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<DIV dir=ltr><FONT size=2 face=Arial>----- Forwarded Message -----<BR><B><SPAN style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">From:</SPAN></B> Laurie <libramoon42@mindspring.com><BR><B><SPAN style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">To:</SPAN></B> novelty lifeboat <novelty-lifeboat@yahoogroups.com>; chaos <chaos-stars@yahoogroups.com> <BR><B><SPAN style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">Sent:</SPAN></B> Wednesday, 14 November 2012, 21:22<BR><B><SPAN style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">Subject:</SPAN></B> [novelty-lifeboat] Best Tax Simplification Proposal<BR></FONT></DIV><WBR>
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<H1 style="BORDER-BOTTOM: 0px; BORDER-LEFT: 0px; TEXT-TRANSFORM: none; BACKGROUND-COLOR: rgb(255,255,255); TEXT-INDENT: 0px; OUTLINE-STYLE: none; OUTLINE-COLOR: invert; OUTLINE-WIDTH: 0px; LETTER-SPACING: normal; WHITE-SPACE: normal" class=yiv422256824entry-title align=left><A title=http://davidbrin.wordpress.com/2012/11/14/part-of-the-fiscal-cliff-solution-the-best-tax-simplification-proposal/ href="http://davidbrin.wordpress.com/2012/11/14/part-of-the-fiscal-cliff-solution-the-best-tax-simplification-proposal/" rel=nofollow target=_blank></FONT><FONT size=4>http://davidbrin.wordpress.com/2012/11/14/part-of-the-fiscal-cliff-solution-the-best-tax-simplification-proposal/</A></H1>
<H1 style="BORDER-BOTTOM: 0px; BORDER-LEFT: 0px; TEXT-TRANSFORM: none; BACKGROUND-COLOR: rgb(255,255,255); TEXT-INDENT: 0px; OUTLINE-STYLE: none; OUTLINE-COLOR: invert; OUTLINE-WIDTH: 0px; LETTER-SPACING: normal; WHITE-SPACE: normal" class=yiv422256824entry-title align=left><FONT face=Georgia><FONT style="FONT-SIZE: 21pt">Part of the “Fiscal Cliff” Solution: the Best Tax Simplification Proposal</FONT></FONT></H1>
<DIV style="BORDER-BOTTOM: 0px; BORDER-LEFT: 0px; TEXT-TRANSFORM: none; BACKGROUND-COLOR: rgb(255,255,255); TEXT-INDENT: 0px; OUTLINE-STYLE: none; OUTLINE-COLOR: invert; OUTLINE-WIDTH: 0px; LETTER-SPACING: normal; WHITE-SPACE: normal" class="yiv422256824entry yiv422256824entry-content" align=left>
<div style="BORDER-BOTTOM: 0px; BORDER-LEFT: 0px; OUTLINE-STYLE: none; OUTLINE-COLOR: invert; OUTLINE-WIDTH: 0px; VERTICAL-ALIGN: baseline; BORDER-TOP: 0px; BORDER-RIGHT: 0px"><FONT color=#333333><FONT face=Georgia><FONT style="FONT-SIZE: 10.5pt">With the 2012 elections over and a political landscape remade, the stage is set for our next U.S. drama, a tussle over how to prevent the budget and economy from tumbling over a “fiscal cliff.” From the tone of preliminary discussions, it’s looking hopeful that all parties (save a few Tea Party holdouts) have taken their “act-like-an-adult” pills.<SPAN class=yiv422256824Apple-converted-space> </SPAN></FONT></FONT><FONT style="FONT-SIZE: 10.5pt"><A style="BORDER-BOTTOM: 0px; BORDER-LEFT: 0px; OUTLINE-STYLE: none; OUTLINE-COLOR: invert; OUTLINE-WIDTH: 0px; VERTICAL-ALIGN: baseline; BORDER-TOP: 0px; BORDER-RIGHT: 0px" href="http://www.mauldineconomics.com/" rel=nofollow target=_blank></FONT><FONT
