Brutally Honest on ShockNet - 04/16/11 - Show Notes

For those who did not know... NO there wasn't a show last week because we all too the week off over at ShockNet Radio. I still had my column, but all of the programs had the week off to relax and recoup and recharge their batteries. Or at least that was the idea. In my case it was running around doing errands, working on my comic series, and getting very frustrated at things not working like they are supposed to. I also needed to get a new monitor for the soundboard computer after the one I've been using finally gave up the ghost. It was a nice little 14" monitor whose time apparently came and went, and I ended up getting a widescreen monitor for half the price of its replacement.

Anyway, because there was no show last week, there won't be an archive show this coming Monday. Those of you that subscribe via iTunes should keep that in mind. Also I apologize for the weird upload of the archive. Once again Ourmedia and the Internet Archive screwed up, and I wish I could find a way to fix it on the spot, but the way things are right now we're stuck with it.

Now that we've caught up, now it's time for THIS week's show, and unless you're a new listener to the radio show, then you can pretty much guess what tonight's main subject is...

TAXES!

Yes, with the federal Tax Day this coming Monday, it is time to once again go over our convoluted tax system and WHY it is as messed up as it is, WHY we can't seem to fix it, and how SHOULD we fix it. That's a lot of stuff to talk about, but thankfully I have a WHOLE HOUR to discuss it. The real challenge, then, is will you be willing to hear what needs to be done and then be able to support it?

So tune in THIS SATURDAY (04/16) right here on ShockNet Radio at 7pm Eastern (6pm Central and 4pm Pacific) over at www.shocknetradio.com and also at Apple's iTunes Radio Player under the "Classic Rock" category.

And don't forget that I'll be in the "Brutally Honest" chatroom at www.shocknetradio.com during the show to discuss the subject LIVE!

It's Social... It's Political... It's IN-YOUR-FACE... and it's BRUTALLY HONEST!

Brutally Honest on ShockNet - 04/11/08 Show Notes

April 15th is fast approaching!

TAX DAY! TAX DAY!

Head for the hills! Lock your valuables! Hide the women and children! The Taxman a-commith!

Too much hysteria for you? Be sure to let your local news people know that this week, because that's the sort of hype they want you to feel.

Anyway, this week's show is about TAXES, and specifically the dogmatic statements behind the system as it is right now, and why it's so hard to fix the system to one that truly reflects what America is supposed to represent! And to get the point across, I have to sacrifice a few sacred cows, as well as give you a quick history lesson about how the Romans used to operate. You remember the Roman Empire, don't you? It's what the White House tried to emulate for the past eight years. Only which KIND of Rome were they trying to emulate? To get my point across, I had to use the example of ONE Emperor that has a particular connection to our former Doofus-in-Chief. Who is that emperor? You'll just have to tune in tonight and find out!

Also I have some sad news in the world of online gaming. This is something that my friends at City of Heroes need to pay attention to. One of gaming's founding members was lost this week. Who is he and what was his significance to online gaming? You have to listen to find out.

All of that is TONIGHT (04/11) here on ShockNet Radio at 7pm Eastern Time (6pm Norman time and 4pm Hefner Time) over at www.shocknetradio.com and also at Apple's iTunes Radio Player under either "Classic Rock" or "Talk/Spoken Word" categories.

Brutally Honest: The New Heresy Begins Here!

Brutally Honest on ShockNet - 04/12/08 Show Notes

This week's show will certainly be TAXING on people... in more ways than one!

This is, after all, the weekend before the tax deadline, and I have plenty to talk about concerning TAXES. This week we wrap up Tax Season with a few TRUTHS about taxes, including how much we are taxed, how we are taxed, and some of the asinine excuses used to prevent the changing of the tax system to one that works for all Americans.

Plus an extra-long "Off the Wire" segment, including a special comment on a recent news story that the media has been gushing about, and we look at the list of groups and government agencies that receive this year's Jefferson Muzzle Award, and one recipient that gets a distinct dishonor that hasn't been given in almost ten years. Which group is it and what does it have to do with Brutally Honest? You'll just have to listen to the show to find out!

All of that is THIS SATURDAY at 7pm Eastern on ShockNet Radio and simulcast on Freethought Radio!

Oh, and by the way, this week's show will be LONGER than usual, so unless the folks at Freethought Radio take that into account, Freethought listeners may have to move over to ShockNet to hear everything.

And in case you missed out on the re-broadcast of last week's show on Monday (because the ShockNet computers screwed up last Saturday), the April 5th show will be available in the Radio Archives this weekend.

And as always, please feel free to come back here and leave your thoughts in the show notes. I also have an ultra-quick poll up there for you to take part in.

It's time to get Brutally Honest... AGAIN!

Brutally Honest Rant - 04/04/07

Brutally Honest Audio Rant: Tax Reform and Willpower
Audio Transcripts
04/04/07

[Start Program]

(Computer – Introduction)
(Music intro – “American Idiot Remix” – by Green Day and David Matthews 2)

Good evening and welcome to this week’s Brutally Honest Rant. I’m David Matthews 2, writer of the weekly online column Brutally Honest.

For the past few weeks I’ve been talking about tax reform. About how our current system of taxation is slowly destroying our way of life, about how we NEED to scrap the entire system and start fresh, and about what it takes to do it. I’ve given you the alternatives. I’ve even spelled out and explained the number one thing that destroys any discussion of changing our current failing tax system.

There’s only one element left that I haven’t really delved into: what it takes to get any kind of needed changes made.

You see… I’ve been talking about the need for tax reform for a couple of years now. I bring it up in my columns, in online commentaries, in chat room discussions, and even one-on-one in personal conversations. And every time… every single time… people will nod their heads in agreement and say that they like the ideas I bring up. They agree that reform needs to be done, and they even like the alternatives that I mention. HOWEVER, they really don’t think that ideas like this will ever see the light of day in Washington. They have become so JADED by the corruption and the bureaucracy and the petty ego-driven political games to believe that anything could EVER be done to make the system work for us instead of screwing us over.

And I really don’t blame them for thinking that way! I really don’t! Look, we as voters took the GOP OUT OF POWER in 2006 because they were a bunch of corrupt arrogant bastards who couldn’t get anything done outside of rubber-stamping the White House agenda. And they couldn’t even do that right!

And I’m not happy with the politicians who ARE in power right now. So far they’re pretty much a lot of talk and very little action where it is needed the most. So yeah, I can understand why people are jaded about making government work FOR us instead working AGAINST us, as it has been doing.

But at the same time, we need to do something about this failing tax system, and we need to do it pretty damn soon.

So what does it take? Quite simply, it takes the WILL to get it done.

You see… politicians know, especially from this past election, that if you piss off the voters enough, they will DEMAND that something be done to fix the problem. And they will vote accordingly just to save their own jobs.

