Last Gasps

A masked thief robs a convenient store after beating up the clerk with the butt of his gun in front of several witinesses. The police show up just as he is gunning his pickup truck out of the parking lot. The police give chase and after a 100 mile per hour race the "suspect" is aprehended. The official reports and media refer to the "suspect" having "allegedly" committing the afore described felony. The "alleged" thief is booked and provided with legal aid: a public defender; a lawyer to protect his rights.
A large and powerful United States corporation with far reaching global interests uses a loosely configured tax code with generous loop holes to deposit huge amounts of their gross profits in off shore banks, thus avoiding income and corporate taxes otherwise owed to the US Department of Internal Revenue. This is not illegal, but considered by many as unethical and inequitable to the spirit of the law and everyone's civic responsibility. The government decides to close those loopholes and subject those "tax havens" to considerable scrutiny in order to retrieve taxes at a rate commensurate with the law as it applies to onshore companies. The corporations balk at any suggestion that they are cheating or obfuscating on their tax obligations and that any attack on the existing system would seriously affect their bottom line and share holders. They employ very expensive lawyers to argue their case in court even though the U.S. Treasury and IRS have compiled substantial evidence of how these corporations manipulate their finances to avoid taxation of any kind even though they operate under the protection and profit as a United States company.
We live in a Constitutional democracy and that means that all those constitutional rights, privileges and protections apply to the bad guys as well as the good guys.
Law enforcement has the above mentioned thief dead to rights and in a few other countries would be punished on the spot and not even get a brief hearing. That would be too harsh for our sensibilities and there may be mitigating circumstances to be considered by the court. Nevertheless, there is no excuse for breaking the law. I will make civil disobedience the exception. Yet, we are so cautious about individual rights that we condemn no one until they are finally convicted of their misdeeds.
There is no excuse for shirking one's obligations in contributing to the common good in the form of taxation in order to enjoy the benefits of living in the world's most affluent and advanced democracy. Because of political indulgences provided by past administrations with self interest at the heart of decisions regarding the tax code, individuals and corporations have been allowed to accumulate enormous wealth beyond reason at the expense of other businesses and the public at large. No one suggests that companies curtail their global aspirations. They should be encouraged. But they must also realize that the United States provides them with a broad range of services at home and abroad. International relations and policies that allow them to operate in foreign countries, access to US embassies, trade agreements and protection provided by our military all at tax payer expense.
The Republican Party, desperately searching for a new direction cannot resist repeating their mantra of more than a century. Allow the free market to operate without interference and ease the tax burden on vested interests and all will be well. Alexander Hamilton might agree with them, but modern day economics to serve the greater good cannot. The Republicans claim they simply want to preserve the American Way. It is apparent to me that what they really want to do is protect the old American Capitalism and prevent its certain demise. There is nothing wrong with making a lot of money. A great idea, determination and hard work deserve the fruits of labor and taking risks. It is also incumbent on those who take advantage of their opportunities to realize just how and where those opportunities came to be.
American businesses resist any and all attacks on their profit margins. What they so often fail to recognize is that improving the common lot increases their potential customer base and increased profitability.
The United States is a great place to do business and should be. To keep it a great place, business and particularly large corporations who may mistake their size for an excuse to dismiss their citizenship, all have to adhere to a fair share of taxation. As mentioned in my very first blog entry, this is not going to be your father's capitalism.

The Republican Reversion

There is one simple truth the modern Republican Party cannot fathom. The Constitution of the United States of America is not a business plan. The United States of America is not a business and cannot be run like a business. The United States is a nation of many peoples, a nation of ideas and ideals and still a nation of great hope for the rest of the world. The Republicans attempt to reduce the founder's vision down to the plebeian polemic of a tradesman is pathetic. Listen to the arguments forwarded by traditional Republican supplicants. Do they speak of America's proven resilience? Do they speak about the urgent need for alternative energy? Do they offer a plan for investments to rebuild our national infrastructure and provide quality education for the next generation? Do they have a definitive approach to an affordable health care system? They don't. What seems to terrify them today is a looming deficit in the trillions for which they see no solution. They cannot see beyond the confines of a quarterly report. For them it's a"bottom line" world. The solution is in the American gut and spirit. The solution is in the innovation and industry of our people. The solution is in the imagination and determination that spawns new business and commerce that will yield the revenue streams to replenish our national coffers. By the time 2012 rolls around, today's doubters and naysayers will be rendered silent and the United States of America will recover its place of leadership in the world.

