- Spending stimulus money on government projects
Because government gets the result of the work, it does not enter the economy to stimulate it the way a tax cut
would. Wealth spent on government projects is effectively destroyed, because the result of the project generates no
new wealth. Only spending on education and needed roads create new wealth, and that wealth is delayed.
The tax cut would allow an increase in private projects producing useful products for sale on the open market,
which would increase wealth, and help the economy recover. Only work of this kind creates wealth.
The government overspending does shrink people's retirement savings by causing inflation.
- Making sure everyone has health insurance
Health insurance is not really insurance. It is really a very expensive group credit card that raises the price
of medicine by distorting the demand curve for medicine. It would be better to abolish health insurance for all but
catastrophic and long-term expenses. Then supply-and-demand pricing would return to the health care industry,
lowering the prices.
- Taxes taking over 10 percent of the economy
Any combination of taxes that takes a total of more than 10 percent of the economy will cause the economy to
shrink, due to the removal and destruction of wealth from it. When the total tax rate is higher than 10 percent,
raising taxes higher to raise more revenue will cause a loss in total revenue instead, as the economy shrinks. This
high taxation also will make American products more expensive than foreign products, so America will not export as
much.
The current tax rate on individuals is close to 75 percent, when the price increases caused by business taxes
and import duties are figured in.
- Taxing the poor
Most of the tax systems we have tax the poor more than they can afford. Income tax standard deductions were
originally meant to tax only the rich. But they were not adjusted for inflation at first, and when they were, it was
done at a lower level that taxes the poor. Property tax is a cruel tax on the poor, raising rents, and preventing
the poor from owning property. Social taxes start at a level that is way too low, taxing all income after the first
$400. On top of that, they stupidly have a ceiling so the rich do not pay more. Excise taxes are like head taxes. They
take the same dollar amount from everyone.
Government does not help the poor because it taxes the poor. Government is too greedy for revenue.
- Income tax
Income tax penalizes work and rewards idleness. It penalizes saving and rewards spending. And it requires all
kinds of invasive recordkeeping and reporting.
The correct way to tax is a single 10 percent tax on the purchase of all new products that are not necessary
for living. This tax would fund all governments. It does not tax the poor, unless they buy new products that are
not necessary for living.
- Property tax
This tax is touted as being for the rich, but it penalizes the poor more than any other tax. Tenants pay higher
rent because of property tax. And property tax is the chief reason poor people can't own their own homes.
- Import duties
This does not penalize foreign countries for making products cheaper. It penalizes American workers by raising
the prices they have to pay for products. Also, because the American products are more expensive than the foreign
products, America doesn't export much.
- Minimum wage
This does not help workers. It causes inflation, because businesses must raise prices to pay higher wages.
It also prices American products out of the global markets and shrinks the buying power of retirement
pensions.
- Daylight-saving time
It does not save any daylight. And it doesn't save any energy. A new study proved
this. More air conditioning is used in homes and autos with daylight time in effect. This greatly counteracts any
saving due to reduced lighting use. Daylight time also increases obesity-causing stress.
What daylight-saving time does do is allow legislators enough daylight to play golf after work. So the many
must suffer, so the elite few can play.
- Government-issued ID numbers
These are the main cause of identity theft. Businesses trust these numbers too much — so much that they
will accept the numbers from the wrong person. They also violate some religions. All man-made identity methods
should be abolished. Methods using natural attributes of the body should be used instead.
- The "Single Theory of the Crime" method of investigation
This was created to save government money. But it causes injustice when the police choose the wrong theory. This
is because they will tend to save money continuing to work the wrong theory, instead of spending more to find the
right theory. Statistics should never be used to decide which theories to investigate. Police should work
on all of the possibilities, using the evidence to test each possibility until it is disproved.
- The Plurality Voting System
This is the real reason the elections do not always fairly elect the candidate desired by most of the people. It
fails miserably when more than two candidates run. In that case, it favors the candidate most different from the
others, so the oddest candidates win the primaries, and then a third party candidate further introduces biases in
the general election.