This is why many of our politicians seem to suffer at times from a lack of direction. They’re waiting to see what OTHER PEOPLE will tell them to do. For some politicians, it’s a party leader. For some others, it’s a special interest group. And for the rest, it’s whatever the POLLS tells them to do. You know why? Because they lack the SPINE to decide for themselves how to represent their constituents… and because we’ve all become so JADED by the ineptitude that WE pretty much don’t give a crap about the process… and so the decision-making process defaults to these other groups.

That’s why our system is screwed up the way that it is, boys and girls. We’re not taking part in the process… either by our apathy, or by conscious decision, or even by some orchestrated conspiracy by special interest groups. Blame whomever you want to, but the fact of the matter is that we’re not doing our jobs.

But here’s the thing: if there is enough WILL from the public, then we can MAKE these changes happen.

And as luck would have it… I happen to have a little story from our own history to prove that it can be done.

You see… once upon a time there was a certain measure that a certain special interest moralist group wanted enacted. Now this was something that the public, by in large, DID NOT want. But that didn’t matter to the moralist group… THEY wanted it enacted, and they did whatever it took to get their way. They infiltrated the government and made sure that the politicians passed THEIR laws exactly as THEY wanted them passed.

But every time that the moralists seemed to get their way, their efforts were stopped by the general public. Moralist laws on this subject either got repealed or else they got shot down in the courts. People made it clear that they DID NOT want these laws enacted. Unfortunately, this moralist group was determined to have their way, and when they had just enough political power, they passed their law in such a way that they believed would NEVER be removed. They made it a part of the US Constitution, which meant that the courts couldn’t throw it out, and the public couldn’t repeal it once enacted. They believed that they won. Game over.

This law stayed on the books for a little over a decade, enforced by the government at the behest of the moralists. At first the public tried to ignore this action, but then once the government started enforcing this law, the public pretty much turned to criminals for help, because they were essentially criminals at this point anyway.

The moralists didn’t care, though. If the general public became criminals, then so be it! Their will be done!

But there were still those who said that this WASN’T over with! They believed that the measure was fundamentally WRONG, and they did everything possible to get rid of it. They tried to go to Congress to change this… only to find that the Congress was still corrupted by this moralist group. They refused to do anything, even when proof came out that this measure was causing the very problems that they claimed they were trying to prevent! Still didn’t matter, though… because the moralists wanted it, and THEIR WILL be done!

Well it turns out there WAS a way to bypass Congress on this. The moralists thought that it would never happen, but it did, and the measure was finally repealed.

Now to fill in a few of the blanks here… the moralist group in question was a collection of Christian fundamentalists, women suffragists, temperance activists, and, believe it or not, a certain bigoted organization with the letter K in each of their three initials. You can probably figure out that the matter in question was the outlawing of alcohol. And the only Constitutional Amendment that was ever repealed in a manner that did not involve congressional action… was Eighteenth Amendment, otherwise known as the Volstead Act or simply as Prohibition.

But let’s get brutally honest here… this repeal would have NEVER happened if people didn’t stop trying to make it happen! They took a stand and they continued to press for a way to shut down that measure. They heard the same arguments as those being made today about tax reform. They were given the same amount of skepticism as the people pushing for tax reform are getting today. They knew that the corrupt bastards in Congress wouldn’t lift a finger to do what’s right.

Prohibition would STILL be in effect today if there wasn’t sufficient WILL from the public to make that repeal happen! The repeal would have never been passed if the public wasn’t pissed off enough to WANT it.

And that is EXACTLY what needs to be done here for REAL tax reform! The public REALLY needs to get PISSED! They need to know what is at stake here with our current failing tax system. They need to know that within a decade, we are facing a serious, SERIOUS crisis. We won’t have to worry about how our grandchildren or even how our children will handle this problem… because we’ll be right there as it happens! It’ll happen when WE are still alive! THAT is the kind of urgency we need. The public needs to know how important this is, and that the only way that this failing tax system will change is if WE REALLY WANT it to!

Now once that happens… once the masses are determined to make these changes happen and have the system work FOR us instead of AGAINST us, then the politicians know that they can either support us, they can step aside, or they can look for another job. The GOP found out that little lesson just this past fall, and that was for just incompetence, ineptitude, corruption, and one hypocritical child predator. Imagine what it would be like if the masses actually had something to rally FOR!

(Computer – a real FairTax promo – yes there is one! And you have to listen to the show to hear it!)
(Fade Music In – “Mythodea” by Vangelis)

Our failing system of taxation is in place today because we as voters have been lulled into thinking that we can tweak an already flawed system and keep things going just long enough to pass this problem on to another generation. Listen to the rhetoric about Social Security and Medicaid and Medicare! They’re not talking about fixing the system! They’re talking about simply making it work just long enough for it to become someone else’s problem… and preferably that would be some point after we’re dead so we wouldn’t have to deal with the consequences.

Well guess what? The delaying games won’t work anymore. Our system is on borrowed time right now, and the expiration date is a lot sooner that you think!

And here’s the punch-line: our elected grifters and shysters have KNOWN this for a long time! They’re just waiting for US to tell them that this is an issue.

(Pause)

Brutally Honest is a Get Brutal production; all opinions expressed are those of the commentator, and may or may not be shared by the online provider. This is David Matthews 2 saying good night, and I’ll speak with you soon!

(Fade out)
(Computer – Ending/“End of Recording”)

[End of program]
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Brutally Honest Rant - 03/28/07

Brutally Honest Audio Rant: Taxation and Reform
Audio Transcripts
03/28/07

[Start Program]

(Computer – Introduction)
(Music intro – “American Idiot Remix” – by Green Day and David Matthews 2)

Good evening and welcome to this week’s Brutally Honest Rant. I’m David Matthews 2, writer of the weekly online column Brutally Honest.

For the past few weeks, I’ve been discussing taxes. No doubt some of you in the United States are pretty much consumed by taxes at this point. If you haven’t already done your federal and state income taxes by now, you’ll have to get started on them pretty quickly.

And that’s why NOW is a great time to talk about taxes, because you’re probably asking yourself why the hell you’re even doing them right now! Why can’t there be an easier way to do this?

Well THERE ARE easier ways of doing this! THERE IS a better way!

But to get there, we need two very important things… we need the WILL to demand it, and we actually NEED that better way to support.

The WILL is something that I’ll talk about next week. Right now let’s talk about the alternatives.

First of all, trying to simply fix or to streamline the taxation process as it is right now is simply NOT AN OPTION! It’s BEEN done… repeatedly! And every time we supposedly “streamline” the process, it only gets more and more complicated and it gets more and more destructive. Remember the 1040EZ? There was very little about it that was “EZ”.

