<p>I’m all for capping tax rates at 20% (i.e. reducing tax rates by half) on the condition that all exemptions, credits, and deductions, except for education, be eliminated. Why should a 23 year old fresh out of college be subsidizing someone’s $3 million mansion? If you can afford to drop that much on a home, you can afford to pay the debt service on it. The rich benefit more from society and therefore should be bearing more of the cost of society.</p>
<p>On the other hand, there’s a societal interest in having a highly educated, skilled workforce, especially in a service sector economy. In other words, we’re in the business not of making things, but in the business of selling knowledge, or creating knowledge.</p>
<p>Call me cynical, but I have a belief that when left to their own devices, corporations will collectively screw their customers, especially when they’re in industries that are necessary for the survival of the economy. Therefore, we need to regulate the crap out of those industries. And things like healthcare should not be left to the free markets, ever. That’s a cost that we as a society should be bearing. Obesity raising the costs of healthcare? Smoking raising the cost of healthcare? Sorry, but that’s what we get when we don’t teach our kids how to cook properly, or control themselves. A 30 year old with an MA in chemistry working for big pharma developing drugs is unable to cook a single dish out of fresh ingredients.</p>
<p>Frankly I’d prefer if they tacked on a $100/pack tax on cigarettes and use that to fund nationalised healthcare. And banned high fructose corn syrup.</p>