Crime. Number two, we need 911 for corporate crime. Lets call it 611. If you know of a crime, call it. That goes along with the whistle blower. The one thing you should know, finally, about corporate crime, is this city in the pocket of the corporate criminals and the corporate criminal lobby. There is a coalition of players, including center for auto safety, taxpayers against fraud and better markets pushing back sort of the anticorporate crime lobby. You can join with them if you want to sign up. Thanks very much. [ applause ] thank you, russell. You know, ralph nader often talks about the corporate crime waive besieging the country. There is your evidence. Maybe well see it on cspan or cnn or fox sometime soon. Our next speaker is a Senior Advisor with friends of the earths nuclear campaign, which works to reduce the risk of Nuclear Power to the public. He was appointed chairman by president jimmy carter in 1977, where he stopped the construction of eight large Nuclear Power plants, and pioneered a massive conservative energy program. He has been general manager of large public agencies, including the Los Angeles Department of water and power, the new york power authority, and the sacramento municipal utility district. He is the author of many books. David freedman. [ applause ] energy is the ultimate good news bad news story in the world. The lights go out, everything stops. I mean, its the magic that keeps our cellphones charged. It is just an invisible everything about our life that we enjoy. But it is also the two most awesome threats to mankind that exists. If we dont control Atomic Energy, and stop it from blowing us up, the burning of fossil fuels is creating such a greenhouse effect to heat the earth up to make it uni nhabitable. Listen carefully to what i have to say, these things that will be discussed wont make much difference if we dont stop the awesome threat of the atom bomb, of the atom. If we dont get off of this pois poisonous diet, called natural gas and oil. And if we keep on making these speeches about the threat of Climate Change, but dont fight for the kind of actions that will really reduce it and eliminate it, were hypocrites. Plain and simple. [ applause ] let me be blunt about it. I hold the people that make the speeches about Climate Change so eloquently, and offer nothing much that Mother Nature can notice, i hold them in higher disregard than the dumb folks that just dont believe in the Climate Science at all. If you understand the problem and then dont take or even advocate the actions to cure it, you got a lot more explaining to do than the dumb folks that just dont know whats going on. Now, most of the younger people in this country have forgotten about the nuclear threat, but that doesnt mean it went away. In the age of terror, we ought to be doubly afraid of radioactive trojan horses in our midst, which is what the Nuclear Power plants are, and thats the path to the bomb. How in the name of heaven do you think north korea ended up with nuclear bombs, because we promised them a Nuclear Power plant. There is no peaceful atom. Once a country, you know, enriches you rauranium, they ma bombs. Weve got to go back that Atomic Energy is an awesome threat. The good news is, and i have the pleasure of discussing this with president carter the other day, im 90. He is 91. We said we never thought we would have the joy of living long enough to see solar power cheaper than Nuclear Power, and thats what we have today. Were out of our cottonpicking minds if we continue with Nuclear Power with the awesome danger it poses and the lesson. How can we tell the iranians not to make a bomb if we continue advocating Nuclear Power plants. We just dont have a decent mirror. And then there is the not only the danger of the power plants itself melting down, but they generate waste that after 50 years, we havent figured out what to do with it or where to put it and it stays radioactive for centuries and centuries. There is a moral issue about continuing to make waste that we dont know how to handle. There is only one answer. It is called birth control. We need to stop making it. And we need to bring the Nuclear Issue up to the forefront on par with Climate Change, and it is something that we need to get under control. The great news is that a modern day edisons have learned how to harness the sun and harness the wind where we can do that, and actually cheaper than Nuclear Power or fossil fuel plants. It is kind of breaking my heart to see that on the technical side, we have invented the answer, and we dont have the intestinal fortitude or common sense to override the power of the yentrenched. If the threats are even half as awesome as i describe them, and they are, we have to believe the scientists and we have to understand the nuclear problem. We face these threats to eliminate the one home we have, mother earth. Frankly, we dont have the am unto send everybody to mars, and i dont think that if we all went up there, there is resources for us to live. We dont have any other option. Our only home is not getting yet burning up, but it is heating up and about to catch on fire to the point where it will become uninhabitable. We are relying on the marketplace to solve us. Now, give me a break. We could pass all the carbon taxes in the world, which weve been trying for 40 years unsuccessfully to pass, and it would not electfy the railroads. It would not require detroit to start making all Greenhouse Gas free motor vehicles, and it wouldnt require the Home Builders to have a Greenhouse Gasfree home. You know, when a problem is really tough like say getting rid of ddt, we just freaking outlawed it. If we had lead in toys, we didnt have lead tax. We just outlawed it. Why in the name of common sense is not any of the socalled liberals or our president even advocating something as straightforward as simple as a one sentence law. Everything new must be Greenhouse Gasfree. [ applause ] i mean, why are we going to all these indirect measures kind of hoping that maybe it will happen when the threat is described as the most awesome thing to ever happen. If your Family Doctor called you up and told you that your kids were eating a poisonous diet and prescribed a different diet, it really didnt even cost any more, i think 99 out of 100 people would switch diets. Thats what we have on our hands. We are weve got 30 years left, according to the scientists, and they could be wrong one way or the other. 