Libertarian International Organization | Voluntary Governance, Rights, Progress

LIO head MG says join him in world & local dialogue to end taxes--to put in a negative tax rate.

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OPINION, By MG

If you don't share this article with all your e-circle and more RIGHT NOW, don't complain about coercive or inept government fiscal mis-management to me, ever.

The recent spectacle of Governor Gary Johnson, the US Libertarian Party candidate--a truly wonderful cut of man I feel no shame in praising-- advocating a flat tax and no real lowering of taxes/tax rates vs. US Democratic President' Obama's tax rate cut and additional proposals--including extending the so-called Bush cut 2 years the GOP originally refused to do-- shows two things.

Many people are joining  the Libertarian parade but some libertarians are falling away. Yes, many sincere libertarian supporters are letting it pass them by instead of leading it, perhaps worried some ignoramus will say, why, they're just too far out.

No great things were ever seized without nerve. So join me in getting back in front--not 'far-out' in the rear.

Coercive taxes rob you in 3 ways: Paying over-much for things you don't need, being a constant temptation to incompetent or corrupt officials to spend, spend, spend; and not having the correct libertarian end-state of public programs where the programs pay you.

Pay attention: I'm saying that not only should tax rates be ZERO, but public programs should pay you--a NEGATIVE tax rate. Impossible?

An example of what I mean is the libertarian-championed Alaska Permanant Fund--which instead of an income tax uses investments to pay the people a living dividend not as some government handout and politician's spree, but an autonomous trust jealously guarded by the people themselves--and IRA's where you can have a tax-advantaged mini-public program to pay for retirement and much else besides. I helped conceive the first and championed both. Several countries have used to concept to not only create automatic benefits so that concepts such as the need for a minimum wage and poverty vanish, but fund lavish social services such as as much education as you want and a free home to boot. Sure, there is corruption, but the answer is to get the funds into autonomous trustees supervised by the beneficiaries, not legislators armed with legal immunity for misdeeds. Here're 3 key steps:

1. Decriminalize non-payment and lower all tax rates.No one should pay a dime if they have reasons of culture, commerce, conscience. Forget the social-duty argument: these pious thinkers have created vast mismanagement and should have been making not irresponsible public trusts but actual public trusts that took care of anyone through wide investment, open management, and legal responsibility. Altruism is an excuse for lack of results in many cases. Switzerland already makes tax non-payment non-criminal.
2. Simplify and voluntarize: Immediately exempt --adjusted for inflation-- the bottom 50% from any income tax while encouraging the wealthy to pay a larger share into medical and social. No corporate or technical taxes--taroiffs, etc. Start a national dialogue on voluntary payment and choice of programs. Remember: the bottom 50% of  income-tax payers just pay a sliver of revenues for waste; the rest effectively fund defense in the US. Social Security would have been funding additional personal pensions and lavish healthcare if part had not been used for years from everything from fact-finding trips to Paris not to mention funding goal-free military shenanigans. Make a portion go to fund endowments to in due course pay the costs. My prediction: Revenues will skyrocket as people have a say and programs are obliged to improve.  We've surveyed wealthy people who say they would cheerfully pay double such a voluntary tax given the assurance that it would end up abolishing taxes and they would become public heroes. Libertarian fans in many countries are getting some action. Thus Russia is catching up in development with a lower tax rate than the US. Hear that, USA? Russia.
3. Segregate local taxes to set lands and move programs to endowment funding with accountable trustees. End all these real estate and sales taxes. We could double the salary of every public servant by putting funds where users could watch it, people were rewarded for improvement suggestions. Homeowners and small business could rest easy in a tax-free environment. legalize private options of every kind. Some libertarian-loving economists confuse government with public and so write all day of how to privatize every road when the reality is we need to legalize private roads and democratize public easements away from politicized control by restoring endowments--and many things besides. Let us legalize such investment-oriented user-designed libertarian communities while were at it.

Sure, social adjustment may take a generation. That only means that by starting today in one generation coercive taxes can vanish and a variety of entities send you a check instead. Sure, every community might have a different spin. That's what libertarians are there for... to share the good work, remind us one-size-need not fit all,  suggest best practices, and keep things on-point as far as rights. So go: E-mail this. Translate it. Tell your friends. Meet with officials. Pester college departments. E-mail journalists and policy wonks. Talk to unions. Address community leaders. This is a starting point for dialogue leading to one discussion: How can we do this so it works for our community ?

As a US Citizen please excuse me for patriotically saying I don't want to hear as I grow older about how now Russians are having a ball with their libertopian social stipend and at last enjoying true communism thanks to capiatlism. I don't want to hear how some zero-tax micro-country is putting go-go private space colonies on Mars funded by their investments in the US while in the USA Americans still kill entire forests to print their ever-more bizarre tax forms motivated by piously funereal slogans. 

One thing I can guarantee as LIO co-ordinator:  2 million people in every country will have had the opportunity to read this already--and many are discussing how to beat the Americans in the Zero-to-Negative Tax Race.

It is time to prepare the funeral for coercive taxation and plan for our yearly and growing check at the wake besides as we bid this barbaric medieval remnant a tearless RIP . That's a funeral worth having.

RESOURCES:

• http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1828&dat=19830224&id=3dMhAAAAIBAJ&sjid=ip8FAAAAIBAJ&pg=1359,3796903
• http://www.bestsyndication.com/2005/A-H/gilson-mike/092705-user-fees-taxes.htm