taxes
when someone calls me stupid it usually makes me think. (eventually!) this time i started thinking about how to tax folks fairly. on one hand i'd like to get rid of sales taxes. these put an undue burden on low incomes. i'd tax anything people do that's bad for society. go ahead and pollute. just pay the pollution tax. go ahead smoke, do drugs. just pay the taxes. conversely i'd impose anti-taxes for things i want people to do. like develop green energy and donate to charities. i'd also like to get rid of income taxes (both individual and corporate) because they are an approximation of the fair thing to tax: stuff. pay taxes on how much stuff you have. the incomes of rich people are way under-proportioned compared to the billions of dollars of assets they control. in this sense rich folks are way under-taxed. income taxes also create a barrer to entry. a new company could make lots of money off its innovative products if only it could afford to compete with the deep pockets of an established less profitable company. similarly, individuals could move upwards faster if they didn't pay taxes on their high incomes until they used those incomes to acquire stuff.