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Kevin's Thoughts!

Maybe you agree, maybe you don't… find out!

Over the past few decades, but especially the past few years, I’ve read a lot of books on why things are going downhill. Several of those are mentioned elsewhere in the book section of this Blog. However, only ONE man has offered a well thought out, if contrarian, solution to this problem: Wendel Berry.

If you only read one book from all of them listed on this blog, please beg, borrow, or buy and READ this one. I don’t normally post the full Amazon “Buy now” link, but for this book I think its worth it. The book is not expensive, and not the least bit laborious to read cover to cover.

Basically, Wendel details why we MUST return to sustainable small-scale farming and how that will  both invigorate the rural economy an led us back to locally produced food for our cities.  One example concept is “acres per eyes”: If a man is plowing a field of 10 acres with a small tractor and sees a 1/2 acre of ground that is too wet – ground which if plowed would be compacted and damaged – he will go around it and perhaps plow it when conditions are better. If a man is contracted to sit on a 250 HP tractor and plow a 1000 acres, he is never even going to see that 1/2 acre. Even if he did, he was hired to plow and plow he will.  That year, one small piece of ground is damage, year after year more and more ground is likewise damaged.

I’m not doing the book justice with that example. Please find a copy and read it for yourself. I simply can not recommend it highly enough.

Kevin

Flat Tax

Posted by Kevin on August 22, 2011
Posted in Economy BooksUS/World Politics  | Tagged With: | No Comments yet, please leave one

— Originally written on Jan 6, 2008, but I still feel this way! —

Hi… I’m a contributing Ron Paul supporter, and just wanted to express my wish that Ron, and the other candidates, would consider a Steve Forbes like Flat Tax as a transition tool to eliminating the Federal Income Tax.

As Steve points out in his book, eliminating the Federal Income Tax will require eliminating the constitutional amendment that authorizes it. An REAL Alternative Tax, call it a Flat Tax Option, would allow that process to be bypassed until it became a moot issue. Ron could actively use such a tool, perhaps setting it to Steve’s recommended 17%, and then policy-by-policy reduce it whenever the size of the government shrank. Imagine the positive support knocking a point or two off that rate every so often would bring! And the absolute joy when it reached ZERO.

Thanks for listening,

Kevin