May  17,  2003

"The Rising Road" and the Legislators of Iowa: A Philosophy to Ensure Every Iowan's Opportunity for Prosperity

By: Kevin McLaughlin

Dedicated to Congressman Steve King for his support and encouragement.

Everyone should have a philosophy by which they live.  This philosophy should be a means by which life's circumstances can be categorized, interpreted and then addressed with confidence.  For the ancient Greeks and Romans, this process involved the differentiation between information, or what we might call raw data, knowledge, or the basis for forming convictions, and wisdom, or the actual point at which problems can be addressed with confidence in achieving the desired result.  Toward that end, the "rising road" analogy may be critical to the Republican and Democrat legislators about to debate and vote on the future of our State and its economy.

Let's begin with a stark comparison of our standard of living today, and our knowledge of our world and universe, versus the knowledge our ancestors had of this same universe 20,000 years ago when mankind was gathering food instead of producing it.  How did mankind rise from ignorance over these past 200 centuries?  More importantly, how did mankind prosper and flourish in light of all the wars and pestilence?  To grasp just how far we've come, remember that a great success 20,000 years ago, was a day on which you were able to light a campfire in the rain.  Consequently, and in light of the enormous progress we've made, could it be that life, in general, is a guaranteed lottery?  Let's find out.

In order to understand our universe, we need to divide it into three categories for the sake of simplicity and effectiveness.  Those three categories will be the laws of physics, the laws of economics and the laws of ethics , or morality. 

The laws of physics bring order to the physical universe and give us the actual materials we need to improve our standard of living.  They make everything from staples to skyscrapers work predictably and reliably.  The laws of economics constantly show us how to use our resources in order to achieve the maximum benefit from them.  And the laws of ethics, or morality, (how we treat one another), guide us in the creation and maintenance of a civil and peaceful society in which people from all walks of life can flourish.

To create the "rising road," let's go back 20,000 years and start at a very low point, representing mankind's lack of knowledge about the universe and his very low standard of living.  The actual roadbed will be represented by the laws of physics and mankind's use of the materials in the universe to provide food, clothing, shelter and trasnsportation for himself.  And let's cause the road to begin rising slowly at first, but then more steeply as mankind's knowledge improved.  Remember, too, that this is a narrow road with steep drop-offs on either side.

Next, let's put in a guardrail on the right hand side entitled "the laws of economics."  In other words, mankind will continue to make progress as long as he stays on the road, learning more about the universe and applying the laws of economics in order to use the available resources to our maximum benefit.  An excellent example of what happens when we fail to apply the laws of economics properly would be the Weimar Republic in Germany after World War I.  In order to make ends meet, the government printed money without any gold to back it up, until the paper money became worthless.  Breaking through the guardrail impoverished the vast majority of citizens.  Banks and businesses failed and people suffered. 

The lesson here is that you can't make progress unless you stay up on the road.  In the case of these Germans, they had to get back up on the rising road in order to stop going backward, and to begin making progress once more.

The guardrail on the left side of the road is entitled "the laws of morality."  The worst case of mistreatment is murder and, on a large scale, the damage can be enormous.  Take Hong Kong as an example.  Before World War II, the city had about 1.5 million inhabitants.  But, during the Japanese occupation, the population dropped by approximately a million people.  The effects were devastating.  Not only were people dying, but the standard of living collapsed for everyone who survived.  And the same came to be true under Hitler and Stalin.  So, you can't exterminate people and hope to have any kind of civilization, let alone a productive economy.  And, breaking through either guardrail creates the likelihood that other things will begin to go wrong for you very shortly. 

So, is our universe set up as a guaranteed lottery?  

The answer is obviously, "yes."  But the lottery isn't guaranteed for any of us as individuals, as a state like Iowa, or as a nation.  Remember that nations die, just like people.  And the outlooks for Iowa and America are in question, right now.  Afterall, America has been at war for the better part of the past 85 years and we've gone from virtually no taxes and regulations, to burdensome levies and deep invasions into our personal and commercial lives.  That's why the special session for the Iowa Legislature is so important.  After 85 years of rising taxes and increasing regulations, its critical for Iowa to take advantage of the economic opportunity at hand.  The surrounding states almost all have higher deficits and are in a position to be taken advantage of if we act now.  And "acting" means steeply discounting our taxes on earned income and dropping everything else to 0%.  If this doesn't put more money in people's pockets, then allow them to pay their taxes with all their deductions.

The laws that have been sighted here can help us make sense of our universe, but we still have to make good decisions for ourselves, as individuals, as a state and as a nation.  Iowa's legislators should not be afraid to discount our taxes when these steps have been proven to work so often in the past, and when neighboring states are so vulnerable to our progressive reforms.

As has been mentioned many times, the Values Fund does not make much sense for Iowa in our current circumstance.  But the Governor and many others are very much in favor of it.  The purpose of this editorial is to call on our legislators to communicate fully with one another before it becomes time to vote.  Iowa can afford a Values Fund only if we have steeply discounted tax rates.  Without discounted tax rates, Iowa runs the risk of having little to show for its expenses when the economic development money runs out, except a larger tax burden for the dwindling number of residents who may still live here.

In closing, anyone who reads this editorial should contact their legislators and let them know that the Values Fund should not go forward unless income and other taxes are steeply discounted.  If Iowa goes from worst-to-first in economic growth through these reforms, then the entire country will have an irrefutable example for reform.  Worst case, the Values Fund should be held hostage, or used as a bargaining tool in order to get duality in a discounted tax system.

BE AN IOWAN TODAY.  SUPPORT DISCOUNTING!