And we are STILL “tweaking” the system TODAY! Every little exception and deduction that Congress passes is just another “tweak”. Even on the state level, every homestead exemption that gets voted on is another “tweak” of a system that is failing. You think that you’re helping out grandma and grandpa, but what you’re really doing is setting yourself up for even more taxes! You’re screwing the system for everyone, including yourself!

In other words, we can’t fix this system. The time when that was possible has passed. Now we gotta scrap the whole system and replace it with something else…

But with WHAT?

Okay, let’s set a simple ground rule here: everyone’s gotta pay. No more of this penalizing success crap! No more exceptions, exemptions, or deductions. Everyone pays, no matter if they make ten thousand or ten million a year. It doesn’t matter if you’re a preacher, a teacher, a politician, a corporate CEO, or the guy who cleans their toilets… you want the government to work for you? You gotta pay the admission price. We’re not going to replace a flawed system with one that will be flawed on the onset.

Now that we have that rule, let’s go ahead and toss out a few suggestions…

We have just taxing corporations and businesses. They bring in billions of dollars and they wield considerable influence in society, so let’s just tax the hell out of them.

Few things: first, just taxing businesses breaks the ground rule of everyone’s gotta pay. Second, businesses simply DO NOT pay taxes like you and I do. Taxes are just overhead to them, and overhead gets passed on down to the consumer in the form of higher prices. So really when you talk about taxing the crap out of businesses, you’re just taxing the crap out of OURSELVES, because WE are the ones who end up paying for them! You gotta think these things through, guys. It’s not enough to run on old anti-business mentalities.

Plus every time we talk about taxing businesses, the first complaint is that we’re hurting the mom-and-pop businesses. And then politicians decide to write up deductions and exceptions so that certain companies won’t pack up shop and leave the country… which they end up doing anyway. So we would pretty much be back to where we are right now with a fatally flawed system.

We have the idea of a flat tax. Now once upon a time I was a really big proponent of this idea! A flat tax based on an established percentage of your income would really work… as long as there are no exceptions, no exemptions, and no deductions. In other words, a TRUE flat tax! Everyone pays, no matter how much money they make. It would really simplify our reporting come tax time. Most of us could even do the paperwork on our own with a scratch pad and a calculator.

The downside to this is that we are STILL using the same framework as with our current system. We are still taxing income, which means that we still have to report it. We would STILL have to deal with Tax Day, and we would still have to deal with the hassles of getting our information out on time.

Plus it wouldn’t take long before this concept is abused and misused. Non-profit organizations and charities will still demand to be exempt, and we’d hear the screams about trust-fund babies like Paris Hilton getting away with not paying any taxes because they don’t make any money.

Then we have the other idea of a flat tax, namely just a specific dollar amount for everyone no matter how much they make. The downside here is that once again we have to deal with the complaints about “the poor” getting hosed and “the rich” not paying “enough” in taxes.

That brings us to my personal favorite… the FairTax Plan.

Get rid of ALL of the taxes that we’re paying now… all of them. Every last one of them. Then put in a 23% sales tax. That’s a tax that EVERYONE has to pay. You buy groceries, you pay the tax. You buy a DVD, you pay the tax. You buy a computer, you pay the tax. You buy a yacht, you pay the tax. You buy a winter mansion in Boca Raton, you pay the tax. You buy stock in Yahoo, you pay the tax.

Now 23% seems like a lot, but once you realize that our current system is responsible for 25% of the price of goods that you’re paying for now, then you’re actually getting a break!

But that’s not all that you would be getting out of this deal. We’re talking about a complete and fundamental shift in our way of life and in our finances.

Tax Day goes away. April 15^th (or 17^th in this case) would be just another boring day. No more 1040 forms. No more 1099 forms. No more W2 forms. No more annual visits to your accountant or to a tax preparer to see if you’re reporting all of your income. You get 100% of your paycheck… every last penny! You would not be penalized for being successful, no matter what income level you’re at! Instead of being encouraged to spend, spend, spend, you’ll have an incentive to SAVE and INVEST and not have to worry about it coming back to hurt you if you DARE to take some of that money out, because it will be YOUR money!

The Middle Class would no longer have a target on their backs under this program! They wouldn’t have to live in fear of the Alternative Minimum Tax, because that would be gone. Everyone pays the same tax, including the trust-fund babies like Paris Hilton. The “tax exempt” status would be GONE for charities and churches, because they wouldn’t have to worry about reporting income! Big Business wouldn’t have an incentive to hire illegal immigrants anymore because it will cost them the same amount of money to hire legal immigrants. That dries up that security threat.

AND that’s not even getting into the concept of a PREBATE! Yes, this program would involve the government actually GIVING YOU MONEY to cover the taxes paid for the basic cost of living per household. (We’re talking BASIC cost of living, mind you. Not Donald Trump’s cost of living.) So if you’re on the low end of the financial spectrum, then it all balances out.

Now obviously I LIKE this concept! It fits the requirement of EVERYONE paying taxes, even those who are here illegally and even those who are just visiting the United States. Companies like Haliburton can move all they want to, but every time their execs show up in this country, they would be paying taxes just like the rest of us! The onus would no longer be ON US to make sure that we report every penny we make.

And obviously there are weak spots to this plan. The IRS would not go away with this system, but they would be leaving US alone and instead be focused on making sure that merchants are paying the taxes. That 23% tax rate can be manipulated, and so can the amount issued to families by the prebate. But these are things that can be easily tracked and fixed. The potential for abuse will continue to be in play, no matter what plan gets enacted, but at least with THIS system we would know what isn’t working and what needs to be fixed.

Now, we have one more tax alternative that needs to be mentioned because some people mistake this for the FairTax Plan and it certainly is NOT the same thing. I’m talking about the Value-Added-Tax, or VAT. The Europeans played with this concept for a while until they realized just how utterly DEVIOUS it really is.

The VAT taxes each business transaction with a built-in sales tax, much like the FairTax. But here’s where the two differ. The VAT taxes the reported “PROFIT” made on each level of transaction for that product, whereas the FairTax plan just taxes the end-point-of-sale. You buy a widget for $10 and sell it for $10.50, then you get taxed on the fifty-cent profit under the VAT rather than adding the tax at the final point of sale under the FairTax plan. The VAT is infinitely more complex than the FairTax plan because companies have to PROVE that they made a “profit” and then to PROVE that they paid the right amount of tax on that “profit”. It is a very complex process that really SLAMS companies with paperwork.

Now think about this: how many times have you heard major motion picture companies complain that they don’t make any money off their big blockbuster releases? How many times have you heard a recording company claim that they’re not making any money off the album sales of their overrated pop stars? How many times have major corporations declared bankruptcy? You don’t think these companies will want exemptions?

