Stage 8

In one of my classmates recently posted an article attempting to address the issue of Texas's underfunded and poorly financially structured school system( "A Change for the Next Generation" ). I agree with the general idea and intention of modeling our system after Massachusetts' school system, but have reservations about whether or not such an plan is implementable. For one, Texas and Massachusetts differ massively in there tax systems. If you look back at my early blog posts I discuss how schools in Texas actually struggle to pay the very same property taxes that are supposed to fund them. Also, applying this system fails to address the possibility of having a high population but not nearly enough tax money collected to fund the district. This could mean that the state is effectively paying for the maintenance and existence of a portion of the entire school system. Therefore, I suggest that the solution to school funding isn't to reallocate funding to schools, it is first and foremost to remedy our broken taxing system.

Stage 7

        I recently read Andrew Yang's new book "The War on Normal People", which discusses the displacement of a large portion of our citizenry through automation, and I wanted to delineate how automation may affect Texas, how Austin is contributing to it, and some potential solutions.

       Over the course of the last 100 years the socioeconomic trends set forth by the Industrial Revolution have been rapidly manifesting themselves as an increasing emphasis on hyper-specialization and cognitively complex occupations. In other words, our current system rewards mainly those who are extremely educated and capable of tackling novel problems on a day to day basis. This is not currently much of a problem because the U.S. is a service based economy that is in large part comprised of menial labor markets. But, with the unrelenting progress being made in artificial intelligence research, a large portion of our workforce is facing certain unemployment. I can not overstate the importance of this issue. It will cause an unprecedented  economic shift on a global scale.
   
     The same catastrophe will eventually befall Texas as it befalls the rest of the world. So the question remains, is there a way to stop it ? Well, the most we can do is mitigate the potential ramifications is by ensuring a certain amount of economic stability for our populace as they learn to transition to new occupations. I recommend UBI, that is universal basic income, as a potential solution. The money for such a program can be garnered via a value added tax on the use of automated systems by companies. Thus, we can gain the financial resources necessary to abate poverty and economic hardship while increasing our populations chances of success in multiple domains. For a multitude of further information on the topic I suggest reading the book.

Blog Response

In response to the blog post "Save the Planet" by the blogger whoistexas, I agree with the overall sentiment of your blog post. Climate change has the potential to become a disastrous issue for the geopolitical maintenance of our economy and planet. Governor Abbot's lack of interest in environmental concerns is indeed alarming, but our urgency also needs to be tempered by a willful acknowledgement of the political climate in which we live. It may take a few years before demonstrative environmental progress is made in Texas. Patience will be a facet of our power during this time, for if we push and pursue our goals too hard we risk coming off as fanatic. This fanaticism for altering our laws or standards will be what deters republicans from seeing reason in regards to this issue. The route that UT and A&M took is the correct one, express some alarm and provide suggestions.

Overall though good blog post. You covered the key points nicely while providing a nice motivated layer of opinion.

Rehabilitating Texas's tax code

          Texas has long been well known for it's eccentric taxing system, in which the fiscal burden is put on property rather income. This system, as discussed in my previous blog post, has serious ramifications for various facets of Texas' government. Such as over-encumbering the school systems with tax obligations. Now in order to properly put forth an argument on tax reform, it will be necessary to systematically analyze the process and justification for taxation.  

         What are the ingredients to a modern functional society? Well we take a society to be any organization of conscious entities, with set rules and boundaries on actions. Meaning that, in being a member of a society, you voluntarily limit yourself. A modern organization can be said to be one that takes advantage of creating hierarchies as an outgrowth of the system itself. Such that, power is attained by the opinions of others as a result of ability and/or social status (meritocracy, democracy). A modern organizational structure is markedly different than those of past societies, because past societies relied upon lineage or superficially attributed divinity as indicative of ones place in society (monarchies, fiefdoms, caste systems). The next question to answer is, what obligations does the governing body have to the rest of its citizens after the society is formed? 

        This is where tax systems come in. Taxes are a method by which the governing body maintains, improves, and adapts the system. Following this logic, the distribution of monetary resources, on part of the government, should be auspicious for its citizenry. Education falls into this category, because it is one of the most successful methods for increasing human capital, while being a public good that the government devotes itself to.   It is in my personal opinion that education of our population should be held as one of the highest goals of our government. 

