Friday, October 19, 2012

WHY NOT REINSTATE PURE FEUDALISM AND CUT OUT THE MIDDLEMAN?

This is actually happening in Pennsylvania:
What if the state income tax clipped from your paycheck were delivered not to your elected government for roads and other basic services, but to your out-of-state employer, to keep?

A proposal to allow that -- for companies that plan to move to Pennsylvania to hire workers -- is advancing toward Gov. Corbett's signature.

The bill is sponsored by State Rep. Kerry Benninghoff (R., Centre).... [It] is cosponsored by seven Republicans from the Pennsylvania suburbs, among others.

But word on the House floor was that Benninghoff's bill was being drafted with an eye toward landing a specific project, a facility for Georgia's Oracal USA, which makes vinyl shrink-wraps for bus advertising, among other things....
The article makes this seem like just another sweetheart deal -- but to me it points in the direction we may be heading if Our Galtian Overlords have their way. What is this if not vassals handing part of what they earn over to the feudal lord, though with a middleman -- the government -- handling the transaction?

Oh, but it's worse. The lord in this case doesn't agree to defend the realm in which the vassals toil. That's still the job of the government -- to be accomplished, I guess, without any of this tax revenue.

Yeah, I know -- this involves just one company. But in the not-too-distant future, perhaps in the Paul Ryan/Rand Paul administration, maybe this will start to be the standard U.S. form of capitalism.

****

UPDATE: David Cay Johnston has more on this -- it's already happening in Illinois. (Hat tip: Ed Crotty in comments, who says bout the legislation, "I wonder if it was written by ALEC." Good question.)

8 comments:

  1. We already have it in Illinois - Motorola and Navistar were getting it. I wonder if it was written by ALEC.

    ReplyDelete
  2. http://blogs.reuters.com/david-cay-johnston/2011/07/19/paying-taxes-your-employer-keeps/

    ReplyDelete
  3. Thanks. See the update.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Only one thing will change the direction of this country - and I hate to say it, but it's blood. And even if it doesn't change the direction, it will still take oceans of blood - coming from citizens willing to fight for something so outrageous as this.

    Any politician who advocates for something so blatantly harmful to area or state where which they represent, needs to be elected out of office immediately - or, caught, drawn and quartered in a public square as a lesson to others.

    In a nation full of really fucking stupid ideas, THIS is the fucking stupidest.

    Can you imagine the reaction of post WWII Republicans, if you told them that this is what you wanted to do?

    ReplyDelete
  5. David Cay Johnston here:
    In my new book THE FINE PRINT you will read about numerous laws -- which the MSM never reported on -- that extend this technique to 19 states, as well as thwarting the competitive market, forcing you ti pay taxes to companies that by law are exempt and legal monopolies that earn 55% annual profits on their assets, eight times the national average.

    If you want to understand the reason you are not doing so well and those at the top are so fabulously rich get THE FINE PRINT. You can get it in hardback, ebook or audio.

    David Cay Johnston

    ReplyDelete
  6. COOL, STEVE!
    David Cay Johnston commented on your site!

    Sadly, Mr. Johnston, I'm unemployed and have been for years, and my mother and I live off her SS, so I can't afford what I'm sure is your terrific book.

    Best of luck with it!

    ReplyDelete
  7. We've been subjected to all sorts of complaints about the "culture of dependency" from the right, almost exclusively aimed at poor people and referring to government aid programs. But what about the culture of dependency taking hold in our largest corporations, like Walmart, Target, GE and other giants? These corporations have become dependent on tax breaks -- it is rare for a big store or factory to be sited without some kind of tax kickback from a state or local government. And many companies are also dependent on government programs that let them pay sub-living wages. Walmart employees, for example, often don't make a living wage, and so need to get SNAP benefits for food and perhaps Medicaid for medical treatment.

    ReplyDelete
  8. @ Victor, get a copy of THE FINE PRINT from your library.

    And, BTW, a 20th state is about to allow companies to keep the state income taxes withheld from worker paychecks.

    ReplyDelete