Tax the Taiwan way

Want to erase U.S. debt and still fund new, effective programs? Then tax the Taiwan way. I recently witnessed firsthand Taiwan’s thriving economy. Besides capital gains tax, each Taiwan stock trade is assessed a 0.3 percent transaction tax and the top income bracket is taxed at 45 percent, as opposed to our 39.6 percent that Republicans strive to reduce.

Transaction tax may be the fairest mode of taxation since it is assessed on those sufficiently wealthy to trade stocks for “unearned income,” income from no productive work. But Oregon Democratic U.S. Representative Peter DeFazio’s proposed smaller 0.03 percent transaction tax is strongly opposed by Republicans.

This equitable Taiwan taxation system doesn’t affect their work ethic. My son, who has worked in over 40 countries worldwide, describes Taiwanese as the hardest working. Interestingly, Taiwan also enjoys single-payer health care modeled after Canada’s.

How might transaction tax funding be relevant locally? Although Blessings Under the Bridge is a very well-organized, caring program feeding Spokane’s homeless, wouldn’t it be better to have government-funded living wage jobs for these people? For example, they could repair our country’s aging and deteriorating infrastructure, as frequently proposed by President Obama. But again that faces opposition from Republicans, including Cathy McMorris Rodgers.

Norm Luther

Spokane