DEFEAT FASCISM

 A single mother in my town whose husband left her with two kids and won't pay child support because "Bambi" is high rent pays the same sales tax on a quart of milk as the trust fund baby who became a multi-millionaire when he exited his mother's womb. That's why scholars call it a regressive tax.

At the same time, it has always been one of the easier taxes to impose as its collection is done in small increments and may go relatively unnoticed unlike income tax which is proclaimed clearly and loudly each April.

It's been a popular tax to pass traditionally, the sales tax has. In my state, the highway department has even chosen to fund its work with the sales tax in lieu of charging the folks directly who use the highways. That way, the single mother mentioned above, who walks to her job cleaning houses, pays for the out-of-state truckers to use our roads.

It has always been a more popular tax than one actually based on income, say one with which the trust fund baby mentioned above pays tax on wealth. Incidentally, a powerful cabal that includes a high percentage of those trust fund babies mentioned above has recently ordered national legislators to reduce the income tax on high-wealth individuals and families. They much prefer the sales tax so a billionaire who inherited vast wealth won't have to pay more than you or I for our next Tesla. They enjoy what you and I might call "The Lucky Sperm" privilege that removes the income tax and relies on the sales tax.

Yep, it's been popular.

Until now.

Folks are beginning to notice. On-line retailers are even noting it on their sales. So legislators are squirming and looking for ways to reduce the impact. Our state, our counties, and our cities all depend upon the sales tax revenue for operation. It is now becoming a target.

One wonders which entity is in the most danger.

Change ...

One of the things I’ve noticed about urban problems is the immediate tendency to blame someone or some individual group for them. While study sometimes proves this to be justified, it’s not always true. Sometimes things just happen and we have to act wisely. I think that some of us who matured in the turbulent 1960s when we suffered the indignity of being uprooted from whatever life we were leading and then thrust into a war halfway around the globe, a war that no one understands, or can justify, even today. Worse still, we are blamed for it.

We understand that sometimes stuff just happen. Survivors accept and adjust. Losers bitch and moan. But there are those who must suffer.

Some cities, including Little Rock, are now facing revenue shortfalls. Someone has to accept the blame. Who? Is it the previous Mayor who might have pursued policies that we didn’t like?

Is it a board member who once torpedoed a wise policy or program?

Is it the present mayor who should have soared into office on a wave of exuberant economic enthusiasm?

Is it the policy-makers of past years who worked hard to make the regressive and unreliable sales tax the basic revenue source for Arkansas municipalities?

Is it the local citizen who, having been denied learning how government works, during high school, no longer comprehends the need for municipal services and the cost thereof?

Is it the citizen who supports politicians from a party that starts wars on credit and requires its members to sign pledges never to increase public revenues, no matter what the need?

Is it the citizen who orders goods on-line for the convenience, then chortles about not paying sales tax on the goods as a delivery truck, protected by municipal fire and police, ambles along streets maintained by the city, to deliver those goods to homes whose mortgages are protected by public largess?

Is it the cult member who activates against birth control while unwanted children wander our streets with career options seemingly limited to pro sports or criminal enterprise?

Today’s social media drippings are rich with answers. Everyone has one and they are all true. So far though, no one has mentioned simply raising taxes to meet the demands of our brave new world.

Heck, I know only one thing: two plus two equals four. Always has. Always will. As my old college pal, John Keats would put it, “That is all you know on earth, and all you need to know"

Morning Thoughts: April 6, 2018

When we don't know anything about a subject, we tend not to worry about its destruction. Our thought is "If I ain't involved, I vote to dissolve."

I fear that this attitude is why so many Americans think it is "cute" for a sitting president to act like a damn fool on camera as he goes about destroying the basic structure of an America that helped defeat Nazism, then was instrumental in the rebuilding of much of Europe, ended polio, sent someone to the moon, and did so many other wonderful things.

If I ain't involved, I vote to dissolve.

An example: I once asked a very bright group of my students, (senior level Intro to Public Administration) to take a moment and consider whether local sales taxes should apply to internet sales.

They thought, discussed, and gave a unanimous, "NO."

If I ain't involved, I vote to dissolve.

Okay then. How would you describe the concept of "reasonable expectations."

