S3 E51 P1 No Taxation Without Representation

Episode discussion topics

• This represents part 1 of the Five-Point Plan introduced in episode 50.
• No taxation without equal representation. Make elections and taxation consistent and fair for all.
• We need to un-jury-rigging the elections system by taking on the following principles.
  • Make competitive districts where ideas rule the debates, not personal attacks.
  • Ensure equal, safe, and secure access to voting for all. Perhaps using automatic registrations and universal mail-in ballot options.
  • Make the popular vote reign for the presidency and let us move on from the ill-designed and long failed electoral college system. One person one vote should be the rule and the practice.
  • Provide for a fair, effective, and low-cost campaign finance system.
• Oh, taxation! No one wants to pay taxes. Paying our fair share supports the common good and it is the right thing to do. After all, those things described in the Constitution cost money and we all can benefit from the right investments.
• Keep our progressive bracket design where each bucket of income gets taxed differently based on dollar amounts, not sources.
• Keep tax-deferred accounts like IRA, 401k, HSA, and the like available with maximums.
• Tax all income and unrealized gains annually. Including deferred compensation packages and opening unrealized losses for deductions in kind.
• Retirees pay no tax on something like their first five or low six figures for couples.
• Everyone paying their fair share includes currently untaxed entities like sports teams, non-profits, and religions.
  • Sports teams can afford it and have a duty to give back to the communities from which they profit.
  • Non-profits can handle a little tax. Let's give them their own brackets like retirees.
  • The government shouldn't be in the business of ordaining groups of people as established religions (Amendment I to the Constitution) and certainly not bestowing upon them the divine benefit of paying no taxes. There should be no official state religions.
• The business minimum tax rate should be competitive to international peers with a higher burden on industries with environmentally insensitive components. After all, the government (we the people) is usually paying to clean up their messes.
• Calls to Action:
  • In the past we have called attention to House Resolution 1 - The For the People Act which was passed by the house earlier in 2021, at the beginning of this 117th instance of Congress, and will not pass the Senate.
  • Now keep your eyes and ears peeled for some flurry of smaller changes to specific mechanisms of our elections systems. For example, review the bills related to H.R.5746 - Freedom to Vote: John R. Lewis Act which may get passed if differences between House and Senate versions can be resolved this year. The link jumps to a list that shows much of the "nickel and dime" approach being used to address deficiencies in our electioneering.
  • Find out if your state is assigning its slate of Electoral College Electors based on the popular vote based on an achievable idea long overdue: National Popular Vote Interstate Compact (thanks Wikipedia). If it isn't, let your state legislators know you want it to be so.
  • If you think liberty to vote is being "nickeled and dimed," the list of bills focused on taxation, literal USD, is dizzying. This is an area where our principles on the macro-level play an important role in simplifying the system. This simplification must be motivated by a simple principle. One that is hardwired into our cooperative nature. An ancestral sensibility that our primate cousins share. The one, among them all, which is paramount: Fairness (thank you to scientists and PBS). 

Your hosts: Michael V. Piscitelli and Raymond Wong Jr.

More info

• Racist language may soon be gone from Alabama’s constitution. A tale of a constitution twisted to the extreme, it is believed to be the longest or most amended in the world. It was created in 1901 with the express interest of securing white supremacy in the state. It was written by a powerful and wealthy white male minority.
• We have transcripts located at the end of eac