Social Security

Social Security is not difficult to understand. There is not and never has been a Social Security Account where our Social Security taxes are held until we retire. The money used to pay each person receiving a check from Social Security is provided by contributions of today’s workers. With the exception of the first year of this program, that is the way it has always worked.

Today’s workers pay social security taxes that are used to pay today’s retirees. So why is there a crisis? There are several reasons, but it still boils down to fewer workers and more people receiving Social Security checks. Today, it takes three workers to support one person receiving a Social Security check.

Each year we have fewer babies in America and as generations pass, there are fewer workers. Between 1973 and 2011 there were 54,559,615 abortions in the United States and birth control further reduced our birth rate. Americans had fewer babies in 2011 than in any year before, according to an annual summary of vital statistics.

The problems caused by low birth rates are not limited to Social Security. Many retirees will not pay very much in the form of income tax and they will be such a strong voting block that politicians may grant them many tax-savings.

More workers can be solved by higher birth rates or more young immigrants that tend to have large families. Our choices are simple. Have more children or increase the number of immigrants from groups that are likely to have more children.

Debts for our Children: What happened to the Conservative Concerns?

Conservatives have piled on the demands for more border security to defeat any type of immigration reform. The idea was to demand so many outrageously expensive ‘security’ demands that there would be no hope of any immigration reform. Now it seems that it has all backfired. We may again double the size of the Border Patrol, add 700 more miles of a fence and add/upgrade millions of dollars of electronic equipment and pretend that the cost will come from some fantasy about the amount of money we will see increase because of immigration reform.

First, if the politicians believe they are spending money that will actually come as a result of immigration reform, limit any dollars spent to that money. In other words, everything must be paid with the money that this immigration reform saves or generates. The one study that predicts this new tax money/savings explains where and how this magic money will appear. The politicians say they believe it. Simply include the ‘source’ of this money as the only source to fund everything in this bill. Why not? If the politicians truly believe the money will come from the sources in this study (taxes from the ‘new’ legal workers, savings in emergency room visits, etc.) then write it all into the law.

The truth is that many are so afraid of the cultural changes (not jobs, not crime, not welfare expenses) that the conservatives added so many repugnant requirements that they were certain the bill would fail. Now they are really in trouble.

However, all my worry is for nothing. All of the bills require that a plan to secure the border include certain items. 

America

Americans love a good debate and loudly disagree. However, our freedom to disagree seems to have devolved into hate for fellow Americans. We seem to have lost our ability for civility. Instead of arguing facts, we argue emotion.

The Internet has the potential for national debate, discussion and communication. The Internet could diminish the influence of the handful of people that control the media. However, the handful of people use the tried and true method of controlling us. They identify a group that can be blamed for all of our troubles and we eat it up like manna from heaven.

We can’t wait to blame everything on the present administration, political parties, political groups, welfare queens, illegal immigrants, liberals, conservatives and welfare programs. Reading the comments on many blog sites is educational. 95% of what I read on blogs is simply anger and hate. Few comments are fact based. The blogs have become a feeding frenzy for anger and prejudice. Many are really text messages where one person directs a comment (usually something nasty) to another person that made a comment.
Trillions of dollars were stolen from the hard-working American taxpayer to bail out banks, corporations and Wall Street gamblers. Yet we follow the lead of the media and focus on blaming some minority group for high taxes, the national debt and unemployment.

President Van Buren took office as a national depression set in and he said, “It is not the objective of government to make men rich – nor repair their losses.”

Anyone that invests in the stock market, real estate market or a business does so in hopes of a profit. Win or lose (just like in Las Vegas) the profit or loss belongs to the investor. The idea that tax dollars can be used to cover losses is insane.

While Americans blame minority groups and fuel hate-based debates without facts, the super-rich continue to rape the American taxpayer.

·      90 percent of ‘farm subsidies’ go to the super rich mega-farms

·      Foreign aid requires that food be purchased from these super-rich mega-farms and shipped around the world and the result is that local farmers in starving nations cannot sell their crops. It would be cheaper and far more effective to help the farmers in those starving nations. At least one major food distributor has refused food from the USA for that very reason. We are only helping the rich American farmers and crushing the local framers

·      Foreign aid also requires that weapons must be purchased from the American arms industry. For two decades (do the math) the Egyptian military received 3-billion dollars of such aid – and our leaders cheered during the Arab Spring.

·      Russia and China receive foreign aid.

·      Wal-Mart and many big box stores receive huge tax breaks that helps these large companies to put small retailers out of business

·      Forcing motorists to use Ethanol is a huge boon to farmers

·      Using tax dollars to keep military bases open because these bases provide jobs to civilians is a huge waste of tax dollars.

·      After the military begged Congress to discontinue purchasing more tanks, our Congress ordered more tanks because the creation of tanks that are not needed or wanted by our military creates jobs.

·      War has become our number one business as a nation.