They did a pretty fair job, so I followed.

Do you think a person driving a delivery truck to bring an internet purchase to you has a reasonable expectation that a passable street allows the delivery to your house?

- That a police force is there to see that thugs don't empty the van before it reaches you?

- That firefighters are available to come in case the van with your purchase catches fire?

- That an ambulance is available should a drunken person slam into the delivery van?

- That medical aid is available in case someone sprays poison on your package?

Well yes, they decided, those expectations are reasonable.

Would it cost anything to provide services to meet those expect ions?

Yes. If it involves me, it can't be free.

Would it be fair for the city or county where you live to charge the delivery companies a delivery charge for each package delivered to your house? The brick and mortar companies pay a tax to allow you to come and pick things up yourself.

There was a dead silence, broken only by a collective whisper of "Don't tax you, don't tax me, tax that fellow behind that tree."

But, they reconsidered, did some cipherin', took another vote, and chose the sales tax.

We look for reasons why Americans did such a foolishly destructive thing as electing a man like Donald Trump as president.

"Oh," you say, "it's because so many of us think it is funny to see government run as a professional wrestling show."

Maybe. Maybe the trouble began when we quit teaching civics in our high schools.

Ever hear the story about the father
who was able to indulge his son's
interest in computers because that
father received an education through
the GI Bill, a tax-supported benefit?

Sunrise With Schubert: January 31, 2018

I knew it would be painful to watch. I knew it would break the heart of anyone who loves America. But I knew I would learn something.

So, last evening, I walked across the street from the condo to the MacArthur Museum of Arkansas Military History to watch the monthly documentary, this one entitled VA: The Human Cost of War.

It was as sad and terrifying as the title suggests. The way America treats those who have agreed to risk life and limb for their country can amount to a horror story at times. Since politicians never admit fault for any problem, the blame often falls on the VA system. The documentary began by pointing out the recent failures of the VA and its bureaucracy. There was much more, however, the story.

The modern VA system, by the way, evolved from the vision of General Omar Bradley after World War Two. He proposed a system that would not only provide veteran care, but would coordinate with medical schools, train, and provide research.

The advances in medical care resulting from such research is astounding, from the advancements in the treatment of amputees to the discovery of the benefits of daily aspirin usage in preventing heart disease.

Ever wonder why Little Rock’s VA hospital is located next to the U of A Medical Center? That was part of General Bradley’s vision as well. As the film pointed out,

“The VA is the second-largest government agency and the second-largest part of the federal budget. It trains 70 percent of the doctors and the overwhelming majority of nurses in the U.S.; has nine million veterans and counting in its system; and has spearheaded the development of some of the most innovative medical treatments in the country, “yet few know what it is and how it works.”

The most illuminating fact, for some of us, in the documentary, dealt with the relationship between the Veterans Administration and the Department of Defense.

There is none.

Unlike many foreign governments, the two are not wed, or even distantly related. In America, once a veteran leaves the military and is handed a DD 214, the official record and proof of service, the Department of Defense is finished with him or her. Goodbye. Good luck. Nice to have seen you. Piss off. Next!

How do politicians respond to this? Just as you might imagine. It’s a hell of a lot more fun to bluster and threaten to invade (make America great again) than it is to face the realities of planning how we would deal with, as Eric Bogle puts it, “the legless, the armless, the blind, the insane”.

Combine this with the lag time between the end of a war (yes children, wars used to end, long ago in an America far away) and the peak demand for the damaged veterans of that war. It’s decades and decades later. By the time it arrives, there are other, more politically palatable things (border walls and such nonsense) to address, and “no-tax” pledges made to private citizens such as Grover Norquist. These get more votes than allocating revenue to honor our commitments to those who have paid their part in a contract with America.

Some of the best quotes in the documentary were from Max Cleland (a triple amputee from the Vietnam War and the one who a Republican opponent once compared to Osama Bin Laden).

“The best way to lower the costs of veterans’ care is to prevent wars,” he said. That’s not likely, as long as wars make good press, affect less than one percent of Americans along with their families and friends, and can be carried out “on credit.”

Addressing the current practice of not including the cost of care for damaged veterans in planning for the cost of a war, he offered the following slogan. I quote from memory here but the meaning stands.

