Taxes: An Overview

"In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes."

Though not the first to observe this truth, Benjamin Franklin penned this maxim in 1789.  Margaret Mitchell, the author of Gone with the Wind, wrote, "Death, taxes, and childbirth! There's never any convenient time for any of them."

Taxes have been around as long as Government - and in a more cruder form - as long as one human exerted dominance over another.  Other than laws prohibiting individual liberty; taxes are the most intrusive form of Government upon the individual.  

Core Truth Four: Trade Offs are unavoidable

New solutions always come with new problems.

By 1890 New York was running out of space.  There were at least a 150,000 horses living in New York.  Horses transported goods, services, and people throughout the streets, and while so occupied, each put out twenty-two pounds of horse manure each day.  This amounts to 90,000 pounds each month.

The problems caused by such a copious and never-ending amount of horse shit are easy to imagine.  George Waring, Jr., the City's Street Cleaning Commissioner, described the city as stinking "with emanations of putrefying organic matter."  City streets, according to Elizabeth Kolbert, were"literally carpeted with a warm, brown matting . . . smelling to heaven."  Brownstone apartment first floors were up one level to give relief from the smells.  Where lesser amounts of manure had been happily purchased by surrounding farmers - the over abundant supply had produced such a glut, that New York could not give the manure away.  

Core Truth Three: Unintended Consequences

Intentions are not results.

Good intentions do not matter.  

What matters are all of the consequences.

When you combine the truth that Incentives Matter with individuals pursuing their own subjective perceived interest you get our third Core Truth: Unintended Consequences.  Unintended consequences mean that individuals react to laws (or other changes) in ways that were not anticipated by the those imposing the change.  Sometimes the reactions are good, and sometimes the reactions are bad.

Core Truth Two: Incentives Matter

Economists' fundamental principle is "Incentives Matter."  This maxim means that people change their behavior to either obtain perceived benefits or avoid/reduce perceived costs.  If the perceived benefit outweighs the perceived cost - the individual is more likely to assume the cost. If the opposite is the case - the individual will seek ways to avoid or reduce the cost.

Core Truths: Power Corrupts

What are Core Truths?

Core truths are basic beliefs about how the world works.  Based upon these beliefs - other values and policy decisions necessarily follow.  Many Core Truths are shared across the political spectrum adopted by both Liberals and Conservatives.   Conservatives will differ in Liberals in that they will place a greater importance on some or more of these Core Truths.

Core Truth One:  Power Corrupts

In 1887 historian, writer and politician Lord John Dalberg-Acton wrote:

 I cannot accept your canon that we are to judge Pope and King unlike other men, with a favourable presumption that they did no wrong. If there is any presumption it is the other way, against the holders of power, increasing as the power increases. ... Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. (1887)

Basic Political Philosophy: Hobbes & Locke

Ideas and Philosophies that have shaped United States Political Thought

In 1776 the Continental Congress tasked Thomas Jefferson to draft all the reasons justifying our decision to declare independence from Great Britain.    Jefferson, consulting with John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Robert Livingston and Roger Sherman, wrote the Declaration of Independence - a document that both lays out the eternal relationship between Government and the governed as well as detail the specific contemporary failings of King George.  

Jefferson presents an eloquent manifesto about human nature:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

According to Jefferson, while people are different in abilities, skills, and even social station - each are "equal" with the other in that no person has a greater right to life, freedom, or the  ability to seek out and work for their own vision of success.  

Ideology, Politics and Policy

Setting your ideas to sail!  Translating ideas into winning 

elections,  passing legislation, and creating successful 

policies are not the same thing.

There's a big difference between the three.

Before we talk about what core views and values Conservatives share - it will be helpful to understand the distinction between three concepts:  ideology, politics, and policy.  You may find in debates that people point to political statements, positions as a means to call into question conservative ideology.  

Example:  Deficit spending under Republican President George Bush exploded.  George Bush claims to be a Conservative.  Therefore Conservatives do not believe in fiscal discipline (or Conservatives are hypocrites.

Because the intersection between ideology, politics and policy can get messy - it is important to understand the differences between the three.