Dear America,

The integrity of anything gets lost with manipulation.

take for instance Air Traffic Controllers: they don't need to reinvent their collective benefits package for time on the job, encouraging nap breaks within the shift to better equip the overall function of the team -- they simply need to stop manipulating the system.  The system works just fine when left alone and kept to the integrity of the original schedule. The issue of not being able to      keep      my      eyes      open      one   more  minute  comes only after covert operations have taken hold, as a means for some serious self-adjustment, every which way but loose...after switching shifts with somebody for the wife's birthday...after juggling a Thursday for a Friday to fit in a weekend getaway...after staying up too late the night before leaving wudda, shudda, cudda stranded on the tarmack...

this practice has slipped under the radar for years; setting up the very conditions for failure was only a matter of time.

take for instance NEWS:  mainstream media can tell the news without bias, and it would go something like this..."today, the House of Representatives will take up the vote for the Debt Limit Increase.  Welcoming all points of interest and views, we have two congressmen with us today, highlighting two ideologies of the same argument, to mark this historic occasion...Good honest debate is something we cherish here in America...and we look forward to hearing your views..."  You know, the same way someone like Shepard Smith might do it at noon and four o'clock each day...simply telling the news..."you decide."

no hidden agenda, no pointed questions belittling the conservative stance, no gotcha moments or extra smirks thrown in with a penchant for gaining a rise; just news, just views, in equal proportion, balancing the whole story without so much as a hint to which side of the argument the journalist sits.  oh what a beautiful world it would be.

take for instance Relationships:  the best relationship is one that allows the other person to be who they are without re-doing them along the way...being true to the laws of attraction and compatibility that brought the two of you together in the first place.  You know how it's done, ladies and gentlemen, simply by acquiring the skills (over time, of course...not right away) of re-dressing them, tweaking with their god-given set of social skills, if not making serious alterations -- extinguishing some, while bloating others -- pertaining to the original bevy of hobbies/friends/bad habits/favorite foods/religion/ugly chair and trophies/hair...boobs...you get the idea, simple manipulation without representation.

...a hidden agenda with the news has got nothing on keeping a hidden agenda for the one we love, now does it?  Suffice it to say, over that same period of time, the very integrity of the relationship itself gets pushed and pulled and twisted so much, the original thing of beauty is unrecognizable; the meeting of two entities coming together to make a complete set, becomes muddled with resentment, molded out of shape with petty adjustments, and fully unappreciated for what it once was.  Many, then, end up looking at each other with loathing and regret, instead of unconditional love and walk away.

and LAST one, 

TAXES 

so the fair tax idea is picking up some steam. Typical, really.  Every time we get around the tax season -- the emasculation of the IRS, the leveraging of tax codes and loopholes, the top 1% paying for nearly 40% of the federal taxes combined with the bottom 50% paying less than three -- all of it comes up for re-election.  However, somehow, this time, I think things are different.

Returning to the loss of integrity by manipulation, the integrity of the tax system is clearly broken.  We have manipulated every which way to sunday, and have only arrived at a point where some believe only more manipulation will fix it.   wrong again.

First, a tax system based on earnings is totally absurd; honestly, how did this ever happen?  Sure, at first glance, it might seem logical.  Make money, give government this much.  okay...but then we make this huge leap to ... you make more money, you give government even more money (with all benefits flying right out the door).

For America -- as the quintessential purveyor of all things self-reliant, with our first intent just beaming with freedom and liberty from sea to shining sea, safe keeping the free market, free enterprise and the prospect of creating avenues for prosperity in every way -- you would think we would be different.  For America -- being the original mad men of advertising, innovation, investment, and manufacturing -- you would think our system of taxation would support nurturing, expanding and instrumentally shoring up more money, more freedom, and more opportunity with a whole lot less of stifling, coercive, penalizing manipulation, only creating more ways to buck the system, if not lead to fraud, waste and total abuse.

You would think, with this kind of breach of integrity, that it would never happen in America.

Changing our tax system now might just be the best thing we could ever do -- maybe even outshining the Debt Limit conundrum.  For how can we subject our future to a system of taxation which clearly discourages real wealth?  Our nation's debt and deficits is what happens when we grow government.  All the while, who gets less power?  We, the people.  (As we make a quick fly over with the birth of the Tea Party.)

