35% Tax on corporate america unless it ends college binge drinking and drug usage?

Joseph Ehrlich, a supposed leading geopolitical analyst and author, released a bit of mind numbing advice for the US government and its inability to wipe out college student binge drinking and drug use.

Now mind you, the govt has never been good at wiping anything out, and the whole phraseology frankly, makes me a bit scared. Why does everything have to be a war? And why is that we can't tolerate any deviation from "cultural norms?"

But I digress.

A report was issued today on college student binge drinking and drug use by the Center for Addiction and Substance Abuse (CASA) at Columbia University and showed that close to 23% of this group meets the criteria for substance abuse or dependence. It furthers that been increases in the frequency of binge drinking and the use of illegal drugs over the past decade.

Now according to Mr. Ehrlich, the the drug scourge continues to consume the youth of this nation and must be addressed immediately. In his 1997 novel, Recapturing America, he warned that America must confront and tackle the issue, or else "drug and substance abuse would become institutionalized," a sentiment which was reiterated by Joseph Califano, former U.S. Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare, and chairman of the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse.

He refers to it as a "...plague surrounding the children of our nation," and offers a solution to the "problem."

He writes:

How can the drug scourge be successfully dealt with?

Politicians like corporations, are chameleons, who can turn into saints if their existence depends upon it. And perhaps if Recapturing America can engender some attention, that someone will get up and do something about it now.

As long as the drug problem remains, institutionalized corruption will endure and so will the disturbing issues raised by this book. Don’t target anything else until success is reached in ridding the country of drugs.

We can direct a condition that unless the corporations of America, working alone or together, eliminate the drug scourge in America, that in two years they will have a 35% tax surcharge until the condition is resolved. There, of course, will be an outcry but, believe me, all my experience with government, corporations and people make it very clear, to my mind, that when you employ the resources of American industry working on an issue, including their vast local and national contacts, that chances are they will succeed. You have to give them incentive and when it’s all over, we all will be winners.

Are you as stunned as I am? It's ridiculous.

First of all, and I don''t even know where to begin, who will pay the surcharge? US! I don't think the corporations will just empty their bank accounts and hand over the tax to the govt. No, instead they will pass it on to you and I. So will be essentially taxing ourselves for the problems of a few so that college kids will quit partying?

Secondly, I think our founding fathers would turn over their graves if they knew that we were even considering such a lame idea. It's not the job of corporate america to police college dorm rooms.

Thirdly, doesn't the prospect of a sober generation, one that has never cracked open a beer until their 21 frighten you? Sure, it's illegal and all but, it's a right of passage that, for better or worse, we have all gone through. Furthermore, it's the height of hypocrisy that we are sending kids over to Iraq that are adult enough to risk life, limb, and death yet, not adult enough to drink when they return.

I don't think this proposal will gain much traction in the halls of Congress, it's actually one time where I'm glad that corporate america has so much sway but, it does hint at a startling new trend in America whereby all forms of personal liberties and vices like smoking, drinking, and unhealthy eating habits are being attacked as threats to our society and to "our" children.