Some folks up here still seem to be baffled by the old cold-war definitions of communism and socialism.
How quaint.
Socialism is a simple concept: pay when you can, take out when you need.
Support all necessities — for example, libraries, schools (all levels and colleges, all subjects), hospitals, health care, infrastructure.
When everybody — including corporations — pays their taxes, rates are lower for everybody.
Capitalism is for luxuries.
If I want my smartphone, I pay for it. But I’ll cover your glasses — or national bandwidth — because both are necessary.
More money for your small business, such as Sasquatch cut-outs.
The state of Washington has a long list of deductions for companies not paying one tax or another.
Taxes work like jury duty: Those who show up end up shouldering the burden for those who don’t.
Those unable to fight for tax end up paying more and more — and more.
As a creative person, I’m allowed deductions — but I’d be happy to pay full taxes if they were lowered overall for everyone. Instead of 30 percent of my income, I could end up — for example — paying 5 percent.
Imagine if Boeing paid just 5 percent of its income to support necessities (and no long IRS forms for flat tax).
Because personal vehicles are becoming more fuel-efficient — buying fewer taxable gallons — the state of Washington is testing a capitalist-style method of distributing taxes based on mileage traveled.
We’d buy guessed blocks of miles or keep track of what we’re driving with smartphones or mileage meters (see AAA Journey, Washington, March 2017, “An Alternative to the Gas Tax”).
Donna Barr,
Clallam Bay