30 years to go down to zero in the use of fossil fuels. Now, you dont need to be an Energy Expert to figure out that if we reduce fossil fuels 3 a year every year, it would not be that awesome a task, we have the technology to substitute solar wind storage. And if we mandated it happen, it could happen. My suggestion is that we pass a law requiring a 3 a year reduction in fossil fuels, and to the extent that someone doesnt comply, then they are taxed a large amount of money per unit of carbon by the Internal Revenue service, and it is a nonbypassable tax that the company has to absorb that they cant pass on. The problem with the socalled carbon tax is the people pay. They just pass it on and it doesnt necessarily require the right behavior. My idea would be to require the right behavior, and then to the extent that a company doesnt obey, then they have to pay a tax out of the corporate profits, and that now, i know what youre thinking. All of those ideas, freedman, they sound good, but they wont Pass Congress. Well, hell, i know that. Nothing will Pass Congress right now. If thats the test what were for, were doomed. There is one sure way of failing, and thats not trying. And harry truman didnt think that healthcare would pass when he first proposed it. I mean, if we dont give the young people an Energy Policy worth fighting for, what good are we . It might take a while to get it passed, it might be that we can get it passed in a number of states first. And then it will be shown to be enforceable without hurting anybody. In fact, prices will end up being lower. But unless we give the, if i might put it this way, the Bernie Sanders folks an Energy Policy worth fighting for, then it is never going to happen. And we need to stop having a test of what the existing congress or the existing president will pass. Because this democracy cant function unless we have something worth fighting for, fight for it, and get people in congress and in the white house in the years to come that will enact it. But i think there are enough green states in this country right now that if we got together on a program of saying, no were not going to rely on adam smith to cure the most awesome problems on earth. Were going to accept the fact that we must start now. You know, the politicians will tell you and announce, we have a great goal in 2050, were going to do suchandsuch. In 2040, were going to reduce pollution 40 . Ask them what theyre doing in 2016. In 2017, in 2018. Because scientists are telling us that we have got to reduce the emission of Greenhouse Gasses on a steady path downward between now and 30 years. And right now, it is still going up. And you know, it is an applause line to say youre for 100 renewable, but the question is what are we doing to get there. I say when something is really important, why at do we have a government for. To do the things you cant do individually. If there ever was an issue that required governmental action, it is the climate issue and the Nuclear Issue. It is really not that hard. I mean, i think we have the luxury of being able to make a transition. So we could pass laws that in effect said by 2025, every car sold in america has to be Greenhouse Gasfree. We could say in a few years, every new building, the building has to be Greenhouse Gasfree. The technology is there to make it happen. We know how to make electric cars. We can even make Hydrogen Fuel cell cars, heat bumps in buildings and use the Renewable Energy to heat our homes. We sure know how to electtrify the railroad. Rural america, with 2 loans back in the 30s, a program of green bank and 2 loans would ele ele electrify, become renewable. It could make millions of jobs. It could be the greatest adventure this country undertook in a long, long time. But incidentally, it might save our homes from getting burnt up. That is what is under way now. I know im probably speaking to the converted here. And we spend too much of our time talking to each other. My request to this audience and the people that see this talk is to find somebody that is not concerned, and get ahold of them, and make them concerned. And every time you see a member of congress, or anyone in public life, tell them our house is on fire, by gosh. We need to put it out. And the nuclear threat, all it takes is some terrorist stealing a tiny bit of plutonium out of someplace in the word and blowing up new york city. The Indian Point Nuclear plant, 25 miles from new york city, is a far greater threat than isis is. Yet nobody hardly ineven knows exists. Weve got to start making this our priority. Otherwise all the other priorities wont matter. Thank you very much. [ applause ] thank you, David Freedman for that humorous yet sobering, sobering yet humorous account of the dangers facing us in climate policy. Our next speaker is a former tax lawyer from washington, d. C. , as visiting