·      While we argue about who should pay for health care and who must be insured, the pharmaceutical and medical industries laugh all the way to the bank! We spend 50% more on health-care than England, Germany, France and a host of other countries while people in those countries outlive us!

Debate can be healthy. However, communication and debate require two things; talking and listening. A few facts might also be nice.

Did You Know?

Did You Know?

A ‘like’ on Facebook places a tracking cookie on your hard drive and every site you visit is captured by Facebook. The tracking takes place even after you sign off from Face Book and is sent to FB the next time you sign-on to FB.  Your personal information and the sites you visit are sold to advertisers and anyone willing to pay the price.

Facebook has the right to copyright any photo or video you post. (When you signed up for FB you clicked “I agree” and like 99.9% of us you did not read your agreement. So what? If you post a photo of a news event that you witness, for example, you can’t sell it to the media. FB owns the copyright.

Not to beat up on FB, but the same applies to much of Twitter and most social media sites. You agreed. Your personal information is tracked and you agreed to the copyright by these social media sites.

Alternate e-mail addresses, like those used on dating sites and by some FB users, can be easily traced back to you. Your name, address, telephone, etc. is easily available. Those ‘safe dates’ where you meet someone at a restaurant and he does not have your real name, address, etc. – well they are not really all that safe.

Wal-Mart, Target and a lot of businesses receive government tax subsidies. For example, a state or city might wave all property taxes for Wal-Mart so that ‘new jobs’ are created. Small businesses, that pay property taxes’ cannot compete and close their doors.  (read on – it gets worse).

Some states allow businesses to keep the state income tax it collects. You read that correctly. Instead of mailing the taxes to the state, some businesses get to keep those payroll taxes and simply inform the state that the employee paid x amount in state income tax. Small businesses send the taxes they collect to the state and cannot compete and close their doors. (read on – it gets worse).

Studies show that the ‘Wal-Mart’ effect creates very few new jobs because so many people are put out of work when the small businesses that cannot compete go under.

Why do politicians cut these deals? Because we are lazy and uninformed. The politicians know they are killing local businesses, but they can fool a disinterested public by claiming hundreds of new jobs.

What to do?

Create an email group that lists every political representative that needs your vote and email the hell out of them.

 

Of Course You are Right!

Here are some important facts.

1.       The average American’s reading comprehension level is between the 8th the 9^th grade.

2.       People want quick solutions that confirm their beliefs.

3.       Millions of others support your belief. You have innate knowledge and do not need to read and understand facts. The voices tell you and you are right!

Bumper sticker solutions, 30-second sound bites, and a group to blame fits our needs. Low reading comprehension and little effort is required for us to ‘understand everything’. “Obama did it.” “Its Bush’s fault.” “The liberals caused it to happen.” “The Tea Party is to blame.” “The Conservatives did it.” “The illegal immigrants caused it.” Google any of these statements and you will find up to 14 million hits. Think about it: 14 million people support your opinion. (No matter what it is!)

Don’t like Google? ("I hate Google" shows 190 million results). Find ‘your’ station on the radio or television to verify that your opinion is right.

We vote and argue over bumper-sticker wisdom.

·         The answer to high gas prices: drill baby, drill.

·         The cause of high taxes, overcrowded emergency rooms and class-rooms, crime and unemployment: illegal immigrants.

·         Obamacare

We seldom demand results beyond our petty prejudices.

Look at the price of gasoline. Until the early 70’s, we paid about 32 cents per gallon at the pump. After the oil embargo was lifted, gas prices were suddenly a dollar more, then two-dollars more, than three dollars more. Nobody asked why? There was a lot of talk about our need to become less dependent on foreign oil. Images of Iraq, Iran and even the Saudis were used by politicians as they demanded that the USA become free from foreign oil. The inference was that fuel prices were sky high because of those mean old people in the Middle East.

Realty: we purchase most of our foreign oil from Canada and Mexico. (Geography, anyone?)

Reality: oil is sold on the world market. If we drill the price at the pump is not going to change very much[1]. Prices are controlled by the super-rich of the world.

Illegal immigrants: cause and effect. Instead of debating the issue, let’s watch Alabama and other states that enacted laws to push illegal immigrants out of their states. We should see lower taxes, uncrowded emergency rooms and uncrowded classrooms. We should see significantly lower unemployment rates as the unemployed snap up those jobs at fish and poultry processing plants, hotels and motels. Social service agencies, criminal justice agencies and schools will soon be asking for smaller budgets. Those states should soon have a tax surplus.

Illegals Cause Sky High Taxes

If our real concern is the cost we pay because of illegal immigration, then tie any laws to reduce the number of illegal immigrants to a proportionate reduction in taxes. Simple math formulas should be included in these laws. (We have 1000 illegal immigrants in our state. They cost us 100,000 in taxes for our schools, welfare, police, etc. Every less immigrant means a reduction of $100 in our tax needs).

Health Care "Check Please!"

