Taxation With Representation

I will forewarn readers that I am not a political nor an economic expert and there could very well be some legitimate legal reason why the proposal that follows cannot happen.  However, I am unaware of such a reason and think the following is a just and good idea.

America proclaims itself a democracy in which the government is created both for and by the people.  However, the people are only directly involved in the actions of their government in that they have some control over who the leaders of the government will be.  Once this decision is made, most other decisions are determined by those few leaders and their most powerful supporters.

One of the most major of these decisions involves taxing the people in order to pay for the various jobs and programs that are part of all other decisions.  But if the government is truly empowered by the people to do this, shouldn't the people get to choose which programs their money will fund?  Wouldn't this make the country more democratic socially, politically, and economically?

What I propose is a system of taxation that allows each individual taxpayer to designate what their tax dollars will be used for.  Designations could go toward one or more of several categories such as education, social programs, the military, and city maintenance.  So the areas in which people most want to see change will be the areas that receive the most money.

So a peace-loving educator might choose to use 70% of their money to support education, spreading the other 30% around but giving the military 0%.  A person who dislikes the idea of having to give the money they earned to the unemployed could choose to give 0% to social programs.  A person who benefits from social programs could choose to put their money back into that program that is benefiting them.

Much of the conflicts and points of dispute within our country would be reduced in intensity because people would be allowed to support or not support something based on their own beliefs.  People would be less likely to avoid paying taxes because it would feel like taxes are giving them power rather than taking away their resources.

Such a practice would benefit the people and the country by allowing the people to speak with their wallets, which can often be more influential than their voices or votes.  It would make it harder for small groups of powerful men to make decisions that go against the desires of most citizens.  For it is fairly easy to manipulate or even fake moral backing, but it is much harder to fake or manipulate financial backing, as the latter is much easier to keep track of.  

Irony Curbs Genius

             In the 1840s, Dr. John Croghan set up a tuberculosis clinic inside Mammoth Cave, Kentucky.  Noting that the cave environment was highly effective at preserving artifacts as well as dead bodies, he hoped it would be equally effective at preserving the lives of those suffering from a then-cureless disease.  Specifically, he believed the air to be purer than most—something that would be highly beneficial to those whose lungs were not in good health.  However, the dampness of the air combined with the buildup of smoke from torches and cooking fires actually worsened his patients’ condition, and none of them were cured.  Croghan was forced to end the experiment, and he himself died of tuberculosis six years later.

                But he sure tried, didn’t he?  The end result was failure, but he sure as hell tried.

The Dreamer

There once was a man who dreamed.  And the things he dreamed came true-- not by magic but by choice.  He adjusted his life actively to align with the things in his mind.  If he dreamed it, he did it, and he found freedom and purpose in this lifestyle-- in relinquishing control on the one hand by letting his dreams (and whatever caused them) do all the decision making.  On the other hand, he had never felt more in control; every day he awoke with new purpose, new conviction, and the fearless drive to do that which was right.  He did not know in the empirical sense that it was right, but that did not matter.  It felt right.

He dreamed he had a dog-- one with black spots on a white coat.  So he scoured the pet shops and dog pounds (16 of them) until he found one of this variety.  He named the dog Chester, and the first thing he did next was teach Chester to play fetch-- for that was what they did in the dream.

Once he sold his house and used the money to travel around the world by bicycle because in a dream Jesus told him that this is what he was to do.  And while travelling he fell asleep many times-- once while he was riding.  He of course did not dream at this time for the sleep only lasted the 3.5 seconds it took to go crashing to the ground.  But much like Saul, at this time of disturbance our dreamer had a waking vision, a vision of a world in which the one goal of all was selfless love.  This was the man's interpretation, anyway.  The vision itself was of a world map which quickly zoomed in and out of different countries and in each country were a variety of people dressed only in national flags sewn together.  These people were hugging.  Some laughed.  Some cried.  Some looked healthy.  Some did not.

The vision compelled our man to act; however for the first time he did not know exactly what to do or where to start.  So he decided to continue his journey but to start hugging people more.  He also started asking people to join him.  Most said no, but here and there he found some people in a transitional period in their lives.  Most were students or recent graduates.  Some were attracted by the hugging aspect.  Some by the exercise and challenge of long distance cycling.  Some by the opportunity to travel.  But many of them simply wanted to do something-- something different, big-- something that seemed to matter.

This went on for some time, and all the while the dreamer continued to dream.  Mostly small things: where to take meals, what to say to people, which direction to ride...

But sometimes the dreams were less clear.  One time the sky was orange, his bike was flying, and some strange creature was perched on the handlebars.  The man did not know what to make of this, but he was still on the bike in his dreams, so he stayed on the bike in real life.

Another time he wasn't even in the dream; there was just blue sky, clouds, and birds-- birds everywhere.

And then came a very disturbing dream.  The man was on his bike with his followers behind him when suddenly a semi-truck came around a corner at top speed and straight at him. He veered right.  The truck veered the other way.  They missed each other, but the truck proceeded to run over 5 other cyclists.  The man ditched his bike and started running toward the accident when the truck exploded.  Then he woke up.

