Tucson Updates & Events
Jobs, Jobs, Jobs
by Stephen Uhl, PhD
As our unemployment rate hangs above 9% nationwide the loud cry for more
jobs becomes more and more urgent, even angry—and legitimately so. The
angry impatience of the unemployed and underemployed demands a practical
response from government and industry; human compassion drives the rest
of us to work for drastic improvement in the employment picture.
Companies large and small are the real job creators.
As Tom Braithwaite wrote in The Daily Progress (2/22/2011), there is great need
to reduce costs of doing business in the United States. He pointed out
that companies are currently overburdened with both regulations and taxes;
these expenses are naturally embedded in the prices that companies have
to charge for their products. Since corporations are taxed more heavily
in U.S. than in most other countries, and since complex tax regulations
burden our productive corporations so heavily, international companies
are leaving billions of profits offshore where they are not taxed up
to 35%.
As international companies produce more cheaply offshore while selling
to the world's largest market (U.S.), we go begging for jobs as we contribute
to the serious export-import imbalance. Up to $13 trillion of overseas
business remains overseas while great companies like Microsoft, G.E.,
Cisco, etc. hire foreign workers and leave their huge profits offshore—mainly
to avoid paying U.S. income taxes. As Mr. Braithwaite brings out, with
reasonable regulations and no corporate income taxes we would likely
enjoy full employment here on our shores. FairTax (H.R. 25 & S. 13) would
accomplish this.
Certified Financial Planner, Ken Clark, in The Idiot's
Pocket Guide to The FairTax, p. 103, writes: "The FairTax's most
legitimate chance to contribute to economic growth comes from its ability
to change the balance of U.S. foreign trade... U.S. goods will finally
be able to compete on equal footing with foreign goods...." This same
Certified Financial Planner says that under FairTax "... imported goods
will lose any tax-based price advantage they had, increasing the demand
for some domestic alternatives ..." (p. 105).
Full employment results as MADE IN AMERICA becomes popular once again. An increasing volume of research
and unpleasant experiences make it ever more
clear that the current income tax system of over 70,000 pages of loopholes
and political favoritism cannot be fixed; it needs to be totally replaced.
Since it is income based, it taxes the conscientious while being so gameable
that about 50% of Americans (including many rich corporations) do not
carry their fair share. The underground economy of perhaps 1.5 trillion
dollars currently goes untaxed.
The FairTax Act (HR.25, S.13) abolishes all federal personal and corporate income
taxes, gift, estate, capital gains, alternative minimum, Social Security,
Medicare, and self-employment taxes and replaces them with one simple,
visible, federal retail sales tax administered primarily by existing
state sales tax authorities
The FairTax taxes us only on what we choose to spend on new goods or services,
not on what we earn. The FairTax, endorsed enthusiastically by the National
Small Business Association, is an efficient, transparent, and intelligent
solution to the frustration and inequity of our current tax system. FairTax
with its prebate is very progressive and leaves the poor completely untaxed.
For everyone April 15 is just another spring day; the I.R.S. no longer
intrudes on our lives.
Workers keep their entire paychecks; retirees keep
their entire pensions; corporations fill our shelves and showrooms with new goods
for about 20% to 25% less imbedded costs. Pimps, prostitutes, pushers of drugs
and the rest of the huge underground economy all pay their share at the checkout
counter. Similarly the millions of visitors, legal and illegal, contribute to
carrying our tax burden as they purchase new (not used) products.
The
details of FairTax (H.R. 25 & S. 13) can be found in an increasing abundance
of sources beyond the pocket guide mentioned above. For introductory concepts
the reader can go to www.FairTax.org and www.fairtaxnation.com.*
Another rich and concentrated source of information is FairTax:
The Truth: Answering the Critics, by Boortz. Many varied sources can be
found by simply Googling FairTax. For the more legal minded, the 130 page proposed
law is readily available via internet.
(Editor's Note: *Also, visit the FAQ's section
on this website for a wealth of
information in an easy-to-navigate format.)
Stephen Uhl is an active FairTax supporter and volunteer in Tucson's FairTax team. This article was published recently in the New York Times online edition.