“No leader should be allowed to outline plans for the first step (of a war) until he has announced plans for the last step.”

In the meantime, twenty of our veterans are committing suicide each day, many because our leaders and politicians don’t do that.

We should be ashamed of ourselves.

A must see.

Thoughts Day Three: January 3, 2018

It’s been cold where I live for the last several days, not Minnesota cold, but Arkansas cold. It’s caused me to think. My eyes teared at times.

We’ve spent the cold weather in a 100-year-old farmhouse, for reasons associated with the care of a dependent mother-in-law. The house, her childhood home for a time, was heated for the first 85 years or so by wood heaters. Insulation didn’t exist, nor did underpinning. Double-paned window rattled as the winter winds, and frost, swept through them. One can only wonder.

For those who might worry about us—yeah, there might be a few—don’t. We had the place insulated and, at least partially, sealed-in years ago. A nephew, now a highly successful business owner, and I installed central heat and air, and, worrier that I am, left a large gas heater in place for emergencies. We’re fine.

But what about those who aren’t? Do we owe them anything? Some of my friends now say we don’t. I respectfully disagree. My beliefs, training, and education have convinced me that America will never be greater than the poorest town in the Arkansas Delta. We can talk about the need for the “takers” to fend for themselves and not depend upon the “doers.” But, I’ve never heard of a cold, shivering, hungry, three-year-old demanding that she or he be allowed to “take.” They’re just cold and hungry.

Abraham Maslow would, I think, tell us that once that child was warm and fed, it might progress, mentally and physically, toward a state of being a “doer.” Until then, it will only dwell upon being safe. Wait a few years, give it a gun, and see what happens. What? Oh yes, I forgot.

Excuse me. I’m listening to this as I write and I had to stop for a moment. It is breathtakingly beautiful, and deserves full attention.

Where was I? Oh, on safety, comfort, and self-reliance. I just thought of one the best quotes I’ve read in the last ten years ago. Many folks, especially the writers of editorials in our statewide newspaper, love to quote H.L. Mencken. He was, at various times, a newspaper reporter, linguist, editor, magazine publisher, gadfly, author of books, and chronicler of American life. Raised in an upper middle-class family, he was also a cruel and cynical racist and anti-Semite who supported Germany’s role in World War One and once wrote a comedy piece about the actual hanging of an African-American man. It is still published, to the delight, I fear, of some Americans.

He could also write just about better than anyone else ever did. His most famous utterances fill pages. His works bear reading for their literary brilliance more that their content, although any one of us can use them, much like the Bible, to harvest much that nourishes our embedded prejudices.

My quote? Oh, it is not by Mencken but about Mencken. Alister Cook, in a preface to a collection of Mencken’s works wrote that, “Everything Mencken wrote was from a warm place and on a full stomach.”

I’ve done much in my life that good people would classify as vile and vituperative. I admit to it and spend a good deal of my time now trying to atone. I think, though, I’ve done some things right. I served my country, unlike the Current Occupant. I obtained two college degrees, one while working two part-time jobs while attending school full time, and one by working a full-time job while attending school part time. I’ve been employed or in school since I was eleven years old. I’ve been married to the same woman for over 44 years. I’ve never served jail time nor overspent my income. I think I can best describe my standing among my peers as “a semi-knowledgeable, but harmless old fool.”

Once, I was verbally chastised for telling a friend that I paid my taxes willingly for I believed, as did Oliver Wendell Holmes, that “they buy us civilization.” Do we lose our civility when we allow ourselves to despise paying them for the common good, or as the Galilean might put it, “to feed our sheep?” I’m, for one, afraid we might. We’ll see.

I entered the professional world with no experience, a general degree from a state-supported institution, and with the much-despised image of a Vietnam Veteran. Truth is, though, I started ten rungs up the ladder from an African-American brother or a white sister, either a Harvard Graduate with impeccable credentials, who might have started at the same time.

I was a white male from Northern-European ancestry, you see, the sociological equivalent of beginning from a warm place on a full stomach.

Taker?

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www.wattensawpress.com

Sailing Into Oblivion: June 7, 2017

Grandchildren would be nice, but I’d hate like the dickens to try and explain to one what is going on in America now.