How many times have you heard about a company packing up shop and moving overseas? Well guess what? Part of the reason why they do that has to do with the level of bureaucracy they have to deal with in this country! The VAT would make that even worse. And politicians again would know this, and they would be quick to again offer exceptions to try to keep those companies here… which they would accept AND THEN move overseas.

In other words, we would once again be suck with a flawed unjust tax system that would not do what it was created to do.

Let’s get brutally honest here… the VAT is infinitely WORSE than the FairTax, or for that matter any of the other alternatives. The invitation for abuse is great, as is being demonstrated in Europe right now, and politicians would be just as eager to dole out exceptions under the VAT as they are doing right now with our current system.

We need a new tax system that people can get behind. Something that works. Something that the people will know that everyone will have to contribute to. The reason why the idea of a flat tax has lasted this long is because it appeals to our sense of fair play. Everyone pays, and they all pay the same percentage. Simple. Easy-to-understand. People like that. Likewise, the FairTax plan appeals to our sense of fair play because it gets the government off our backs and still allows everyone to pay taxes. Plus it actually GIVES us money! Either way would work in providing a clear and healthy alternative to our current failing system.

Now all we have to do is generate the WILL to make it happen. And I’ll get into THAT next week.

(Computer – some timely stuff that you have to listen to this show to understand)
(Fade Music In – “Impend” by Martin O’Donnell and Michael Salvatori)

One of the really big reasons why our current tax system is failing is because we’ve made it too damned complex. We took something that should have been simple and we turned it into a horror show.

And it didn’t happen all at once! It happened in piecemeal. A deduction here, an exemption there, one percent here, one percent there, and to make up the difference we’d pass the burden over to others who could supposedly “afford” to shoulder it. And when the most powerful complained, politicians would give them an easy break.

They say that the road to hell is always paved with good intentions… well the path to bankruptcy for most Americans is also paved with good intentions. We don’t gamble our income away quickly and immediately. It happens through a bill here and a bill there. In that same light, the demise of our country’s ability to pay for its own services is also paved with good intentions. We think that the exceptions we look for are small, and by themselves they are… but when combined with all of the other exceptions and favors that we’ve already included, it really hurts us, and it has turned our tax system into a failure that can no longer be reformed, but rather its ineptitude DEMANDS that it be replaced.

Now if none of the systems that I outlined tonight interest you, then you’re more than welcome to come up with something else. But you had better act fast, because we need to replace this failed tax system SOONER rather than LATER.

(Pause)

Brutally Honest is a Get Brutal production; all opinions expressed are those of the commentator, and may or may not be shared by the online provider. This is David Matthews 2 saying good night, and I’ll speak with you soon!

(Fade out)
(Computer – Ending/“End of Recording”)

[End of program]
------------------------------

Brutally Honest Rant - 03/21/07

Brutally Honest Audio Rant: Taxation and “Fairness”
Audio Transcripts
03/21/07

[Start Program]

(Computer – Introduction)
(Music intro – “American Idiot Remix” – by Green Day and David Matthews 2)

Good evening and welcome to this week’s Brutally Honest Rant. I’m David Matthews 2, writer of the weekly online column Brutally Honest.

Last week I started off on my look at America’s failing tax system, and the number one thing that literally KILLS any discussion on reforming that dysfunctional, schizophrenic system. For those of you who listened – or read the transcripts – I seriously hope that I gave you folks something to think about, because like I said, we can’t even discuss fixing the system if we first cannot get past our own wealth envy. It is the reason why our system got to be screwed up, and it is why we are headed for some SERIOUS troubles in the next decade if we don’t act now to replace the system with one that works for us all.

This week, I’m going to go ahead and continue with that train of thought as we look at the issue of “fairness” in the tax system.

Now “fairness” is one of those vague subjective terms that gets thrown about and abused. It’s like other any other subjective word like “decency” or “obscenity” or “beauty” or “rich”. Its definition is pretty much in the eye of the beholder.

For most of us, we define “fair” as being right down the middle, everything equal. We think that a “fair” judge or a “fair” referee is someone who should be impartial, unbiased, and able to call the shots as they happen, no matter who wins.

The problem is that there is no such thing as being truly impartial or unbiased. We all have our own little biases. Our very sense of what is right and what is wrong is in and of itself a bias. Thus our definition of “fair” is manipulated by our biases.

We believe that the good guys should always win, so we’ll ignore those instances when police officers abuse the law, believing that the bad guys “deserve” whatever they get. We’ll ignore rampant corruption and abuses of power from our favorite politicians, but we’ll be the first ones to cry out against such activities on anyone else. We will blindly refuse to accept any kind of faults with our religious dogmas, believing OURS to be infallible, while calling to question even the smallest of inaccuracies for any other belief.

We literally hypocritize ourselves… knowingly, willingly, and with complete disregard of the consequences. And then we have the audacity to call that being “fair”.

Now let’s put that in the context of taxation, the method by which we fund our governments large and small.

The first thing that needs to be pointed out here is that we pretty much have a SUBJECTIVE tax system. This is contrary to any other element in our government, which is supposed to present EQUAL treatment. Remember that whole bit in the Declaration of Independence about ALL men being created equal? Well we didn’t really practice what we preached at the time, but we eventually changed that. In fact, we’ve gone against our own people to fight for equal treatment in the courts, equal treatment in society, equal treatment in voting… but NOT for equal treatment when it comes to taxation. We do not tax people EQUALLY. We tax them according to what we think is “FAIR”.

Two people who make the same amount of money, right to the penny, and with the same amount of cost-of-living expenses, can be taxed differently. One person could pay infinitely MORE in taxes than the other person depending on variable circumstances. One person could make his money through investments. He could own a home instead of renting one.

We have this thing called the Alternative Minimum Tax. It was originally designed to collect money from people who are rich enough to never work for a living, but instead make their money through investments. Unfortunately, nobody bothered to update the numbers for this tax to take effect, and those numbers were written back in 1970. So as it is right now, if you own a few shares of stock and you sell them, then the IRS could declare you a “rich person” and throw you into the AMT. You can even get lumped into the AMT simply by getting married to someone who works for a living if your combined income is high enough. And what this means is yet ANOTHER layer of complex paperwork for you to fill out, and without many of the normal deductions that you would normally take for granted. This tax has literally caused untold couples and families to go into bankruptcy, and has even resulted in several people committing suicide.

Is that right? No.

But according to the supporters of the status quo, that difference is considered “fair”.

There are those who don’t pay ANY taxes, and yet they wield a disproportionate amount of political influence in America. I’m talking about religious leaders. Men, and some women, who are richer than most of their followers, and yet they pay no taxes. They wield enough political influence to get laws written to tell US how to live our lives, even if we’re not followers of their belief, and yet they don’t pay the political admission price like the rest of us have to.

