Living in Contra Costa County

Has this Happened to Your Kids?

Most of my kids go to School here in our Excellent Brentwood Schools. However, son number 2 goes to Middle School in Walnut Creek.

Now Walnut Creek is one of the more “upscale” communities in Contra Costa County. My son is an excellent student; primarily A's with some B's.

He was given a quiz in math where he was assigned with a team of 4 and each had to solve a problem. Then they were given a grade as a group. My son gets his problem right, the others do not. He gets a poor grade on the quiz and this drags down his semester grade. My ex is fighting this battle – I fight other battles for my older son who is with me in school.

I have seen similar assignments in my older sons high school, but not this extreme. But I wonder what the motive is.

My thinking is that the schools need to drag down those that are most successful to promote others that should fail or at least get remedial help. They can also avoid having to admit failure with some kids and it helps them to do social promotion.

I have not seen a lot of this but I note it is creeping in. I suspect teachers unions and liberal educators are slowly working on something to help them achieve the Socialist Agenda many desire.

Has anyone else seen this?

How do you want to be Taxed?

Well if this was an episode of Family Feud I am sure the survey would show # 1 answer - "Not at all."

Realistically we need to have some taxes and no one is going to like some tax for some reason.  Now I am one of those people that think Taxes are way to high and we need to lower them or eliminate some of them, but we will always need some. 

I just wrote another post - Are we all caught in the same web? talking about how we are all in some way economically dependent on the government.  On the flip side although we all want less government we still need some and it needs to be paid for.

On the post - Are we all caught in the same web? one of the comments suggested a flat tax of 10% and in principal I support a flat tax, but in some ways it is not that easy.  The biggest one is that it will tax 10% of what?  When it comes to a business 10% could be all the profits or more?  So what part of it is not taxed?  That is the political part of it and it is no longer a flat tax.  It does not meet other criteria of a good tax as outlined below.

In my opinion the characteristics of a good tax system are as follows:

1. Easy to collect and not intrusive into the private lives of the citizens.
   
   
2. Everyone pays.
   
   
3. There is some element of relief for the poor in the tax system, but it should not be progressive in that it punishes investors and the successful.  (This is a Biblical model.)
   
   
4. No double taxation.
   
   
5. It encourages productivity and domestic business.
   
   
6. The purpose of a tax is to generate needed revenue, not social engineering.
   
   
7. Encourages savings.
   
   
8. It is focused on usage - you pay for the public services you tend to use.
   
   

With that said I happen to agree that property taxes, car taxes, gas taxes, and similar taxes directed at usage are best within reason as long as they go back into the area from which they are taxed.  This includes roads, schools, local government, and infrastructure.  What level is fair and what it should be spent on is for another day.  I do not think there is a clear answer here, except to say it is too much now and those monies are not going to where they should at the moment.

However, the big monkey on everyone's back is Income Tax and I say do away with it!  Now we might need that money and have to find another way to raise funds.  Well the best way would be a National Sales Tax.  First off I want to clarify that I am not talking about a value added Tax where things are taxed at every level.  A national retail sales tax.  BTW I mean all Income Tax - Corporate and everything.  Get rid of the inheritance tax as the same time.  Here is why it would work:

1. No one would have to deal with filing taxes, except retailers.  (For us real estate agents Title & Escrow would handle.)  We might even be able to do away with Social Security Numbers.
   
   
2. Everyone would pay into the system.  Foreign manufactures would get hit just the same as domestic manufactures when selling goods in this county.
   
   
3. Perhaps we could exclude food, medical care, basic utilities and rent (If we taxed services along with goods) from the tax.  The poor do not get hurt.
   
   
4. There would no longer be a double tax on corporations and then dividends.  Now I propose sales tax on real estate too, but perhaps we could limit it to profit on sales (if not reinvested) similar to capital gains and 1031 exchanges.  Remember there is no longer any depreciation as there is no income tax.
   
   
5. Productivity would go through the roof with no tax on corporations or business profits.  Companies would bring more manufacturing back into the States.  They would probably lower prices with no tax overhead so although goods are taxed at retail they might be cheaper.
   
   
6. In general there is a minimum of social engineering as there are few tax loop holes.  There will always be some exceptions, but we can keep them to a minimum.
   
   
7. People will save and invest more if the only time they get taxed is when they buy things. 
   

I realize that there would be some issues to work out and shifts in the economy would be painful if we went this direction, but overall it would be a really positive thing for the economy.

President Obama has yet to call me (or for that matter anyone in Washington) so it must be a good idea.

What Would You Do with a Million Dollars?

Right now there is a lot of talk about Taxing the Rich!

Now if we extend the Bush Tax cuts or cut taxes further as some would argue it will put a lot of money in the hands of Rich People.  When Bill Clinton was elected President I found out I was rich.  He was only going to Tax the Rich and I got taxed more.  I think at the time I was making about $50,000.00 per year which was pretty good in the mid 90's. 

