A random sampling of comments from the last few days:
"Obama complains of the price of arugula and Palin goes out and shoots her supper."
"Reporter: Mr. McCain, how do you respond to charges that Palin has no experience?
McCain: If Obama had as much experience as Ms. Palin, he'd be ready for the VP slot, too."
"Team Obama fights back with a new campaign pitch: 'Inexperience belongs at the TOP of the ticket!'"
From a commenter (PatMac) on Hot Air: “ Now this would make a great ad - McCain looking into the camera and talking about people criticizing Palin for her lack of experience. McCain could then do a quick synopsis of her experience (Mayor, governor, business owner, reformer, etc.) and then admit the only thing lacking is community organizer.”
"Perhaps, as John McCain pondered his vice-presidential selection, he recalled the advice of Margaret Thatcher: 'In politics if you want anything said, ask a man. If you want anything done, ask a woman.'”
From Jim Treacher: "The biggest difference, as I see it, between Sarah Palin and Barack Obama is that 'one of them is little more than an elegant, attractive, dare I say sexy piece of eye candy. The other one kills her own food.'”
And from blogger Mark Swanson: “I think we can all agree that Palin's pick of an experienced statesman like John McCain to head her ticket shows that she is much better prepared to be VP than Biden who is trying to thrust an unqualified youngster who was a do-nothing state legislator before being elected to the Senate where he put in a few months of attendance before going AWOL to run for president.”
Monday, September 01, 2008
WHY NOT SARAH PALIN FOR VEEP?
All on the Left, and some few on the Right, are a-twitter about Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin’s lack of foreign policy experience, being only a “single heartbeat” away from the presidency. I’m of a different mind.
I live just outside the Washington DC beltway, and work inside the beltway. Foreign policy experts are a dime a dozen here; foreign policy experts with diametrically opposed opinions are two for a quarter on any street corner.
When I go to the polls to vote, I look for three things: conviction, courage, and common sense.
Conviction – a coherent moral and ethical philosophy that captures his or her world view.
Courage – the ability to stand up and speak out for his or her convictions.
Common sense – the ability to weigh competing opinions enroute to a decision; more succintly, a finely-tuned BS detector.
From what I’ve read so far, Gov. Palin has all three.
Experience is vastly overrated. As I see it, three or four years of increasingly responsible experience is a bit more valuable that one year of experience repeated 20 times.
I live just outside the Washington DC beltway, and work inside the beltway. Foreign policy experts are a dime a dozen here; foreign policy experts with diametrically opposed opinions are two for a quarter on any street corner.
When I go to the polls to vote, I look for three things: conviction, courage, and common sense.
Conviction – a coherent moral and ethical philosophy that captures his or her world view.
Courage – the ability to stand up and speak out for his or her convictions.
Common sense – the ability to weigh competing opinions enroute to a decision; more succintly, a finely-tuned BS detector.
From what I’ve read so far, Gov. Palin has all three.
Experience is vastly overrated. As I see it, three or four years of increasingly responsible experience is a bit more valuable that one year of experience repeated 20 times.
FAIR TAX/EMBEDDED TAX/VALUE-ADDED TAX
After reading both the Fair Tax books, I’ve never quite understood how the “embedded taxes” in the purchase price of an item would be replaced by the Fair Tax.
Now, I don’t dispute that there are embedded taxes in every purchase I make. Anyone with even a modest amount of common sense understands that all taxes - corporate income taxes, capital gains taxes, employer social security taxes, and so on - are eventually paid by the consumer.
But to suggest that these embedded taxes will magically go away with the Fair Tax is disingenuous at best. They will be reduced, to be sure, but go away? Nonsense.
A small example is in order. Consider a consultant, an occupation for which I have some small ambition post-retirement. As a consultant, I charge my customer a fee, say $100/hour, which includes the 23% Fair Tax. Thus I take home for my labor and expertise $77, right?
Not so. For I have to reduce my income by my overhead expenses, the cost of electricity, the cost of the computer, pencils, paper, internet access, etc., ad nauseum, all of which I’ve had to pay the Fair Tax on. Those costs are embedded in the fee I charge my customers.
Large businesses and other commercial entities that buy in bulk might not pay the Fair Tax on these business-related purchases, knowing that the tax will be collected on the final product offered for sale, but for a small business/independent contractor who buys in small quantities from the local office supply store, I doubt that such a distinction is possible.
So some level of embedded tax is inevitable.
[UPDATE 9/6/08] The Nightfly (comment below) notes that “since the fair tax only applies to retail commerce, you won't owe tax on the contract work you do for other businesses.” I agree: intermittent work such as I contemplated in the post would probably be considered temporary employment not subject to the Fair Tax.
He continues: “Whether or not you choose to pay sales taxes on your business supplies, if the difference has no bearing on your fee, then it will be an expense to your customers regardless of whether that part of your fee technically falls into the category of embedded tax or not.” And that was my essential point – that the sales tax I paid is ultimately passed to the consumer, irrespective of whether it’s technically considered an expense or an embedded tax.
This is a minor bump in the road to a Fair Tax. Most embedded taxes will in fact disappear, but it’s foolish to believe that all will.
Now, I don’t dispute that there are embedded taxes in every purchase I make. Anyone with even a modest amount of common sense understands that all taxes - corporate income taxes, capital gains taxes, employer social security taxes, and so on - are eventually paid by the consumer.
But to suggest that these embedded taxes will magically go away with the Fair Tax is disingenuous at best. They will be reduced, to be sure, but go away? Nonsense.
A small example is in order. Consider a consultant, an occupation for which I have some small ambition post-retirement. As a consultant, I charge my customer a fee, say $100/hour, which includes the 23% Fair Tax. Thus I take home for my labor and expertise $77, right?
Not so. For I have to reduce my income by my overhead expenses, the cost of electricity, the cost of the computer, pencils, paper, internet access, etc., ad nauseum, all of which I’ve had to pay the Fair Tax on. Those costs are embedded in the fee I charge my customers.
Large businesses and other commercial entities that buy in bulk might not pay the Fair Tax on these business-related purchases, knowing that the tax will be collected on the final product offered for sale, but for a small business/independent contractor who buys in small quantities from the local office supply store, I doubt that such a distinction is possible.
So some level of embedded tax is inevitable.
[UPDATE 9/6/08] The Nightfly (comment below) notes that “since the fair tax only applies to retail commerce, you won't owe tax on the contract work you do for other businesses.” I agree: intermittent work such as I contemplated in the post would probably be considered temporary employment not subject to the Fair Tax.
He continues: “Whether or not you choose to pay sales taxes on your business supplies, if the difference has no bearing on your fee, then it will be an expense to your customers regardless of whether that part of your fee technically falls into the category of embedded tax or not.” And that was my essential point – that the sales tax I paid is ultimately passed to the consumer, irrespective of whether it’s technically considered an expense or an embedded tax.
This is a minor bump in the road to a Fair Tax. Most embedded taxes will in fact disappear, but it’s foolish to believe that all will.
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