From: dolan@nrlmry.navy.mil (Kent Paul Dolan)
Newsgroups: talk.bizarre
Subject: Re: Birthright Party '92 feeler
Date: 9 Sep 92 01:29:59 GMT

CJ Silverio counters:

> I'm so sorry for taking this seriously.  But here I go.
> I suggest the following changes in Kent's platform:
> 
> 1. A flat tax is regressive.  Rethink this.
> 2. Legalize all drugs.  Yank all gov't subsidies for
>    drug manufacturers (like tobacco companies).  Tax 'em.
> 3. Put the army to work building highways, bridges, and
>    mass transit, teaching in schools, and caring for the
>    nat'l forests.  Infrastructure, infrastructure!
> 4. Support an equal rights amendment, one that mentions
>    sex & sexual orientation.
> 5. Make nude male jello wrestling a mandatory manhood ritual.

I'm not that sorry (and remember folks, if it isn't in talk.bizarre,
I don't see it, so email contributions).

1. To the contrary, a flat tax is perfectly fair.  Rich people still
   pay more, it's just not the case that a) their tax burden is so
   high in the absense of tax dodges they go all the way and bring
   their tax burden proportionally below that of the poor, b) they
   are treated as a fountain of wealth whose earned dollar should
   be less valuable, dollar for dollar, in providing disposable
   income than the poor person's dollar.

   More to the point, the "progressive" tax is a system destroyer,
   since it puts the people at the bottom of the tax structure in a
   constant search for a "free lunch", on the mistaken basis that
   only the rich really get hurt by taxes.  By putting an equal tax
   burden on every earned dollar, no matter what the income status
   the earner, a flat tax promotes an attitude of "if I vote to
   raise taxes, I vote to raise _my_ taxes", promptly ending the
   "free lunch" syndrome among those with any income at all.  Since
   I _really_ meant "no deductions". so that even welfare and other
   income redistribution methods would share the same tax, the
   common man would have reason to vote for fiscally sound gov't
   under a flat tax.

2. While I agree that drugs are a triage system, like AIDS, driving
   85 mph in traffic, smoking, and numerous other ways nature provides
   us to kill off the stupid, I don't see any particular benefit to
   legalizing at least the ones that regularly kill or make permanently
   disfunctional.  Talk to me about some of the tamer ones.

   Contrariwise, the providing of tobacco products would be a capital
   offense.

   I do think that the federal government should get out of the "drug
   wars" business, particularly where it violates national sovereignty
   of smaller countries, and generalize the methadone approach to other
   drugs to reduce the price pressure and resultant crime.

3. There was a proposal to do this with the National Guard in the wake
   of Andrew, and I support that within limits, but I want the Army to
   shrink, not be employed elsewhere.  There is no impetus for a gov't
   based construction battalion approach to be cost competitive; look
   at the Pentagon's current spending habits.

   Contrariwise, there is no reason at all that the remaining Corps of
   Engineers types couldn't do their practice bridge building to the
   general benefit, as long as they are doing it anyway.  These are
   typically country road bridges, not superhighway bridges, though.

4. I was and am an equal rights amendment supporter, as stated, but
   that is orthogonal to this effort.  Create a high demand for
   engineers of any sex or persuasion, and hiring competition should
   take care of the worst of the ERA problems.

5. Nope, not until I diet off this pot gut.

Keep 'em coming, folks!


--
Kent, the man much too far from xanth.
Kent Paul Dolan, C.S.C. contractor to Fleet Numerical Oceanography Center,
Monterey, California.  Making the world safe for tropical cyclones.

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