Is that right? Absolutely not.

And yet that too is considered “fair”.

We have a tax system that actually PENALIZES success. The more money that you make under our current system means that you have to pay even MORE in taxes! And why is that, you ask? Well, according to the supporters of the status quo… it’s because you can afford to pay it!

Now let’s frame this in a way that you can understand. Suppose you were to go to McDonald’s to buy one of those $1.00 cheeseburgers that they like to talk about. But you then find out that when you’re ordering your food, you have to tell the cashier how much money you make per year. You place your order and you tell the cashier how much money you make and the cashier tells you that this $1.00 cheeseburger now costs you $10! You’re outraged and you ask why you’re being charged ten times as much when the two other people in front of you only had to pay $1.00 for their cheeseburgers. And she says, “Well, those other two barely make more than $20,000 a year. YOU, on the other hand, make $50,000 a year. You make a lot more than they do, therefore you can AFFORD to pay more for that same cheeseburger!”

Now is that right? Is it right to be FORCED to pay more simply because you can AFFORD to pay for it? Unequivocally not!

And yet, according to the ardent defenders of the status quo, including the current and past occupants of the White House, this too is considered absolutely “fair”. According to them, you SHOULD pay more in taxes if you can afford to.

Meanwhile, of course, there seems to be an endless stream of exceptions and deductions and tax “credits” being meted out to various people for various reasons. If you’re poor, you don’t have to worry about some of the taxes. If you’re rich, you don’t have to worry about some of the taxes. If you have children, you don’t have to worry about some of the taxes. If you give to certain charities, you don’t have to worry about some of the taxes. If you own a home instead of rent one, you don’t have to worry about some of the taxes.

But nobody wants to ask who has to make up the difference for all of these little “favors”. Who picks up the burden? The rest of us do! The middle class does. People, like me, who are essentially not represented in government, who can’t claim any of those deductions or exceptions or exemptions, and who are forced to pay more and more of the tax burden. Why? Simply because we can AFFORD to pay it!

Meanwhile we have rampant spending in government. We have promises being made on our behalf that simply CANNOT be met because they call for more money than we can ever collect.

Is that right? No, but our defenders of the status quo will tell you that it is “fair”.

Well, obviously it is not “fair” for you if you’re the one left holding the bag, but it is certainly “fair” for the corrupt politicians because they get another term in office because of it. It is also certainly “fair” to those people who vote for those corrupt politicians because of it; because that’s less money that they have to worry about. As for you? Well, I guess it sucks to be you, doesn’t it?

Let’s get brutally honest here… America is being run on a tax system that is not only hemorrhaging itself into bankruptcy, but it is set up on a subjective method that is contrary to the very principles that this country is supposed to represent!

If we were to implement this demented, subjective, “FAIR” system into any other aspect of social interaction, we would be accused of blatant discrimination! There would be marches in the streets, there would be marches in Washington, there would be outright riots over this kind of discrimination! But because it plays on our wealth envy, and it is completely sold on the asinine idea that RICH people should suffer the consequences of being successful in life, then somehow, that’s okay.

Well it’s NOT okay! We are getting screwed over because of it, and if we don’t do something about it… if we don’t change this system and replace it with one that works… then we will ALL be in a situation that will not be “fair” for ANYONE inside the United States, rich or poor.

We need to replace this system with one where EVERYONE pays taxes, and pays those taxes EQUALLY, regardless of how much they make. A tax system set up WITHOUT exceptions, WITHOUT exemptions, and WITHOUT deductions. A tax system that cannot be easily manipulated by the politicians and their friends in the special interest groups. A tax system that would be so simple to understand that it can be easily taught in government schools.

These kinds of tax systems DO exist. We just have to want them bad enough to demand that government make it happen. But we had damn well better act soon, because if we don’t, then we’ll be stuck with a tax system that none of us will like in the very least, and one that we will not be able to get out of anytime soon.

(Computer – some relevant stuff… but as always, you gotta tune in to appreciate them)
(Fade Music In – “The Passportal” by Team Sleep)

Back during the American Revolution there was a handy little slogan that said “No taxation without representation”. It was to represent the fact that the American Colonies were getting screwed over in taxes by Great Britain without anyone in the government to speak on their behalf.

Well fast forward 230 years and we have both taxation and we have representation. But the problem is that those who are GETTING taxed have very little of that representation, while those who pay very little in taxes seem to get way too much representation.

Doesn’t that sound a little like history repeating itself? I would hope that wouldn’t be the case, because I’d like to think that we can resolve this problem before it ever gets that far.

(Pause)

Brutally Honest is a Get Brutal production; all opinions expressed are those of the commentator, and may or may not be shared by the online provider. This is David Matthews 2 saying good night, and I’ll speak with you soon!

(Fade out)
(Computer – Ending/“End of Recording”)

[End of program]
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Brutally Honest Rant - 03/14/07

Brutally Honest Audio Rant: Tax Reform and Wealth Envy
Audio Transcripts
03/14/07

[Start Program]

(Computer – Introduction)
(Music intro – “American Idiot Remix” – by Green Day and David Matthews 2)

Good evening and welcome to this week’s Brutally Honest Rant. I’m David Matthews 2, writer of the weekly online column Brutally Honest.

As we get closer and closer to April 15^th - otherwise known as “Tax Day”, when most Americans have to have their federal and state income tax forms sent out – I’m going to be spending some time talking about ways that we can make that day disappear once and for all. Because it really is annoying and aggravating for us to deal with this annual burden of filling out forms, collecting all of these receipts marking off how much money we DARED to make and reporting how much got taken away from us in taxes, and then HOPING that we’d get some of it back just so we could make ends meet! It is annoying, it is frustrating, and oh yeah, we really have NO IDEA how much is getting taken away from us in taxes. We have to actually PAY to buy software or to hire tax preparers to fill out all of this stuff for us, because there’s no way in hell we can figure this stuff out and do it right. And good luck for those of you who try! I mean, you think that computer programming is confusing? Try understanding the tax code! That’ll make binary code look like child’s play!

And as I reported a couple of weeks ago, we’re quickly coming to a point where we NEED to make some sort of significant change to our tax system, because this crap is NOT working! Ask the current head of the General Accounting Office if you don’t believe me! David Walker, the comptroller general of the GAO, has been sounding the alarm bells for quite some time now. The system cannot handle all of the promises that have been made by our elected grifters and shysters.

