The Swine Line

As many of you know, I am in Tbilisi, Georgia for the 5th Annual European Resource Bank Meeting.  Day 2 was a day of philosophy and friendship.  The panels today were a nice refresher course in the philosophy behind lower tax rates and less government intervention in the marketplace.     

Mart Laar (MP and former Prime Minister of Estonia) made an interesting comment:  he said that when he took office in the mid 1990’s he was 30 years old.  He also mentioned that his Secretaries were in their mid to upper 20’s.  He said that this young thinking helped him pass the much needed economic reforms such as a Flat Tax.  It started me to think.  That is exactly the problem we have in the U.S.,  politicians are afraid to try new things such as privatizing social security or a Flat Tax.  The likes of Sen. Reid, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, et al have been in office way too long.  Time for some fresh thinking.

Day 3 is about getting the message out.  It is not only enough to have good ideas, people must know about them.  For example, the Bridge to Nowhere would have never been eliminated if it wasn’t for taxpayer groups and grassroots activism.  Today’s panels are interactive workshops designed to share experiences about how to publicize the messages.  Rats, I forgot the pig costume, that would have surely gotten some attention over here.