A Plan to Save the Country

During the much-anticipated (and, I'm guessing, soon forgotten) debate between Joe Biden and Sarah Palin last week, there was a small kerfuffle after Palin accused Biden of saying that raising taxes is patriotic. Turned out that what Biden really said was that paying taxes is patriotic, a view so heavily endorsed by all parties that it's actually illegal not to pay them - unless you maintain a post-office box in the Cayman Islands or find write-offs that offset what you owe.

That's probably not you, though, so it would be a good idea for you to keep paying your taxes unless you want to pay lawyers later. I understand that's something of a bummer, but then so is an irregularly shaped mole on your neck.

But the thing is, see, if Biden had said what Palin said he said (which he didn't), he would have been right. Raising taxes is patriotic. Raising taxes is what we can do to make our country, our patria, stronger.

It is amazing to watch the political discourse. Here we are about $10 trillion in debt, not counting whatever this latest bailout is going to cost; social services are being cut all over the place; entitlements are rising with no plan about how to cap them or pay for them; veterans services, national parks, NASA, the EPA, pick your own favorite - underfunded, decaying, not doing whatever it is we want them to do.

Oh, and where are we going to get the money? Oh, we will cut wasteful spending, that's what we'll do. Even better, we'll give people a tax break, so that will stimulate spending and we will grow the economy and then finally people will owe taxes and the government will get more money. Like that worked.

There is a different way that doesn't depend on some elaborate and discredited triple flip off the high board of economic theory - raise taxes. The American people have a whole lot of wealth. Is it excess wealth? That depends. When the fire truck that is paid for by the government comes and puts out a fire in your house, were the higher municipal taxes you paid extra wealth? Or were they a sound investment?

Oh, but suppose it's your neighbor's house that is burning down. You don't get anything from a rapid response, do you? No, but see, we are social creatures and we live in a society, and that means we help each other. I help you for selfish reasons, because I believe you will help me when the tables are turned. That's why, say, we help out the indigent, because one day we (or, say, our mothers) might be indigent; we help sick people because one day we might be sick, and so forth. It's almost like a contract, a social contract.

I wish once, just once, a politician would say, "You know, given how messed up everything is, probably we should raise taxes." Of course, all the other politicians would make little o's with their mouths, because the unspeakable had been spoken, but maybe a few people who've actually been paying attention would say, yeah, OK, I could kick in an extra $5 a month if my brother is suffering, if my sister is jobless, if my water is dirty and my son is dying on a desert far from home - yes, I could do that.

Then that politician would get demagogued to death by the power-drunk plutocrats, but it would be a nice effort.

So here's my plan: Instead of cutting taxes for the rich or for the middle class, how about we raise them for everybody? Why? Because we need the money!

Source: Jon Carrol - A Modest Like Proposal

You Don't Really Understand Google

A lot of people think that Google lives and dies with online success alone, and that this state of affairs will never change. I hate to have to tell you this, but you're all wrong. The Wall Street Journal reports of an advertising deal between Mountain View and General Electric's NBC Universal unit. No, Google isn't going to carpet-bomb the Sci-Fi Channel and CNBC with obnoxious brand-builder ads, the way Yahoo! yodeled all over your TV a decade ago. This deal goes the other way. Google will sell advertising time on NBC's portfolio of cable channels nationwide, according to the WSJ report. The broadcasting giant is thinking about expanding the plan to cover local NBC networks as well. In a deliciously ironic twist, this includes MSNBC, in which Microsoft still holds an 18% ownership stake. It's easy to imagine office chairs getting flung across some posh Redmond office. The companies will share revenue from the ads, although how many television spots NBC will make available through Google remains unclear. The companies said they may adapt the service for use in NBC's local markets, where NBC owns affiliates of its flagship network, Spanish-language stations and other properties, including Web sites. As impressive as Google's online advertising power is, that's still a vanishingly small part of the overall ad market compared to traditional media: television, radio, billboards, brightly shrink-wrapped cars, and so on. AdAge says that only 6.8% of the nation's marketing dollars were spent on online marketing last year, whereas traditional channels like print and television spots composed 58% of the market. That's why Google is pursuing all of these other marketing avenues as well. A diversified revenue stream is always a good idea, just in case some new upstart comes along to steal Big G's online thunder. Eventually, Web marketing just might be as traditional as a half-sheet spread in the New York Times All the same, those old tools may never go entirely out of style, and there's a lot of money still flowing through those staid old channels.