I confess. I haven’t a clue. Nothing in the study of American history could prepare one for an understanding of what our current national mood is.

In the past week, the President of the United States of America has insulted three of our staunchest post-World War Two allies—all internationally respected nations. In addition, he took sides in a squabble between two Middle Eastern countries, the disparaged one just happening to be a country in which the United States has a strategic naval base, the chosen one happening to be the one that furnished 15 of the 19  hijackers on 9-11. Oh, and nobody asked him to take sides. He just did.

Taking sides in a Middle-Eastern squabble reminds one of the apprehension that police officers talk about when responding to domestic disturbances. If one party doesn’t get you, they both will.

What I might have the most difficulty in explaining is the economic policy being espoused. It goes something like this.

- Although both corporate profits and corporatetax-avoidance skills are at all-time highs, corporations need tax cuts in order to survive and grow the economy.

- Although reduced revenue and increased expenditures create massive deficits and massive borrowing, the repayment of which starves economic growth, such deficits don’t matter somehow.

- Job sectors facing dwindling demand must be protected through federal largess. Thus, we can expect country grocery stores, such as the one my family, owned to again proliferate. Oh, and for those folks who once built guitar tuners that were made obsolete by a free phone app, help is on the way.

- It is vital to cut taxes on corporations although historically they have been as likely to use the additional money to reward shareholders, increase dividends, or purchase and plunder other corporations for their assets or over funded pension plans as they are to expand and grow the economy.

- Corporate profits, despite both the laws of gravity and mathematics, can expand at fixed percentages forever and ever.

Yes, and those summer afternoon thunderheads soaring into the sky don’t ever topple over from their weight. We just need to have trust.

One would certainly need a grandchild who believed in magic to understand all this.

Gravity will always win.

Reconciliation: Day Eight

 Perhaps no topic is more controversial among Americans as taxes. We run a wide gamut of opinions, to say the least. There was the famous Civil War veteran and jurist Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. who wrote, in a dissenting opinion while on the U.S. Supreme Court, “Taxes are what we pay for civilized society … .”

At the other end, we have the work of political kingmaker Grover Norquist who states, “I don't want to abolish government. I simply want to reduce it to the size where I can drag it into the bathroom and drown it in the bathtub.” He works at doing this by exacting a pledge from candidates who want the support he can provide. The pledge is, basically, never to vote on enacting or raising a tax.

So where does this leave a sensible person? My friends are free to make any decision they chose. I can only hope that decision is not based on a knee-jerk reaction fulfilling an allegiance to a person rather than the people as a whole.

Personally, I tend toward the Holmes version. He was a veteran of both our most divisive war and the Supreme Court. He must have spent long hours contemplating the complexities of both history and government. Analytical thought is good, I believe.

Does the government waste money? Oh yes. As I write this, our military is still trying to explain the evaporation of over a trillion dollars during our adventure in Iraq.

Does the government spend money on frivolous or unneeded projects? Oh dear. Does the term “pork barrel” ring a bell?

On the other hand, can we seriously contemplate such varied things as Hurricane Katrina, Yellowstone National Park, the invasion of Normandy, 9-11, Oklahoma City, Sesame Street, the elimination of polio, Social Security, Medicare, The Smithsonian, and a postal service that connects us to even the most remote areas of our country, without admitting the government can be a source of good for many, if not all of us?

Of course, some of those items represent programs that are more popular with our diverse society than others. Still, I’ve observed each of them providing great solace to our people, many of whom represent the “least of those among us.”

As complicated as the topic may be, and as elusive as answers may be, I choose, myself, to pay taxes willingly. I do this even when the paying may not benefit me directly. Though we have no children, we steadfastly support our public school system. An uneducated population, incapable of analytical thinking, may seem a worthwhile goal to some, but I beg to disagree. Does an H.G. Wells book called “The Time Machine” strike a chord?”

Let us each view taxes in our own way, each of us. I choose to not attack the concept, but to be on constant vigilance toward the administration of the concept. This is consistent with my belief that freedom, within the bounds of enlightened control and regulation, is truly what can make America great.

My country is too great ever
to become a place of depair.