldn’t need women sewing Gap sweatshirts in Vietnam to pay US income taxes. Also, a lot of companies use tax havens in other countries and incorporate in places like the Cayman Islands. These companies should have to relinquish the right to any tax breaks and any government contracts.
I actually think free preschool is more important than free college. Preschool is where we learn about sharing, taking turns, resolving conflicts and dealing with disappointment. I would rather everyone in the country start with preschool, and deemphasize college as a requirement for every single job. Destigmatize the trades—not everyone is cut out for college, but everyone can benefit from preschool.
Would love to start a conversation about this!
Elise, Thank you for your intelligent, informed comments. I agree with virtually everything you’ve said. The problem with taxes is that the rich are running the country, they control the lobbyists, the entire government. Therefore raising taxes on the wealthy will likely never happen.
While financial aid to foreign countries is noble, we are currently trillions of dollars in debt. According to AP, 1 in 6 Americans are living in poverty. Another statistic indicates that 58% of Americans will spend at least 1 year living below the poverty level. Charity begins at home. First you get your own oxygen mask in place, then you help another.
I am against illegal immigration and illegal immigrants burdening our already over-burdened social agencies. During the 1st and 2nd waves of European immigration to U.S., immigrants came and worked the jobs no one else wanted: coal mines, for example. I don’t have a policy suggestion here either. I just think we should need to keep drugs out and defending the borders is a step in the right direction for that.
Oil companies (and their lobbyists) control our government. U.S. government is really just a bunch of puppets for corporations. Therefore increasing their taxes seems very unlikely. Decreasing our dependency on oil on an individual basis would help.
I saw your post about the preschool statistics. I agree–fund preschool for all kids.
I wish I knew how I can be part of the solution for what ails our beautiful, resource rich, blessed country that is falling apart.