I wish the government would get out of the “social engineering” business. Simply stated, I would recommend we simplify the tax code (if we cannot repeal the income tax by amending the Constitution to repeal the Sixteenth Amendment to the Constitution). The simplification would be simple:
1. All income will be taxable at 15 percent regardless of source.
2. There will be no exemptions of any kind.
This idea that we need to encourage people to own their own home is what caused the housing meltdown. If people want to own their own home, they will save for the down payment.
We also need to get the 47 percent to 53 percent of people who do not pay income taxes to stop demanding that other people pay high income taxes to make up the difference. If everyone had 15 percent taken off the top, you would not have a constituency that sings “More! More! More!”
I would also suggest we lower the social security taxes from 7.85% on employers and 7.85% on individuals (15.70% overall) to 0.00% for employers and 10.00% on all individuals. This will make individuals more aware of what THEY are paying into social security so they will have a vested interest in stopping the social security scams perpetrated by members of Congress to give people “MORE! MORE! MORE!” just because they want to curry favor with those at or near retirement age.
To understand how any organization, be it a company, country or people, will function look for how they are incentivised. That is all you need to know. Principles and right or wrong will ultimately have nothing to do with the ultimate outcome when the incentive is high enough. Almost everyone has a price to give up their principles. The price for some is nothing and for most it is very low.
The unprincipled will subscribe to being kept and taking all the want from those who work.
When there is no personal consequence to failure greed will rule the thinking.