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The FairTax Series: America's Road To Prosperity- Part 3

In this installment of the FAIRTAX series I want to cover the impact  of jobs, particularly manufacturing jobs, coming back to the United States. When Bill Archer (R-Tex.), was the chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, the tax writing body of Congress, he often quoted a survey of 500 international companies located in Europe and Asia.

When asked about the impact of the elimination of taxes on capital and labor, and instead have the taxes based on consumption, 400 of those CEO’s, that is 80%, said they would build their next manufacturing plant in the United States. The other 20% said they would move their entire operation here. The reason these companies have located overseas is partly because of the cost of taxes on capital and labor, combined with the complication and costs of complying with the tax reporting required, and the overbearing regulations applied. I covered the cost of compliance in my previous installment of this series (Part 2: The Cost of Compliance).

I don’t know how many employees these companies have but many of them are huge. The FAIRTAX would bring all of those jobs back to our shores, to our states, to our cities, to benefit We the People of the United States of America instead of benefitting the people of other countries. What would happen if we built televisions, cell phones, computers, and other electronics here? What would happen if we began to make our own steel again? How much better would calling tech support be if you could understand the person on the other end of the phone? All of these things are likely with the FAIRTAX.

The complication of the tax codes, combined with the tax rates, make it much more cost effective to manufacture overseas and ship the product back here. With NAFTA and GATT in place the import costs are minimal. It is cheaper to ship products from Europe and Asia, even with the cost of fuel, than it is to manufacture products here. Part of the problem is onerous regulations and authoritarian bureaucrats but the main problem is the tax structure. Paying bribes to officials in foreign countries, and paying to ship products here, is cheaper than paying lobbyists, taxes, and bribes here. That is a sad commentary on our tax system.

I have seen credible estimates that as much as $3 trillion is sitting, just sitting in foreign banks, offshore due to the tax structure we now operate under (maybe operate is the wrong word here). If that money could be brought back without the onerous taxes levied now it could be used to refurbish or build new manufacturing plants and hire people instead of giving it to corrupt politicians who will use it to buy votes for more corruption to occur. This money would mean jobs to American citizens hurting for employment. In the last few years, Texas has provided about half of the jobs created in the United States. The reason companies move to Texas from other states is that they have no state income taxes. Imagine how much that would mean to the nation if our federal government instituted the same policies nationwide. Other countries are looking at this plan as a way of taking business away from Europe and Asia. Are our politicians going to wait until it is too late to make a difference? What would the FAIRTAX do for the 3.5 million people who have lost jobs in the last few years? I believe we would see that number reverse and go beyond our wildest dreams!

A large part of the opposition to the FAIRTAX is the power it would remove from politicians. Under our current system, Washington D.C. determines winners and losers in business, and of We the People, by controlling who gets what in the way of tax breaks, tax rates, and incentives to create jobs or not. With a consumption tax each individual person and company would be able to determine how much tax they paid. Politicians currently keep the welfare rolls expanding by playing with the tax rates, who pays, who doesn’t pay, and uses these aspects to demagogue public opinion for the benefit of their political fortunes instead of looking to the benefit of We the People.

READ:  Wake Up and Smell the Rosen

Corruption and waste are huge factors in the financial condition of our nation. Much of this can be eliminated with the FAIRTAX. Not all of that corruption and waste can be eliminated with the FAIRTAX because there isn’t any one single answer to all of our financial problems. I believe that if we can get the politicians out of our pockets we can make huge strides in the prosperity of the United States. Regardless of how many issues there are it seems to me that the tax situation is the biggest single issue preventing prosperity in America.

I support the FAIRTAX because I believe that taking the power away from government and placing it in the hands of We the People is the most important thing we can do to insure the growth of American exceptionalism and prosperity. I have confidence in the people to make responsible decisions with the money they earn, much more than I have in politicians to make those decisions. The FAIRTAX is the best plan I have seen to level the playing field, give every American a piece of the pie of responsibility and the best opportunity for each of us becoming successful in life.

If we are ever going to return to the prosperity of yesteryear, we are going to have to change the way our taxes are structured. Granted, there are other problems but this is where we need to start. We can use the FAIRTAX to get control of the tax structure and remove it from the power brokers in Washington D. C. and can once again find ourselves with more jobs than can be filled instead of the unemployment rate of 9.1% we now have.

The FAIRTAX is, to me, the most effective and easiest way to get government off our backs and out of our pockets. It is the best way to regain the manufacturing infrastructure that won WWI and WWII. It was the production of war materials that provided the means for our soldiers to defeat Nazi Germany and Japan. Today we must depend on our enemies to provide us with the electronics and other means, including steel products, to defeat them should a war become reality. That doesn’t make a lot of sense to me when we can once again be the manufacturing leader in the world. Will you help?

If everyone who reads this will write their Congressional delegation with requests that it be implemented we can get it done. I encourage you to collect all of the installments of this series and either send them to your representatives and senators or use them as reference for your letter. I have 2 more installments to go, The Pre-bate, and My Conclusions, that will be out soon.

The legislation is H.R. 25 and can be found at the Thomas Congressional Library web site. The bill is very short and very simple to read. It is up to We the People to make the changes necessary to promote prosperity, not wait on self-serving politicians to do what is best for us. The bill can also be found at this link.

The next installment will cover the FAIRTAX Pre-bate, what it is, what it does, and what it means.


Bob Russell
Claremore, Oklahoma
December 9, 2011


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  1. After reading these articles, perhaps in he wrong order, I don’t really understand what is good and what is not. I assume the consumption tax, the present tax system, and perhaps some other proposed tax systems are bad.
    Why not just put out a paper saying exactly what it is without defending it or without any critism of competing system.
    Don’t worry about my critisizing it; I’d have to first know exactly what it is.
    Thank you
    Yours truly,
    Ed Taylor