Article: How to end the war on Iraq: Tax land instead of income!

My friend Alanna just sent me an interesting idea. "America needs to stop paying INCOME tax," she said. "We need to shift our source of taxes to a land-value taxation base instead. This will generate federal income while at the same time promoting a more economical use of our land." Wow! What a great idea.

Let's say that we instigated this policy. What would happen? Major landowners in the United States would immediately start thinking twice about having to pay taxes on their property if they knew that THEIR tax money was being carelessly thrown into that bottomless pit that the Bush bureaucracy erroneously calls the war on Iraq. Plus, if America's fat cats suddenly were forced to start paying the tab for lining the pockets of "Friends of George Bush" instead of just letting us poor working schmucks foot the bill, all the cream and pork and fat in the defense budget would get immediately cut.

I can hear Donald Trump now. "You want me to give you a bunch of MY money so that the Pentagon can build yet another one of those useless billion-dollar Stealth bombers that don't even work? No way! You're fired."

Or what about Warren Buffet? "You want me to pay for that outdated missile system that the DoD keeps trying to foist off on us as something brand new yet after all these years still can't even hit the broad side of a barn? Me? I don't think so." Would Buffet put any stock in that dumb idea? Nope.

Even Fox-TV mogul Rupert Murdoch, the scalawag who talked America into the Iraq quagmire in the first place, ain't gonna put his money where his mouth is. "Why should I pay my hard-earned money to pour billions into the Bush-Cheney-Halliburton Swiss bank account? I got a wife to support! Forget it."

As for Bob Hope, the man who used to own the most real estate in California before he died, I'm sure that he would come all the way back from the grave at the thought of it. "Giving INCOME tax money to the Pentagon to spend on $800 toilet seat covers is okay with me. But to give LAND taxes to them? You MUST be joking."

Or what about all those large corporations who pay no income taxes in America but own tons of land here. Let THEM pay for the war on Iraq. "You can't do that! I only stash my income in the Cayman islands -- NOT my land." Can you imagine them trying to hide all their land holdings on some Caribbean island not even as large as Manhattan? No, they would start economizing on war toys instead.

Let's switch our tax base away from our puny little incomes. On our pitiful salaries, there's no WAY we could ever pay off the trillions of dollars worth of debts GWB's cronies are cranking up. Maybe Congressional salaries might put a dent in these debts but our salaries definitely will not.

If we pay taxes based on how much land we own instead of on how much money we make, then EVERYONE in America will have to pay taxes and shoulder the burden of the Bush bureaucracy's war mania and credit card addictions -- not just the middle class.