Teachers and Taxes

Math Teachers and Taxes
By Daniel G. Jennings
I see from press accounts that our illustrious leader, President George W. Bush would like to recruit tens of thousands of new mathematics teachers to tutor our young in basic math. This goal is laudable but I don’t see where Bush is going to find all those teachers, after all people with mathematical knowledge can make far more money working with computers or preparing taxes than by teaching.
Unless, Mr. Bush wants to abolish the income tax and replace it with something more sensible. Think of it this way, hundreds of thousands of mathematically-minded Americans make their living preparing taxes, or more precisely telling other Americans how not to pay taxes, either as Certified Public Accountants or as tax preparers of some sort.
Replace the income tax with something simple and sensible and these people would have to go out and seek new jobs. The only job besides accounting many of them would be qualified for would be teaching math to our kids.
Yes, many of these people would have to take a considerable drop in income but who would feel sorry for them? Not I. Nor I imagine would the millions of Americans who fork over a percentage of their hard earned income to get their taxes done each year.
This of course would be one upside of getting rid of the income tax. Suddenly there would be a pool of hundreds of thousands of highly qualified math teachers available to work in our public school system and other schools.
What should replace the income tax? My suggestion would be a national sales tax of some sort. Perhaps a VAT or Value Added Tax (Which is how most European nations pay for government these days) or the Fair Tax being promoted by Congressman John Linder (R-Georgia) and many Republicans. No I don’t necessarily support Fair Tax, I just think Fair Tax as outlined by Neal Boorst & Linder in “The Fair Tax Book*” would be far better than our current tax system.
A national sales tax would encourage responsible behavior saving and investing by individuals and discourage reckless behavior (conspicuous consumption). Such a sales tax would benefit the working and middle classes by allowing them to take home every cent of their pay checks.
This sales tax would also help Americans save money because it would be simple to collect. No massive IRS bureaucracy or enforcement mechanisms, no audits, no accountants, or tax returns. Instead the tax would be accessed by cash registers or computer programs during the sales process. The average high school grad could use a computer program like Quicken to figure out even the largest corporation’s tax obligation in a few minutes under such a system. Individuals would no longer have the burden of determining their tax obligation or the headache of trying to figure what their deductions and refund will be.
Perhaps, most importantly, a sensible tax system would get mathematically minded Americans out from behind the piles of tax forms and into the classroom where they can do some real good for our kids.
* “The Fair Tax Book” Copyright 2005 by Neal Boortz and John Linder, Harper Collins Publishers, New York, NY.