Now when that day comes – and I mean WHEN, not if, and we’re talking sooner rather than later – then two things are going to happen. The first is that we ARE going to break the promises made concerning pretty much every social program today and every promise made tomorrow. We simply will not have the money for them because we’ll be spending all of that money on the interest on those promises. The second thing that will happen is that WE, and I mean every single taxpaying American, will get HOSED in crippling-high taxes! If you think that you’re getting screwed over now, then you better start wondering about how you’re going to survive when you’re paying TWICE as much in taxes, or even THREE times as much! And imagine how that added tax burden will affect your cost of living! It’s not just less money in your paycheck, it’s more money that you’ll have to spend on food, on clothing, on the basic utilities that you take for granted today, and pretty much everything else going on now. How much we pay in taxes also has an effect on the economy.

And this isn’t MY nightmare scenario, folks… this COMES from the head of the GAO! I’m talking about someone whose only mission in life is to look at the REAL numbers with the federal government and to see where things are heading. He doesn’t like where things are going, and there are very few people in Washington D.C. who can find fault with it. That’s scary!

And there is only one way to prevent that nightmare scenario from happening. We HAVE to fundamentally change the tax system now. We can’t dabble with it; we can’t “tweak” it; and we certainly can’t make an adjustment here and an adjustment there and expect things to fix themselves. We missed the opportunity to do that maybe ten or twenty years ago. Now it’s too late. We need to scrap the whole damn thing and start fresh and come up with a tax system that is truly FAIR for EVERY American, not just “fair” for the politicians and certainly not just “fair” for the special interest groups.

Now I have read the FairTax Book. I understand its origins and what it can do. I’ve seen the numbers, and if it is implemented as spelled out in that book, then you would see an incredible influx of tax money, and, at the same time, some great economic incentives for both growth and for savings. We would have a tax system that would actually ENCOURAGE savings and ENCOURAGE success, and not punish them like the current system is doing.

But I’m really not here to talk about the FairTax idea this week. It’s an interesting system, and one that I will help explain in the weeks to come so that you can understand what it is and what it is not.

Right now, though, I want to talk about the number one thing that KILLS any kind of talk about tax reforms in this country… because we can’t even begin to talk about reforming the tax system without getting past THIS serious hurdle. We can come up with a dozen perfect new tax systems to replace the current one that could generate untold trillions in tax revenue and they wouldn’t mean a damn thing if we can’t get past this issue-killer.

And the name of this issue-killer is WEALTH ENVY! It is nothing less than our perverse HATRED of the fact that SOMEONE OTHER THAN OURSELVES is out there being more successful and making more money than us!

I’m serious about that, boys and girls! This is what literally KILLS any discussion on real tax reform in this country! It is our perverse FEAR and HATRED of rich people!

Oh, sure, we deny it. It’s not normal to admit to having a perverse hatred of anything. We don’t want to be known as haters. Haters are bad people, and we all see ourselves as the good guys.

But while we’re watching NBC’s “The Apprentice” and MTV’s “Cribs” and watching all the celebrity success stories and looking at all of that gaudy opulence being thrown in our faces, we can’t help but feel disgusted by it. We look at the gossip magazines and visit the stalkernazi websites and we watch people like Britney Spears slowly self-destruct and we actually feel GOOD because of it. They’re not our role models! They never WERE our role models! They are our sacrificial lambs being served up on our secret altars of hate and self-loathing. We WANT them to fail as role models! We WANT them to debase themselves. We WANT them to get drunk and spew chunks and flash body parts and get arrested just so we can feel better about ourselves. Then we can convince ourselves that being rich and successful isn’t as cracked up as we’ve all been brought up to believe it to be.

And then of course there are those who don’t self-destruct like we feel that they should. People who can’t help but succeed in life, no matter what it is. And if they’re doing something better than us then we feel that they must have done something illegal or something wrong to get there. In other words, they CHEATED! They cheated something or they cheated someone, because that’s the only way that we can accept the fact that they are more successful than us.

So we put the thought into our own heads that these people who are more successful than us should OWE us something because of it! They shouldn’t be more successful than us, and we can’t prove that they cheated or that they bent the rules to get to where they are now, but we still feel that they OWE us because of it!

THAT is wealth envy! That is the whole thing, stripped away of any pretenses and platitudes. If someone is more successful than us, then we feel that they didn’t EARN it, they certainly didn’t DESERVE it, and in all likelihood, they CHEATED to get there! And we feel that they must PAY for that!

Now along come our elected grifters and shysters… and they promise us that they can make those rich people pay the price for their success. They’ll do something to help us out as well, but more importantly, they’ll make the rich people SUFFER for being successful. Because WE KNOW that they don’t deserve that success! I mean, come on guys, the name “Paris Hilton” says it all, doesn’t it?

But what we DO NOT realize is that these same grifters and shysters are playing both sides here. They’re promising to make “the rich” pay, but then they’re turning around and giving them tax breaks and exemptions under the table. They’re going to the truly wealthy and saying “well, we have to come down hard on you folks for the sake of appearances, but don’t you worry; we’ll just give you an easy out from all of these troubles as long as it remains our little secret.” And they do just that. We don’t see all of the details of these little “tax reform tweaks”, do we? No we don’t! They’re supposed to make our lives easier, but somehow the rich keep on getting richer and the poor keep on getting poorer. And even I find it hard to continually explain or even defend it. That doesn’t mean that I’ve stopped trying, though.

Remember the so-called “energy policy” bill that the Bush Imperium touted in 2005? It was supposed to help us from getting screwed over by the oil companies. Instead it gave them huge tax breaks. Why? Because nobody in the peanut gallery bothered to read the fine print, that’s why!

I mean, come on guys… let’s look at some of the so-called “champions of the needy”, shall we? Teddy Kennedy, John Kerry, Hillary “The Banshee” Clinton… have you noticed how RICH these folks are? None of them have gotten any poorer through their own economic reengineering programs, have they? And they never WILL get any poorer! Because it is all just a SCAM, and they damn well know it! All they’re really doing is putting the squeeze on the Middle Class. The rich get a lot of breaks, the poor get a few breaks, and all that the rest of us get is more and more of the burden. And it has been getting systematically worse over the past few decades. It’s not just a Republican or Democrat thing. It’s Washington… PERIOD!

So now we gotta change the tax system, and now those same grifters and shysters are SCARED! They’re scared because they’ve created this great scam and they don’t want to see it end! It has given them power. It has kept them in office. It turned them into the personal best friends of just about every socioeconomic group out there… as long as they can keep those groups separated and pissed off at each other.

So what do they do? They play up on our wealth envy.

“Oh no,” they tell us, “We shouldn’t mess with the tax system like that! No, that will just put an UNDUE BURDEN on the poor! The POOR people couldn’t afford this kind of a tax system.”

No matter what the tax idea is, they’ll use the same lines. The same excuses. The same scapegoats.

