Thursday, November 8, 2012

Teaching economic freedom to my posterity


I have never explained anything political to my 1st grade son. However, I've recently noticed that he is quick to exclaim "Dad! There's Obama" anytime he shows up on the news.  At dinner last night I heard a child that looked to be his age at the next table loudly proclaim, "Oh, I voted for Barack Obama!" It's very apparent that my son is learning something about this subject at school, the problem is, I'm not sure it's a lesson I approve of.

He's like his Daddy, and pretty quick with the math, so I guess it's time for a lesson on economics.  So here's my plan.

He has a list of tasks to do, and he gets a "bonus" for his report card.  His payment isn't flat, he actually gets paid for individual activities, so if he accomplishes more, he gets a larger "paycheck". I want him to learn the value of not just "hard work", but more importantly the value of accomplishing something.  

"The Obama Plan"


For his next paycheck, I'm planning on implementing a progressive tax system. I want to make it so, with a decent amount of effort, he can and exceed the highest tax bracket in a pay period.  I'll make the tax reflect a simple version of the system set to take effect in Jan so that he'll pay 39.6% tax in the highest tax bracket.  I will keep things simple, and label this the "Obama Plan".  I want him to put consequences on the face he sees. I want him to understand that the picture they'll showing at his school and clapping about does things to HIM personally.

To keep the numbers simple, and not need to change his current pay scale I'm going to make the brackets like so.

$0-$3 - no taxes
$3-$7 - 10%
$7-$10 - 30%
$10 an up - 40%

This means that if he makes $7 (a pretty normal week), he'll "take home" $4.90. If he makes $10 (he worked extra hard), he'll take home $6, an impressive $1.10 for the extra 5 or 6 tasks he had to do to "earn" the additional $3. He's a pretty bright kid mathematically, and I'd be willing to bet that he'll quickly learn that working for that extra $3 doesn't have the return that working for the original $3 does.

Every payday, before he gets his money, I'll tax his earnings, and I will explain how the politicians decide to do this.  I'll also run through the same gross pay under the other plan I discuss below.

"The Other Plan"


After a few pay periods of the progressive tax system, I'll implement Hermain Cains 9/9/9 plan with him. This is quite a bit simpler, and since I'll have already explained it while he was under the progressive system, he'll probably understand it before he gets to it. I'll tax him 9% at payday, and 9% when he spends it.  This means that he'll get $8.20 of buying power for that $10 he earns on a good week. I'm not yet sure what to label this plan since the Republican party never embraced this plan, only a lower version of the current progressive tax plan, so I'm open to suggestions.

After he's gotten both tax plans, I'm going to ask him which one he prefers. I guess I could really drive the issue home by giving all his tax money the neighborhood kids and let them vote too. However, I can't bring myself to be as oppressive to my son as what we currently live under. I'm also afraid he's smart enough to go galt on me if that happend.

This is gunna kill me, because I'm so proud of the way he runs upstairs to do "chores" and looks forward to "payday". But being a good parent is more than hugs and kisses, it's about teaching life lessons. It'll be a cold day in hell when I let the public school system teach my son their perverted version of morality.


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