CONK!
I am team teaching The Economics of Healthcare and Wellness—Focus on Transformative Solutions that began on January 24th. All sessions are recorded for later viewing.
You can register by scrolling down to view the syllabus and course fee. The course is sponsored by IPAK-EDU, an online education organization with dozens of courses taught by experts in various scientific and other fields. Use coupon code JACKSAYS75 to get 25% off. Registration cutoff is February 15th.
After President Nixon imposed wage-price controls and severed the last link between the dollar and gold on August 15, 1971, I realized there was only party in DC, the Washington Party. Since then, reckless and unconstitutional government spending, skyrocketing national debt, the Federal Reserve’s manipulation of interest rates and continuous money printing, and endless wars, have been supported by both Democrats and Republicans. Thus, critics of big government have dubbed the politics of DC the uniparty.
In Friday’s Wall Street Journal opinion columnist Kimberley Strassel puts another nail in the coffin in our “two-party” system. As Ralph Nader once observed when asked about third parties, he remarked it would be refreshing if we had two parties in DC. Amen.
Strassel’s essay is an insightful dissection of the uniparty, but makes one egregious mistake, namely, when she writes, “The SALT (state and local taxes) deduction is a sop to high earners, and forces taxpayers in low-tax states to subsidize the soaring progressive tax rates of New York, New Jersey and California. Yet there is talk of a bill that would double the current $10,000 cap for married couples.”
This is incorrect. Deductions of all state and local taxes are not a “sop” to high earners in high tax states. Deductions allow the American people to keep more of their earned money. Opposing the deduction of all state and local taxes is a boon to the statists in DC.
Today is one of the most infamous days in American history, the certification of the Sixteenth Amendment, in 1913, giving the federal government the authority to impose an income tax.
The income tax makes the welfare-warfare state possible and is the “root of all evil.” Without an income tax, the federal government could not raise sufficient funds needed to redistribute income, keep troops around the world, and impose tens of thousands unnecessary regulations on businesses and individuals.
In short, if members of Congress do not call for the abolition of the income tax, they support unequivocally the welfare-warfare state. Replacing the income tax with the “fair tax” would not abolish the welfare-warfare state, To restore the republic the welfare-warfare state must be abolished, tooth and nail.
As Murray Rothbard observed in his September 4th 1971 New York Times op-ed linked above, fascism came to America more than 50 years ago. A case could be made fascism arrived in the USA with the Hoover-FDR New Deal.
As the Declaration of Independence asserts, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.
It is time to take sides: liberty or statism. I decided more than 50 years ago. Liberty is our God given right.
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“There is a right way and a wrong way, always choose the right way.” Abraham Sabrin (1914-2001) “Prediction is very difficult, especially if it’s about the future!” Niels Bohr
Every Wednesday at 11:05am talk show host Gary Nolan and I discuss the economy and politics. The Fort Myers Mises Circle presentations are available online.
Latest podcast on healthcare with host Johnathan Westover; Incentivizing wellness podcast with Bernadette Pajer; the Human Action podcast with Bob Murphy on my American journey; Joseph Cotto and I discuss Argentina and the US, and the Human podcast with Bob Murphy on healthcare; Robert Scott Bell and I discuss healthcare on the second hour of his podcast,
Murray Sabrin, PhD, is emeritus professor of finance, Ramapo College of New Jersey. Dr. Sabrin is considered a “public intellectual” for writing about the economy in scholarly and popular publications. His new book, The Finance of Health Care: Wellness and Innovative Approaches to Employee Medical Insurance (Business Expert Press, Oct. 24, 2022), and his other BEP publication, Navigating the Boom/Bust Cycle: An Entrepreneur’s Survival Guide (October 2021), provides decision makers with tools needed to help manage their businesses during the inexecrable business cycle. Sabrin’s autobiography, From Immigrant to Public Intellectual: An American Story, was published in November, 2022.
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