Our security has value

“For the most part,” in the United States, we live in security. We are secure from invasion. Secure from civil unrest. Secure from property seizure. We have systems in place to assist us in times of natural disaster and financial disaster. Fiduciary, physical and civil insurance infrastructures help protect our investments, our savings, our towns and cities. We have federal, state and local systems to protect us against fire and attack. We have transportation systems secured for safe travel and commerce.

Bottom line: we live in a pretty secure system, for which we are all grateful. If you own a car, rent a home, have a job and a kid or two — you should be thankful. And I bet you are.

But what if you own a building or ten of them? A couple of mansions, a yacht, a jet, a fleet of private vehicles. What if you have millions of dollars of investment in industry, technology, the trading markets? Are these not also protected by the country’s vast and comprehensive security system?

What if you are worth $500 million dollars. How much of that “worth” is actually tied up in the country’s protective infrastructure? Do you…

• Need consistent and uninterrupted electricity?
• Need pure water and a sewage system?
• Need roads, bridges, traffic signals, emergency services?
• Need airports, shipping ports?
• Need a continuously operating communication system?
• Need a fast and responsive medical system?
• Need an education system for yourself, your kids and your employees?
• Need a full featured legal system?

What if your entire wealth basis depended on every one of these — which it no doubt does? How much would you have to pay to build all of this yourself in order to be worth that $500M?

As the country’s workers, we pay income tax. We pay sales and property tax. And we ARE the protection system. We ARE the cops, the firemen, the insurance adjusters, the nurses and doctors, the teachers, the soldiers. We ARE the country’s security network. And because we ARE this system — you, the wealthy of the nation, of the world, you need to pay up!

What we need is a Secure Society Tax. You like living in a secure society? Well, that security comes at a cost. The more you own, the more you have, the more you gather — ALL OF THAT NEEDS PROTECTION!

You can’t just live here and benefit from all of these amazing security systems that are the United States of America without coming to the realization that if it were not for US, We the People, you would not be wealthy. So, pay up!

Secure Society Tax: 1% of net worth paid per year.

The wealthy are different

The rich don’t earn their income through work. They don’t get “paid”. Therefore they pay no payroll tax. And that’s what the Social Security tax is. Instead the wealthy earn their wealth through:

• Dividend income
• Bond income
• Rental income
• Venture debt income
• Private equity income
• Real estate income
• P2P (peer to peer) income
• CD interest income
• Capital gains

All of which are taxed differently (or not taxed at all if you can finagle it.)

So, altering the Social Security taxation model (to fund UBI) is going to miss one HELLUVA LOT OF WEALTH. However, it would still work without changing the taxation system, to some degree. And the corporate inequality tax would contribute substantially. But probably not enough. How do we squeeze these filthy rich people of the funds that they’ve earned as capitalists climbing their wealth ladder made possible by the labor and bodies of us, the workers?

Consumption tax? Not nearly enough. The rich don’t wear more socks, eat more food, drink more beer. And the expensive consuming they do do, maybe 2 to 10 times what the average spending you and I might provide, would contribute practically nothing in tax revenue for our SSI. Expensive cars, boats, homes, condos, planes? Eh, a drop in the bucket compared to what we need.

(We need to raise, oh let’s say $500billion per year to fund SSI. But that’s just an air-pulled number. I’ll sit down here soon and determine just what we would need to fund this program.)

Still the problem exists — the rich don’t pay their share of their wealth — wealth built from the hard work of EVERY AMERICAN throughout the decades.

As funding sources for SSI here’s what we have:

• Payroll taxes (SS and Medicare tax)
• Corporate inequality tax
• Paltry wealth-income taxes

What else could we tap?

• Stock Market trading transaction tax?
• Luxury consumption tax?
• Luxury property tax?
• Luxury travel tax?

The wealthy owe US, the People, for the opportunity to have acquired their wealth. They should pay for that privilege.