Uncomfortable Proportions and the passing of Milton Friedman

We've heard it all before, the infamous 'it only takes one person to change the world' schpeel. Though apparently knowing that isn’t enough because every sort of political talk I've gone to, one of the final question cards passed to the speaker concerns what the individual can do to aide in positive change. Without a doubt, 10 minutes of wasted time will be spent pacifying people into believing that by coming to the event they've already succeeded, oh and by staying educated. Puh-lease. Take a look at this guy:

At the respectful age of 94, Milton Friendman died this past Thursday. Friedman’s theories govern every aspect of our world today and leave no land untouched. More than the polite attention of his friends and family, Friedman had the influential ears of presidents and politicians alike. Pioneering globalization as we know it, Friedman advocated with divine rhetoric arguing for individual choice. These advocations diminished the role of the government as protector of the people, and alternatively placed it in the hands of individuals, or more telling, in the grips of transnational corporations. Where has this left us?

• The top one percent of Americans now make more money than the bottom 40 percent.


• Twenty percent of the population owns 84% of our private assets, leaving the other 80 percent of the population with 15.6 percent of the assets.


• The gulf between white and African-American incomes has hardly narrowed at all. In 1968 – the year of Martin Luther King's assassination -- blacks earned, on average, 55¢ for every $1 of white income. By 2001, they were getting 57¢—a gain of 2¢. At that pace, parity could be achieved in another 581 years


• Aside from being the richest most powerful country in the world, the US now ranks 30th behind the likes of Cuba and Chile in Life Expectancy

Friedman's arguments won, the government has stepped back as the provider of life's basic necessities. If globalization is to continue 'as is' we can only expect things to get worse. At the next progressive event you go to, please spare us all the dreaded question even though you run the risk of leaving without that warm fuzzy feeling in your stomach. Indeed perhaps it is those last 10 minutes of dialogue that will spark a massive global transformation.

The People vs. Dead Millionaires

Tomorrow at the booths in Washington State we'll be asked to vote on I-920, the repeal of the Estate Tax.

Technically speaking, the Estate Tax is a tax “on the transfer of an estate of a deceased person if the taxable value of the estate is at least 2 million dollars”. This initiative seeks to repeal this tax.

In other words the estate tax is a tax on dead millionaires. When a person dies and their estate is worth more than 2 million dollars, a tax is imposed before their heirs assume ownership (my apologies to Paris Hilton). Directly the Estate Tax has nothing to do with 99% of us in Washington, it is a tax on millionaires.

Indirectly, the impact of this tax is huge. Aside from this tax being, “an important component of a fair tax system”, if repealed “there would be billions in lost federal tax revenues”. In Washington for example, where K-12 class sizes are among the largest in the nation, a repeal of the estate tax would halt any effort to reduce class size by removing $100 million from public education.

How will all this lost money be made up? Can your paycheck foot the bill?

All in all: This is one of the fairest taxes out there; people with more wealth should pay more taxes. Done and done.

Should this measure be enacted into law?
Yes [ ] No [ X]