One of the fascinating things about right wing talk radio (and perhaps left wing talk radio as well) is how the hosts of these shows have so much “Personal Confidence”, by which I mean “Chutzpah”.  These shows are designed to appeal to the lowest common denominator. On many of these shows the host will demagogue the concept of Rugged Individualism to their audience. What it seems to come down to is that to be a Rugged Individualist one must see the world as the host does. Does this not subvert the very concept of individualism? I recall in the sixties when my generation eschewed (although we had no clue as to what eschewing was) collegiate attire and we all donned T shirts and jeans just so we could be different. What we were, ultimately, was a ragged army impressed into service by jeans salesmen. Live and Learn. That’s what I have attempted to do for much of my life and I feel, for the most part, I have succeeded more often than failed. Which brings me to the point of today’s missive.

Recently, I was challenged by someone who did not appreciate my berating of the so-called Fair Tax. To be brief, whenever I hear of anything claiming to be Fair, I have to ask myself, what do you mean by fair and fair to whom? It just seems such a subjective label. I have a natural antipathy towards anything that demands to be accepted as true while simultaneously denying another’s input. So Fair Tax is right up there with The Greatest Show On Earth. (You do get the humor in this metaphor, right?) The most curious part of the Fair Tax argument that began on this blog was when I said I would read the book and then comment. All of a sudden, debate, much less insight, was no longer desired. I was told I am “close minded” and will not approach the topic fairly. Having spent my entire adult life in research and development, believe me, you can not investigate anything and not be fair. Tends to skew the results which could lead to much more disastrous outcomes. The fact that I distrust Mr. Boortz does not mean I can not study the proposal and it does not mean that even a self important person (i.e. flaming egotist) as himself might not stumble upon a good idea. There may be something in the book that could be used but nothing I have read about it anywhere else leads me to believe that this idea is the one we want to wed.  Be that as it may, I will be contributing my interpretation, which in America, is just as sound as anyone else’s idea until proven completely ludicrous, like giving Howie Mandel his own game show.So, at the risk of being long winded (yeah, I know, “Too Late!”) let’s get started. I will be posting this in several entries do to length and in respect to the varied time frames of a diverse number of attention spans. 

 The Hook

In the Introduction, the set up claims it will begin with a history lesson of how we got to where we are with the tax code as it is. From there, explain how the government tricks us about how much we actually pay in taxes (first con) then on to reasons why taxes are as high as they are. The reason I call this the first con is that the government does not “trick” us about the taxes we pay. They are very up front and belligerent about it.  The biggie, explaining the Fair Tax in detail and how it is “fair”. Again, gentle readers (to quote Miss Manners) beware of wolves dressed as sheep when they attempt to usurp “fair”.  Arguably, the authors do sound like they really believe all they are writing but they also claim that while some objections are valid they will concentrate on  “dissecting their arguments to expose misunderstandings, outright distortions and whatever grains of truth there might be”.  Nothing like attempting to pre-empt any of your potential for free thought. This is a common carnival trick used by con artists in circuses of the mind everywhere.  There is more but I am really only trying to hit the high points.  The authors are also convinced that we, the commoners, are not capable of thinking for ourselves and will do their utmost to lift that heavy burden from our minds. The dissertation I am beginning would be remiss if I did not explain the Libertarian mind set. This will be in the next part.

To Be Continued….

Let me tell you how it will be,
There's one for you, nineteen for me,
'Cos I'm the Taxman,
Yeah, I'm the Taxman.
Should five per cent appear too small,
Be thankful I don't take it all,
'Cos I'm the Taxman,
Yeah, I'm the Taxman. (The Beatles)