Quest for a Simpler, Fairer, More Efficient Tax System

As Congress gets serious about fixing our unfair, unproductive, and absurdly complex tax code, there’s a valuable source of ideas and solutions: the rest of the world. Other rich democracies have found ways to collect all the revenue they need with lower rates and much simpler rules than the ones Americans are stuck with. Dutch taxpayers need only 15 minutes, on average, to file their taxes; in Britain and Japan, the average is 5 minutes.

In this presentation Reid examines how virtually every proposal from the left or the right to fix our tax code has been tested in other countries. Republicans are talking again about a “flat tax;” a dozen countries have tried it. Democrats want a “carbon tax” and a “Wall Street speculation tax.” Those have been tried as well, with mixed results. Internet taxes, soda pop taxes, gasoline taxes, marijuana taxes, prostitution taxes, Value Added Taxes – other countries serve as policy laboratories to test all these ideas. (And some lucky nations get by with no taxes at all). A comparative study of taxes in other rich democracies can show us what to do –and what not to do.

Now that the Supreme Court has upheld and modified ObamaCare, there's more need than ever for this talk, based on a plain-language explanation of the bill. The Health Care Reform bill of 2010 -- known as the "Affordable Care Act," or "ObamaCare" -- is the most sweeping change in the U.S. health care system since Medicare was created in 1965. It has sparked a passionate political response. But surveys show that few Americans understand how it works, or how much it is likely to cost. T. R. Reid, one of the few Americans who has actually read the 2,500-page law, explains the essential elements of the plan in plain English. T.R. assesses, objectively, the views of supporters and critics of the new law, so that audience members can come to a judgment of their own. The recent drama surrounding the Supreme Court's surprise ruling makes the story even better. 

All the other free-market industrialized democracies provide health care of high quality for everybody --and yet they spend far less on health care than the USA. How do they do that? T. R. Reid circled the globe (twice) to find the answer; his reporting led to the national best-seller "The Healing of America" and two documentaries for PBS Frontline. Reid finds that it's not all "socialized medicine" out there; many countries cover everybody with private doctors, hospitals, and insurance companies. Japan has more for-profit hospitals and more private health insurance companies than the U.S. --and it has better health outcomes, at less than half the cost.

Reid explains not only How these nations manage to cover everybody, but also Why they do. The explanation of "Why?" involves a moral commitment that the U.S. has not been willing to make.

T. R. Reid explores the challenge the EU poses to American political and economic supremacy. Now comprising 27 nations and 450 million citizens, the EU has more people, more wealth, and more votes on every international body than the United States. It eschews military force but offers guaranteed health care and free university educations. And the new “United States of Europe” is determined to be a superpower. Tracing the EU's emergence from the ruins of World War II and its influence everywhere from international courts to supermarket shelves.