Your apples are ripe. It is time to harvest them. What is the best way to harvest those apples . Do you pick them from the tree or do you chop down the tree . Apples are income. The trees are capital. The reason we want a socalled, consumptionbased tax because we dont want to mistreat capital. But to understand why it is so foolish, dont think about marxism, socialism, free market theories think about it this way, if you chop down the tree or more accurately what the current tax system does if you harvest apples by sawing off branches of the tree, what does that do for your longrun prosperity, your longrun income . You obviously will have fewer apples next year. It doesnt make sense to quadruple and triple tax capital. On this issue marxists and socialists are right they agree with sensible economist. You need capital for long run growth. We should have a tax system treats all income equally. No longer tax income saved and invested. You want neutrality in getting rid of all the loophol
Be militarily defeated without being treated in the homebase and so this fight eventually has to go over the iraqi border not odd. [inaudible] you dont really expect to defeat them . But there are ground forces. [inaudible] we have are the spoken about playing the role and im not suggesting that we have an optimally configured ground force in the region but im equally clear that injecting western boots on the ground would not be the solution. That would not deliver the solution. Try as they may leave lead us on to this. Thank you, mr. Chairman on this point. This analysis is being done with whatever you hope to achieve with airstrikes. And of course we are talking about this in recent years and so what are your plans for this situation . It also remains to be seen as far as a political transition in the regime to a government which has legitimately. [inaudible] at the outcome that we see is not going to be it easy to deliver and we recognize that. In the meantime it is easy to challeng
Prosperity. And you heard alvin just say over and over again, consumption based tax. My job on the panel is to try to explain why thats important. Its important because the current tax system treats income that you sai and invest much much worse than the income you can consume. Think about it in this very simple fashion. You make some money. You pay tax on that money. Whats left . Disposable income. Aftertax income. You have two choices of what to do tw the aftertax income. You can consume it right away, or you can consume it in the future. Whats consuming in the future . Its saving and investing. Now, lets think about how the federal tax system theets though two choices. If you consume your aftertax income right away, the federal government, by and large leaves you alone. Yeah we have a federal excise tax on gasoline. We have a federal excise tax on bows and arkansas rowrows, but theres really no federal tax on your income. What happens if you save and invest your income instead . Bet
In the 1940s and putting together the concept of income we now use today under the income tax they were neglecting the adverse effect on the labor force and it wasnt unknown. The godfather of the income tax henry simons and one of the two leading godfathers admitted that it would damage the economy and his current disciples dont want you to remember that or theyve forgotten it. Heres what simons said about Income Taxation. Income taxation is broadly an instrument of economic control. A means of mitigating economic inequality which well assume that moderation of inequality is an important objective of approximately see and perceived income tax is devices for effecting it. The case for drastic progression in taxation must be rested on the case of inequality on the ethical or aesthetic judgment that the prevailing distribution of wealth and income reveals a degree and or kind of inequality which is distinctly evil or unlovely. Not particularly scientific. In fact, it is reasonable to expe
Of 2013, but im back now. In corporate news, boeing completing what it calls an uneventful test, a flight of the 787 dream liner. And opposition is growing to dells big buyout, that 24 billion buyout and a Carnival Cruise ship is floating in the gulf of mexico after an engine fire. Plus, digging out, the northeast hit hard by a weekend blizzard. Hundreds of thousands are still without power. Airlines are trying to restore service. And news out of the vatican about the pope. If you havent seen it, well bring you that, as well. Its monday, february 11th, 2013. Squawk box begins right now. Good morning. Im Andrew Ross Sorkin along with joe kernen. Becky is off. Breaking news, the vatican has Just Announced the pope will be resigning on february 28th. The blizzard brought as much as three feet of snow to some areas in the northeast. Here is the Massachusetts Governor. Were, woulding hard to make sure that the t is fully functional by the morning commute. Utilities seem to be making progres