The Capitalist Manifesto

Now that Senator Obama has won the elections amidst a crisis in capitalism, it is timely to write what I call the Capitalist Manifesto. Senator Obama is without a doubt a Socialist with long time ties to the radical left in America. He has talked about "spreading the wealth". The Democrats are poised to expand their control in Congress and will be able to pass any law they wish.

As Thomas Sowell said, an Obama victory will likely bring America to the point of no return. America is going Socialist like most of western Europe. It will have a welfare state inspite of the fact that Europe's welfare state is not sustainable given its ageing population and lavish welfare spending.

Therefore, it is timely to write about the inherent injustice of Socialism and make the case for capitalism. Socialism seeks a redistribution of wealth from its most productive citizens to the less productive ones.

This is usually done by progressive taxation and creating a welfare state. Those with higher income pay more taxes than those with lower incomes, some of whom don't pay income taxes at all. During the American Revolution, the slogan was "Taxation without representation is tyranny".

But representation without taxation is also tyranny. In today's world it is the more productive citizens that are oppressed. As I said in an earlier article, if 60 citizens in a country of one hundred rob 40 others, its robbery. But this is no different if the 60 elect someone who promises to tax the 40 and redistribute their property to the other 60.

It is time for all citizens to be treated equally. By this, I mean that each citizen must contribute equally to his nation and derive the same benefits from it. Under the present system some citizens contribute more in the form of taxes and others receive less from it.

This violates the principle of equality. There should only be one tax rate for everybody. The problem with democracy is that votrepreneurs (politicians) get elected by promising to redistribute other people's money through discriminating against one group of voters (the more productive citizens) by taxing them more and spending the money on their favored voters, many of whom do not work.

As Benjamin Franklin said, "Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on who to have for lunch."

Ben was right and that is why nearly all western democracies have evolved into welfare states. Europe is ahead on this and America looks like is about to follow. The nanny state reduces the incentive to work. It is not sustainable in the long run andwill turn citizens in adult children, always dependent on the state. Imagine a CEO deciding to reward his worst salesmen and penalizes his best. His company will go bankrupt.

The welfare state is also not fair because its citizens are not treated equally. For all citizens to be treated equally its time to end the discrimination against the more productive citizens in favor of the less productive. I propose that each citizens be taxed at the same rate and get paid the same monthly income from the state. All welfare payments and entitlements currently in place must be scrapped. The monthly income from the state will take care of the most vulnerable members of society without violating the principle of equality for all citizens since everybody gets it too. Also, it would be helping the weaker citizens without weakening the incentive to work. For example, all citizens will be taxed at say 20% of income and receive $1,000 in monthly income from the government.

Therefore the Capitalist Manifesto demands:

1)All citizens must be treated equally. This includes matters of taxation and state derived benefits. Each citizen must pay the same percentage of income to the state and receive the same income from the state. All other entitlements and welfare payments will be abolished.

2)An end to class warfare where less productive citizens use their vote to acquire the property of the more productive ones.

The Manifesto may be boiled down to two catchy slogans:

i)From each citizen, the same tax rate,
To each citizen the same benefits.

ii)Representation without taxation is tyranny
Using your vote to get other people's property is robbery.