“Oh and let’s not forget those hard-working families! Struggling mothers and fathers just trying to make ends meet. You’re just going to drive them into bankruptcy! You’re going to break up families and break the hearts of little children! And all for what? So a bunch of limousine-riding rich people can get more tax breaks and not pay their FAIR share of the taxes. That’s all that you’re doing! You’re just letting RICH people get away with not paying their FAIR share of the taxes and not fulfilling THEIR SOCIAL OBLIGATION to the rest of us hard-working Americans!”

That’s their line, folks, and they will swear by it on top of every holy book they can find. No matter what the plan is, no matter how better that plan would be for Americans, no matter if it really helps the poor and hurts the rich, our elected grifters and shysters will spin it to be something downright atrocious. Every plan, every program that detracts from the status quo is supposedly designed to hurt the poor and help the rich.

But what they will not tell you is that these very things are happening RIGHT NOW with the current tax system! And they can get away with it because we have no idea how much we’re really paying in taxes, and because we’re too blinded by our wealth envy to even CARE!

Now let’s get brutally honest here… we are NEVER going to get ourselves out of this problem if we do not get past this damned wealth envy of ours! As long as the politicians and their special interest friends can continue to lead us around by our unrealistic and terminally dysfunctional sense of what wealth is and how it is achieved, we will be cowered into letting the status quo go on indefinitely. We will continue to get hosed by the tax system, and we will continue to spiral into that financial doomsday scenario within the next ten years where we will ALL get hit with staggering high taxes.

We need to get over this damned wealth envy of ours. We need to admit that it exists in our minds, and then we need to put it in its proper perspective. We’re not going to get rid of it, but we can keep it under control and keep it in perspective. Because if we can’t keep it under control, then it controls us, and that is what has been going on with our tax system.

We need to ask ourselves one simple question: is your perverse desire to see rich people suffer worth losing every single penny that you will ever earn for the rest of your mundane existence? Because THAT is what is at stake here! We’re not talking about Bill Gates’ money. We’re not talking about Paris Hilton’s money. We’re not even talking about George W. Bush’s money. We’re talking about YOUR money, and how much of it could very well disappear in the next ten years if we don’t do something soon about this dysfunctional tax system.

Has that gotten your attention? Good, because it doesn’t get any easier from here.

(Computer – some timely things that you’ll just have to listen to hear them)
(Fade Music In – “Mythodea” by Vangelis)

It’s not easy keeping your wealth envy in check. Trust me, as a libertarian it’s difficult at times to balance my political views with that seething desire within me to see some kind of personal justice for the imbalances in this horror show this we call our world.

But then I keep this in mind… no matter what we’ve done to supposedly “balance” the playing field, those with influence and wealth will ALWAYS find a way to get around it. They will ALWAYS find a way to stay wealthy. The name of the game here is NOT to make them poor. The name of the game is come up with a way so that EVERYONE pays their truly fair share in taxes, no matter how much money they have or how much they bring in. You want in on the system? Then you pay your dues like everyone else.

Now we can get to work on coming up with ways to replace the current tax system.

(Pause)

Brutally Honest is a Get Brutal production. All opinions expressed are those of the commentator, and may or may not be shared by the online provider. This is David Matthews 2 saying good night, and I’ll speak with you soon!

(Fade out)
(Computer – Ending/“End of Recording”)

[End of program]
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Brutally Honest Rant - 02/28/07

Brutally Honest Audio Rant: Unacceptable Truths – On Taxes
Audio Transcripts
02/28/07

[Start Program]

(Computer – Introduction)
(Music intro – “American Idiot Remix” – by Green Day and David Matthews 2)

Good evening and welcome to this week’s Brutally Honest Rant. I’m David Matthews 2, writer of the weekly online column Brutally Honest.

A few weeks ago I kicked off a new series called “Unacceptable Truths” where I expose a certain truth that most of the thinking populace simply refuses to accept because it goes against what they’ve always believed to be true. Sort of like explaining to people that the Earth is round when they all believe it to be flat. The first one in this series was about religion. For those of you who missed that one, you can always read the transcripts over at the Brutally Honest weblog and look for the blog tag “Unacceptable Truths”.

Well it’s time to bring up another unacceptable truth; one that pretty much hits most of us right in our wallets. This one has to do with a subject that we ALL hate to discuss: taxes.

During the winter break I asked my listeners if they could come up with some suggestions on how to improve the show. One of the suggestions I got was that perhaps I could spend some time talking about the Fair Tax Bill and filling in some of the blanks that people seem to get wrong about what it is and what it can do for the American people.

The Fair Tax Bill – for those of you who don’t know what it is – was an idea originally developed in the 1930’s as a way to pay all government programs through a national sales tax instead of taxing income. It would have been a great idea… except for the fact that it came about while we were still trying to recover from the Great Depression and that the government WANTED people to spend money instead of hiding it under mattresses and in buried pickle jars. Anyway, the idea sat around for a few decades until a Congressman named John Linder discovered it and has been trying to get it passed into law as a way to reform the tax code. You may have heard about or read the book that Congressman Linder wrote along with talking head Neal Boortz called “The Fair Tax Book” that pretty much explains the whole program. I’m almost through reading it myself and certainly recommend it anyone who is interested in fixing the tax system… and I mean REALLY FIXING IT… because THIS would do the job.

Anyway, I continually hear from people about how the Fair Tax Bill would be a GREAT bill… but that it would never work. I would ask them why they think that it would never work and they usually come up with some half-truths about the bill. They would claim it’s just a value-added tax – which it isn’t. They would claim that it would be an undue burden on the poor – which it certainly would not. If anything the Fair Tax bill would be far more of a help for the poor than anything currently on the table today. And then, of course, we have the flip-side of that claim, that the Fair Tax Bill would “benefit the rich”, even though it would tax EVERYONE no matter how much money they made.

And I could go on and on all night about each of these excuses, debunking each of the claims, answering all of the questions… and I will at some point between now and April 15^th. But I will say that each of these excuses – and they really are excuses – as to why the Fair Tax Bill would not work pretty much all stem from the same unacceptable truth that we have about taxes, and especially about our current tax system.

So what is the unacceptable truth? Here it is: no matter how well informed you claim to be about the system… no matter how well informed you think you are about politics… the American people, for the most part, HAVE NO IDEA WHATSOEVER about the full scope of our current tax system! And it’s done so ON PURPOSE!

We all think that we know something about the tax system. We always believe – no matter how much money that we make – that WE, as individuals, are paying WAY TOO MUCH in taxes. Consequentially, we think that there’s someone else out there who is not paying “enough”. We can’t really prove it, of course, but we’ll believe it to be gospel. We’re paying “too much” and someone else is not paying “enough”. NOT US, though! NEVER US!

