I’m a bit distracted by the Hurricane aftermath horrors, but I’ll try to respond to your comments…

Shea- Misuse of tax money is a great evil, and the current disaster shows this too clearly. Instead of using citizen collected tax money to benefit the citizens, the tax dollars are being shovelled into the hands of corporate donors like Halliburton in no-bid contracts and the like.
It ought to be a crime. Good to hear from you.

Jolly- Let me correct that to say “Most honest people don’t mind paying their taxes.” Though again, in light of the sheer ineptitude our governments have shown, people must be asking, “This is what we pay our taxes for? No effective leadership and diverted funds?”

And yes, our “everything for nothing” attitude must come to an end, because as we can plainly see, it doesn’t lead to an effective government response when we really need one.

Siphoning off the taxes into special interest projects or wasting it through over bureaucratization doesn’t help average citizens much either. Glad you dropped by.

Bentley- I don’t have the answers for everything, and I certainly don’t claim to be an economist. But throughout this blog, I have offered numerous reform ideas that could significantly reduce the amount of taxes we need to be paying, as well as eliminating areas for tax dollars to be diverted to. How we collect taxes is just as important as how we spend them.

I do think that we could implement a tax code that has far fewer loopholes and “outs” for people and businesses to take. I mean, whats the point? “Here’s what you should pay, but here’s what you could pay because of the various reductions we’ve created for you if you can find and understand them.” Why not just make the rate and leave it at that? Less chance for evasion that way I think.
Thanks for the comment.

Nook- Do the rich really pay a huge portion of the taxes? Or do they pay only what they can’t hide? And as I mentioned to Bentley, I have written about many ways to really reduce government spending. All it takes is integrity, honesty, and courage to do what is right by the citizens of this country, something both sides and all branches of our government seems to have forgotten about.
I’ve not yet thought of an entire tax restructuring, but know that it is too complex and too easily manipulated by those with the resources to manipulate it.
Thanks for making me think though.

Windspike- Oh yes, the reduction of evaded taxes with no other punishment for behaving so crassly. But then, this is no real surprise is it?

Indeed, tax money is spent poorly across the board and many reforms must take place to return the taxes to benefitting the people.

Blog on brother!

Another of my frustrations is the lack of support for education – and educational institutions – although many dollars are used, the way it is spent is problematic. There indeed has to be a better way – a way were we pay what we can without breaking our backs and the rich don’t escape from any responsiblity by sheltering all their bux and not paying a dime. It has to be a crime.

If you try to put a simple percentage tax on everyone, then our government would lose out as they would have to cut services. Some say taxing the rich is good, but remember, they pay a huge portion of taxes, and if they felt like they were being cheated they would simply buy an island elsewhere and live on it.

What we need is a system that combines the fairness of use taxes with the proportionality of sliding percentages and is apportioned effectively through the three strata of government.

I’d be very interested in any of your ideas of how to create this type of taxation system without it falling back into the overly complicated tax code we use now.

We have seen politicians get themselves reelected on a “something for nothing” platform-no taxes for anything, and no calls for any other kind of service. And the people who support these politicians seem perfectly willing to ignore the obvious-that somebody, somewhere, has to pay for things, and/or fight in these wars.

The horrible result of the selfish instincts of many American voters has been to see thousands of our soldiers repeatedly put through a meat grinder with no relief as the kids of the said selfish voters can be found anywhere but the Recruiter’s Office, as well as a retaining wall that broke in a southern US city because there was no money available to shore it up-that money had basically been handed over to people who didn’t need it.

If those two things could be corrected, there would be broad support for sensible, realistic, and yes, even honest, pay-for-goods-and-services taxation.