This segment of What’s Ahead discusses two easy and momentous ways to give Americans a big raise in pay, a fitting topic as we go into the long Labor Day weekend.
The first, a flat tax, would be a tax cut for everyone, which would also free up resources and time for more productive pursuits. We spend over $200 billion a year complying with our monstrous federal income tax code. Think about it: That’s more than $4 trillion over the past 20 years. Imagine how much better off we’d be if those resources had instead been spent on developing new products, services, medical devices and cures for diseases.
More than 30 countries have a flat tax.
The second big thing is to remove the suffocating restrictions on Health Savings Accounts (HSAs), among them the limits on how much money can be deposited in them, prohibitions on buying over-the-counter medications and not allowing people who don’t have health insurance to set up such an account.
Real-life experiences, such as state employees in Indiana, have demonstrated that HSAs both sharply reduce costs and produce better medical outcomes.
These two measures would make next year’s Labor Day a happy one indeed.