Pay global tax now, or pay in lives/freedom later

If waste and corruption are the definitive arguments for doing away with taxes our federal government would have went out of business long ago.

Richard Rahn makes a grand effort to scare us with the loss of our “national sovereignty” from a “global tax tyranny” (July 19, 2006) but fails to mention the vital global need to address real horrendous threats to our health, wealth, freedoms and security from the lethal factors of unregulated globalization.

Image the cost to each US state if the budget for our national Highway, port or air traffic control systems were dependent upon voluntary state contributions. Image the cost in human lives and personal treasures if our nations food supply and disease control efforts were left to each state because our nation’s Centers for Disease Control and Environmental protection agencies were left to the whims of state appropriators.

Now imagine a United Nations working to stem the tide of inevitable pandemics, terrorism, proliferating weapons of mass destruction, organized international crime and potentially catastrophic environmental changes … with the budget and staff the size of Disney world. And, 100% of that budget dependent on voluntary sources.

Now calculate the cost to our economy, our loss of freedoms and the loss of American life when the UN fails to adequately prevent or respond to a new mutation of the bird flu that could kill as many as 3 million Americans.

We can pay now (in some form of global taxes), or we can pay far more later in lives, dollars and loss of personal freedoms and prosperity as a result of any number of factors that are undeterred and unrestrained by Rahn’s supreme ideal of national sovereignty.

The stupidity and ignorance of highly educated and intelligent people never ceases to amaze me. Who in their right mind wouldn’t trade the concept of ‘national sovereignty’ (an imaginary idea that only exists in our heads and on paper) for the most basic of all human desires -- freedom and security. Perhaps when Rahn and other anti-global tax advocates do the math, they will understand the inevitable dynamics of the trilemma we are all faced with. Freedom, security, and sovereignty. We can pick any two we want. But we cannot have all three. Which two will you chose?