- Planning and zoning
This is just another way for the rich to lord over the poor, preventing the poor from starting their own
businesses at their homes. This greedy control over the property rights of others should be unconstitutional. It is
not, solely because rich judges won't rule against it. Zoning also keeps people from living near their jobs, causing
more pollution and fuel use. Since the aesthetics the zoning laws are based on are the worthless drivel of the elite,
zoning should be abolished.
- High definition and digital television
We don't have this because anybody needs it. We have it because the rich want it, so the poor are forced by
government to buy new TV equipment, just to satisfy the elite. It did not help the economy because replacing working
technology does not cause growth. It also created a huge solid waste problem as people got rid of old
equipment/.
- Conscription
Government should never have the power to require a person to do something. This includes serving in the
military. The draft is just an excuse for not paying soldiers their fair wages. Also, it can cause people so forced
into service to hate the country that did this to them. That is not the kind of soldier we need.
- Requiring payment through the Internet
This prevents some people without bank accounts from paying, and violates some religions. This is discrimination
against the poor, and against some religions. All payments must be payable with cash.
- Believing scientific claims without proof, or with bad science offered as the proof
The truth does not depend on political beliefs or human desires, but on what is real. Those who use trickery or
bad methods have ulterior motives, and should not be relied on. A claim is either a belief, or a scientific fact.
Until a claim has scientific proof with independent verification by scientists with no conflict of interest, it
is just a claim
- Global warming is caused by man
This is some of that bad science mentioned above. The proponents of this claim are not showing any proof, yet
they want government to act. But the real science says the sun is getting hotter. Man is not causing that.
If man is causing global warming, then why is it also being observed on Venus, Mars, and Titan?
- Gun control
Laws do not keep guns out of the hands of criminals. This is because criminals, by definition, do not obey the
law. What gun control really does is protect the criminal from the presence of any honest people with guns who could
stop them.
People who are afraid of guns should go hide in a closet, instead of imposing laws on other people.
- Allowing monopolies to exist and to set market prices
Governments must not side with monopolies or let them set prices. Examples are medical cartels where corporations
buy up medical practices. This is wrongdoing. These monopolies must be broken up to allow competition to set prices
lower. And no monopoly should ever be allowed to charge interest on bills that are higher because it set the
price.
- Patents, copyrights, and exclusive contracts
These must be abolished or sharply curtailed as the monopoly powers they are. Government is unfairly favoring
artists and other special interests, at the expense of the general public. Nobody else gets paid many times for
doing the work only once. Copyright powers also resulted in the loss forever of many films, because they were kept
as investments, and deteriorated to uselessness in storage. If copying had been allowed, some copies would survive.
And exclusive contracts raise prices.
All patents and copyrights should have compulsory licensing at the mechanical rates. And no patent or copyright
should ever last longer than 10 years. The current 120+ year period is wrongdoing against the public.
- Allowing predatory debt collection methods
Governments must not allow predatory methods where people are harassed or taken to court over debts. People must
be given time to make payments. Fees and interest must not be added when people are already having trouble paying
bills. Collection agencies must be abolished.
- Foreclosures and tax sales
Governments must not side with creditors, mortgageholders, and themselves in cases where people lost jobs and
can't pay their bills. This is wrongdoing. There should be a delay for the duration of the recession, to allow the
people to get other jobs and make payments. No extra interest should be charged.
- Political speed limits and traffic laws
Something strange happens to politicians when they are elected to office. They suddenly think they have been
bestowed with college degrees in traffic engineering, health and safety, and law enforcement, even though they
never set foot in a classroom to study any of them. They think that election to office somehow makes them experts
on the subject, and they then proceed to make their part of the world more miserable for everyone else. Often the
things they do are based on their personal whims.
If they are going to legislate on such matters, they should be required to get the appropriate degrees through
legitimate classwork.