professor at mount julio college, seminar on poverty. He is in the process of preparing materials that will be free on line, which will be for high schoolteachers to teach students about the federal income tax, the federal Corporate Income tax, and one on Social Security and medicare. He is the author of if americans really understood the income tax as well as ten tax questions the candidates dont want you to ask. John fox, welcome. Thank you very much. First of all, it is a privilege to be here to hear these marvelous speakers. So im delighted this conference is going on. I want to talk to you this morning about a topic dear to my heart that strikes fear in the hearts of most americans. Taxation. I want to tell you about talks ive been giving over the last two years, which may lead you to think, john, are you really serious . But i am. For the last two years, ive been giving talks to High School Juniors and seniors in u. S. Government and economics classes about how to think about a fair and sensible individual income tax. Okay, now you can smile. But the fact is that the teachers find it very useful. They tell me they wouldnt have any idea what to teach, and yet they learn so much of my talk is relevant to what they do teach. Best of all, they tell me that most of the students, not all, of course, but most of the students get it. And the other thing is, it is really fun to do. Now, ive been giving these talks because im convinced that the dreadfully low level of discourse and debate about tax issues is attributable in good part to the failure of our Education System to address it. This has left the public uninformed and so vulnerable to politicians say about it. I believe this is more than just a major failure in our civics education. I believe it is dangerous. So in the few minutes i have with you, here is what i tell students in the course of an hour. Taxes fund the agencies and operations of the federal government, but they do much more. Federal tax policies help shape who we are as a nation, and what we will become. They touch upon nearly every aspect of our lives. Just think about all those provisions in the tax laws. Health care, housing, education, jobs and businesses of every kind, marriage, divorce, death, children, child care, charities, charitable giving, the environment, on and on and on. In my view, except for the u. S. Constitution, federal tax policies collectively represent the most comprehensive expression of american values. Yes, i tell the students, your personal wellbeing and that of our nation depends upon found and sensible tax policies, and i tell them that if you Pay Attention whe attention for this one hour, you will know more about tax policies than 99. 7 of all americans. Maybe not 99. 4, im not sure. So why focus on the individual income tax. For two reasons. First of all, it by far produces the greatest revenue to fund all Government Programs. What about the Corporate Income tax. No, the individual tax produces more than four times the amount of the Corporate Income tax for all sorts of reasons you can imagine. Secondly, the individual income tax has become something of a monster. Ideal income tax would be reasonably fair, reasonably simple, and economically sound. But our income tax is frequently unfair, unimaginably complicated. Americans need to understand why, and the imperative to fix it. Now, why is it such a monster . Because it attempts poorly in most cases to do much more than collect taxes on our income. Now, while it imposes progressive tax rates that run from 10 to 39. 6 , those tax rates apply only to taxable income. The fact, is and you dont hear this generally, only about half of all individual income is subject to tax. More than 100, well more than 100 tax breaks shelter the other half of all individual income, and that means that last year, close to 7 trillion of individual income went untaxed, and i did say trillion. In general, those tax breaks dont make social or economic sense. Now, when i refer to income, im referring to any form of economic gain, whether direct such as salaries or Fringe Benefits at work, which ill be talking about in a moment. When i refer to a tax break, im not talking about the ordinary and necessary expenses that businesses are entitled to, and ordered that they be taxed appropriately on their profits. Im talking about special relief involving our personal lives unrelated to any trade or business. Now, a fair tenant of a basic tenant of a fair tax is one that fac taxes, equal size with equal incomes would pay roughly the same. But far too often, our tax burdens depend on our ability to avoid taxes. Not on our ability to pay them. You see, under our tax system, your actual tax liability, whether youre winner or loser, depends in good part on the number of tax breaks and the size of those tax breaks that youre entitled to. So here are three principle examples. Winners and losers. They are somewhat simplified. Winners work for employers who pay all sorts of Fringe Benefits. Disability, Health Insurance, contributions for child care, handsome contributions to retirement plans for them. Thousands of dollars never appear on their tax return, even though you know they have real economic value. The loser works for an employer who pays perhaps the same, but all of it is salary, so all of it is on her tax return. Second, winner owns his or her own home, perhaps a Vacation Home as well, and deducts the interest on both homes. For example, the winner might own a principle residence that he bought for 650,000 or borrowed 600,000, borrowed 350,000. Deducts interest on that, property taxes, any number of homes, even five or six Vacation Home