What will the Rich People do with all the money they would save from Tax Cuts.  Tax Cuts could save some $1,000.00 a year, for others it might be $10,000.00, $100,000.00, or more.  But for fun let's focus on $1,000,000.00.  What could a person do with $1,000,000.00 of extra income.  Remember this is money over and above your basic living expenses:

1. Invest it in the stock market providing capital for growth of business and employment.
   
   
2. Spend it on Luxury items that people would have to build, transport, sell and take care of, all generating jobs.
   
   
3. Give it to Charity.  Now some charities can be rather flaky, but most people give money with a purpose in mind and make sure it is used right; especially when it is a million dollars.  What do you want to bet most private charities are more responsible and productive than the government?
   
   
4. Put it in the Bank where others could borrow it to buy homes and start businesses.  This also creates jobs.

Now certainly the money could be put to harmful purposes like supporting terrorism and crime, but there are other laws, besides taxes to seize money used for those purposes.  About the only bad thing an honest person could do with the money would be to hide it in a mattress.

What would the government do with that money?  If it was taxed away?

1. Give it to corrupt business leaders and bankers? 
   
   
2. Give it to foreign banks? 
   
   
3. Give it to political allies in exchange for campaign contributions? 
   
   
4. Pay for academic studies on what is funny?  or why people enjoy sex? 
   
   
5. Pay government workers twice what a private sector worker cost!
   
   
6. Direct government contracts to politically connected individuals!
   
   
7. Fund a culture of dependency destroying our work ethic and values?

Certainly there are plenty of legitimate government expenses, but we have enough money for those. 

The other flaw in all this is that the corrupt and over spending government has made it hard for honest men and women to use the money as they might above and not have it stolen by the government and their elitist allies in banking and Wall street.

But ask yourself a question - Where is the money going to do the most good?  In the hands of people that know how to make it or in the hands of those that know how to spend it?

One final thing.  They call it taxing the rich, what they really do is tax people trying to get rich and build something for their family.  People that are rich and already have money do not pay income tax.  They do pay attorneys and accounts to avoid taxes.

The big clash over the US Constitution is a Living Document vs. a Permanent Document.

There are those that argue the Constitution is a Living Document designed to change with the times.  They feel it is a document that can be adapted to meet the changing culture and times.

On the other side are those that feel the document is a Permanent Document and you need to look for the original intent.  Most would agree there is flexibility to meet a changing world, but that the values, intent, and limitations of the Constitution are Permanent Features that can only be changed by amendment.

The problem with a Living Document approach means that a small number of people (Judges) can limit my freedom and take away my rights based on thier interpretation of the changing values they believe are going on in our culture or worse yet based on what they believe the values of our culture should be.

A popular misconception is that the Constitution Grants rights in the Bill of Rights and elsewhere.  The Constitution does not grant rights.  It prohibits the Government from taking away Rights.  Where do the Rights come from if not from the Constitution?  The Constitution views the rights protected as inherent rights and coming from God. 

This country was born with a birth defect - Slavery.  Many people knew it was wrong at the time, but like parents welcoming a child into the world with a defect, hoped we would grow out of it.  If not for the explosion of King Cotton due to the Cotton Gin slavery may have ended without the Civil War.  

Even when Slavery became unacceptable during and at the end of the Civil War the leaders in our country affixed this to the Constitution.  There was a reason these Freedoms where affixed to the Constitution - To keep them being taken away at a whim.  The document was not considered alive and just to be reinterpreted based on changing values. 

Those that look to the Living Document also tend to look to the Constitution for thier "freedom."  You will not find "freedom" in the Constitution.  What you do find in the Constitution is lines of demarcation telling the government how far it can go and affirming our rights that come from God.

Those that look for Freedom in government will be sadly disappointed and not have any Freedom.  My Freedom comes from God.  The government is crossing the line, it is our duty to put the government back on the right side of the line.

There have been times (Oh this is one of them!) when we have gone through hard financial times as a family.  Sometimes it is so hard you do not even want to look at the check book.  But you have to look at the books and you have to get an idea of where you are so you know what you have to do.  It is easy to procrastinate on taking the hard look so you do not have to deal with the problem, but then it only gets worse.

I was listening to a commentator on the elections the other day talking about how the Controller Position is one of the most important elected positions in California because he can look at the books and audit the spending.  He has supeana power.  Right now the Democrats controll that position and as you might have guessed not a lot is going on.  A guy named Strickland has been nominated on the Republican side and he has been a CFO for a silicon valley company.  This is the guy we need to have looking at the books.

However, I think we need something like this on the Federal Level too.  I want to see Congress take a hard look at the books.  I want to know where the money has gone, I want to know where the Fed has sent money, I want to know how in debt we really are.  I suspect following the money will be hard but not impossible.  We need to apply GAP to our budget (General Account Principals) that will keep the government from playing with the numbers and hiding the debt. 

Just one mans stupid opinion, but I think this needs to be done.