Addiction

We are all addicts to one thing or another. Most addictions are harmless such as my addiction to football or adamantly following news and current events on television. Think of those baseball fanatics who actually keep play-by-play records of games long past and collect those useless baseball cards commemorating players long forgotten. But, don't tell them their pastime is useless.
Others are addicted to work and become agitated when they are not busy doing something they perceive as useful. One of my pet peeves has to do with anyone who cannot sit still or remain silent for an extended period of time. That has a lot to do with my avoiding youngsters who cannot contain their energy for even the briefest moment.
Cleanliness, anal organization, chocolate or food in general, bulimia, saving string or rubber bands, jogging and a host of "addictions" are common and at times bemusing aspects of the human condition.
There are, however, addictions that our society has deemed immoral, dangerous and illegal. Alcoholism and illegal drugs (substances) are the addictions that are viewed as a plague in the United States. No doubt that alcoholics have caused emotional and physical trauma among friends and family and killed countless thousands on the road. Prohibition was tried and utterly failed as people sought out the relaxing elixir at some speak-easy or in the privacy of their own homes.
The apparent solution was to legalize alcohol, control its manufacture and tax it heavily benefiting public coffers and devoting a small percentage of those revenues toward treating alcoholism. Yet, we persist in our "War on Drugs" without facing the fact that we will never win that "war." A recent article in the Economist points out how after nearly a century of effort and at great expense, drugs flourish throughout the world and human beings in pain or for pleasure will seek out their drug or hallucinogen of choice at any cost. Cocaine and heroine are insidious and ultimately devastating to the human condition. They take over the senses and cement addictions that are most difficult to expel. Those drugs and their derivatives should be put in a class with morphine and strictly controlled.
Marijuana, "magic" mushrooms and other herbal hallucinogens are far more benign and not necessarily addictive. They are recreational substances; not drugs. There is no record of anyone dying because of marijuana. However, like alcohol, I would favor of going beyond decriminalizing Cannabis and legalize the harvesting of hemp for all its commercial benefits and it flowering marijuana buds for recreational use. Marijuana, like alcohol, would be closely controlled, regulated and heavily taxed and as is alcohol, prohibited from use for those under the age of 18.
Hemp or Cannabis, has been so useful in our history that farmers who did not cultivate hemp in 1765 were breaking the law. The first and second drafts of the Declaration of Independence were written on hemp paper. The best rope for seafarers was made of hemp. Hemp is a superior fiber that resists mold and mildew, is easy to grow needing very little water and has a resistance to natural pests. Sturdy burlap and long lasting linen are made from hemp. All those virtues and in addition the plant blossoms with marijuana. Better that tobacco farmers switch to growing hemp instead of their deadly nicotine bearing leaves.
This proposal will come up to challenge the logic of Congress in the near future and to be sure arouse spirited debate. Eventually, the general use of marijuana and other herbal hallucinogens will become accepted and a large tooth will have been pulled from the jaws of drug dealers and drug lords now creating havoc with law enforcement and reaping the wealth of nations.

Something For Nothing

There is no such thing as blasphemy. Blasphemy specifically is decrying and disgracing God, Allah or whatever other false idols are revered by religious sects. Since there is no empirical proof that any of these entities ever existed, blasphemy is irrelevant.
Sacrilege is another obsolete term since nothing is sacred. What some hold to be sacred is as relevant or profound as Santa Claus or the Easter Bunny. These non-sequiturs bound to one superstition of another will eventually fade away under the glare of superior science.
For today's policy and decision makers, alluding to either of these concepts as a consideration or reason for action does nothing but extend the fallacy of an ancient hoax devised by tyrants, kings, popes and mullahs.
The Bible, Torah, Quran and other religious tomes are compendiums of anecdotal recollection and biased interpretation. The original audiences for these stories were childlike in their mentality and vulnerable to the idea of something much better in an afterlife compared to the squalor and suffering they endured in this one. Those fables were lessons in behavior that served their masters well in keeping the rabble from disturbing their sumptuous serenity. Their most absurd claim, accepted by the masses, was their divine descent from the gods themselves and ergo, the heredity of power.
The wars, struggles, painful and tragic confrontation of peoples in the name of some religious belief are a sham. Territorial and economic imperatives have always been at the root of all disputes between sovereign and not so sovereign states. The feverish rants of the masses are encouraged by their masters who manipulate a perceived offense to the faithful for their own purposes. Even in today's "civilized" society, that so many are enraptured by the idea of heaven and hell speaks to the dependence of human being on something out of nothing.
When the Vatican becomes a hospital and sanctuary for the hungry and homeless, I may begin to believe in the indomitable spirit of human kind. I do believe in a greater presence beyond this life, although not those illustrated and hallowed figures of bearded saints floating above the clouds that were conjured by the limited imagination of their congregants. My sense suggests something much larger, much more vast and disinterested. The cosmos demonstrates the concept of free will in every moment of time as stars are born with a fury of elemental ignition and ultimately collapse into the vortex of a black hole. That design, as far as we know, is true throughout our universe. A very similar pattern of existence to our own limited lives. Between birth and death, we choose our own way from one end to the other and as in the cosmic pattern, we become a part of that eternal scheme as do all things. If we are moral and loving, it is because we have recognized that those qualities serve us best in life; that anger and hate are non productive and self destructive. If there is such a thing as a soul, it is the resonance of the universe that makes up our entire being, hearkening us back to the beginning.