       Therefore, Texas is in desperate need of tax restructuring. It has, what i believe to be, a moral obligation to place the education of its citizenry as one of its highest goals. Not maintaining an under productive tax system. One of the only methods I see for doing this would be a flat income tax and minor increases in sales taxes. This would allow us to mitigate property taxes and the financial burden on the school system. The exact details of such a policy elude me, but it is immediately obvious that something must be done to alleviate the strain and promote the success of our school systems and therefore ourselves.

Stage 4

The article i read was Asking Texas voters to swap higher sales taxes for property tax cuts by Ross Ramsey. The article begins by proposing a cent increase in sales taxes as a potential amelioration to the fiscally encumbering property taxes people are experiences. Although one cent seems prima facie to be minute, it would actually lead to a collective increase of 5.1 billion dollars in tax revenue. The author then begins to dissect the various motivations by tax increases such as relieving some of the tax burdens put on public school districts. Which pay an enormous sum of money, something on the order of 14.7 billion annually. The article ends on the legislative measures that are being taken to ensue some form of change in the coming years in regards to Texas's tax code. The articles is analyzing the situation in regards to how Texas might go about correcting its tax system. The crucial assumption underlying the authors analysis is that the system is broken. I would agree with this. Texas needs to mitigate the extent of financial burdens that schools are experiencing and learn how to divert fiscal responsibility on to other mediums. As the author discussed, minor changes in sales taxes may be able to cover large portions of said burden. Legislators and political officials should be looking into all manner of options as to how we might begin to sustain a more productive tax system that allows us to flourish, rather than falter. This includes, potentially, an income tax. I understand that most Texans are against an income tax but when confronted with the ramifications of draining our education system, I hope people will begin to see reason.

 The article i decided to read was Women and the draft, what it means to be an American it covered, as stated in the title, the current political climate in regards to female military conscription. There were two main points the article was trying to make, the first was that the ideas that undergird opposition to female conscription are archaic and nonsensical, and the second was that women have already served in vital military positions and deserve recognition. The substratum of the entire discussion about this topic has to do with the topic of patriotism and what it means to serve ones nation. Now, it can be argued that the foundations of societal development are predicated on mandatory military service and self gratifying patriotism. How else is a society supposed to defend its existence, if it does not believe in its own worth, or the necessity to defend it? In the past this role was put on men mainly because of the diverse nature of the responsibilities between the genders, from a biological perspective, puts the responsibility of child rearing/ care taking on the females. Simply put, the men sustain the system while the women carry it forward. Now that we have reached an age in history where these roles have become antiquated, and we are swiftly crawling out of our biological inclinations, we are learning that instincts can be impediments. It is time that we include women in conscripted military service. Although, Americans need to have a discussion about how we can ethically and efficiently assign people to there respect roles. A factor in this conversation may be gender, but it should not be the decisive factor. So in conclusion i agree with the nature of the authors argument. It was tenable, succinct, and articulate.

Blog Stage Two.

On Saturday, February 15th, Fox News published an article titled "Trump Declares National Emergency to Build Border Wall". The article is about the current situation in regards to Trumps unflagging attempts to gain funding and support to build a wall on our southern border. It illustrates the current situation by providing some context about the five week long government shut down, and the origins of the current trends in opinion on both political sides of the aisle. The reason why I think that people should read this article is because it properly captures the blatant hypocrisy of Trumps actions.  Trump claims to be a republican that abides by certain philosophical tenets, yet he is currently breaking one of the central maxims of what I believe to be proper conservative philosophy. That is, not exerting or expanding federal power on the part of ones own goals or principles. Allow me to clarify, I do believe that we should have a border. But my problem lies with how Trump is currently attempting to employ every method at his disposal to accomplish this goal. This article properly captures the ramifications of Trumps actions. He has received criticism from both Democrats and Republicans for his attempts to coerce his political  enemies into submission i.e. (The Government Shutdown, Declaring a State of Emergency). Neither of these of things have shown any sign of working. In fact the opposite could be said. It further accentuated the negative characteristics of Trumps presidency, and has lead Democrats to gain more social traction in the political atmosphere while we our at the cusp of our next presidential election. In conclusion, people should read this article because it properly captures how ostensibly positive political campaign promises can manifest as desperate and tactically inept actions.