(5/29/2005)
Capitalism is what made America the greatest economic and military super power on the face
of the planet. However, run away capitalism will destroy America, unless it is harnessed.
But first, the American people need to know what a harness looks like before they can use
one.
For most people "capitalism" means business, but
for some people capitalism is a game, similar to the board game "Monopoly". The
object of both the board game and the real life game is to build wealth through the
accumulation of money, real estate, and corporate equities. But, unlike the board game,
which is just for fun, the real life game is played for keeps, and their are real life
consequences for the losers.
When I first started playing the board game
"Monopoly" I was completely honest and I would win or lose based on the roll of
the dice and pure chance. However, I learned that if I was the banker I could slip myself
some extra cash and properties, when no one was looking, and I would always end up
winning. I knew it was dishonest, but it was kind of fun just trying to see if I could get
away with it.
I think that a dishonest mentality is what has happened to
some of America's most successful capitalist, and it's this small group that is ruining
the game for everyone else.
What if the record high gas prices are really just a
collusion and conspiracy among the big oil companies and the formers oil executives, who
are now running our government, to fatten their bottom lines? Last year ExxonMobil
reported a record profit of $25 billion on record sales of $256 billion.
What if the war in Iraq is really just a manufactured
conflict designed to pump billion dollars into the military-industrial complex? The
U.S. has been in Iraq for almost three years and the cost is approaching $400 billion
dollars.
What if Bush's Social Security privatization plan is
really just a scheme to help Wall Street bankers make piles of cash? It is
estimated that the cost of establishing and managing these private accounts will be well
over $1 trillion dollars over a ten year period.
What if these extremely high federal deficits are really
just part of a plan to bankrupt the federal government so that its assets can be acquired
for pennies on the dollar? The U.S. government owns assets in excess of $100
trillion dollars and these assets belong to the American people, unless it becomes
insolvent, then they will belong to the highest bidder.
It is obvious to me that because of a few dishonest
multi-billionaire capitalist players the playing field is no longer level. They have
tilted the playing field in their favor by hoarding their wealth, by not paying their fair
share of taxes, by manipulating the rules of the game (laws), and by monopolizing their
positions of power and influence through ruthless, corrupt, and illegal practices.
One way these capitalist have been monopolizing their
positions of power is through the federal tax code. They have successfully lobbied enough
government legislators to change the tax code to favor them, and to prevent potential
challengers from rising up to their level. In fact, they have been so successful at
manipulating the tax code that middle class workers now pay a higher percentage of their
incomes in taxes then do multi-billionaires. In fact, the richer you are the less you have
to pay in taxes, and even less if you are willing to be dishonest. And if you are willing
to be disloyal to America by hiding some of your wealth in one of the off-shore island
banking centers, that now hold over $10 trillion dollars from American capitalist, you can
avoid paying even more taxes.
America's tax code, which was made legal by the sixteenth
amendment to the Constitution, was designed to work the opposite way that it works now. In
fact, up until around 1950 most middle class workers were not required to pay any federal
income taxes, zero, and the estate tax only taxed the extremely large estates. Also, the
top tax rate for the highest income earners was over 90%. It was this type of highly
progressive tax code that made America the greatest economic and military super power on
the face of the earth, but that all changed starting with the Reagan administration.
The Reagan administration reduced the number of tax brackets
from 16 down to 2, and it reduced the top tax rates from 70% to 28%. This change in our
tax laws resulted in a huge tax cut for the very rich, and it moved everyone else into a
higher tax bracket. These tax cuts coupled with massive increases in military spending
caused the federal deficit to skyrocket adding almost $2 trillion dollars to the debt in
eight years, and another $2 trillion in the four years following his administration.
The Reagan administration also doubled the Social Security
tax resulting in huge surpluses into the Social Security lockbox which were immediately
siphoned off to pay for his huge tax cuts for the rich. This tax increase also had the
effect of further shifting the tax burden off the rich and onto the backs of middle class
workers.
As a result of Reagan's highly regressive tax policies the
people paying the highest percentage of their incomes in taxes were self-employed
individuals making between $40k - $60k per year.
Another example of these dishonest capitalist manipulation
activities was the Savings & Loan "crisis" of the 1980's during the Reagan
administration. Some dishonest capitalist sent their lobbyist to lobby the dishonest
politicians in Washington, and these corrupt politicians deregulated the S&L industry.
As soon as they did the capitalist went to work robbing the S&L's. Eight years later
most of the S&L's were insolvent and the federal government stepped in with a $500
billion dollar bailout. Mean while, a bunch of landowners, developers, and speculators
walked away scot-free with a huge mountain of the taxpayers money, including two members
of the Bush family.
Then there is the dishonest capitalist game of illegal drugs
and illegal immigrants, which kind of go hand in hand. The capitalist who are in the
business of trafficking illegal drugs and immigrants do not report these activities, they
do not pay taxes to the IRS, they are not regulated by the government (at least not that
we are allowed to know about), and they don't directly associate themselves with these
transactions.
The illegal drug business in America is estimated to be as
high as $100 billion dollars a year. This billion dollar black-market industry has spawn
another billion dollar industry to launder that dirty drug money. Some believe the war in
Afghanistan was really about getting rid of the Taliban so that drug cultivation could
resume.
The illegal immigrant business is just as big and just as
profitable as the illegal drug business. The illegal immigrant business has been providing
low cost labor for the past 50 years, and during that time this mostly Mexican labor has
built most of the real estate developments in Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and California.
And now these cheap Mexican laborers are used to maintain all that developed real estate
and to work in the fast-food businesses the landlords own.
