The tax plan of the billionaires club

I listened to the Republican candidate economic debate last night. When it came to tax plans, it sounded to me that they all supported a flat tax. It's an idea that has been shot down numerous times by economists over the decades, yet they keep rolling it out. Some are even claiming since God used it for an ancient, tribal, agrarian economy to fund its religious ceremonies and staff, and was closer to 30%. But how can a brain surgeon who does not understand current national economics or Old Testament studies be held to such a high standard?

There is a tax plan billionaires have already formulated with success and satisfaction that has been in place with modifications over the last few decades. It's a progressive plan with exemptions and penalties to ensure that the poorer billionaires are able to deliver as viable a product as the more successful ones. The redistribution plan enables the dream of the underdog success to even come true once in awhile.

Where is this plan implemented? Right here in America. Where? In our professional sports leagues. Let's take baseball for example. The Yankees are an extremely successful franchise in a large market that can put those easy profits into a consistently high returning entertainment product. However, the other billionaire owners, even though jealous of the success of the Yankees, know that the entertainment product is only enjoyable if the team has other teams to play. Hence, all the wealthier teams are taxed by MLB and that money is redistributed to the smaller market teams, like the Milwaukee Brewers or the Kansas City Royals. There is also a limit on how much the teams can spend on their own product, called the luxury tax. If a team spends more than that limit they have to kick more into the redistribution pot, so that smaller teams can also have some money, otherwise unavailable to them, to also increase the talent of their product. Occasionally, these smaller teams have great success, such as the KC Royals this year, keeping the hopes and dreams alive for their markets. The success of the big teams is dependent on the success of the smaller teams.

This is not a flat tax. Rather this is a private sector model that embraces a progressive tax to ensure a great product.

Our government would like a great product, keeping the American dream alive for all the underdogs. The big dogs need the underdogs to buy their products. Hence they need to support the underdogs with enough wages to participate in the economy. Charity is not enough, which is why government programs were started. Religious organizations were not able to address all the physical needs of our society. Our economy is not a farming economy only. It is large and complex. A hammer is not a good tool to fix a circuit board. A flat tax is not a good tool for the American economy, not is it a fair tool for the underdogs. Wealthy people will not become more generous if they have more money in their pockets. Generous people will remain generous, and stingy people will stay stingy. When wealth is redistributed from top to bottom, good things happen economically, which is why unions helped keep the middle class large and well paid.

Just as it would be short sighted for the successful professional sports teams to strike out on their own, as there will be no one to compete with nor a product to sell tickets to, so is a plan to end progressive taxation in our country.

What the billionaires do in their sports franchises is called smart capitalism. For some reason when the same thing is done for the national economy it is considered socialism. Regardless of what it is called, it is a very successful system and ignored nationally at our own peril.

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