So they haven't released the name yet

So,William and Kate haven't released the name of their first son and (probable) future King of the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth Realms, so I am going to speculate on the names they have given him. Here are potential (and hopeful) names that could be put together to form his name which will probably be from 4 to 7 names long.
These 9 names are the most likely:

1. George
2. Michael
3. Edward
4. Charles
5. Richard
6. Andrew
7. William
8. James
9. Henry

And then there are the names that some people will want him to be named

1. Arthur
2. Lancelot
3. Percival (King Percival... how elegant)
4. Merlin

It would be so cool to have a King Arthur again... a big name to live up to. Probably not, but one can always hope!

A good post from a Republican Committee

A good report came out of the Republican Study Committee last week, and I agree with most of the paper, https://www.eff.org/document/rsc-report-three-myths-about-copyright-law

They are absolutely correct, we need to reform copyright law. There is no reason that George Gershwin's classic works should be under copyright, and their mention of Steamboat Willey is very appropriate given Disney's previous policies. Disney was a major supporter of that act which extended Copyright to 95 years after the death of the author/composer of a work of music. This means that Rhapsody in Blue won't be out of copyright until 2056, and the earliest works of Louis Armstrong won't be public until 2031, if it was published at the end of his life they will be made public in 2056. Heebie Jeebies, one of Louis Armstrong's earliest and most well-known works will be 116 years old when it finally goes into the public domain. If the length of time it will take for Heebie Jeebies to be released was used as the benchmark, everything written after 1897 would be under copyright. The Jungle Book, most of HG Wells' books, The Wizard of Oz, Tarzan, Peter Pan, and Pygmalion would almost certainly still be under copyright, despite being over 100 years old. Fortunately, the earliest date for American copyright is 1923 because that was the age when Mickey Mouse Forever was passed.

I agree with the Republican Study Committee that we need to reduce copyright, and I agree with our founding fathers that 14 years is a reasonable amount of time. If you can't make enough money in 14 years off a piece of work it isn't that special, and given that extending copyright for a very long period of time prevents works that build off of others, it will be better for our economy.

The War in Afghanistan is a bad war

As everybody knows, on September 11, 2001 the United States of America was attacked by religious extremists whose leader was Osama bin Laden. Proof quickly came out that bin Laden was behind the attack and the United States declared a war on this non-state actor. It often feels like the Afghanistan government was harboring him, but this is just not true. Upon the attack, the supreme leader of Afghanistan offered to turn him over to an Islamic court if Bush presented evidence of his guilt. http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2001/oct/14/afghanistan.terrorism5 If George Bush had done this then we could have averted a major war and saved millions of lives. Everybody knows with the constant reports of deaths in Afghanistan that this didn't happen.

We could have avoided the entire War in Afghanistan and made it a manhunt for a wanted criminal, instead, George W. Bush chose to turn it into a conflict that destabilized the entire country and attacked the government for "helping bin Laden" even though it was the administration his father served in that put them in power in the first place!

George W. Bush had the opportunity to avoid a war and improve goodwill between nations, saving lives, and he refused. He is the worst president in American history and should be ashamed of his actions. Congress should be ashamed that they didn't pass a resolution to negotiate with the Afghanistan government, and I have no idea how this wasn't talked about by any member of Congress in that time period.

A fully-functional corporate income tax code

Corporations will be taxed at a progressive rate based on their net income calculated as follows:

1. A=Total Revenue
2. B=Employee income with varying rates
1. X: Employees that make 50% of the living hourly wage or less will have their total income taxed at 100%.
2. Employees that make at least 50% and below 100% of the living hourly wage will have no deduction on their income.
3. Y: Employees that make at least 100% and below 250% of the living hourly wage will have 100% of their total income deducted from the corporation's taxes.
4. Z: Employees that make at least 250% and below 5000% of the living hourly wage will have 125% of their total income deducted from the corporation's taxes.
5. Employees that make at least 5000% of the living hourly wage will have no deduction on their income.
3. C=Capital Investment in buildings, manufacturing, and other physical assets.
4. D=Amount of money paid to foreigners at rates below the Federal Minimum Wage.
5. E=Total State and foreign taxes

B=X-Y-1.25Z

A+X-Y-1.25Z-C+D-E

A+B-C+D-E equals the taxable income.