Capitalism Contained

Irrespective of the election on November 4, 2008, the demise of capitalism as we have come to know it, will confront a new and irrepressible version of socialism.
This will not be your grandfather’s socialism. It, as will America’s capitalistic bent, will be limited.

Rampant and unregulated capitalism over the past three decades has exhibited unbridled greed and exploitation until economic realities nearly choked it to death.
Wall Street and its foreign counterparts are often described as ultra-casinos. That comparison is quite valid. Investing in stocks and bonds always carries risk. You are betting your money on a horse that may or may not be a thoroughbred. You can examine and investigate every aspect of that horse’s history, but nothing will protect your wager if your bet goes lame. To base a nation’s economy precipitously on that kind of constant risk is insane.

No collection of regulations and commissions will ever stem the tide of the pursuit of wealth and the influence of those charged with the power of the purse. On the other hand, the entrepreneurial spirit that innovates, invents and fuels the engine of American ingenuity and productivity must be allowed to grow.

So, how may we encourage positive business practices and progress and at the same time provide our citizens with an assurance that their tax dollars and personal well being is protected from unscrupulous market schemes and financial predators?
The first priority would be to consider those facets of our economy that have a common purpose to the benefit of all American citizens; those products and services that are constant and have a national scope.

Those areas of common concern are transportation, education, health and energy. Leaving those necessary and critical aspects of the national economic fabric to private enterprise is ludicrous. In speaking to a senior Vice-President of Standard Oil some years ago at their San Francisco headquarters, I brought up the subject of “free enterprise.” He quickly corrected me. “There is no such thing as “free enterprise.” There is only private enterprise.” That premise remains the foundation on which most American enterprise is built.

TRANSPORTATION
Ronald Reagan, formerly a dedicated Democrat and Union enthusiast became a rabid Republican and Union provocateur during the McCarthy era and his rise to become Governor of California, finally arriving at the Presidency. As a popular President and regarded in some quarters the stalking horse for large corporate interests, deregulated just about everything. The airline industry has yet to recover from Reagan’s firing of thousands of air controllers and allowing the FAA to fall behind in technologies that put today’s airline passengers in jeopardy. The most successful airlines in the world are national airlines vaunted for their superior customer service and state of the art carriers. Europe and Japan have comfortable, modern and speedy rail service that accommodate millions of their citizens daily and are operated by the state. Is that socialism or a way to provide everyone safe and sensible transportation?

HEALTH
Health insurance and pharmaceutical companies have raped the public at large for generations and whenever they are challenged as to profitability and public safety, they cry out about the rising costs of care and the expense of research and development.

Rising costs are the result of medical professional’s expectations for the worth of their services and the debt acquired during schooling and internships leading to their status a skilled practitioners. The cost of new technologies and growing population demands are pressures difficult to deal with.

The pharmaceuticals don’t refer to the majority of the research and development being done in the laboratories of universities and colleges throughout the country. Their grants to the academic community for all this research is hardly comparable to the amounts they assign to any given prescription drug when reaching the market.
Nearly every industrial and progressive nation in the world has some form of guaranteed health care that covers their entire population. Medical professionals are educated and compensated by a universal system that respects and rewards the important service they provide to society. They are paid at rates in consideration for the level of skill and service each attains. Drugs are provided at base cost in generic form and for those who cannot afford it, health care is provided at no cost. That, coincidentally, is far more efficient than having to deal with the impoverished after the fact as homeless, ill, hungry or mentally disturbed individuals. Is that socialism or the humanitarian approach?

EDUCATION
Public education should be the best education available and afforded to all. The teachers, professors and administrators in a public education system should be the best in their field and compensated as such. This public system of education should be without expense to all citizens and their children. Pre-school, kindergarten and grades 1 through 12 should be free of cost. Upon graduation from high school, all graduates wanting to advance to the collegiate level can opt for two years of community service, military service, national service or the Peace Corps.