What was he to do?  If he continued living his life this same way, it was clear that people would die.  Or was he given this dream so he would know to make a different choice the second time around?  Perhaps by veering left instead of right?  Or was he supposed to stop cycling so the dream could never come true?

The next day the man told his followers to take a rest.  They would not ride.  They were to use the time to build up their energy while he planned their next course of action.  This was, of course, a stall.  He needed another dream-- something that would make things clearer for him.  So he waited for night.  He ate breakfast, talked to some of the people that had been with him longest.  He ate lunch, called a few friends back home, read some poetry.  He ate dinner, looked at some maps, drank some tea that was supposed to be good for sleep.  And then he went to bed.

He laid there for quite some time.  But sleep would not come for the dreamer.  When it comes to desperate need, it is often the desperation that proves the biggest obstacle to having the need satisfied, and that was true in this case.  The man was so hungry for guidance that his mind was unable to be calmed.  He tossed and turned and tried all the tricks he knew, but sleep would not come.  The closest he got was a half-awake chain of thoughts that were clearly thoughts rather than dreams-- for there were no images.  Yet somehow these thoughts did not seem entirely within his control.  But when the sun rose, the dreamer had made his decision.  He had lived his life a certain way, and it had suited him brilliantly.  He would continue on as he had always done.  For what reason, other than sheer uncertainty, should a man do anything but stay the course when that course has proven itself useful?

So he assembled his followers, and together they rode toward their next destination.  That day, they passed thirteen semi-trucks, and every time one of them came around a corner the man tensed, readying himself to veer to the right.  But the trucks always stayed in their own lanes, and the cyclists always stayed in theirs.

Things continued on this way for months.  The dreamer couldn't dream new dreams.  He slept restlessly, consumed by thoughts of trucks, blood, and fire-- if ever his sleep lasted long enough to reach the dream state, it was these things he continued to dream of.  In waking life, he found that people became less receptive to his random well-intentioned hugs.  Sometimes they would hurry away quickly, glancing back over their shoulders.

As time went on, the other cyclists drifted away.  They got jobs, they fell in love, their grandparents died, they got bored.  Things changed for them.

And the dreamer was confused.  How could he make his dream come true if he had no followers?  Clearly he must have done something wrong?

Then a semi-truck came speeding around the corner in his lane.  He veered right.  The truck veered the other way.  No one died, and both continued onward.

The man at first breathed a sigh of relief.  He had followed his dreams and prevented death.  All was right.

But was it, really?  Life had not happened the way it had in his dream.  Was that event still to come?  Or had he changed things somehow?  Was he still doing what he was meant to do?  Or should he find something new?  And for that matter, how did he know he was supposed to even be going around to all these countries in the first place?  Had he interpreted his vision correctly?   What should he do now?  What now?

It took him a long time to sleep that night, and when he did he didn't dream.  The next day he didn't feel very well, so he stayed in bed, dreaming again of the truck.  Nothing had changed about it.  But cycling around from stranger to stranger was seeming much less of a draw.  Yet the dreamer had no other ideas.  So he stayed the course.  And his dreams rarely changed.

End of 2014 Reading List

Another year passes with the reading of 20 more books.  It was a good year, literarily speaking, for me, as I benefitted significantly from many of these reads.  For those looking to find some new things to read, below are reviews of what I have read:

Top picks:

1) Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell: Six stories unfold in different time periods that turn out to be linked in certain ways.  Each story stands pretty well on its own, and they are radically different in perspective/point of view, subject matter, and style while also maintaining the common threads necessary for them to work as one novel.  The structure is unique in that each story stops halfway through when the next story starts.  The 6^th story is told all the way through and then you proceed to finish each previous story in reverse order so that the order is 1^st, 2^nd, 3^rd, 4^th, 5^th, 6^th, 5^th, 4^th, 3^rd, 2^nd, 1^st.  My favorites were stories 2 and 5 about a down-and-out orchestral composer and a clone-slave of the future McDonalds, respectively

2) What is the What by Dave Eggers: The true story of a Sudanese refugee told from his perspective and recorded by the author.  The story goes back and forth between the main character’s present day life in America and his history beginning with childhood in a peaceful village then continuing through many experiences of violence and slow, confused, terrified on-foot travel through Sudan, Ethiopia, and Kenya.  Lots of dark stuff, but made bearable by moments of humor and the understanding that this is a unique and often marginalized experience worth learning about. 

Those were my favorite two reads, but there were many other good ones and worthwhile ones as well.  Below are descriptions of the other 18 books I read this year:

3) White Noise by Don DeLillo: Semi-apocalyptic story taking a semi-satirical look at things like pop culture and modern communications while the main character and his family attempt to survive the sudden appearance of a giant toxic cloud in their home town. 

4) Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston: This was the first time I had to teach a book I had not before read on my own, so it was interesting to read it as a teacher thinking about how to teach it.  This made me really appreciate the poetic language often used to describe the lives of southern black migrant workers in the early 1900s.  There are lots of cool archetypes and symbolic meanings present.  There’s a lot of dialect used which can sometimes be difficult to understand but can also be fun to read, especially out loud. 

5) Pulp Head by John Jeremiah Sullivan: a collection of essays on various topics.  My favorites were “Upon This Rock” about modern day Christianity, told as the writer attends a Christian rock festival, and “Violence of the Lambs” about a theory that animals of all species are becoming more aggressive over time in response to humanity’s increasing expansiveness. 

6) The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald: a re-read for me, this is of course the tale of Jay Gatsby, a mysterious man striving to obtain and maintain the ideal of the American Dream while also chasing his own personal dream of love for Daisy, who is married to another man.  A fairly simple read that takes a good look at things like class, status, dreams, power, and gender roles in a way that is still relevant almost 100 years later. 

7) Ficciones by Jorge Luis Borges: originally written in Spanish, this is a highly literary and cerebral collection of stories and essays (and sometimes a weird mixture of the two) that felt very existential and meta-fictional  to me.  Examples of subject matter include a guy who believes he is interacting with his own ghost, a guy who becomes more interested in a dream world than the real world, and a universe organized into a library. 

8) Oblivion by David Foster Wallace: another collection of stories that are very cerebral.  Wallace likes to experiment a lot with language and perspective, so if you enjoy experiments in language you will enjoy him.  My favorites were “The Soul is Not a Smithy” about a child who daydreams during class and fails to notice as his teacher becomes possessed, and “Good Old Neon” which is a man’s account of his life as a fraud and his inability to change this aspect of himself because he believes everything he does including the telling of this story to be fraudulent in that it is only designed to get people to respect and admire him. 

9) The Time Machine by H.G. Wells: classic science fiction tale about a man who goes to the future in a time machine and finds that humanity has evolved into two distinct and new species.

10) The Island of Dr. Moreau by H.G. Wells: one of the best examples of a case in which a good book was made into a horrendous movie, this is the tale of a man stranded on a strange island inhabited by two men doing experiments in surgically creating sentient man-animal combinations.

11) The Rules of Influence by William D Crano: A fairly simple and useful look at the means by which people influence one another with a specific focus on how minorities (here defined as anyone whose either status or opinion is not shared by most) can have an effect upon the larger society of which they are apart.  Worth reading, but some parts feel overly repetitive in a way that made me feel the book could have been just as good maybe even better if it were shorter. 

12) The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky: a re-read for me.   One of those rare delights when both the book and the movie are well done.  The book is the story of a high school freshman with some emotional problems experiencing the joys and difficulties of adolescence, specifically the struggle to belong and the joys of friendship. 

13) How They See Us by various authors: a 2004 collection of essays written by non-American writers about how people of their countries view the USA.  Some are positive, some are negative, but most are fair, well-balanced arguments.

14) The Stranger by Albert Camus: the story of a man who seems to go through life experiences without much emotional feeling.  Such experiences include his mother’s death and a murder he commits.  I am convinced that the main character has something like Asperger’s syndrome, but it is unclear whether this could have been the author’s intention, as it was written before Asperger’s was a diagnosis. 

15) Wild Swans by Jung Chang: the true story of 3 generations of Chinese women that reads like part story, part memoir, part history.  It takes place from about 1920-1970 and focuses mostly on the reign of Mao Zedong through the perspective of the lives of the people affected by his rule.  Very informative, but largely filled with unjustified struggle, which makes for a fairly slow read. 

16) The Giver by Lois Lowry: the story of a society in which everyone’s role is assigned to them by their society.  The main character is assigned the role of Receiver, whose job it is to remember all of the things that the rest of the absurdly communist society has chosen to forget.  This includes experiences of both intense beauty and intense pain. 

17) Travelling Mercies by Anne Lamott: memoirs of a Christian woman’s imperfect journey toward and through faith that focuses more on her social relationships with friends and with her son than on anything else.  In other words it is a look at how imperfect yet beautiful people can be, and how one views the people important to them alongside and in the context of a faith that’s important to them.

18) The Book Thief by Markus Zusak: a WW2 era story focused on an adopted German girl living in a household that is hiding a Jewish fighter in the basement.  The most interesting part of the story for me was that it was narrated by Death, which was unique in that it is a rare 1^st person omniscient narrator, something I once tried and failed to accomplish fully in my own writing.  

19) Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom: memoirs of the time the author spends with his former professor during the last months of said professor’s life.  It’s a very quick read and covers the valuable subject matter of what is and is not important in life.

20) House of Sand and Fog by Andre Dubus III: the story of three people all at the end of their rope trying to turn their lives around but getting in each other’s way.  The cool thing about this story is that it accomplishes the creation of character conflict without creating any villains.  These are all realistic people having realistic problems, and you can understand each of their perspectives, but their failure to understand each other is what drives the conflict rather than any sort of bad intention or evil. 

That’s it for this year.  Happy 2015 everybody, and happy reading.