On Taxes

I hear a lot of complaints about taxes:  Taxed Enough Already!  This statement is ridiculous.  Taxes are lower now than they have been for 30 years.  Besides we get many benefits from our taxes including roads, public education and social services.  The spending of these public dollars is open to public scrutiny so the dollars are rarely wasted.

There is no direct public oversight on the behavior of companies.  Even investors have become disembodied mutual funds with money drawn from 401k accounts so that nobody has any real oversight over a particular company.

Compare this to corporations where they routinely waste money.  Much of this money is wasted on executive salaries.  Corporate CEOs are receiving most of their salaries as capital gains.  Since the capital gains tax was lowered this results in corporate executives paying a much lower percentage of their income in capital gains than most American workers.

Everyone is concerned about the national debt but know one wants to do anything about it.  At one time I thought the republicans were interested in fiscal responsibility.  Reagan proved this was not the case.  He just ran up the debt spending money on building up the military rather than on social or scientific programs.

So now we are faced with a massive debt and neither the democrats nor the republicans are willing to raise taxes to deal with it.  The solution will have to involve raising taxes as well as adjusting entitlements.  People will not be able to retire at age 65 and go on without working.  Retirement age will have to be increased.  Taxes will have to be increased particularly on corporate executive salaries.  Military spending must decrease substantially.  We should not be considered the police force of the world.