Now, the dishonest capitalist are working a whole new bunch
of scams. Like the scam to rip off the trillion dollar Social Security system through a
corrupt privatization plan. The Medicare scam that is giving hundreds of billions of
dollars to the already highly profitable drug and insurance companies. The "kill the
estate tax" scam so that the dishonest capitalist can keep all their ill gotten
gains, forever. And there is the biggest scam of all, the scam to bankrupt the federal
government so that it will be forced it to sell off its trillions of dollars in assets for
pennies on the dollar to the highest bidder.
If Bush and the Republicans in Congress are successful in
getting these scams enacted into law our democracy and middle class is history.
Also, the Forbes list of the "400 Richest
Americans" is fiction. The people at the top of this list are not the richest people
in America, not by a long shot. The peoples who's names should be at the top of the list
are not even on the list. They hide their identities just like they hide their ill gotten
wealth. They do this because if the American people ever found out who they are, and how
much wealth they posses, their would be a non-stop chorus of public out-cries for more
progressive tax laws, criminal investigations, and campaign finance reforms.
I point my finger at President Bush and the Republicans in
Congress and blame them, but by now it should be obvious who is whoring themselves for
who. And the Democrats in Congress get their campaign money from many of the same people
who fund the Republican's campaigns, and they don't want to stick their necks out too far
and end up unemployed, or dead.
So it appears that these dishonest capitalist are winning the
real life game of "Monopoly", and the politicians in Washington are
co-conspirators in this treasonous effort. If these dishonest people win this greedy
capitalist game the American people are going to be the losers. And if the American people
do lose this game they will need to learn how to live like Mexicans because they will no
longer have any real upward mobility, no real opportunities, no real wealth, and no real
government representation.
Several of my friends who are self-employed small businessmen
are totally brainwashed by the right-wing's propaganda. They believe that a flat tax, no
estate tax, Social Security privatization, and a smaller federal government are good for
them. When I try to educate them about some of the history and current realities they
appear to understand and agree, but then they keep right on parroting the same backwards
right-wing ideology. I really don't know what it would take to un-brainwash them, except
maybe a harsh dose of reality that hits them directly in their wallets, or hits one of
their close family members. However, I'm afraid when that moment comes it will be too late
for all of us. Their regret and sorrow will be wasted emotions.
The American people have been busy rolling the dice, talking
to their friends and family members, and watching television when they should have been
watching the bankers, lobbying their elected government officials, and suing the
corporations that even looked like they might be doing something wrong. I guess if we had
been paying closer attention to our history lessons instead of our business lessons, or
what silly show is on TV, we wouldn't be in this mess right now.
Most Americans are oblivious to the mess our economy and
democracy is in because they still have decent paying jobs, they get to vote, and they
have easy access to goods and services. However, by the time the harsh reality of what we
lost becomes obvious it will be too late to doing anything about it.
Don't wait until your regret is all of our sorrow before you
open you mind to the truth. If you wait until it's to late the "trial of tears"
will be from your eyes and it will lead you to a place you don't want to be.
The following quotes, charts, and images should help to
clarify my points, and expose the urgent need for immediate corrective actions.
"I see in the
near future a crisis approaching. It unnerves me and causes me to tremble for the safety
of my country. The money powers prays upon the nation in times of peace and conspires
against it in times of adversity. It denounces, as public enemies, all who question its
methods or throw light upon its crimes. Corporations have been enthroned, and an era of
corruption in high places will follow, and the money power of the country will endeavor to
prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the people until the wealth is
aggregated in the hands of a few, and the Republic is destroyed." - Abraham
Lincoln (1864)
"America
will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be
because we destroyed ourselves." - Abraham Lincoln (1864)
"If we do not
attack organized crime with weapons and techniques as effective as their own, they will
destroy us." - Robert F. Kennedy
"We have always
known that heedless self-interest was bad for morals; we now know that it is bad for
economics." - Franklin D. Roosevelt (January 20, 1937)
"My father told me
that all businessmen were sons-of-bitches, but I never believed him until now." - John F. Kennedy
"Economic justice
can be measured by the screams of anguish from the very rich." - John Kenneth Galbraith
"A people that
values its privileges above its principles soon loses both." - Dwight
D. Eisenhower (January 17, 1961)
"Few men have
virtue to withstand the highest bidder." - George Washington
"When I first met
the President, he called me 'Pablo,'" Wellstone jokes. "That lasted a day or
two. Then they started trying to figure out how they were going to get rid of me." - Paul
Wellstone
"The most
formidable weapon against errors of every kind is reason." - Thomas Paine (18th-century)
Bush lies, but the
number don't.
Current Tax Rates For Self-Employed Individual 2005
Adjusted gross
income |
Tax rate |
Components of tax
rate |
| $0 to $8,200 |
15.3% |
15.3% payroll, 0% income tax |
| $8,201 to $15,500 |
25.3% |
15.3% payroll, 10% income tax |
| $15,501 to $37,900 |
30.3% |
15.3% payroll, 15% income tax |
| $37,901 to $80,150 |
40.3% |
15.3% payroll, 25% income tax |
| $80,151 to $90,000 |
43.3% |
15.3% payroll, 28% income tax |
| $90,000 to $158,350 |
30.9% |
2.9% Medicare, 28% income tax |
| $158,351 to $334,650 |
35.9% |
2.9% Medicare, 33% income tax |
| Over $334,650 |
37.9% |
2.9% Medicare, 35% income tax |
Don't be a sheep unless
you like the idea of living in a cardboard box under a bridge.
George W. Bush Is A Criminal