But think about it.  A tax code that basically deflates consumption, stifles saving, jeopardizes the family estate and penalizes the family business generation after generation -- only allows the rich to get richer, cutting off every opportunity for real growth and prosperity for every day people. This kind of tax code no longer encourages years of higher education for higher wages.  This kind of tax code no longer elevates the entrepreneur who painstakingly leverages the risk and investment before bringing the next big thing to market.  And yet it is this kind of manipulation we seem to be perfectly okay with, and deem totally acceptable by today's standards, for richer, for poorer.

What we need is a system based upon consumption.  This, in actuality, would be the fairest tax around...similar to the shopkeepers warning, "you break it, you buy it" -- the fair tax, based only on consumption, takes this motto one step further, enforcing "[when you] buy it, tax it, and that's it."  And the circle is complete.  No IRS agents up the yahoo; No FORMS, lengthy instruction and preparation; No more politics, using other people's money as the pawn star.

A tax system based on consumption rewards earnings (and the more the better, as the more you can spend). It strengthens the will for risk and investment and committing more years to higher education. It encourages savings and retirement and estate planning. It validates the principle from which this country was made, and accelerates the trajectory for amassing real wealth, triumphantly rewarding every step of the way.

The moment we entered the field of manipulation -- increasing regulations to the extent of discouraging honesty... rewarding bad behavior, outsourcing, and sending american money offshore...using even personal relationships, whether married or not, as a government tactic to have and to hold...and basically promoting all things relating to federal bondage, restriction, and over regulation -- is the day we lost this argument, stifling all future earnings potential.

The thing is, this kind of integrity breach hits the cornerstone upon America's foundation.  Sure, we might survive an air traffic controller dozing off from time to time (as stupid as that sounds); we may even be able to leap tall buildings on a single bound and pick the real news apart from the unconscionable journalistic bias thrown in on a  whim; and yes, some relationships may even outlive the natural erosion over time, carving out new territories, charting out new rules for engagement, totally unaware of the tweaks and bruising hidden deep below the surface -- for some people, it works.

However, when it comes to the loss of integrity by manipulation, the worst of these just may be TAXES -- if there is ever a system bound to deflate potential for higher earnings and accumulating real wealth, this is it.

Now, a taxation system revolving around the one who consumes, that is fair; that kind of system, is fair and balanced in every way, leaving no room for a politician to use and abuse it's fair citizens to grow government.

You consume, you get a tax -- you eat, get a tax -- you drive, get a tax;  you go shopping, tax, you eat some more, tax some more, you go on vacations, tax, you eat a lot more, tax,you buy TJMaxx or Prada, tax tax, you chew gum, tax, you get boobs, tax, you take a year off to travel, tax, you eat, and eat, and eat, tax, tax, tax and pray (NO TAX!), and love (NO TAX!), you get a new car, tax, you buy books, tax, I pods, tax, new glasses, tax, you eat, you get a dog, buy a bird, send the kids to camp, and eat again, buy a cocktail, a pack of cigarettes, a brand new pair of jeans, a wrench, a two-by-four, cement or crown molding, and then, what do we do, we eat some more, from ice cream to Ruth Chris, from school lunch to a coke -- tax tax tax tax tax tax.

IF WE CONSUME ANYTHING we would then be subject to pay a fair tax,  fair and square.  the rich, who spend a lot, get taxed a lot... the middle class, the poor, get taxed in direct proportion and relation to what they can spend... how fair is that?  

What we should be asking ourselves --after we settle this debate to fair tax, or not to fair tax, and then assuming we all want a fair tax -- is let the government know exactly how much they can spend.  What's all this business of us waiting for them to come up with a budget; we tell THEM how much they can spend, not the other way around.   Picture a parent simply handing out the allowance.

Whether rich or poor, this is our hard earned money they are frittering away.

Our president just recently reminded us that we must live within our means.  This is funny coming from a guy who is CEO and CFO of a conglomerate averaging short falls of a trillion dollars or more, while breaching every vein of integrity possible; it is also funny, coming from the one entity which doesn't save or create anything -- and it never will.  It's only "means" is using "other people's means."  We can do better than that.  I mean, come on, a fifth grader could do better than that.


Given we are on borrowed time, please go to fairtax.org and lend them your support today. A system of taxation built upon the loss of integrity by manipulation is one that can cease to exist; it's pure value has been diluted, it's fairness long deteriorated. Plain and simple, government erosion has set in, no need to even be concerned about some fictitious cliff. 

Make it a Good Day, G