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.