- Government building standards and neighborhood association compacts
These are based on the beliefs of the elite that they know how other people should live, and what they should
not own or do on their own properties. These people have the same misplaced belief that they are experts that the
politicians have about traffic control. Since all of this is the result of these self-appointed experts' beliefs,
instead of any real knowledge, it should be permanently abolished.
- Schoolteachers still teaching the wrong primary colors
For many years, the primary colors of pigment were thought to be red, yellow, and blue. The development of
color photography showed this to be wrong (except in the case of certain oil paints). The correct primary colors
of pigment are now known to be magenta, yellow, and cyan. But many schoolteachers still cling to the old
primaries. Examples:
- Elementary teachers leave out the colors magenta and cyan because the words are "too hard."
- Art teachers ignore the truth and still teach the old primaries.
- Art textbooks still have the old primaries, ignoring the scientific truths.
- Artists worship "the masters" and want to copy their (obsolete) methods instead of making better
art.
The truth has been known since 1934. It's time people gave up the old traditions.
- Worshiping the arts
There is something peculiar about liberals and government officials that causes them to worship the arts. They
spend too much on "supporting the arts," as though they were essential to life. They are not. In fact,
all wealth spent on the arts is destroyed. The artworks so created do not expand the economy or create any jobs.
The arts were once very lucrative professions, but were made obsolete by newer technologies. So the artists
demand compensation from government for their loss of income. But they should be looking for new careers
instead.
The fact that despotic kings wasted much tax revenue on the arts to entertain themselves does not mean that our
elected lawmakers should be doing the same. They are dragging down the economy with their overactive love for the
arts.
The schoolteachers who teach the obsolete primary colors are worshiping the masters of the arts.
- Government attacks on religion
This is in three forms:
- Government officials condemning religious beliefs they do not agree with.
- Governments passing laws prohibiting people from obeying their religions, or requiring people to do things
their religions prohibit.
- Government human resources departments discriminating against religious people in hiring and firing.
All of these are wrongdoing on the part of government. And they are usually done to gain the votes of people who
want to make other people disobey their religions. Usually the people making these demands are abortionists,
evolutionists, homosexuals, transgenders and statists. But these things violate the first amendment.
It is sobering to realize that, if everyone in the world had obeyed the Old Testament laws on sexual morality,
there would not have been an AIDS epidemic. A few people would have died, and then the virus would have been
totally gone from man. But with "sexual freedom," in violation of most religions, comes the threat of
incurable global epidemics. Those sex prohibitions are included in religions for this reason.
- Political Correctness
This is a religion, and including it in government policy violates the first amendment of the US Constitution.
It was plagiarized from the Baha'i Faith by Democrats in the late 1980s. Government is committing wrongdoing by
requiring it, or even by strongly suggesting it.
- Government comes first
This
belief has harmed more people than anyone else. Here is a list of many ways
government has harmed people by putting itself first:
- Government overtaxing and overspending, throwing the economy into a recession
- Government taking the homes and other properties of people who lost jobs and don't have enough money to
pay the taxes
- Government forcing people to buy things they can't afford
- Government legislating itself special prices or interest rates that nobody else can have
- Government officials not having to obey laws that other people have to obey
- Government officials not required to pay social taxes
- Diplomatic immunity
- Government taking taxes out of an estate or a bankruptcy before all of the creditors are paid, often
leaving the creditors with nothing
- Eminent domain taking property to clear the way for a private development government wants to be
built
- Eminent domain used for buildings and other projects that do not need the exact piece of land
taken
(The only projects needing exact pieces of land are projects such as highways and reservoirs, with
locations dictated by the existing terrain).
- Government closing public streets to hold special events, preventing people from going where they need to
go
- Government charging for services that all people are required to use
- Government legislating monopolies for itself, prohibiting private enterprise from providing similar
services
- Requiring utility companies to have franchise agreements with government, and then allowing only one
franchise for each service, creating monopolies
- Creating prohibitions to remove the what government considers to be unsightly
Government should be last, not first.