face=Georgia>Investment wizard John Mauldin</A></FONT><FONT face=Georgia><FONT style="FONT-SIZE: 10.5pt"><SPAN class=yiv422256824Apple-converted-space> </SPAN>may turn out to be right, after all – that grownups will act in the nick of time, transforming the deficit from an all-destroying monster into a mere-worrisome beast.</FONT></FONT></FONT></div>
<div style="BORDER-BOTTOM: 0px; BORDER-LEFT: 0px; OUTLINE-STYLE: none; OUTLINE-COLOR: invert; OUTLINE-WIDTH: 0px; VERTICAL-ALIGN: baseline; BORDER-TOP: 0px; BORDER-RIGHT: 0px"><FONT face=Georgia><FONT style="FONT-SIZE: 10.5pt" color=#333333>That is, <I>if</I> President Obama can get Congress to swiftly do the very <I>first</I> thing, the immediate top priority: pass legislation guaranteeing tax stability at current levels for the Middle Class, so that markets won’t panic on January first. All else can be thrashed out in an “outline” for the next Congress to finalize by March.</FONT></FONT></div>
<div style="BORDER-BOTTOM: 0px; BORDER-LEFT: 0px; OUTLINE-STYLE: none; OUTLINE-COLOR: invert; OUTLINE-WIDTH: 0px; VERTICAL-ALIGN: baseline; BORDER-TOP: 0px; BORDER-RIGHT: 0px"><A style="BORDER-BOTTOM: 0px; BORDER-LEFT: 0px; OUTLINE-STYLE: none; OUTLINE-COLOR: invert; OUTLINE-WIDTH: 0px; VERTICAL-ALIGN: baseline; BORDER-TOP: 0px; BORDER-RIGHT: 0px" href="http://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2012/02/mind-blowing-charts-senates-income-inequity-hearing" rel=nofollow target=_blank><IMG style="BORDER-BOTTOM: 0px; BORDER-LEFT: 0px; HEIGHT: auto; BORDER-TOP: 0px; BORDER-RIGHT: 0px" class="yiv422256824alignright yiv422256824size-full yiv422256824wp-image-4598" title=income_inequality_redo src="http://davidbrin.files.wordpress.com/2012/11/income_inequality_redo.png?w=500"></A><FONT color=#333333><FONT face=Georgia><FONT style="FONT-SIZE: 10.5pt">That is, <I>if</I> Speaker Boehner can herd enough Republicans into accepting more revenue from the rich. And <I>if</I> their
masters on-high grumble but accept what the election’s Super-Pac Collapse showed, that the oligarchic putsch is waning. With<SPAN class=yiv422256824Apple-converted-space> </SPAN></FONT></FONT><FONT style="FONT-SIZE: 10.5pt"><A style="BORDER-BOTTOM: 0px; BORDER-LEFT: 0px; OUTLINE-STYLE: none; OUTLINE-COLOR: invert; OUTLINE-WIDTH: 0px; VERTICAL-ALIGN: baseline; BORDER-TOP: 0px; BORDER-RIGHT: 0px" href="http://davidbrin.blogspot.com/2012/02/tax-inequity-and-middle-class.html" rel=nofollow target=_blank></FONT><FONT face=Georgia>tax rates near their lowest in 70 years</A></FONT><FONT face=Georgia><FONT style="FONT-SIZE: 10.5pt"><SPAN class=yiv422256824Apple-converted-space> </SPAN>and with Federal revenue as a share of GDP at its lowest since the end of WWII, it’s time to ignore those imbeciles maniacally preaching <I>hatred</I> of our own government, blaming it for all things. And time for the uber-rich to accept what the First Estate
