Abstract
Eliminate the entire tax code and abolish all mandatory taxes on American citizens and businesses. Establish tariffs on all foreign imports as necessary to level the playing field for American businesses. Establish a system for voluntary donations by Americans and American businesses to the federal government that allows the donors to designate how the money will be spent.
Implementation
- Repeal of the 16th Amendment will take time to accomplish, so that effort will need to be started immediately. A full-throated campaign will have to be mounted to bring the objective into the public consciousness and persuade a majority to support it.
- Pass legislation mandating a balanced annual budget and outlawing borrowing, even in times of war. Eventually make this an amendment to the Constitution. The federal government may ONLY spend what it has and no more.
- Pass legislation establishing a web-based system for the voluntary donation of money to the federal government targeted specifically for federal government functions supported by the donors. The donors and the amounts they donate shall be publicly displayed on the website.
- Establish tariffs for ALL foreign imports of goods and services at percentages that will encourage and even incentivize American businesses to produce those same goods and services in America.
- Gradually phase out income taxes, capital gains taxes, and then corporate taxes as the revenue begins to be replaced by tariff revenue, eventually phasing them out entirely regardless of whether or not tariffs fully replace the revenue.
- Tie the allocation of the tariff revenue to the proportions established by the voluntary donations, thereby ensuring the federal government spends that money according to the will of the people. Foreign donations will be allowed, but shall be allocated the same as tariffs. No exceptions.
- Abolish the Federal Reserve and go back on the gold standard.
- Complete the process of repealing the 16th Amendment to ensure no future re-establishment of mandatory taxation of American citizens.
The Pitch
At first blush, the idea of a voluntary tax system seems ridiculous. Who would voluntarily give money to the federal government? The answer is, those who stand to lose the most if the most basic and important functions of the federal government are not sufficiently performed. This includes billionaires, millionaires, the upper middle class, and State governments. And anyone else who wants to have some say in how the federal government spends its money, proportional to their ability to donate.
By eliminating mandatory taxes on American citizens and businesses, the power of the US economy will be unleashed like never before seen in human history. Americans will become extremely wealthy. All this new wealth will enable them to pay the higher costs of goods and services manufactured and provided right here in America AND make it possible for many more Americans to contribute to the cost of the federal government’s basic and most important functions. It will also make it possible for those who earn the least to have the best chance at upward mobility, by not paying any taxes until they feel secure enough to donate. Naturally there will be freeloaders. That is a small price to pay. Such freeloaders will be scorned and they will have to live with that.
Contrary to popular belief, tariffs rarely affect the cost of goods at the point of sale. Goods and services will always be priced according to supply and demand. That is an inescapable fact. So, the tariffs will wind being paid by the foreign governments from where the imported goods and services are coming. We saw this play out when President Trump implemented tariffs during his first term. All the claims of economic disaster failed to materialize. And, the federal government took in record revenues from foreign governments. The system has been proven.
Federal debt has become a giant millstone hung around the necks of our young people and future generations. Abolishing the source of this debt by abolishing the ability to borrow by the federal government is paramount to reigning in federal government spending and the waste of our hard earned money on ridiculous things.
We also need to reign in inflation. We do that by eliminating the ability of the Federal Reserve to print fiat currency to make up for profligate overspending by our federal government. We eliminate this ability by eliminating the Federal Reserve and tying the dollar to the supply of gold. This is not some strange new idea. This is how it was done before the establishment of the Federal Reserve. It worked then. It will work now.
The last and not least of predictable benefits of this proposed system is the reduction in size of the federal government and the scope of what it can do. This will get the federal government out of our daily lives and return it to performing only those most basic functions important to maintaining national security and civil order.
Conclusion
Making taxes voluntary in some fashion close to the way presented here has no down side to it. Would it be difficult to implement? Absolutely. Our elected leaders at the federal level would be giving up the gravy train and massive amounts of power. The idea alone is so radical that most people are likely to scoff at it as insane. One thing is certain. The path we are on now is barreling towards a very high cliff and is entirely unsustainable. When it crashes, we will need something to replace it. If we can’t do this now, we can at least have it ready for when we must.
tariffs are too often misunderstood and have been represented in a fashion primarily because corporations export their labor and can’t risk losing cheap labor.