By Chip Townley ( Originally Posted 1/20/2009 )
Lord, may we fix our eyes unwavering on You, the hope for our nation. May our betters find in that gaze the wisdom to carve for us a path of righteousness and prosperity. May our weary and fearful find strength in the evidence of Your constant love. May every participant in this great experiment find in You his compass and his bearing, that we may never neglect our children's inheritance to drift with the whims and weaknesses of men. Raise up in our leaders the banner of our forebears: that we are one nation of Your children, united under Your grace, carrying with us the blessings of true freedom and justice inviolate. Let it be, Lord, that we are a people that look to You and realize "yes we can", that hear Your voice and respond "yes we will". Amen.
Thursday, August 6, 2009
Let's Have A Jubilee
By Chip Townley ( Originally Posted 2/14/200 )
Every so often I am struck by the absurd nature of our relatively young American culture. We frequently act like one collective infomercial junkie; a colossal sucker who will fall for anything as long as it comes in a shiny new package. Our latest compulsive purchase? I have no idea. All I know is that the description is over 1,000 pages long, and the price tag will end up being somewhere in the neighborhood of one trillion dollars. That is “trillion”, with a “t”.
The economic stimulus package currently on its way to Premier Obama’s desk is supposed to be the answer that the American people are being given for our current economic slump. The “best” and “brightest” that we sent to represent us in Washington have decided that the most effective way to help people facing foreclosure, joblessness, and economic depression is to spend lots of money on….. what? Bailing out banks who made bad decisions? Fighting the phantom of global warming so Al Gore’s companies can get richer? Creating “workfare” socialist programs?
I know we must like it because it is new and shiny, and we are told by the Savior of America that it will bring us hope and prosperity. I know that we don’t really have a choice because we were also told that if we fail to pass this bill, we will be bringing “catastrophe” on the nation. The problem with railroading through this new, innovative (or so we are told) solution, is that it seems clear than any one of dozens of “old” solutions make more sense. I am going to propose, in contrast, a very old solution that is based on (gasp) biblical principles. Anecdotally, and engaging our collectively dwindling common sense, let’s see which approach seems better: the economic stimulus package, or a Year of Jubilee.
The Israelites observed a “Year of Jubilee” once every 50 years. In this year, all slaves were set free, all inheritance that had been sold was recovered, and all debts were forgiven. Think of it as a “reset” button for the economy of the people of Israel. What if we instituted something like a Year of Jubilee in America? Here is what I would propose that an American Year of Jubilee would look like: no personal income taxes, no payroll taxes, no property taxes for that year. This is not nearly as extreme as the real Year of Jubilee, but our economy is rooted so thoroughly in borrowing that I doubt we could survive total debt forgiveness. I would even suggest that we keep corporate income tax and sales tax.
That would never work, right? The country would lose too much revenue to recover if no one paid taxes for a year, right? Let’s look at the numbers. According to latest available statistics from the IRS, the federal government collects approximately $1.3 trillion in total taxes each year (based on 2006, a much better year than the one we are expecting for 2009). It returns about $280 Billion in tax refunds each year, meaning that the net revenue is right around $1 Trillion. This action would actually not cost any more than the “stimulus” bill we are currently passing.
What about the benefit? Can you imagine what your life would be like if you could keep 100% of your income for a year? For most people, that would mean getting caught up on bills, saving homes from foreclosure, going on vacations, making home improvements, maybe even pulling the trigger on that first-time new home. For households making over $80,000 per year (who pay about 80% of the taxes, by the way), it would translate into a huge amount of money being pumped back into the economy. Investment banks might actually have private sector clients again. Mortgage companies would actually get paid, instead of getting stuck with unsellable properties. That is called stimulus.
If we are going to have to spend a trillion dollars, I would rather have a Year of Jubilee than a bloated pork bill any day. At least we would know where the money went. Rather, we would know where it came from, and have an appreciation for the fact that this is our money to begin with. Considering how hard it is, apparently, to find anyone in Washington who pays his taxes in the first place, I can see how this concept may have slipped by our legislators.