foolishly refused in 1789 France – that it’s time to pay a bit for being members of a civilization.</FONT></FONT></FONT></div>
<div style="BORDER-BOTTOM: 0px; BORDER-LEFT: 0px; OUTLINE-STYLE: none; OUTLINE-COLOR: invert; OUTLINE-WIDTH: 0px; VERTICAL-ALIGN: baseline; BORDER-TOP: 0px; BORDER-RIGHT: 0px"><FONT face=Georgia><FONT style="FONT-SIZE: 10.5pt" color=#333333>Oh, but liberals will have to give, as well! This can all happen <I>if</I> the President delivers sincere counter moves on entitlements: the easiest being simply to tell Americans the truth. “Hey, you <I>live</I> a <I>lot</I> longer than your parents did, so you can <I>work</I> just a tad longer… and 70 is the new 50 anyway.” If he does that, in exchange for an end to Bushite supply-side voodoo largesse for aristocrats, then our children will be saved at a single stroke.</FONT></FONT></div>
<div style="BORDER-BOTTOM: 0px; BORDER-LEFT: 0px; OUTLINE-STYLE: none; OUTLINE-COLOR: invert; OUTLINE-WIDTH: 0px; VERTICAL-ALIGN: baseline; BORDER-TOP: 0px; BORDER-RIGHT: 0px"><FONT color=#333333><FONT face=Georgia><FONT style="FONT-SIZE: 10.5pt">The rest of the deficit? Well,<SPAN class=yiv422256824Apple-converted-space> </SPAN></FONT></FONT><FONT style="FONT-SIZE: 10.5pt"><A style="BORDER-BOTTOM: 0px; BORDER-LEFT: 0px; OUTLINE-STYLE: none; OUTLINE-COLOR: invert; OUTLINE-WIDTH: 0px; VERTICAL-ALIGN: baseline; BORDER-TOP: 0px; BORDER-RIGHT: 0px" href="http://davidbrin.blogspot.com/2012/10/eight-causes-of-deficit-fiscal-cliff.html" rel=nofollow target=_blank></FONT><FONT face=Georgia>as I explained elsewhere</A></FONT><FONT face=Georgia><FONT style="FONT-SIZE: 10.5pt">, half of the causes of our current mess should dissipate, once the other half come under control, and now that we are safe from our house being ruined again by the same fools who
bulldozed it over a cliff from 2001 to 2009.</FONT></FONT></FONT></div>
<div style="BORDER-BOTTOM: 0px; BORDER-LEFT: 0px; OUTLINE-STYLE: none; OUTLINE-COLOR: invert; OUTLINE-WIDTH: 0px; VERTICAL-ALIGN: baseline; BORDER-TOP: 0px; BORDER-RIGHT: 0px"><B><FONT face=Georgia><FONT style="FONT-SIZE: 10.5pt" color=#333333>== The Role of the Tax Code in All This ==</FONT></FONT></B></div>
<div style="BORDER-BOTTOM: 0px; BORDER-LEFT: 0px; OUTLINE-STYLE: none; OUTLINE-COLOR: invert; OUTLINE-WIDTH: 0px; VERTICAL-ALIGN: baseline; BORDER-TOP: 0px; BORDER-RIGHT: 0px"><FONT color=#333333><FONT face=Georgia><FONT style="FONT-SIZE: 10.5pt">Now, Let’s be clear; the deal that emerges may have some <I>twists</I> to it. Republicans will be seeking a face-saving way to increase inflows from the rich — an approach validated not only by the electorate but also a<SPAN class=yiv422256824Apple-converted-space> </SPAN></FONT></FONT><FONT style="FONT-SIZE: 10.5pt"><A style="BORDER-BOTTOM: 0px; BORDER-LEFT: 0px; OUTLINE-STYLE: none; OUTLINE-COLOR: invert; OUTLINE-WIDTH: 0px; VERTICAL-ALIGN: baseline; BORDER-TOP: 0px; BORDER-RIGHT: 0px" href="https://ivn.us/2012/11/13/suppressed-congressional-research-service-report-on-tax-cuts/" rel=nofollow target=_blank></FONT><FONT face=Georgia>report from the Congressional Research Service</A></FONT><FONT
