Thank you for the opportunity to express my views yesterday at your
Watertown listening session. I feel it is important for a citizen to have a
chance to communicate one's opinions to our elected officials.
I hope you find the time to read the book I left with one of your staff
regarding incentive taxation. 'Tax Shift' describes various means to reduce
taxes on things we want (income and payroll), and increase or create taxes
on things we don't want (pollution and resource depletion). This concept
provides a means to assess a fee for the damage caused by the eternalities
of modern business practices. It creates an incentive to practice
responsible capitalism, and it is a way to help level the playing field
between multi-national corporations and 'ma and pa' businesses.
In the case of hog production, assessing a fee for the externalized costs of
the large corporate hog producer would make cost of production more equal to
the cost of production for the family farmer. This does not solve the
problem of vertical integration, but it would go a long way in making family
farmers competitive and help protect the environment. Pollution of rivers,
estuaries, and aquifers, which are part of our shared natural heritage, is
subsidy to unscrupulous corporate producers.
Robert F Kennedy, Jr., said, "Show me pollution and I'll show you a
subsidy". When we allow corporate agriculture to externalize costs, we
accept a type of preferential socialism, that is insidiously evil and
grossly unfair. It is evil and unfair because it violates the
responsibilities that go hand in hand with the rights of a free-market,
capitalistic system. Those responsibilities include; cleaning up after
yourself, not impinging on the rights of others (including future
generations), and treating the natural capital of the land as an asset to be
counted on ledger sheet. Only then will we have a true capitalist society
that can withstand the test of time and sustainability.
If I can be of any assistance in researching or exploring these matters,
please let me know.
Sincerely,
Greg David
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