Every Man a Philosopher-King

The Left argues for more government.

The Right argues for less.

This has been the predominant political debate of the 20th-century and what has been the end result?

More. More. More.

The Right has lost.

The question now is… what should we do about it?

Debate the same thing over and over again and expect a different result?

I’m here to say that although decreasing political power should remain a top priority our #1 priority should be to increase personal power.

Every Man a Philosopher-King!

I am as happy as a king — to use a Republican simile. — Theodore Roosevelt

We need to make America a nation of freethinkers and freeholders.

Freethinkers

To make Americans more knowledgeable the federal government should abolish the Department of Education; and state government(s) should implement DEESA (Degree-by-Examination + Education Savings Accounts).

Once you pass an exam you’d get a badge, unlock the next level, and get more money added to your ESA.

Higher level tests could be held in-person and consist of VR, AR, and simulators.

Your credentials could then be shared across platforms where others (including employers) would get a good sense of what you actually know.

This would aid our political discourse where level-1ers couldn’t mask their ignorance behind a veneer of condescension, moral outrage, and appeals to authority.

Freeholders

After 5 years of federal service, you’d earn a 5-acre self-sufficient farm.

According to the Sustainable Living Report, it’d cost about $100,000 to build such a farm…

We could get the cost lower because the federal government could buy in bulk.

It could then contract out the development of 3 unique self-sufficient communities with 10,000 farms each.

(Free-range animals in the park & lake to diversify food supply; optional windmill or next-gen nuclear powerplant in park or town to diversify energy supply)

The total cost would come to around $3B or 0.5% of the VA’s annual $400B budget.

Toward the end of your service, you’d get some training on how to manage your self-sufficient farm, which over time the physical labor could increasingly be done by robot slaves.

Once you’re on your self-sufficient farm your cost of living would be extremely low.

You could then earn supplemental income a multitude of ways such as from a pension, selling goods & services, freelancing, private-sector jobs, state-based job guarantee, inheritance, and then what would over time become the largest source of supplemental income: investments.

The American Dream should be guaranteed to anyone willing to put in the work.

Once these communities have been up and running for 4 years the federal government should assess their quality based on various metrics such as self-sufficiency, vacancy, and surveys. The results will determine what contractors receive a bonus and are rehired to build the next round of self-sufficient communities.

Tax-free

I don’t think Americans should have to pay taxes in order to live.

The only thing certain in life should be death and liberty.

No taxation on the foundation!

We should only tax the chalice’s overflow.

In other words, no taxing necessities.

“The many” contribute enough to the state by consenting to “the few.” The few will ideally act in everyone’s best interest, but they’ll inevitably disproportionally act in their own interest. By only taxing non-necessities and the upper echelon of society the powers-that-be will still be able to leverage their market power to trickle-down some of their tax liability onto the rest of us, but we need not supplement their leverage out of some warped sense of “fairness.”

Here’s how I’d tax in practice…

Tax imports 10% with an additional 5% - 10% tyranny tariff.

Tax our monetary public option 3%.

Tax corporations 3% gross.

Tax the top 30% of the population’s earned and unearned income at the same gross graduated rate with no deductions from 1% to at most 30%.

Tax sales, except on necessities like basic food, water, and healthcare where it could then be higher on things with high negative externalities.

Tax land, except on small self-sufficient primary residencies.

Conclusion

If 25%+ of Americans were well-educated debt-free tax-free capitalist yeoman then such unprecedented personal freedom would naturally increase political freedom.

What I put forth here is thee greatest political proposal of the 21st-century because it’s steeped in ancient wisdom cemented by American tradition and augmented with modern technology where over time it’d shift the Right to Outright.

The Republican Party shouldn’t just be about cuts, but first and foremost it must once again be the party of the American Dream.