Let’s have a Year of Jubilee. It’s not shiny, it’s so old it’s biblical. Nobody gets rich from it, but everyone would benefit. It is certainly not the only alternative idea out there, but it is vastly better than trying to choke down a trillion dollars worth of pork, and I didn’t even need 1,000 pages to explain it.
Every so often I am struck by the absurd nature of our relatively young American culture. We frequently act like one collective infomercial junkie; a colossal sucker who will fall for anything as long as it comes in a shiny new package. Our latest compulsive purchase? I have no idea. All I know is that the description is over 1,000 pages long, and the price tag will end up being somewhere in the neighborhood of one trillion dollars. That is “trillion”, with a “t”.
The economic stimulus package currently on its way to Premier Obama’s desk is supposed to be the answer that the American people are being given for our current economic slump. The “best” and “brightest” that we sent to represent us in Washington have decided that the most effective way to help people facing foreclosure, joblessness, and economic depression is to spend lots of money on….. what? Bailing out banks who made bad decisions? Fighting the phantom of global warming so Al Gore’s companies can get richer? Creating “workfare” socialist programs?
I know we must like it because it is new and shiny, and we are told by the Savior of America that it will bring us hope and prosperity. I know that we don’t really have a choice because we were also told that if we fail to pass this bill, we will be bringing “catastrophe” on the nation. The problem with railroading through this new, innovative (or so we are told) solution, is that it seems clear than any one of dozens of “old” solutions make more sense. I am going to propose, in contrast, a very old solution that is based on (gasp) biblical principles. Anecdotally, and engaging our collectively dwindling common sense, let’s see which approach seems better: the economic stimulus package, or a Year of Jubilee.
The Israelites observed a “Year of Jubilee” once every 50 years. In this year, all slaves were set free, all inheritance that had been sold was recovered, and all debts were forgiven. Think of it as a “reset” button for the economy of the people of Israel. What if we instituted something like a Year of Jubilee in America? Here is what I would propose that an American Year of Jubilee would look like: no personal income taxes, no payroll taxes, no property taxes for that year. This is not nearly as extreme as the real Year of Jubilee, but our economy is rooted so thoroughly in borrowing that I doubt we could survive total debt forgiveness. I would even suggest that we keep corporate income tax and sales tax.
That would never work, right? The country would lose too much revenue to recover if no one paid taxes for a year, right? Let’s look at the numbers. According to latest available statistics from the IRS, the federal government collects approximately $1.3 trillion in total taxes each year (based on 2006, a much better year than the one we are expecting for 2009). It returns about $280 Billion in tax refunds each year, meaning that the net revenue is right around $1 Trillion. This action would actually not cost any more than the “stimulus” bill we are currently passing.
What about the benefit? Can you imagine what your life would be like if you could keep 100% of your income for a year? For most people, that would mean getting caught up on bills, saving homes from foreclosure, going on vacations, making home improvements, maybe even pulling the trigger on that first-time new home. For households making over $80,000 per year (who pay about 80% of the taxes, by the way), it would translate into a huge amount of money being pumped back into the economy. Investment banks might actually have private sector clients again. Mortgage companies would actually get paid, instead of getting stuck with unsellable properties. That is called stimulus.
If we are going to have to spend a trillion dollars, I would rather have a Year of Jubilee than a bloated pork bill any day. At least we would know where the money went. Rather, we would know where it came from, and have an appreciation for the fact that this is our money to begin with. Considering how hard it is, apparently, to find anyone in Washington who pays his taxes in the first place, I can see how this concept may have slipped by our legislators.
Let’s have a Year of Jubilee. It’s not shiny, it’s so old it’s biblical. Nobody gets rich from it, but everyone would benefit. It is certainly not the only alternative idea out there, but it is vastly better than trying to choke down a trillion dollars worth of pork, and I didn’t even need 1,000 pages to explain it.
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