face=Georgia><FONT style="FONT-SIZE: 10.5pt"><SPAN class=yiv422256824Apple-converted-space> </SPAN>declaring that <I>Supply Side</I> mythology is, was, and always will be <I>hokum</I>. That incantation worked far too long, hypnotizing a generation on the right, but it’s over and good riddance. (Adam Smith himself said that most aristocrats do not invest any sudden largesse into innovative capital. That was a fantasy.)</FONT></FONT></FONT></div>
<div style="BORDER-BOTTOM: 0px; BORDER-LEFT: 0px; OUTLINE-STYLE: none; OUTLINE-COLOR: invert; OUTLINE-WIDTH: 0px; VERTICAL-ALIGN: baseline; BORDER-TOP: 0px; BORDER-RIGHT: 0px"><FONT face=Georgia><FONT style="FONT-SIZE: 10.5pt" color=#333333>While admitting the inevitable, GOP politicians are eager not to explicitly violate their “no new taxes” pledge to Grover Norquist, who still has some clout despite his star fading, at long last. Desperate for a fig leaf, Republican legislators tout a semantic distinction between “augmenting revenues” and “raising tax rates.”</FONT></FONT></div>
<div style="BORDER-BOTTOM: 0px; BORDER-LEFT: 0px; OUTLINE-STYLE: none; OUTLINE-COLOR: invert; OUTLINE-WIDTH: 0px; VERTICAL-ALIGN: baseline; BORDER-TOP: 0px; BORDER-RIGHT: 0px"><FONT face=Georgia><FONT style="FONT-SIZE: 10.5pt" color=#333333>The leading proposal on the table right now appears to be eliminating the ability of the rich to evade taxes through deductions, a suggestion offered briefly, during the many policy gyres of GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney. By eliminating a wide range of deductions, or else capping <I>all</I> deductions at – say – $25,000 per person/year, a large flow of revenue could be tapped while allowing the actual marginal <I>rates</I> of income taxation to remain at Bush Cut levels. (Not enough, according to Treasury Secretary Geithner, but a good start.)</FONT></FONT></div>
<div style="BORDER-BOTTOM: 0px; BORDER-LEFT: 0px; OUTLINE-STYLE: none; OUTLINE-COLOR: invert; OUTLINE-WIDTH: 0px; VERTICAL-ALIGN: baseline; BORDER-TOP: 0px; BORDER-RIGHT: 0px"><A style="BORDER-BOTTOM: 0px; BORDER-LEFT: 0px; OUTLINE-STYLE: none; OUTLINE-COLOR: invert; OUTLINE-WIDTH: 0px; VERTICAL-ALIGN: baseline; BORDER-TOP: 0px; BORDER-RIGHT: 0px" href="http://davidbrin.files.wordpress.com/2012/11/anotherapproach.jpg" rel=nofollow target=_blank><IMG style="BORDER-BOTTOM: 0px; BORDER-LEFT: 0px; HEIGHT: auto; BORDER-TOP: 0px; BORDER-RIGHT: 0px" class="yiv422256824alignleft yiv422256824size-medium yiv422256824wp-image-4604" title=anotherapproach src="http://davidbrin.files.wordpress.com/2012/11/anotherapproach.jpg?w=300&h=264" width=300 height=264></A><FONT face=Georgia><FONT style="FONT-SIZE: 10.5pt" color=#333333>Another approach would be to raise – or even eliminate – the regressive cap on the payroll tax that feeds social security and Medicare.