Seriously! Has anyone ever stepped forward with a straight face and honestly said that THEY are not paying enough and that they REALLY should be paying MORE in taxes? If you ever came across that person, I’m sure that you’d be ready to check them in to the local insane asylum, because that’s just plain CRAZY talk!

Well part of the reason why we keep on thinking that we are paying way too much is because we really have NO IDEA how much we’re truly paying in taxes! The stuff that we see when we do our Income Tax statements is only part of the total taxes that we end up paying. But we think that it is ALL that we are paying.

For most of us, we have no idea that the companies we work for ALSO have to pay taxes on us! We don’t have a clue about that because we don’t see that money, but it is still being given up on our behalf. You want to know why your boss doesn’t want to give you a raise? It’s probably not because you don’t deserve one but because it would cost the company more than you would ever know!

We don’t factor in the taxes that we pay for utilities like phone or cable service. We don’t factor in the additional sales taxes we’re currently paying in various states across America. If you’re in one of those states that have to pay local option sales taxes, then you’re voting for numerous sales taxes and not factoring in how much those have an effect on your bottom line. You don’t think about it because it’s only for one percent here and one percent there. Some areas could have ten or more such plans, all rotating about for you to pay every time you go to the store. And you actually VOTE for them every time! Why? Because you don’t know any better! Most of us are ignorant about it all and we just keep on voting them in because they “sound good”.

If you could find a way to add all that up, you’ll find that you’re probably losing around half of your paycheck just to pay taxes! That’s a lot of money, and most of you have no idea that you’re paying that much! You don’t know about it because you don’t see it, just like the taxes that are taken out of your paycheck before you even get one penny put into your account. Out of sight, out of mind.

And that’s not counting the effect that higher taxes have on the price of goods! This is a basic rule that most people don’t realize… businesses do not pay taxes in the same way that human beings do! They don’t pay the taxes, they pass it on to us as part of the price of their goods! For the end-user, taxes are taxes, but for businesses, taxes are just another part of overhead. So every dollar in taxes that businesses are expected to pony up for YOUR raise gets passed on to the consumers. You want to tax corporations for making too much money? All you’re doing is taxing yourself because they’ll just pass that amount off to us through higher prices. That’s a basic rule of business that most of the great unwashed are absolutely CLUELESS about!

But we will still delude ourselves into thinking that based on how much we THINK we’re paying, that we know who’s really paying too much and who’s not paying “enough”. And the basis for this delusion? Simply on how much more money so-called “rich people” are making. Oh, they have a mansion? Then they’re not paying “enough” in taxes! They need to pay more! They make $500,000 a year? $700,000 a year? One million? A million-plus? Then they’re not paying “enough” in taxes! They need to pay more!

Listen up jerkoffs! You don’t even know how much YOU are losing in taxes! You certainly are in NO POSITION to determine how much someone else IS paying and SHOULD be paying in taxes!

I hate to be blunt about it, but the sheer stupidity on this subject pretty much overwhelms my sense of courtesy. This mentality of “over-tax the rich” has essentially created a system that punishes success and punishes achievement. It basically says that you’re really not supposed to have the American Dream, and if you DO want it, then you have to pay, and pay big, and pay continually, and pay through the nose, and keep paying until you can no longer afford that American Dream.

And it is all done for a reason.

Let’s get brutally honest here… the reason why our tax system is so screwed up and why we’re getting taxed six-ways-to-Sunday without even knowing it is because it benefits the politicians! It gives them POWER. They can use our distorted sense of class inequality against us; promising to make “the rich” pay through the nose, while at the same time giving out tax breaks for businesses and “tax credits” – essentially IOUs – for the rest of us.

It allows for both Democrats and Republicans to CLAIM to care about the “middle class” while at the same time bleeding them dry. Times are tough, so we’re going to give you a “tax credit” or a “tax deduction” that you can cash in the next time you fill out your tax forms. Of course it’ll be just a fraction of what we’re really getting out of you, and of course we get to keep the interest, but you’ll never notice because you don’t know how much you’re losing in the first place, and any little bit helps, right? Oh, and don’t worry, we’ll get “the rich” to pay for it, even while we’re giving them instant tax breaks and tax cuts and they get to fob the difference down to you in the form of higher prices. But again, you’ll never notice that. You’ll just point fingers at “the rich” and call on us for help as you have been doing all these years.

There it is, boys and girls. The tax system, all laid out for you. Whole generations of doublespeak and hypocrisy, of false promises and flimflam con games. And much like the legend of Dorian Gray, its magic only works when you don’t get to see the full picture. For once you do, the ugliness of it all is exposed, and you can’t help but be repulsed by it and demand for change. It’s based entirely on your ignorance and on your distorted view of wealth and success.

And THAT is the real reason why the Fair Tax Bill or any other such bill would ever fail to be enacted. Not because it would be a “bad idea”, but because this kind of system would replace the schizophrenic system that exists today. It would eliminate the required ignorance from the masses, it would free up large sums of money that people never knew were being taken away from them, it would equally provide more money in taxes than currently possible, and it would take away the POWER that the legislators currently have.

There are plenty of institutions and organizations and businesses out there today that are making a fortune off this unacceptable truth. And they will continue to make a fortune off this unacceptable truth until we decide to stop playing around with the tax system and actually DEMAND that the system work for US instead of working for everyone EXCEPT US.

(Computer – Some timely stuff of course that you’ll have to hear to appreciate)
(Fade Music In – “Heretic, Hero” by Martin O’Donnell and Michael Salvatori)

Listen, folks, when it comes to taxes, we’re in some dangerous territory here. We’re coming up to a point really soon where we won’t be able to afford to keeping government going as is and still play games with our current tax system. Something’s gotta give, and we’re going to piss some group off no matter what happens, even if we choose to let things go on as they are now.

If we continue to simply tweak the current system and continue to play on our dysfunctions, then all we can ever do is just buy some more time. But that’s all that it is. It’s a delaying tactic. The same problem will still be there; it’s just going to be pushed back a couple more years.

If we want to actually RESOLVE the problem, then we need to fundamentally rethink how we look at taxation. We can’t just tweak the system. We have to scrap it entirely and start from scratch with a new approach and a new system that EVERYONE gets to take part in equally.

And once upon a time I thought that reform would involve an absolute flat tax… no exceptions, no deductions, no exemptions. But after looking at the Fair Tax – and yes that was BEFORE I actually read the book – I have to say that THIS is the system that can do everything we want it to do.

Either way, though, we gotta do something… and we had better do it soon before the choices are made FOR us, and, at that point, nobody will like how it turns out.

(Pause)

Brutally Honest is a Get Brutal production, all opinions expressed are those of the commentator, and may or may not be shared by the online provider. This is David Matthews 2 saying good night, and I’ll speak with you soon!

(Fade out)
(Computer – Ending/“End of Recording”)

[End of program]
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