Vicious, Pointless Idiocentricity

I have often written about idiotic and wrong-headed politicians and those who join them and encourage them as unthinking fans. We saw a great many Americans arduously pursue and promote a socialist community rabble-rouser from the streets of Chicago who rose meteorically through the highly tainted Chicago and Illinois political scenes to become the most socialist U. S. Senator, in the belief that he was going to provide real change, presumably beneficial change. Now he is the President Elect and filling his appointments with Democratic hacks, just as anyone should have expected he would.

Yet, this man advocates labor union control of businesses, minimum wage laws, rent controls, government control of many industries, bankrupting coal companies and electric utilities, increased personal and investment and business taxes, forcing people to acquire medical insurance they do not need and want, public propaganda "education", and running the money printing presses to provide trillions of dollars to certain favored companies at the expense of the rest of us. This is a consistent picture of some combination of wrong-headedness, stupidity, and a fraudulent quest for ruthless power. Let us coin a new concept to cover all these bases, though with an emphasis upon cluelessness. Such a man is idiocentric, meaning that almost every evaluation he makes of a complex issue is wrong.

Steve Forbes, a very good commentator on things economic and business, points out in his Fact and Comment section of the 12 January 2009 issue of Forbes that the U.S. has the 2nd highest corporate income tax in the world. As I have pointed out before, it is essentially tied with Japan's corporate tax rate. Of course, the growth of the Japanese economy has long been very poor. Most other countries have realized that we live in a world economy and that capital and often human ability have the means to travel from country to country seeking the most favorable returns. As a result, most countries have very significantly reduced their corporate tax rates. Ireland has led the pack.

The U. S. federal corporate tax is 35% and local government taxes average about 5%. In Ireland, the corporate tax rate is 12.5%! Now, our idiocentric contingent immediately conclude that corporations in the U.S. will pay a much larger part of the GDP per year in taxes since their corporate tax rate is three times as high. Nonsense. Look at the facts! Oh, wait a minute, that is something the idiocentrics will never do. But let us do so and let us then hold their noises in the real horses manure of the real world. Of which there will be a lot more if they succeed in reducing energy use as much as they claim they wish to.

Corporate Taxes as a % of GDP

Year, U.S., Ireland

2003, 1.2%, 3.7%

2004, 1.6%, 3.6%

2005, 2.3%, 3.4%

2006, 2.7%, 3.8%

2007, 2.7%, 3.4%

So, the U. S. corporations pay substantially less corporate tax as a % of the GDP than do corporations in Ireland, despite a tax rate three times as high. How can this be so? Well, because the tax rate is so high, corporations lobby Congress very hard and very effectively for many special interest tax breaks. They then twist and convolute their operations to take advantage of those tax breaks. This involves a great effort on the part of management and it is time which is not going into improving products and services, into designing better manufacturing facilities, into training employees, and into acquiring investment capital. As a result, these companies grow more slowly and hire fewer people. In addition, they prefer to invest more of their capital in plants overseas where the taxes are lower and where labor unions are not so likely to horn in on the management of the company. This is where they will hire many people and spend money on training them in new skills. Then, insofar as they can, they shift as much of their profit as they can to these lower tax-rate out-of-country locations.

Meanwhile, in Ireland there are few or no tax breaks, but a very low corporate tax rate that applies to all income. There companies can concentrate on their own operations and on maximizing their profits with much, much greater freedom of choice and action. As a result, they make good profits and are not afraid to declare some profit. The tax payment is reasonable, so there is no need to pretzelize the company operations to fit an arbitrary and complex tax code. Businessmen are free to make better products, deliver better services, and hire more people.

This is not so complex. It is not quantum relativity. It is mostly commonsense. We pursue a corporate tax policy born not of a desire to produce the means to pay for necessary government services, but one born simply from a desire to hurt corporations. That this hurts all Americans, is not perceived. So, we are governed by the idiocentrics, chosen by an unthinking democratic horde, who allow the idiocentric politicians to define their "educations".

Actually, many of the idiocentrics who lead us are probably sufficiently cunning that they are aware of these smelly facts from the viewpoint of their socialist committment, but they do not care. It is the majority of our democratic mob who are the truly idiocentric, and these politicians pander to their ignorance. What they want is clear: It is power, absolutely corrupting power. In the interest of acquiring this power, they are whores for hire. No, that is not fair to whores, who are more honest and who do offer something of value to their customers. No, we cannot compare the politician's profession to any comparable other profession. They set all the standards for fraudulent behavior. They are chameleon masters posing as the idiocentrics most voters are content for them to be.

And, all too often, American voters set the standard for idiocentricity. Of course, they are hardly uniquely idiocentric in this world. They are the ones I have to put up with, however. Look what they have done to those of us who love our individuality and who truly value our right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.