If that were also applied to capital gains and dividend income, so much new revenue would be generated that the <I>rate</I> of the payroll tax would have to be reduced, lest serious damage occur! (That mere fact shows just how skewed our values have become – that honest work is taxed harsher than what Adam Smith derided as “rent-seeking” – the lowest form of economic activity, according to Smith.)</FONT></FONT></div>
<div style="BORDER-BOTTOM: 0px; BORDER-LEFT: 0px; OUTLINE-STYLE: none; OUTLINE-COLOR: invert; OUTLINE-WIDTH: 0px; VERTICAL-ALIGN: baseline; BORDER-TOP: 0px; BORDER-RIGHT: 0px"><FONT face=Georgia><FONT color=#333333><FONT style="FONT-SIZE: 10.5pt">Any of these approaches might work. I am partial to the elimination of whole deductions if only for one reason, that it would contribute to another long term project, </FONT><I><FONT style="FONT-SIZE: 10.5pt">simplifying the Tax Code.</FONT></I></FONT></FONT></div>
<div style="BORDER-BOTTOM: 0px; BORDER-LEFT: 0px; OUTLINE-STYLE: none; OUTLINE-COLOR: invert; OUTLINE-WIDTH: 0px; VERTICAL-ALIGN: baseline; BORDER-TOP: 0px; BORDER-RIGHT: 0px"><FONT face=Georgia><FONT style="FONT-SIZE: 10.5pt" color=#333333>As a matter of fact, there is a way to do that, and minimize the amount of kicking or screaming or obstruction. It seems worth doing <I>on its own merits!</I> Some of you have read my proposal before and I’ve been encouraged to keep pushing by folks who work in this very field. It ought to work.</FONT></FONT></div>
<div style="BORDER-BOTTOM: 0px; BORDER-LEFT: 0px; OUTLINE-STYLE: none; OUTLINE-COLOR: invert; OUTLINE-WIDTH: 0px; VERTICAL-ALIGN: baseline; BORDER-TOP: 0px; BORDER-RIGHT: 0px"><B><FONT face=Georgia><FONT style="FONT-SIZE: 10.5pt" color=#333333>== The Goal of Simplification ==</FONT></FONT></B></div>
<div style="BORDER-BOTTOM: 0px; BORDER-LEFT: 0px; OUTLINE-STYLE: none; OUTLINE-COLOR: invert; OUTLINE-WIDTH: 0px; VERTICAL-ALIGN: baseline; BORDER-TOP: 0px; BORDER-RIGHT: 0px"><A style="BORDER-BOTTOM: 0px; BORDER-LEFT: 0px; OUTLINE-STYLE: none; OUTLINE-COLOR: invert; OUTLINE-WIDTH: 0px; VERTICAL-ALIGN: baseline; BORDER-TOP: 0px; BORDER-RIGHT: 0px" href="http://www.davidbrin.com/taxsimplification.html" rel=nofollow target=_blank><IMG style="BORDER-BOTTOM: 0px; BORDER-LEFT: 0px; HEIGHT: auto; BORDER-TOP: 0px; BORDER-RIGHT: 0px" class="yiv422256824alignleft yiv422256824size-medium yiv422256824wp-image-4600" title=NoLosersTAx src="http://davidbrin.files.wordpress.com/2012/11/noloserstax.jpg?w=224&h=300" width=224 height=300></A><FONT face=Georgia><FONT style="FONT-SIZE: 10.5pt" color=#333333>Just after being elected in 2008, President Obama said he would seek a reform of the U.S. tax code, calling the current system is a “10,000-page monstrosity.”
But that promise has been made by others before and every proposed change ran up against a wall. Every “simplification” would gore someone’s ox. The more code-trimming you do, the more people will scream.</FONT></FONT></div>