Arguing about who pays for health-care is a national pastime.  This is like five people arguing about who pays the hundred thousand dollar check at a restaurant. (I had the salad and fish, you had lobster and John ordered soup with his meal. We must dividing this hundred thousand dollar check fairly!) The real argument should be with the cost!

Why do we pay more per person for health care than France or England? Why are they paying 50% less per person and outliving us? Just like the people in the restaurant, our first concern should be about the outrageous cost.

Our limited reading comprehension levels, our prejudices, our ‘certain’ knowledge that required no research, fact-checking or any thought about other opinions serves the super-rich. They steal trillions while we argue over the winner American Idol[2].

Will We Change? No, we can't even understand what we read.

We will not let facts get in the way. We prefer bumper-sticker solutions, bumper-sticker causes and thinking just enough to come up with a bumper-sticker.

 

 

 

 

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[1] Michael Levi, a senior fellow for energy and the environment at the Council on Foreign Relations

[2] Should have been called Americans Idle

To Reduce War . . . Sell More Arms????

Goal: A world without war.

Solution:     Arm the world with modern destructive weapons and tell everyone to discuss peace. Provide foreign aid with the requirement that other nations use those American tax dollars to buy American arms.

The United State of America was responsible for 66.3 billion dollars of arm sales abroad. The land of Democracy, freedom and love for the world provided three-quarters of the arms sold to other nations and groups around the world.

Those involved in the production and sale of U.S. arms, lobby hard to make certain we keep every nation well-armed. Eventually, many nations we armed turn on us or our interests and we need to purchase newer arms to supply our military as we go to was against the nation or group we armed.

Many Americans criticize foreign aid without understanding why it should be criticized. Critics site ‘the needs at home’ when complaining about foreign aid. This is because they think foreign aid to be a form of ‘do gooder’ help to another country. Our foreign aid is a help to American corporations, mostly in the arms or farm industries.  For example, we poured billions of dollars every year into Egypt with the requirement that Egypt’s military spend the money on procuring weapons. Today it is popular to express dismay about the control the Egyptian military has over the people. We armed that military and expected them to control their people. Yet, when the people revolted in the Arab Spring, we acted as if we wanted the Egyptian people to be free from the military all along.

If the United States wants peace, stop selling arms, stop overthrowing governments, stop assuming that what worked in an isolated country in 1776 will automatically work in nations older than hundreds of years with a dozen other nations living right next store.

Not surprisingly, many people fear the loss of jobs if we curtailed the sale of arms to foreign nations and reduced our military spending to what the military says it needs. I wonder if we could list the value of a dead human to the U.S. economy? Let’s see, the weapon used generated x number of dollars to x number of workers. produce and the result was one-hundred dead women and children.

Neither the sale of arms or the military should exist to provide jobs. Military bases should not exist to provide jobs. The fact is that when the military states they no longer need the production of a particular tank or a particular military base, our leaders refuse to allow the military to cut their budget. But that is another intelligent thought.

 

“Those that fail to learn from history, are doomed to repeat it.” ―

George Santayana’s often repeated quote is simple to understand. Learn from history of be doomed to repeat it. It is difficult to learn from history without knowledge of history. Sadly, this is where we begin. There is a lack of historical knowledge. Why does it matter?

Suppose you trip over a rock and fall into the mud. Every person walking down that same path trips over the same rock and falls into the same mud. Because nobody remembers the ‘history’ of walking down that path, everyone trips and falls into the mud every single day.

So here we are: walking down a path that was walked before. The same rock and the same mud await.

Let me put it another way.

“For a while, it seemed impossible to lose money on real estate. But then the bubble burst. The financial sector was paralyzed and the economy contracted. State and federal governments struggled to pay their domestic and foreign creditors. Washington was incapable of decisive action. The country seethed with political and social unrest[1].”  The time was 1837. Read it again and think about how this knowledge of history may have influenced those that lost a fortune on real-estate investments at the turn of this century.

Patriotism, respect for the military, love of capitalism, love of democracy are all admirable qualities and perhaps our finest characteristic as a people. Knowledge of history reveals how we allow these sacred beliefs to be misused to manipulate us.

There are many valid viewpoints about taxes, healthcare, and war, providing for the elderly, providing for the disabled, religion and immigration. Although we may engage in heated discussions and arguments, we must never be unwilling to consider another point of view and the possibility of compromise.

On July 4^th, we celebrate the compromise known as The Declaration of Independence. For almost a year, the Founding Fathers argued over the wording. Jefferson was frustrated as his original document was edited and changed.

We treasure the compromise of The Constitution of the United States. It took over 168 days to write the Constitution and there were many, many revisions. Each version required compromises.

We’ve been a nation of one people from many lands that argue, disagree and reach compromises. Politics is said to be the art of compromise. Dictatorships and fanciest regimes lack compromise.

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[1] America's First Great Depression

Economic Crisis and Political Disorder after the Panic of 1837

Alasdair Roberts Cornell University Press