Living Hourly Wage is defined as the amount of money needed to be earned per hour to make the cost of living in one year working 1920 hours in one year. (40 hours per week for 48 weeks)

The tax rates are as follows:

1. 0% on taxable income up to 5000 times the cost of living in the state where the corporation is based.
2. 5% on taxable income above 5000 times the cost of living for companies that give their employees at least 5 weeks of paid vacation time and unlimited sick leave.
3. 10% on taxable income above 5000 times the cost of living for companies that give their employees from 4 weeks but less than 5 weeks of paid vacation time and unlimited sick leave.
4. 15% on taxable income above 5000 times the cost of living for companies that give their employees from 3 weeks but less than 4 weeks of paid vacation time and unlimited sick leave.
5. 20% on taxable income above 5000 times the cost of living for companies that give their employees from 2 weeks but less than 3 weeks of paid vacation time and unlimited sick leave.
6. 25% on taxable income above 5000 times the cost of living for companies that give their employees from 1 week but less than 2 weeks of paid vacation time and unlimited sick leave.
7. 30% on taxable income above 5000 times the cost of living for companies that give their employees less than 1 week of paid vacation time and unlimited sick leave.
8. 35% on taxable income above 5000 times the cost of living for companies that do not give their employees unlimited sick leave.

An Addition to the Corporate Income Tax

Our corporate income tax currently is insane. Many large corporations plan their finances to pay little or no taxes, (source 1 and 2) which means the majority of corporate taxes are paid by small businesses, making it by definition a regressive tax on those corporations that can't hire the best tax accountants to cook the books. It clearly must be modified or even replaced.

A corporate tax is however not a bad idea and if done correctly could be an incentive to improve the economy by rewarding activities that are good for the economy and fining companies for activities that are bad for the economy. Robert Reich argues that we need to cap deductions for pay at $1 million and I agree with him, but on top of this the very nature of the corporate income tax deductions should be made somewhat progressive.

Instead of deducting all the pay to employees at 100% like we currently do, I propose that the income tax deduction be made somewhat progressive based off of the state of residence of each employee. With modern software this shouldn't take any longer for a corporation with modern bookkeeping practices to implement. It is not a progressive income tax like the personal income tax in the way that the percentages apply to the entire earnings of that individual. Here is a sample tax structure:

Important definitions

• I define living hourly wage as the hourly wage needed so that an employee working 40 hours per week 48 weeks per year to make the cost of living used for income tax purposes (like previous tax posts). For salaried full-time employees it will be determined by the total pay and benefits in a year.
• This will apply to employees domestic and abroad for all corporations with American management. Domestic employees will have their expected wage calculated as their state wage and foreign employees by the cost of living in their country as calculated by the American government.
• Income is defined as all compensation defined as the sum of stock options, bonuses, salary. Benefits such as education and health care don't count because I consider them to be necessities for a successful society.

Tax brackets:

• Employees that make 50% of the living hourly wage or less will have their income taxed at 100%.
• Employees that make at least 50% and below 100% of the living hourly wage will have no deduction on their income.
• Employees that make at least 100% and below 250% of the living hourly wage will have 100% of their income deducted from the corporation's taxes.
• Employees that make at least 250% and below 5000% of the living hourly wage will have 125% of their income deducted from the corporation's taxes.
• Employees that make at least 5000% of the living hourly wage will have no deduction on their income.

At a cost of living around $20,000 the brackets would be $10,000, $20,000, $50,000, and $1,000,000.
I predict this would have a few positive effects on the economy.

1. First of all, corporations will have a real incentive to pay their employees more money instead of giving all their gain to the top. This will improve the livelihoods of average Americans, and this will make the economy more efficient because the people who will benefit the most from this are likely to spend a larger percent of their income which is needed to grow small businesses that create the majority of new jobs.
2. Secondly, it will penalize companies for underpaying employees which will make it easier for Americans to get started in life because they will be paid more.
3. Thirdly, it is better for the businesses in the long-run. By paying employees more it makes it so employees will be more likely to stay with one company for a career. This means companies will retain more cash to grow in the future, which is good for the employee through immediate compensation, the employer through long-term savings, and the customer through better service from experienced employees, which is an excellent way to retain customers, and increase revenue for the business to invest and grow with.

It just makes sense.

DOMA isn't completely dead yet...

During the last supreme court decision they only overturned section three of DOMA, but didn't touch the other section which states that states

No State, territory, or possession of the United States, or Indian tribe, shall be required to give effect to any public act, record, or judicial proceeding of any other State, territory, possession, or tribe respecting a relationship between persons of the same sex that is treated as a marriage under the laws of such other State, territory, possession, or tribe, or a right or claim arising from such relationship.

Article IV Section I states:

Full Faith and Credit shall be given in each State to the public Acts, Records, and judicial Proceedings of every other State. And the Congress may by general Laws prescribe the Manner in which such Acts, Records and Proceedings shall be proved, and the Effect thereof.

