Before I could answer, he launched into a long anecdote, defending the trickle down theory.
I’ve been pondering Richard’s “show me the money” request, and I’ve compiled an answer that doesn’t simply “tax the rich.”
Here’s my solution:
Free college education can be attained for the 20 million students in the USA if we enact three reforms:
1. Nationalize Energy Estimated revenue $5,000 per student
2. Tax the Churches Estimated revenue $3,550 per student
3. Close Offshore Tax Evasion Estimated revenue $7,500 per student
Total gained is $16,050 per student, if today’s 20 million student total remains the same.
Plenty of money for tuition, books, lodging, food, modafinil…
Ridiculous, you think? Impossible?
It’s not. College is already free in Germany, plus Finland, Norway, Denmark, Iceland and Sweden. Nearly-free are France, Brazil, and Slovenia; they only charge minor registration fees.
Want English? Labour party leader and hopeful Prime Minister - Jeremy Corbyn - wants UK universities to be free, via money raised by nationalizing energy and the rail system.
Nationalizing resources is globally common-place. In our own hemisphere, Mexico expropriated its oil in 1938; this example has been followed wholly or in part by Ecuador, Venezuela, and Argentina.
Cuba offers free education and healthcare. The island has more physicians per capita than the USA and a lifespan equal to Americans, despite only 1/8th of the per capita income.
Botswana gets 50% of its government revenue from diamond mining; it’s an African success story, with middle class per capita income of $16,300.
Norway’s state-owned oil company - Statoil - provides “free education, healthcare, and pensions to all of the nation’s citizens.”
Truth is, none of my ideas are original or “radical.” A Forbes article recently called for taxing churches, and concern about offshore tax evasion has been building since 2012, when Mitt Romney was revealed to have millions stashed in the Cayman Islands. Pundits are also spouting to nationalize USA energy.
Let me repeat: there’s nothing scary about my plan.. It’s just looks bizarre, because it’s just.
Today’s status quo favors wealthy and religious Americans, because billions of dollars are:
1) hoarded by the rich via tax evasion
2) hoarded by religious leaders via tax exempt status
3) gained by a small clique of energy czars, who reap huge profits off carbon fuels deep in the soil.
It is ironic that USA land was recently inhabited by aboriginal tribes who viewed “private property” as largely incomprehensible.
Its hypocritical that conservatives claiming to “Love America” support policies that only favor the wealthiest. To truly “Love America” funds should be acquired for the Common Good.
Megachurches - prime beneficiaries of religious tax breaks - are equally guilty of false pretentious. They champion themselves as righteous God-fearing Christians, praying as they pass the hat for their singular profit.
Here are the numbers explaining how my plan works:
Nationalizing Gas and Oil would obtain a sum of cash that explosively varies, due to fluctuation in price per barrel. Big Oil reported profits of $51.5 billion in one fantastic quarter in 2008; but in 2011 The Big Five earned only $137 total. This dipped to a measly $93 billion in 2014, and in 2015 it’s totally tanked. My cautious guesstimate is that nationalizing energy, longterm, can bring in at around $100 billion annually, i.e., $5,000 per student.
Taxing Churches - I produced multiple reasons for this reform in a 2011 essay; my demand was recently matched by Time Magazine, Big Think, and Slate.com. If we reverence the $71 billion number delivered by Big Think, we gain $3,550 each for our students.
Stop Offshore Tax Evasion - This one’s a big whopper. Rich folks sailing their treasure offshore are hiding revenue estimated at either $150 billion, $184 billion, or $200 billion. Even if we go with the smallest digit, this provides an additional $7,500 per USA pupil annually.
$16,050 for every student. Helping them attend colleges without racking up crippling loans, or laboring at part-time jobs. Helping many to attend, period. Particularly, it would open doors to the 14,000 public institutions in the USA.
If $16,050 is not enough, or if more students enroll (hopefully, they will) we can go a bit further and nationalize banks. Quite a load of cash here. Around $150 billion in profits annually.
This would generate an additional $7,500 per student, boosting pay-per-pupil to $23,550
Many nations have successfully nationalized troubled banks or entire banking systems. Here’s a partial list: France, Iceland, Argentina, Greece, India, Israel, Mexico, The Netherlands, Sweden, UK...
Isn’t this sensible? Isn’t providing free education a shrewd and compassionate economic, social, and political plan?
