Death and Taxes

Three is the number of completion. MR Bodkin will deal with various topics accordingly. I thought he should start with something(s) easy.

DEATH: 
1) One view is that we all must die. There is a lot of evidence of people dying. Hard to argue that it doesn't happen. Why should you or I be an exception?

2) I once read that the majority of human beings who have ever lived are currently alive. (Depends a lot on where you start counting.  When did Homo Sapiens  Sapiens really begin?) If you are a  fan of statistics (regarded by some as the highest ranking types of lies), you might argue that your odds of never dying could be 50/50 or better!

3) Starting right now just live your life as best you can. Save the above points for college dorm room type bull sessions.

There. That was easy, right?

TAXES:
1) Start with how much money is needed to fully fund the current budget. Allow for inflation, increases in number of Social Security recipients, any new spending that has been legislated etc. For now, add an amount every year sufficient to reduce national debt so as to pay if off in 25 years from the year the plan is initiated. 

2) Take the total amount of money that is acquired by any legal entity from any source (income). Allow for the subtraction of the current  deduction for an individual income tax filer for each legal entity and each dependent of that entity. (This is subject to adjustment as long as the amount of the deduction is the same for every entity.) Divide the budget number by the total adjusted (as per the last sentence) national income. That is your tax rate. Any bill requiring new spending must include a provision either to increase the tax rate or reduce spending for something else as much as necessary to fund the bill.

3) Repeat the process every year. If there is money left over from the year that is ending, it can be applied to the national debt until that is paid off. If there is a shortfall, the rate for the next year can be raised accordingly. Once the national debt is paid, the tax rate can be drastically reduced and/or the newly available funds can be used to get things done.

Pretty simple, is it not? Now, MR Bodkin knows that everyone would go crazy about their own ox and the goring of said ox, the care and feeding of his or her most sacred cow(s) etc etc etc ad infinitum. The above scenario will almost certainly never come to pass. MR Bodkin thinks that is a damn shame.