Comment: Panel: If we want any vestage of an ongoing, vibrant and competitive economy we have to stop taxing income, savings and investment incentives (both business and individual) and put the tax burden squarely on consumption (a resource user tax if you will). We must minimize government tinkering, meddling, playing political favorites, etc., and let the market honestly, fairly and economically direct and reward all valid productive factors and discourage over use, waste, fraud, avoidance, unnecessary/unfair special interest practices and/or just plain damned foolishness. In the long run you cannot have a strong, healthy, world-class competitive economy (to say nothing of diplomatic influence or military power) without a sound world-market orientated industrial base as opposed to only sectors related to housing or medical services, for instance (or entertainment, or gambling, or vidio games, or...). Nor will intellectual propery rights (scientific or otherwise, especially where the citizenry has slowly but surely devalued core education pursuits) or a financial base only (in an education system that teaches almost nothing about business, economics and finance) in the long run sustain a non-industrial economy. And fairness? Where to start. Let's just say there is often as much animosity in how tax funds are spent as in how they are collected (not your mandate, I know, but keep it in mind anyway). In short, please, please, please be guided by sanity, intelligence, trust and fairness - in the long run that is really all that counts in business, economics, finance, or any other of life's endeavors. |