This is a blatant violation of the fourth article of the constitution and maybe the most unconstitutional part of the entire US Code. States must represent all legal contracts entered into in every other state, and because of this the rest of the Defense of Marriage Act must be repealed.

Finish the job.

The Return of Mercantilism

The Electronic Freedom Foundation posted about the real reason that the United States and European Union are pushing for a Free Trade Agreement, and it has nothing to do with freedom, but about copyright control.

Copyright today is out of control. Copyright was originally supposed to create a gain for the artist or inventor that invented the product for 25 years, to encourage creativity by making it profitable for those with ideas to work on them, making society better. When an artist makes something, he/she needs to eat as well, and that means that he/she needs to get paid. Copyright was the mechanism that made sure this happened, by giving the artist exclusive rights to his/her work.

Unfortunately, since 1976 copyright has lasted the entire length of the artist's (by artist I don't just mean paintings, but all forms of art, music, film, books, paintings etc.) life and then an arbitrary amount of time after that, or a set length of time, whichever is longer (typically). Copyright is not owned by the artist, but instead is owned by the corporation that will live forever owning that piece of art that can be a significant part of a culture (like Mickey Mouse or Rhapsody in Blue). I am in favor of copyright, lasting the life of the artist and no longer, but the way copyright is done today does not encourage art, it discourages it by giving exclusive rights to spin-offs to a faceless corporation that doesn't have any real allegiance to any country or anyone (since it can be sold and last forever).

The current trade agreement with the European Union is not about free trade, it is about unfree trade in that it is to restrict the creativity and ingenuity of people at the expense of marginally higher profits for ancient corporations. It won't have a significant effect anyways because people will continue to pirate and get away with it.

I support true free trade, which would meant the free movement of goods and ideas, with reasonable LIMITED protections on pieces of art and technology that will allow future artists and inventors to expand on such important parts of culture. Unfortunately greed and shortsightedness has taken over the minds of our leaders that does not encourage competition, ingenuity, or any other truly capitalist principal.

Let me say it:
I am a capitalist.

I am in favor of a free market that allows the free exchange of ideas and goods across a large area within a reasonable level of safety where people can get what they want and work freely. I am in favor of people being allowed to organize into unions to bargain with their employers, instead of everyone bargaining on their own because unions are the only way to have close to equal ground, which is to have a position of power, and higher wages increase productivity by raising the demand curve for goods and services which improves the state of the larger economy. Capitalism is when there is a civil right to set up a legal business to improve the founders' lives and offer a better service at a better price, and there is a right to fail as well as succeed regardless of size, because new businesses will fill the void of old unstable companies if they fail. The right to fail is a very important part of long-term and short term efficiency. If there is no risk to fail there is no incentive to stay stable. I am in favor of short-term copyrights so that there are real incentives to people inventing and creating, but limited so that other people can build off of their ideas once their potential fortunes have been built. I am opposed to people using regulations to increase their personal gain at the expense of all others because it hurts all other people, and hurts the overall economy's efficiency. Capitalism is when opportunity to succeed is offered, and people have the opportunity to take it if they choose to.

Mercantilism is a wholly different system. Mercanitislim is a restricted market where the transfer of ideas and goods are regulated past the point of reason that increases prices and creates inefficient monopolies. Mercantilism is when people cannot move normal goods across borders, creating radically different prices in different nations before taxes, a hallmark of Mercantilist inefficiency (compare the cost of living in Austria and Germany despite free movement of people and goods between those countries, free trade in Europe clearly isn't so free). Mercantilism is where people cannot organize and people cannot get a living wage which decreases the demand curve in the interest of short term profits which makes the economy inefficient and makes an imbalanced society, and any physicist will tell you that when there is imbalance in a system (density, pressure, etc.) it will balance itself eventually or at least try to. Economics is the same, and this system hurts long-term profits for everyone (see the modern Tsar of Russia... oh wait). Mercantilism is when setting up a business to compete is difficult to impossible for the average person which pushes prices up, wages down, and creativity down. Mercantilism is when established companies that bribe politicians will have the government bail them out. Mercantilism is when a corporation owns aspects of culture that are close to or over 100 years old, meaning those corporations make billions and don't need to create anything for decades. (which at the current rate American copyright will be 100 years in 2023 when the next extension bill comes up) Mercantilism is when there are regulations that benefit the minority at the expense of the majority.

Too make it clear, Communism is simply where everything is owned by the government and the people have no direct way to change the government. Freedom is non-existant, and it is one of the worst systems.

Out of these three major schools of thought, the economy of the United States today is not and has not been truly capitalist since 1976 at the latest, and one can see it in our efficiency and distribution of wealth.