<div style="BORDER-BOTTOM: 0px; BORDER-LEFT: 0px; OUTLINE-STYLE: none; OUTLINE-COLOR: invert; OUTLINE-WIDTH: 0px; VERTICAL-ALIGN: baseline; BORDER-TOP: 0px; BORDER-RIGHT: 0px"><FONT face=Georgia><FONT color=#333333><I><FONT style="FONT-SIZE: 10.5pt">I know a simple way around this.</FONT></I><FONT style="FONT-SIZE: 10.5pt"><SPAN class=yiv422256824Apple-converted-space> </SPAN>The sheer bulk of the tax code — its complexity, in numbers of rules, words or exceptions — could be trimmed without much political pain or obstructionism! <I>Because the method is designed to be mostly politically neutral. </I>It does not aim at some utopian fantasy (like the Flat Taxers rave about.) It gores only a few sacred cows. It would be cheap and easy to implement. Only accountants should hate it for the effects on their lucrative business. Yet, to the best of my knowledge, this method has never been tried, alas.</FONT></FONT></FONT></div>
<div style="BORDER-BOTTOM: 0px; BORDER-LEFT: 0px; OUTLINE-STYLE: none; OUTLINE-COLOR: invert; OUTLINE-WIDTH: 0px; VERTICAL-ALIGN: baseline; BORDER-TOP: 0px; BORDER-RIGHT: 0px"><FONT color=#333333><FONT face=Georgia><FONT style="FONT-SIZE: 10.5pt">(Note:<SPAN class=yiv422256824Apple-converted-space> </SPAN></FONT></FONT><FONT style="FONT-SIZE: 10.5pt"><A style="BORDER-BOTTOM: 0px; BORDER-LEFT: 0px; OUTLINE-STYLE: none; OUTLINE-COLOR: invert; OUTLINE-WIDTH: 0px; VERTICAL-ALIGN: baseline; BORDER-TOP: 0px; BORDER-RIGHT: 0px" href="http://www.davidbrin.com/taxsimplification.html" rel=nofollow target=_blank></FONT><FONT face=Georgia>an earlier version of this article</A></FONT><FONT face=Georgia><FONT style="FONT-SIZE: 10.5pt"><SPAN class=yiv422256824Apple-converted-space> </SPAN>ran some years ago and is still available at my web site.)</FONT></FONT></FONT></div>
<div style="BORDER-BOTTOM: 0px; BORDER-LEFT: 0px; OUTLINE-STYLE: none; OUTLINE-COLOR: invert; OUTLINE-WIDTH: 0px; VERTICAL-ALIGN: baseline; BORDER-TOP: 0px; BORDER-RIGHT: 0px"><B><FONT face=Georgia><FONT style="FONT-SIZE: 10.5pt" color=#333333>== How can I promise such a thing? ==</FONT></FONT></B></div>
<div style="BORDER-BOTTOM: 0px; BORDER-LEFT: 0px; OUTLINE-STYLE: none; OUTLINE-COLOR: invert; OUTLINE-WIDTH: 0px; VERTICAL-ALIGN: baseline; BORDER-TOP: 0px; BORDER-RIGHT: 0px"><FONT face=Georgia><FONT style="FONT-SIZE: 10.5pt" color=#333333>There is nothing on Earth like the U.S. tax code, an extremely complex system that no one understands well. But unique in that it’s complexity is perfectly replicated by the MATHEMATICAL MODEL of the system. Because the mathematical model <I>is</I> the system.</FONT></FONT></div>
<div style="BORDER-BOTTOM: 0px; BORDER-LEFT: 0px; OUTLINE-STYLE: none; OUTLINE-COLOR: invert; OUTLINE-WIDTH: 0px; VERTICAL-ALIGN: baseline; BORDER-TOP: 0px; BORDER-RIGHT: 0px"><FONT face=Georgia><FONT style="FONT-SIZE: 10.5pt" color=#333333>One could put the entire US tax code into a spare computer somewhere, try a myriad inputs and tweak every parameter to see how outputs change. There are agencies who already do this, daily, in response to congressional queries. Alterations of the model must be tested under a wide range of boundary conditions (sample taxpayers). But if you are thorough, the results of the model <I>will</I> be the results of the system.</FONT></FONT></div>
<div style="BORDER-BOTTOM: 0px; BORDER-LEFT: 0px; OUTLINE-STYLE: none; OUTLINE-COLOR: invert; OUTLINE-WIDTH: 0px; VERTICAL-ALIGN: baseline; BORDER-TOP: 0px; BORDER-RIGHT: 0px"><FONT face=Georgia><FONT style="FONT-SIZE: 10.5pt" color=#333333>Now. I’m told (by people who know about such things) that it should be easy enough to create a program that will take the tax code and cybernetically experiment with zeroing-out dozens, hundreds of provisions while sliding others upward and then showing, on a spreadsheet, how these simplifications would affect, say, <I>one-hundred representative types of taxpayers. </I>As I’ve said, this is done all the time. A member of Congress has some particular tax breaks she despises and asks the CBO for figures on the effect, should those breaks be eliminated. Alas, as soon as word gets out, her proposal faces a firestorm from powerful interests fighting like hell to keep from losing millions.</FONT></FONT></div>
