Taxes

I think this would be a good non-profit to start (if one does not already exist that does something similar). A non-profit that explained the purposes of taxes, and how taxes can help provide infrastructure that will help taxpayers and their children in the long run. Let us take one example, education. The US has an education quality crisis in schools, and it has to do something to have more youngsters get a college degree. The jobs one could get out of high school are rapidly diminishing and if they want to compete with people outside the US who are working on outsourced projects more and more Americans have to really become part of the knowledge economy. All this requires an investment in education. Subjects like basic Science might not appear to have an immediate monetary benefit and thus cannot be left to private enterprises to manage. Government intervention is necessary. Such intervention is also necessary to guarantee quality education for all as a basic right. It will help the families of Joe the Plumber and Mary the Waitress if an investment was made in education. Of course the taxes have to be fair and reasonable. But the anti-tax folks don't bother to even look at the nature of the taxes - they just say, "we don't like taxes!".

Anyway, a non-profit that focused on discussing this with the people from the grassroots on up would be very beneficial. Then maybe people would not get swayed by sound bites during the general election.

(Amazing how the election has become all about sound-bites, this has been the case pretty much after the two conventions. This is why primaries are fun - issues are discussed. In the general election the targeted voters all seem to be people who don't have the time or inclination to do in-depth research and serious thinking, but are instead be swayed by a convincing speaker who has a good screen presence.)

Socialist! Socialist!

'Socialist' they call Obama - in almost the same tone they would call someone 'thief' or 'a fraud'. If they can successfully make that stick, then they would indeed get some traction, since Americans don't like socialists. Growing up in India in a socialist environment I can see the good things of 'socialism'. But for someone who has grown up in the US that word, and anything that can even be remotely connected to the notion is such anathema. Bred as they are in the environment where wealth is 'infinite' and can 'continue to grow', where supposedly anyone can come up if they work hard, they are opposed to the socialism with a vengeance. It is all a matter of what you are exposed to growing up!

Similarly, the PLO (Palestine Liberation Organization) was considered a liberating group, a group fighting for freedom when I was growing up in India, because of the Indian government's policy at that time. It came as quite a surprise to me that the PLO is considered a terrorist organization in the US. So much of all of this is just what one is subtly influenced to think.

Going back to socialism, portraying someone as socialist also seems to be one way of portraying someone as the 'other', as someone different from yourself. Instead of saying, "he is black so he is different", the refrain now is, "he is socialist so he is different". People don't want to vote for the 'other'.

Spreading the Wealth Around

Overhead a Dutchman say on my flight to Amsterdam a few days ago - "We spread the wealth around." And he went on to say, "the gap between the rich and the poor is much less in The Netherlands than it is in the US."

"No country in the world has succeeded with socialism", says Palin at rallies. I wonder what she would say if she went to The Netherlands.

Oh, and while we are talking about The Netherlands - it is such an public transport friendly country that we could not get a taxi back from the customer site back to Amsterdam airport. The customer was not particularly apologetic, and pointed us to the train station, where we had to take one of the frequent, very comfortable trains to Leiden and change there to a train straight to the airport. While my colleagues were trying to find a taxi at the train station a couple in their sixties went merrily cycling by. It was raining, but no matter. They wore raincoats and cycled on. It is good exercise too.

It was such a delight when I bought something at a store and the storekeeper did not give me a plastic bag but default.