These opportunities will broaden the learning curve for our young people, take them to places and introduce them to new experiences hastening their maturity and focus on what they want out of life.

For that two years of service to our communities and nation, these young people would enter college and proceed to an undergraduate degree tuition free. For those who wanted to advance to graduate schools, medical schools, science and technologies, they would agree that upon receiving their graduate degrees they would serve an additional two years in national service, providing their new knowledge and skills in areas of the country (or world) that most needed them. This period of internship at their specialty would hone those skills and enlighten every generation of students becoming professionals with a social conscience.

For those who would prefer not to go into local or national service in return for an education, they would pay their way, depending on private sources of funding.
The administration of this system would be left to the States with guidelines and standards set by a national consensus. The States would determine the funding for their students and their faculties. Under this system, no one is denied and education, every individual can reach their full potential and the national interests are well served. Is that socialism, or just common sense?

ENERGY
All of the oil, gas, coal, water, wind and sunlight that abound are natural resources. As natural resources, they belong to all the people. Discovery of a natural resource does not entitle the discoverer to claim it exclusively. It does entitle the discoverer to a stake in that natural resource’s development and ultimate applications. The public at large will also share in the discovery and development of any natural resource by leasing the location of that resource to the discoverer. Obviously, wind and solar are ubiquitous and free for all to use as are most of our water resources.

The “robber barons” of the late 19th and early 20th centuries bequeathed their ill gotten gains to heirs who “gave back” in token amounts while an unsophisticated populace gaped at their excesses with ignorant admiration. Those days are over.
The regulation of energy resources would come under the aegis of the States because of geographic and climatic variations. Is that socialism, or an equitable and democratic approach to share our enormous wealth?

The New Capitalism

That’s it. Transportation, Health, Education and Energy. Those are large sectors of the economy and transcendent in their impact on the daily lives of all of us. Everything else would remain in the free market or private enterprise arenas.
A Steve Jobs or Bill Gates or Sam Walton or Warren Buffet would be free to amass as much wealth as their imaginations conjured. Agriculture, real-estate, manufacturing, housing, the entertainment, retail, construction, utilities, financial, hospitality industries, and all manner of commerce could prosper with only market forces determining their worth.

No one would be limited by the inability or affordability of travel. No one would be stifled by the expense or availability of health care. No one would lack an education and all the opportunities that implies. No one would be hostage to the selfish exploitation of sources of energy to serve their basic needs.

As the richest nation on earth, we should turn our attentions to our own democracy and its growth and set the example for others who may be disposed to follow our model. It is not our destiny to “enforce Liberty” on other cultures. It is our opportunity to demonstrate how flexible and advantageous a real democracy can be in improving the quality of life for all its peoples. We have the wealth, the resources, the intelligence, the imagination and a marvelous diversity of people to accomplish anything. All we need now is the will.

And how, you ask, do we pay for all this?
The next chapter will answer that pertinent question.

Capitalism Contained / Chapter II

TRANSPORTATION
The premise of the first chapter placed four principal sectors of America’s economy into the public venue. What “Public” means is that the cost and maintenance of any public venture is shared by the entire public. Control and operation of these public instruments may be Federal or State responsibilities.

Does that mean an increase in individual and business tax rates? To some degree; yes. What should also be understood is that the broad application of taxes and fees will be far less than any individual or group expends today for the same services.
Let’s start with transportation. Public transportation in the United States for many years gone by was a non-profit enterprise. Passengers on street cars, busses and subways paid minimal fares for getting from point A to point B. Those fares were calculated to cover the cost of operations and maintenance. There were no share holders or company profit margins to satisfy. As long as revenues and expenses came out even, that was OK. There was no need for competition and the systems worked just fine. The same approach can be taken today. What we have to change is the public’s addiction to the automobile and the price of gasoline might just be the cure. Make public transportation accessible and practical, nearly everyone will use it some time if not every day. The savings to people, families and municipal infrastructures will be enormous. A National Transportation Agency would oversee a domestic and international airline fleets, operating under the same concept and would oversee a nation wide rail system employing state-of-the-art, high speed trains providing an economical and comfortable way to cross the country.

With careful management, this transportation system would pay for itself and rarely need any grants or additional funding from the Federal government. Union workers would be mollified by the knowledge that as long as they did their jobs well, they would most likely have their jobs for life. Transportation: paid in full.