<div style="BORDER-BOTTOM: 0px; BORDER-LEFT: 0px; OUTLINE-STYLE: none; OUTLINE-COLOR: invert; OUTLINE-WIDTH: 0px; VERTICAL-ALIGN: baseline; BORDER-TOP: 0px; BORDER-RIGHT: 0px"><FONT face=Georgia><FONT style="FONT-SIZE: 10.5pt" color=#333333>Hence, although American corn-ahol subsidies propel high food prices and hunger around the world while doing little for the environment, nothing is done to end the wasteful program that costs more net energy than it delivers. There are thousands of other special interest groups that each wish the budget to be balanced… on someone else’s back. How to get past this?</FONT></FONT></div>
<div style="BORDER-BOTTOM: 0px; BORDER-LEFT: 0px; OUTLINE-STYLE: none; OUTLINE-COLOR: invert; OUTLINE-WIDTH: 0px; VERTICAL-ALIGN: baseline; BORDER-TOP: 0px; BORDER-RIGHT: 0px"><FONT face=Georgia><FONT color=#333333><I><FONT style="FONT-SIZE: 10.5pt">A key innovation: program in boundary conditions to the experiment, so there are </FONT></I><B><I><FONT style="FONT-SIZE: 10.5pt">no losers.</FONT></I></B></FONT></FONT></div>
<div style="BORDER-BOTTOM: 0px; BORDER-LEFT: 0px; OUTLINE-STYLE: none; OUTLINE-COLOR: invert; OUTLINE-WIDTH: 0px; VERTICAL-ALIGN: baseline; BORDER-TOP: 0px; BORDER-RIGHT: 0px"><A style="BORDER-BOTTOM: 0px; BORDER-LEFT: 0px; OUTLINE-STYLE: none; OUTLINE-COLOR: invert; OUTLINE-WIDTH: 0px; VERTICAL-ALIGN: baseline; BORDER-TOP: 0px; BORDER-RIGHT: 0px" href="http://davidbrin.files.wordpress.com/2012/11/taxbalance.jpg" rel=nofollow target=_blank><IMG style="BORDER-BOTTOM: 0px; BORDER-LEFT: 0px; HEIGHT: auto; BORDER-TOP: 0px; BORDER-RIGHT: 0px" class="yiv422256824alignleft yiv422256824size-medium yiv422256824wp-image-4601" title=TaxBalance src="http://davidbrin.files.wordpress.com/2012/11/taxbalance.jpg?w=300&h=152" width=300 height=152></A><FONT face=Georgia><FONT style="FONT-SIZE: 10.5pt" color=#333333>Let the program seek and find the simplest version of a refined tax code that leaves all 100 taxpayer clades largely unhurt. If one group loses a favorite
tax dodge, the system would seek a rebalancing of others to compensate. No mere human being could accomplish this, but I have been assured by experts that a computer could do it in a snap.</FONT></FONT></div>
<div style="BORDER-BOTTOM: 0px; BORDER-LEFT: 0px; OUTLINE-STYLE: none; OUTLINE-COLOR: invert; OUTLINE-WIDTH: 0px; VERTICAL-ALIGN: baseline; BORDER-TOP: 0px; BORDER-RIGHT: 0px"><FONT face=Georgia><FONT color=#333333><FONT style="FONT-SIZE: 10.5pt">Here’s the key point: </FONT><B><FONT style="FONT-SIZE: 10.5pt">If such an iterative search finds a new, much simpler tax structure that leaves none of the 100 groups more than 5% worse off than they currently are, then who is going to scream?</FONT></B></FONT></FONT></div>
