Goodbye, Mr. Taxman

THE INSPIRATION

The spark, which ignited my thinking to tackle the subject of economics overhaul, sprang on me unexpectedly one day while strolling in the woods. As I walked, my attention was suddenly drawn to my right side, where I saw a family of deer vigorously chewing what Mother Nature had offered them. As I stopped to enjoy looking at this marvelous picture, the elderly of the group stopped eating, advanced a few paces toward me, and began to stare at me intensely. I interpreted his look as telling me, What are you looking at? Get moving and let us enjoy our meal for free, compliments of Mother Nature.

As I resumed movement, I thought to myself how magnificent this was and how Mother Nature generously provides sustenance to the animal kingdom without asking for anything in return. Comparing us supposedly thinking humans with the animal kingdom, how wonderful it is that animals can eat what they want and when they want without paying anything in return. Mother Nature never asks them to pay for what they consume, whereas for us supposedly smart Homo Sapiens, we must have money to eat. So for those of us who don’t have it can be deprived of Mother Nature’s life-sustaining needs.

Unquestionably, animals have one serious drawback: the large can eat the small, and the strong can dominate and consume the weak. Humans, on the other hand, have, in the passage of time, created and lived with the have and the have not status. So my on-and-off thinking about our economic life led me to dig deep for the roots of our economic inequality and how the quantity of money became the supreme arbiter that rules our life on our precious planet.

Despite my limited artistic ability to recreate what I had seen, I was able to express it with oil on canvas for your eyes to see. And here it comes:

WHAT IS WRONG WITH OUR PRESENT ECONOMIC SYSTEM?

To begin with, most of us live totally engrossed by our daily routines and needs to make a living, and that limits our thinking horizon to look beyond our noses and immediate scope of vision. Thus, we are compelled to follow the stream of our daily activities and have no time or appetite for questioning the prevailing economic system and examining alternatives to it.

Since the beginning of time, in the process of economic evolution and embracing the feeble income-tax system, we have created crippling barriers and shackles and placing a noose around our necks that we keep on tightening it as we move along while adhering to its unjustifiable requirements.

As a unique species living on a wonderful planet in a vast universe which is virtually our home, we have attained a relatively advanced status in the evolution process. Mother Nature has endowed us with perception and intelligence and the ability to learn, think, reason, observe, and even predict what lies ahead for us in the future. Granted, some of us have superior native ability and intelligence; nevertheless, it is not that hard for the rest of us to recognize that given the trend of job losses that would undoubtedly reduce the collections of income-taxes that would unquestionably result in having insufficient dollars in the treasury to fulfill our needs, we will have to find a way to get the dollars to fill in the shortfall. Let’s not forget that we are already living under a considerable imbalance of income and expense and swimming in debt.

On the spending side of the equation, the numbers are increasing steadily because of population growth. The need to restoring neglected vital projects, such as rebuilding our deteriorating armed forces, cannot be fulfilled because of budget restraints. It is undeniable that our infrastructure is in dire need of uplifting. Our healthcare system is atrocious. Our education standards are lagging. So given such a situation which we are in, staying the course, our train would be derailed and head towards falling off the cliff. Hence, it is absolutely imperative to change course.

Quite obviously, the logical solution under our existing economic system will have to be increasing taxes, insanely borrowing more money or living with what we have, and let nature take its course and let the chips fall where they may. We should not let this destiny happen if it could be avoided.

Borrowing the money as a collective society and creating debt within the present economic frame is not the right answer to our economic needs. As of the start of 2017, the national debt is about to climb above a staggering high of $20 trillion. Natural disasters, wars, and recessions can further diminish government savings if any, and push us deeper into red ink. The income- tax burden is disproportionately falling on the few high earners. As tax payers, one half of us as a group, pay incredibly less than 3% of the total collected taxes. The other 50% pays more than 97% of the tax burden. The top 10% of taxpayers pays over 70%, the top 5% pays over 58% and the top 1% pays over 36%. Clearly, low earners and the unemployed are tipping the scale. This picture does not look well for the future of the country. Clearly, increasing the tax burden on those already paying the most is not only unjust but also would not make much of a dent in the ocean- deep national debt.

Let us recognize first of all that our economic system is totally artificial, hurled on humanity in the passage of time, to which we are compelled to follow to live in our society. It is totally inconsistent with the natural creation process.

Humans began using money about 2,500 years ago. It evolved out of deeply rooted customs of using other forms of money for bartering purposes, such as cattle, cowrie shells, whale’s teeth, and ornamental jewelry. Granted, the use of money is justifiable as a measuring tool for exchanging goods and services with one and another and for accumulating wealth by each of us individually. Thus, as individuals, we have got to have money upfront to acquire goods and services. But unjustifiably, this practice had spilled over to the other side, making it also imperative, under our existing economic system, to have the needed money available upfront when acting as a group for the benefit of all of us to attend to humanity’s vital needs. So here is where the problem lies—acting as individuals for our personal benefit versus acting collectively for the benefits of all of us.

Clearly and without doubt, for a mass population of humans living together in one country—never mind on one planet—not having enough money as a group to meet our vital needs can vastly impede our progress and forward movement in science, health maintenance, and care of our sagging infrastructure. It would rob us of discoveries of better sources of energy. Science helps us to unlock the secrets of nature and can propel us forward when new discoveries are made. Therefore, we must solve this problem if we want to live to see the