The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

F(orget) The Dumb S(tuff)

Posted on | March 6, 2010 | 6 Comments

by Smitty

Via Instapundit, there is yet more talk of wrenching on the tax code. FTDS, as we used to say in my early days in the Navy.

Maybe Paul Krugman or some other Eclownomist can explain how the country is helped by

  • Having one pack of fools write an unintelligible tax code,
  • Necessitating the government to hire a phalanx of bureaucrats to implement that code, in turn
  • Generating wholly specious jobs in the private sector trying to make heads or tails of the resulting mess.

FTDS.
This is the Information Age, Americans!
Anyone with shred #1 of experience in information systems knows that complexity is Not Your Friend.
Not only do we need to take a machete to the kudzu-like tax code, we need to inject something sufficiently toxic into the root that it cannot return. Let us make repealing the 16th Amendment a serious priority, people!
In the Perfect Smith Future, we have a Federal budget that is reasonably transparent, and all of the tax code, like chess pieces, sits in plain sight. The country was founded, inter alia on the idea of ‘No taxation without representation’.
FTDS: let’s have ‘No taxation without simple, complete explanation’. There is no technical reason why we cannot hold our elected leaders accountable to the people for making the source code for all tax calculations available in a read-only way.
What we have to do is grow past the passive acceptance of whatever tyranny those who bethink themselves our betters would impose.
A photo I’d seen before but which was at Big Journalism today captures the point exquisitely:

The donkey is the engine of the economy, and the government is the cart. The government cannot drive the system. All progress is due to the donkey. More tax code in particular, and government load in general, does not improve the system.

Category: Economics

Comments

6 Responses to “F(orget) The Dumb S(tuff)”

  1. rod stanton
    March 7th, 2010 @ 1:44 am

    Americas tax code has got Progressively (get the pun) for the last 22 years. Why should The One be any different than the Bush(es) or Clinton?

    This is reason 999 why America needs (urgently) a third party.
    An old exJarhead
    Cerritos, Cal

  2. rod stanton
    March 6th, 2010 @ 8:44 pm

    Americas tax code has got Progressively (get the pun) for the last 22 years. Why should The One be any different than the Bush(es) or Clinton?

    This is reason 999 why America needs (urgently) a third party.
    An old exJarhead
    Cerritos, Cal

  3. Jeff Weimer
    March 7th, 2010 @ 2:18 am

    FTDS, that’s AEF talk. You could have been a member of TURDS (Technicians Undergoing Really Dumb Shtuff).

  4. Jeff Weimer
    March 6th, 2010 @ 9:18 pm

    FTDS, that’s AEF talk. You could have been a member of TURDS (Technicians Undergoing Really Dumb Shtuff).

  5. Finrod
    March 7th, 2010 @ 7:24 am

    Heh, the title of this post reminds me of a recent song by The Offspring; the title of the song is “Stuff Is Messed Up”, but the lyric in the chorus is, shall we say, just a *wee* bit more explicit (google ‘the offspring stuff is messed up lyrics’ to get a link to hear it):

    Now, I don’t know and it’s hard to explain, but it seems like things are just kind of insane because the world is crying but nobody’s listening so please leave a message on my cell phone

    I see bullets getting better Biblical weather
    And the guy on T.V. is like a total asshole
    Who are you wearing tonight?
    Celebrity fundraiser tight Blackties making wrongs right How’s your social bandaid?

    I don’t know much
    I don’t know too much
    But I know this
    Shit is fucked up
    La, La, La La, La
    I guess it’s all about the dream
    La, La, La La, La
    The ends justify the means
    La, La, La La, La La La
    I’m telling you
    Shit is fucked up

    La, La, La La, La
    You know it’s all about the dream
    La, La, La La, La
    The ends justify the means
    La, La, La La, La La La

    Now thank God for the media
    For saving the day
    Putting it all into perspective in a responsible way
    With more celebrity news Typical bullshit views
    I think we’re losing this fight sponsored by Bud Light

    Now we’re rockin’ the casbah
    And taking the flack
    The genie’s out of the bottle
    And we can’t put him back (put him back)
    All this stuff
    It’s overwhelming my brain
    Can’t you see the storm coming
    It’s coming this way

    That’s plenty enough of it to get the idea– gotta admit, I’m a sucker for songs dripping in sarcasm.

  6. Finrod
    March 7th, 2010 @ 2:24 am

    Heh, the title of this post reminds me of a recent song by The Offspring; the title of the song is “Stuff Is Messed Up”, but the lyric in the chorus is, shall we say, just a *wee* bit more explicit (google ‘the offspring stuff is messed up lyrics’ to get a link to hear it):

    Now, I don’t know and it’s hard to explain, but it seems like things are just kind of insane because the world is crying but nobody’s listening so please leave a message on my cell phone

    I see bullets getting better Biblical weather
    And the guy on T.V. is like a total asshole
    Who are you wearing tonight?
    Celebrity fundraiser tight Blackties making wrongs right How’s your social bandaid?

    I don’t know much
    I don’t know too much
    But I know this
    Shit is fucked up
    La, La, La La, La
    I guess it’s all about the dream
    La, La, La La, La
    The ends justify the means
    La, La, La La, La La La
    I’m telling you
    Shit is fucked up

    La, La, La La, La
    You know it’s all about the dream
    La, La, La La, La
    The ends justify the means
    La, La, La La, La La La

    Now thank God for the media
    For saving the day
    Putting it all into perspective in a responsible way
    With more celebrity news Typical bullshit views
    I think we’re losing this fight sponsored by Bud Light

    Now we’re rockin’ the casbah
    And taking the flack
    The genie’s out of the bottle
    And we can’t put him back (put him back)
    All this stuff
    It’s overwhelming my brain
    Can’t you see the storm coming
    It’s coming this way

    That’s plenty enough of it to get the idea– gotta admit, I’m a sucker for songs dripping in sarcasm.