<div style="BORDER-BOTTOM: 0px; BORDER-LEFT: 0px; OUTLINE-STYLE: none; OUTLINE-COLOR: invert; OUTLINE-WIDTH: 0px; VERTICAL-ALIGN: baseline; BORDER-TOP: 0px; BORDER-RIGHT: 0px"><FONT face=Georgia><FONT style="FONT-SIZE: 10.5pt" color=#333333>Oh, well, I suppose a lot of people will. Cheaters will holler of course, and those who benefit from the cloud of obscurity allowed by an overly complex tax code. Even if farmers are guaranteed adjustments in other areas, they will reflexively protest over the end of Roosevelt-era subsidies. In fact, <I>everybody</I> will complain! But…</FONT></FONT></div>
<div style="BORDER-BOTTOM: 0px; BORDER-LEFT: 0px; OUTLINE-STYLE: none; OUTLINE-COLOR: invert; OUTLINE-WIDTH: 0px; VERTICAL-ALIGN: baseline; BORDER-TOP: 0px; BORDER-RIGHT: 0px"><FONT face=Georgia><FONT style="FONT-SIZE: 10.5pt" color=#333333>…but a lot of the HEAT will be taken out of their complaints, if they see that their own bottom line is completely unchanged. And that is the secret. To remove enough heat so that people can calmly re-assess, negotiate, and accept pragmatic simplification that’s good for all.</FONT></FONT></div>
<div style="BORDER-BOTTOM: 0px; BORDER-LEFT: 0px; OUTLINE-STYLE: none; OUTLINE-COLOR: invert; OUTLINE-WIDTH: 0px; VERTICAL-ALIGN: baseline; BORDER-TOP: 0px; BORDER-RIGHT: 0px"><B><FONT face=Georgia><FONT style="FONT-SIZE: 10.5pt" color=#333333>== Will “no-losers” really leave everyone unaffected? ==</FONT></FONT></B></div>
<div style="BORDER-BOTTOM: 0px; BORDER-LEFT: 0px; OUTLINE-STYLE: none; OUTLINE-COLOR: invert; OUTLINE-WIDTH: 0px; VERTICAL-ALIGN: baseline; BORDER-TOP: 0px; BORDER-RIGHT: 0px"><FONT face=Georgia><FONT style="FONT-SIZE: 10.5pt" color=#333333>Nope. One hundred sample-type American taxpayers won’t cover everyone, especially at the upper end. Some in the aristocracy have tax laws that were enacted specifically to benefit them! They will hit the roof. But if enough of the rich are included in “no-losers” they might tip the balance, canceling out the final obstructors, for the sake of a new simplicity. And a new patriotism.</FONT></FONT></div>
<div style="BORDER-BOTTOM: 0px; BORDER-LEFT: 0px; OUTLINE-STYLE: none; OUTLINE-COLOR: invert; OUTLINE-WIDTH: 0px; VERTICAL-ALIGN: baseline; BORDER-TOP: 0px; BORDER-RIGHT: 0px"><FONT face=Georgia><FONT style="FONT-SIZE: 10.5pt" color=#333333>Will this method solve all tax-related problems? Of course not! Complexity is not the only thing wrong with the Tax Code. After simplification must come some genuine tax policy shifts that <I>do</I> advantage some and disadvantage others. Like all of you, I have my favorite injustices I’d love to see redressed, behaviors disincentivized, business ventures stimulated… and so on</FONT></FONT></div>
<div style="BORDER-BOTTOM: 0px; BORDER-LEFT: 0px; OUTLINE-STYLE: none; OUTLINE-COLOR: invert; OUTLINE-WIDTH: 0px; VERTICAL-ALIGN: baseline; BORDER-TOP: 0px; BORDER-RIGHT: 0px"><FONT face=Georgia><FONT style="FONT-SIZE: 10.5pt" color=#333333>But, by starting with “no-losers,” you can use politically neutral optimization routines to find a much simpler system. Industrial concerns like auto companies already do this sort of thing, trimming and slimming machinery to use the fewest parts, while achieving similar output. We could similarly refine the machine that is the Tax Code. Then, and only then, will it make sense to argue about steering the vehicle in new directions.</FONT></FONT></div></DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV><!--~-|**|PrettyHtmlStart|**|-~-->
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