A House Divided Against Itself
In 1858, while running for United States Senate against Stephen A. Douglass, Abraham Lincoln gave his “A House Divided Against Itself” speech. In this speech for the ages, Lincoln accurately noted that, “This Nation cannot exist half-slave and half-free.” Although he was addressing the burning issue of slavery, the concept of any nation existing in a state of half-slave and half-free is as germane today as it was more than one hundred and fifty years ago.
Today’s slavery is not one of physical bondage, but one of economic bondage. Today, we live in a country where one-half of the American population provides the income and sustenance for the other half of the population. I am talking about the Federal income tax code. At this time, nearly fifty percent of the American population pays no Federal income tax. They get their highways, National defense, healthcare and subsidies for education and welfare totally free. Many of these people receive their housing for free. Some receive food stamps to buy their groceries for free. Some of these non-productive elements of our society can continue to pump out baby after baby and be paid for their irresponsibility through Aid to Dependent Children. It’s all free, baby!
Of course, the other half of the taxation bondage knows the real truth. Nothing is free! The hard working American taxpayer works nearly one-third of a year just to pay their Federal Income Tax. Is this right and fair? I think not. Throughout history, taxation done on a “progressive” basis has been shown to rob individuals of their creative initiative as the tax code robs them of their success.
First, let’s get the mind manipulation out of the way. We should disabuse ourselves of the liberal labeling of our tax code as “progressive”. This term is a nice easily digestible term for soaking the productive members of our society. Please tell me why it is a “progressive” concept to punish people for their success by robbing them of a higher percentage than the guy next door. Just think about it. We pride our selves on the democratic concept of “one man, one vote” and then let the equality stop there. The liberal justification for a “progressive” tax code is that those who have most benefitted from our country’s system should pay their fair share. I say baloney to that propaganda.
Just imagine the following scenario: Three men are hired to dig ditches. One man gets busy and piles up tons of dirt, even working extra hours to be the best and most productive ditch digger. The second man works nine to five meeting the minimal normal standards for ditch digging. The third man sits in the shade and never picks up a shovel. Now it’s payday. The first man, the hardest working and most productive, gets his paycheck and discovers that forty percent of his earnings have been removed from his check and given to “worker” number three. The second ditch digger gets his check and discovers that fifteen percent of his pay has been removed and given to the third “worker”. The third man gets a check that pays for his healthcare, housing, food and incidentals. I ask you beseechingly; what is the incentive for the third man to ever pick up a shovel or to teach his children to pick up a shovel? What is the incentive for worker number one to continue to look for ways to dig deeper ditches and pile dirt higher?
I remember very little from my college psychology 100 class except for a few little behavioral economics tomes. To this day, I still marvel at the work done by Harvard University psychologist B. F. Skinner. He utilized a device during many of his experiments called an “operant conditioning chamber”. Many times this consisted of a maze for rats. What Skinner discovered is that if you reward certain behavior, then that behavior will be reinforced. In addition, you may influence behavior by providing negative stimulus. In a nutshell, Skinner proved that if you give a rat a grain of corn for successfully making it through the maze, the rat will continue to run through the maze. He also found that if a rat received declining rewards for its work, it would not perform over the long term. Dr. Skinner, please forgive me for reducing your life’s work down to these simple conclusions.
Don’t think you perform like a rat? Answer this; why do so many able bodied Americans retire at such an early age? For many, the answer is that their pensions compensate them in such a way that they can draw the same pay or close to the same pay for not working. I’m as rational as the next guy or next rat. Pay me the same for not working and I just might stop working too!
This brings us back to our tax system and the vast system of entitlements which it finances. If our United States government continues to pile up debt and increases taxes to provide entitlements which serve as a disincentive to be productive, then our Nation will begin a long slide into economic decline and cultural ruin. One-half of our country is slaving away to pay the taxes that allow the other half to receive a free ride. As Lincoln observed, “This Nation cannot exist half-slave and half-free.” It is time to scrap our current system of taxation which rewards the unproductive elements of our society and punishes the creative and hard working. This dramatic change for the better will require a substantial change in Congress. Voters would be well advised to remove the Democrats in the House and Senate who enable this destructive current system. Let’s do this before the rats leave the ship!
|