Subject: taxation Comment: Ladies & gentlemen, The limited information on your work I have makes me wonder if you are not really getting to the root of the problem. This may be due to the established parameters. The dislocation in income causes a tier system for our citizens much like was, and may still be, occurring in India. Our untouchables live under bridges and in subway tunnels. Why apply myself if I can still count my income on my fingers when the CEO of Oracle for example can't count to $3/4 billion a few years ago and I bet he hasn't taken much of a cut. Pres.Reagan meant well when he got rid of the tax system of the day. In fact before that, while in High School, I had independently advocated that the system was unfair and we should be able to take home what we earned. I still feel that way and have now learned that people don't earn millions, they steal it. Case in point: RFX as the latest example of the mindset of people. When we get used to something we accept it as good losing sight of the bigger picture. I don't think capitalism is any more immune to corruption than any other ism. And that is really what caused the failure of communism and socialism and I feel our system is not getting less corrupt. The longer a system is in place the better we get at working around it. I don't think its individuals as much as the sytem we have created for ourselves. I wonder if the tax system, (in general), pre-Reagan, albeit not perfect, may not be better suited to reestablish some semblance of balance. Do away with classes of income- it's all income- and tax anything over some figure, say a million, at 99.9%. This may not be so conducive to creating megalopolies but that may be an advantage. Conglomorates are separated into divisions and those divisions are then further divided into manageable entities. Our factories might get more efficient as we see the worker getting involved. I've seen too many honchoes collect a big check for doing things detrimental to the advancement of the enterprise. So the idea that a CEO or boss is solely responsible for $ billions in shareholder value is preposterous to me. Thank you for your patience, Bernie |