The following has existed as an unpublished draft for more than a year with the second half added a few months ago. Most of it is probably not relevant anymore. Enjoy!
As I explained
previously, I know just about nothing about economics and my interest in it is nearly non-existent as well,
to the extent that I would rather learn about the cell
biology of how grass grows or the quantum physics of how paint dries than about economics. However, I have been thinking a little bit about some of the things I put forth in my economic theory, and I think I need to add to it. Like most sequels, this is not as good as the first one.
Fun with Flat Taxes
One of the disjointed parts of my theory involved a flat tax for all. Recently, flat taxes have been the topic of ridicule via the ridicule of Herman Cain’s 9-9-9 plan. I learned about that plant from a chart someone posted on Facebook, and some googling I did later (though I apparently didn't save the links I learned from). It seems that Herman Cain would charge a 9% income tax for people and corporations, and a 9% national sales tax to either replace or add to state taxes. I’m not clear on the latter because I’m not clear on the difference between the apples and oranges he keeps talking about in the clips of debates I’ve seen on
The Daily Show and/or
Colbert Report (like
this one). Herman Cain would also remove all tax deductions. Based on other clips of things I’ve seen on
The Daily Colbert (
here's one), it seems that Rick Perry also has a flat tax plan where he would charge 20% taxes for all while keeping tax deductions in place. (Herman Cain and Rick Perry were Republican candidates who lost the primaries for the 2012 presidential election. These now-obscure references are partially what render this blog posting no longer relevant.)
Obviously, Herman Cain and Rick Perry got these ideas from my blog, because there is simply no other possible explanation of how one could think of a flat tax or simplifying the overly complicated tax code. I spoke of a flat tax, as part of my three-disjointed-pronged economic plan that could easily make me president, and they took that idea and added some stuff that I do not approve of and never intended for. Please note: I am not crazy (at least in this respect), nor am I serious about having any part in Herman Cain’s or Rick Perry’s plan making.
Lots of people (well, at least one person) feel that Herman Cain’s 9-9-9 plan is a terrible idea, and I agree for the reasons those people state. Someone at the
Huffington Post explained that it would end up taxing lower income people a bit more than they are currently taxed, and it would drastically reduce taxes for corporations and the very wealthy by a lot. I haven’t googled Rick Perry’s plan, but it seems like it might be an improvement on Cain’s plan. Clearly, that’s quite an endorsement, since it is coming from my uneconomical brain via my blog-typing fingers, I mean digits (because digits are economically related!).
While Herman Cain’s flat tax plan is clearly not fair and good, I still believe that my flat tax plan could be fair and good. My plan is extremely vague, which leaves it open to suggestions from people who know about the economics. If you don’t feel like going back and reading about my plan, I will re-state it and de-Cain it here: We should pick some percentage, and charge that percentage of tax to all people. I don’t know what that percentage would be, but I would want it to be a fair one for all. Furthermore, this would only apply to taxable people, and says nothing about how to tax corporations. Despite what the Supreme Court says, I cannot include corporations in the semantics of “People”; my brain simply won’t allow it. Thus, how to tax corporations is another thing that is left vague in my tax plan for people smarter and more knowledgeable than I to handle when I become president. I’m kidding of course -- I still won’t run for president. Anyhoo, my tax plan would not have anything to do with sales tax, since I would never have thought of changing the way sales tax is, and after reading the
Huff-Po article, it’s clear that it would be wrong to give the power of sales tax to the Federal Government. Regarding Herman Cain’s removal of all tax deductions, I think I would leave that vague also, because I think some deductions are good, so long as they don’t allow people to screw over the government via loopholes and abuses and such. Yes, I think that is sufficiently vague to ensure success.
Speculators are Evil! Eeeeeeviiiiiil!
One of the other disjointed portions of my theory states that commodities trading is wrong and should be eradicated. Later, it occurred to me that there is a precedent for my proposed illegalization of commodities trading: insider trading! Like insider trading, commodities trading hurts the whole economy while benefiting a few traders. I assume that is why insider trading is illegal, and so, commodities trading should be too.
Political Predictions
This does not in any way bring me to another disjointed,
unrelated point. This point is so
unrelated, in fact, that it has very little to do with economics. Jon Stewart
delineated the bizarre
doomsday-like predictions Republican presidential candidates make and have made
in the past regarding the horrors that would befall this great land if Obama
was/is (re)-elected. He highlighted the
bizarreness of these predictions by emphasizing that the previous predictions
have not come to fruition. This brought
to my mind the predictions I made about what could happen if George W. Bush
were elected president. The difference,
however, is that my predictions came true, except that W. was not actually
elected (the first time anyway).
At the time of my correct predictions, this blog did not
exist. Instead, I had a verbal blog,
i.e. I occasionally told people what my thoughts were. Thus, I verbally pre-blogged (or “told”) at
least one family member or friend (but probably more than one) that if George W.
Bush became president, we would undoubtedly go to war, and the economy would
suffer. Obviously both things happened.
The economy thing could have happened anyway. From what I barely understand, it seems that
it is possible that the economy simply goes through cycles, and whoever is
president at the time either gets credit for a strong economy, or is blamed for
a bad economy. However, I’m pretty sure
President W. Bush caused all these economic problems we have now that I am
trying to fix via this blog. I know this
because I heard during Mr. W. Bush’s campaign that he ran every business he had
ever owned into the ground, so I naturally deduced that he would therefore run
this country into the ground, since its economy is but a giant business (or so
I assume).
I knew that Present W. Bush would bring us to war because he
stated during his campaign that if anyone, in any way, attacked us or harmed us or whatever, we
would go to war. He said this in such a
way that sounded to me as if he were looking to go to war, and would react to
any trigger with war. Clearly, that made
me nervous.
So, to conclude, I was right, but I wasn’t making crazy
predictions based on nothing; I was making accurate predictions based on things
I heard during a presidential campaign. Furthermore,
I am a predicting genius! But I sill
won’t run for president!
