Corporate Welfare is already well in excess of $250 B. per year. This was one of the more interesting themes to come out of the Forbes campaign... and a few others.
Why is it necessary for US consumers to pay 5 times the world price for sugar to benefit a few dozen multi-millionaire farmers? Or subsidize the production of mohair?
Why do the taxpayers pay Boeing and McDonalds to advertise overseas? If it were in their own best interests, wouldn't they do it anyway?
Eliminate ALL the tax loopholes and special preference items (except a reasonable home mortgage deduction, and charity deduction... and I'm willing to be convinced on R & D deductions), and then slash all tax rates to make sure the changes are revenue neutral, not accretive.
The EXCESS (comprised of the immense compliance & paperwork costs which all citizens and corporations currently are forced to bear) is returned directly to the economy....
The other great benefit of such a change, is that it gets the US government out of the "industrial policy" business. By putting corporations on an even playing field... not a tilted, preferential one shaped mostly by decades of campaign contributions... we allow the best economic ideas to flourish.
This (remember Adam Smith's 'Invisible Hand'? A highest, best use for every input?) naturally produces a stronger, smoother functioning economy, with a higher natural rate of productivity.
We all get richer (well, maybe not the US mohair producers), and in a fairer system that strengthens our democracy, too. |