HEALTH
Health care, like any entitlement program, begs for money and more money as our population grows and medical procedures expenses ascend to unmanageable levels. In 1938, during the Great Depression, the United States population was about 134 million. Today, 2008, we have reached the 300 million level. What would FDR have projected for Social Security for that number and the added knowledge that we would be living well beyond ages 75 and 80? Of that 300 million, nearly 136 million individuals filed income taxes along with another 4 million small and large businesses. Of the businesses and larger corporations, very few paid any income taxes. Their accountants use every shred of those balance sheets to result in a zero-sum conclusion at the end of any fiscal year. In other words, American big business always breaks even.

Health benefits are a huge part of individual, business and corporate expenses. They are also deductions. And yet, the American family cannot cope with the cost of medical care. Medicare recipients are required to add supplemental coverage in order to avoid catastrophic expenses; particularly as senior citizens.

Doctors and hospitals struggle to keep pace with demand and operational expenditures. It has all gotten out of hand.

A health insurance plan that offers somewhat more than an HMO will cost an individual in excess of $500 per month; $6,000 per year. Double that for a family of four. Those estimates are on the low side when you consider that a person losing or leaving their job may want to maintain health insurance under the COBRA plan and that usually runs about $600 per month.

Those who oppose a universal health care program point to the enormous cost of a national system that would certainly raise taxes considerably. Would those taxes exceed our current health insurance expenses? Absolutely not.

If everyone contributed equally to a national health care program, the expense would be reduced significantly. Doctors and health professionals would receive compensation in consideration of the amount and level of service they provided.
That means that the medical profession would be well paid, but perhaps not to the degree that they might afford a yacht or a Rolls Royce. Sorry about that. It also means that doctors and clinics need not worry about overhead or acquiring new technologies. It means that hospitals would no longer concern themselves with revenue streams or insurance squabbles. Private hospitals and care would be available to those who preferred to pay for those upscale services.

Those who wanted special treatment or some elective procedures, not critical to their personal health, would simply pay for it through a private arrangement with their physician. There are ample models for universal health care: Canada, Great Britain, France, Germany, Switzerland and even here in the United States, Medicare is a marvelous program for seniors that might be adapted for everyone. Each of the above nations has a unique approach and not everything is free; but everyone, no matter their economic means, is covered. Nearly 150 million Americans are employed, in business or gain a living by independent means. If each of these entities contributed $4,000 per year to a national system, we come up with 600 billion. Considering that companies would no longer be saddled with health benefits and that not everyone gets sick or has an operation every year, this would bring enormous relief to all.

EDUCATION
With savings attributed to public transportation and universal health care and added stimulus to the economy, there is no reason for Public Education not to be the best education and available to all at no cost.

More funds for pre-school, elementary, middle school and high school could be provide to insure the quality of learning and a high standard for teachers and administrators. County and State sponsored institutions of higher learning would admit all qualified students under the provisions outlined in the first chapter of this proposal. Private colleges could adapt those opportunities for their students or require tuition fees as they do now. By assuring access to the best education possible, this nation guarantees itself a highly skilled work force, superbly efficient management and generations of creative and productive people to compliment American initiative and innovation.

ENERGY
In the field of energy, the United States should take a leadership position by the following:
Immediately agree to the Kyoto Protocol
Establish a “Manhattan Project” concept to create Hydrogen technologies
Provide tax incentives for the immediate adaptation of wind, solar and geo-thermal power alternatives
Pass legislation that will require automobile manufacturers to abandon the internal combustion engine in any form by 2020.
Curtail fossil fuel acquisition for lubricants, plastics and other materials; not to be used as a fuel.
Encourage and aid emerging nations to adopt environmentally safe sources of energy for their own industries and developing commerce.
Partner with countries like Brazil in applying organic alternatives for energy solutions.

These policies would significantly reduce the cost of energy in the coming decade and completely absolve the United States on any dependence for foreign oil. We could never be held hostage again for our thirst for oil. Our hunger for energy would switch to a much healthier diet.

Our nuclear power capacity must be very carefully handled. The problem of waste radiation has not been dealt with intelligently. What most of the public doesn’t realize is that the half-life of those plutonium rods inside a nuclear reactor can be 30,000 years. Nuclear waste management is the sticking point to an otherwise clean source of energy.

Clean coal? No such thing. Coal, like oil, is a fossil based fuel (fossilized plants) and has no place in the energy scheme.

Again, these new sources of energy and conservation practices save money and auger a higher quality of life.

SUMMARY
Taken all together, these four segments of our economy all compliment each other and result in a better traveled, healthier, smarter and environmentally responsible nation that would be an example on how a free society can continually evolve and improve without sacrificing individual liberties or creative initiative.

We know that “the Devil is in the details.” Nevertheless, these broad concepts can work if we can overcome our reluctance to change and the avarice of the high and mighty. Where there is will, there is a way.