Estrada-Palma Collectivist/Individualist Scale

Henry Waxman - Three

From time to time I will rate political figures that you need to know about using my collectivist/individualist scale. It is a sliding scale from one to ten. Naturally, the scale actually begins at zero with politicos like Fidel Castro and Hugo Chavez. But who needs to discuss these zeros? Everybody knows them for the magnitude of their collectivist behavior.

Unless you are a die hard collectivist, you need to realize that being rated a ten is a good thing while a rating of one should bring shame. To rate a ten one must always defer responsibility for the individual to the individual. Never could you take an individuals time, body or wealth for your purposes and get anywhere near a ten. No, Ron Paul is not quite a ten. I'd rate him as a nine. The reason is he favors only Constitutional forms of taxation like tariffs, excises and imposts. Now I'll agree that this alone would be a far cry better than our current bevy of free range slave taxes that we are forced to pay to our masters. This is still a theft however, placing taxes on the marketplace in this manner.

For me to even consider a person for the top rating of ten, you must never advocate stealing from your fellow man for any reason. Still, what on earth could we tax, that no individual created using his time, body or money in order to fund the basic necessities of society? It is the earth itself amigos!

That is what no man created that must be shared by us all or we will fight for it if we have to. Since we must tax something to have a society and a civilization wouldn't it be better to start out honestly and forgo stealing? Charging a land rent based on the location value of the snippets of earth we all live and work on would more than adequately fund society while not doing the damage to the economy, the society and the morality that free range slave taxes do. This concept is brilliant and is the brainchild of my nominee for a ten on the scale.

Henry George lived in the 1800's and wrote many books including his masterpiece, "Progress and Poverty." The book is over 800 pages long and totally answers all of the immediate and future doubts you may have about how such a land rent concept would operate. Basically, Henry George realised that "wealth" is the result of human labor mixing with the land. Throughout history the rulers have always taxed the labor part of wealth production while monopolizing the land part of wealth creation. So Henry George is definitely a ten.

As for the other end of the scale take this maggot - Henry Waxman. He rates no higher than a three on his least collectivist day. He believes he owns a share of you time and will make you line up to serve his needs. None of your wealth is safe from this thief. In the society I would like to help build people like Henry Waxman would be considered criminals and sitting behind bars.