Tax reform is speeding to a vote in the House and in the Senate. The centerpiece is a substantial reduction in U.S. corporate tax so that corporate tax rates, which are now nominally as high as 35 percent, may sink to 20 percent, thereby — we are told — enabling U.S. corporations to be robustly competitive in an international market filled with countries that have low corporate taxes.
It should be noted that the current effective U.S. corporate tax rate (the rate at which U.S. corporations now actually pay) is already 18.6 percent (per the Star Tribune Nov. 3).
A couple of years ago, when Walgreens was considering a corporate tax inversion that would move its headquarters to Switzerland, I took a peek at the taxes in Switzerland. As a matter of fact, Swiss corporate taxes were lower. But how about Swiss personal taxes? The Swiss federal government had a maximum tax rate of 11.5 percent. Hmm, not bad. The canton and municipal tax combined, however, could be as much as 35 percent. Many cantons and municipalities also had a wealth tax. Of course, each Swiss worker paid 5.15 percent for Swiss social security and 1 percent unemployment tax. It is helpful to know, too, that like many countries other than the U.S., Switzerland has a value-added tax. That tax is a national sales tax and is another 8 percent. So Switzerland pays for highways, hospitals, schools, etc., by lightening up on corporations and loading up the average person's taxes.
Every day you and I drive on four- and six-lane divided highways that stretch on for miles and miles. When we fly, we typically depart from an airport that has the size and complexity of a small city. Then there are all the branches of the military, the 15 Cabinet departments, veterans hospitals, the FBI, the CIA, U.S. Customs and its border patrols, public schools and universities, agricultural research, urban development, natural-disaster recovery, the federal banking system, national parks, the foreign service — these and many more services that we citizens need and very much want.
When corporate taxes are hugely reduced, someone has to pick up the slack. The overall tax burden of individuals will inescapably increase under what Congress chooses to call reform.
Frank Malley, Minnetonka
MASS VIOLENCE AND MENTAL HEALTH
Antisocial personality disorder should be society's real worry
I admire the courage of Jeff Ernst, who wrote about his mental illness and stated that the "overwhelming majority of violence is committed by people we consider sane." ("I am the 'other.' And I'm tired of being a scapegoat," Nov. 9.)
I wish we were more informed about the facts of mental illness. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders lists more than 15 major categories of mental disorders, including learning disabilities, dementia, substance-abuse disorders, psychosis, and mood disorders such as anxiety, etc. But the most likely disorder pertaining to mass killings is antisocial personality disorder, characterized by years of cruelty to family members, children, animals, lack of empathy or remorse and other acts of violence. These people are not "deranged," have not "snapped," nor are out of touch with reality or driven by compulsion beyond their control. Their killings are well-planned.
According to the National Alliance on Mental Illness, 18.5 percent of us will experience mental illness in a given year. Prof. Martha Stout, a Harvard clinical psychologist, states that in the U.S. about 4 percent of the population has an antisocial personality disorder. China and Japan have a rate of 1.5 percent. The percentage in the U.S. appears to be increasing, and Stout presents evidence that the higher rate and the increases are driven by cultural as well as biological factors. Of course, most people who have an anti-social personality are not killers. A large number become business and political leaders who are able to succeed by manipulation and deceit, lack of concern for others, risk-taking, and lack of emotional response.