As a United States (US) citizen I have the freedom of speech, which gives me the right to criticize the US government. Like many US citizens, I find there are reasons to criticize the government based on how the system has been corrupt and unfair.
Why must the wealthy and successful have a larger tax percentage than others? I believe the amount the government taxes the people should be an equal percentage regardless of what one earns. For example, I think Bill Gates should pay the same percentage of his income to the government that I do, although obviously the amount would not be equal. This would benefit the economy and the US because it would encourage people to work harder, and with the extra money they are earning they can put it back into the economy. The down fall of this tax reform is a US citizen that make very little the tax rate will go up. The advantage of the reform is it would encourage all US citizens to work harder because no matter how much they make there tax percent that is taken out will still be the same.
In addition to unfair taxation, I believe the political parties are not good for the government. For example, most US citizens do not watch or research candidates running for offices. Instead, they choose the candidate that is in their same political party. What makes the Democrat and Republican's party so much better than third parties? In my opinion a third party can be better for the US rather than the democratic or republican parties because it would promote more critical thinking about the candidates rather than just choosing a candidate based on his or her party. Although having no political parties I think would be best for the US, I don’t know if the solution is possible. Instead we can create more parties and not have US citizens declare their political party.
In this 2008 presidential election both Obama and McCain are talking about reforming the government. However, I think the third party's is in a better position to bring reform based on previous performance of these parties. Yet we have not much about those running on a third party ticket, because they have no chance of winning the election. This is because the Republicans are going to vote for the Republicans and the Democrats are going to vote for the Democrats (this is not true for all elections but just an opinion).
Another reason why political parties are bad for US citizens is based of the ties the political parties develop before becoming in power. What I mean by this is political parties raise money for their candidates who are running for office. Although candidates need this money in order promote their campaign, the place they get this money is not always good for the people. For example, if tobacco industries give a candidate $200,000 to help win the election, that candidate may be less likely to make laws that will hurt the tobacco company and more likely to ignore US citizens' concerns.
Our country could be a much better place if our government would clean up its corrupt and unfair policies. At the moment our government is diminishing our potential to be successful. I hope some day these changes will be made.
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3 comments:
Jason,
Nice article, you bring up many valid points and concerns shared by many people. Your ideas for reforming the tax laws are great. Correct me if I'm wrong, but to me it seems as if you're saying that the rich pay more in percentage tax than the middle class and poor do right now. As far as I know, this is not true, in fact it is quite the opposite in many cases. (http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/money/tax/article1996735.ece)
An equal tax would definitely solve this problem, but wouldn't it make sense for those who have received more from their country, to give back more as well? Not all people have the same opportunities in life. Does Warren Buffet really work harder than a single mother with two jobs?
As far as political parties go, you are definitely correct. They have many detriments and further detract from the idea of pure democracy. The candidate with the most money will certainly have an advantage, and younger, better looking candidates are often more appealing to voters than older, and possibly more experienced candidates. You are entirely correct that voters often care too much about unimportant issues rather than what really matters, but what other alternatives do you suggest? You present us with a problem yet offer no solution. Even if political parties were eliminated, and it was really just candidates running for president... the ones with the most money would still hold an advantage, and people would still donate to them to gain favors when they're in office. What do you suggest we do instead?
Democracy is the worst form of government except for all those others that have been tried.
- Winston Churchill
Great first blog! Best of luck with the others.
-Stephan
Hi Jason,
This is a good article. I hadn't thought much about the value of a third party. You're right. It makes a person stop and think about why he or she is voting for this person rather than just voting for a party. It's unfortunate that third party candidates rarely get the attention of the masses.
Patrice
I'm glad my younger brother isn't as socialistic as his older brother is. You suggest a fixed tax rate using a percentage. The poor are barely taxed while the rich are taxed ~35% and complaining about it. In 1960, the tax on the rich was 91% but the ceo of ford motors felt it his civil duty to pay a high tax. Why do you think this change has occured? Is it a problem? Also, what about the average groundskeeper at RPI who works full time but is only paid enough to heat half of her house during the winter? Are you going to take 20% of her salary to build roads? She doesn't even have a car to use the roads!
I like what you say about boundaries. Political parties without boundaries are money. Some say Obama was boundaryless but has been sucked into the perpetual system of political parties? Can they be beat?
lemme know little bro
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