Seeing Is Believing - Or Is It?

Most of us like "man on the street" interviews & skits.  Please click here to see one that takes seeing is believing to another level.

Ineptocracy

"We're doomed" - is the typical exclamation I hear when people talk to me about many of our recent postings on ReturnToExcellence.net that point out that 51% (& growing) of households (not people or income earners) did not pay any income taxes in 2009.  The Financial Times reports that "for the first time since the Great Depression households are receiving more income from the government than they are paying the government in taxes." Not trying to deliberately pour salt in your open wound but please add a minimum of another 20% of households who do not pay enough income tax that they have or feel any fiscal responsibility for our nation either. 

Today some 50.5 million Americans are on Medicaid, 46.5 million are on Medicare, 52 million on Social Security, five million on SSI, 7.5 million on unemployment insurance, & 44.6 million on food stamps & other nutrition programs.  Some 24 million get the earned-income tax credit, a cash supplement.  In 2010 such payments to individuals were 66% of the federal budget, up from 28% in 1966."

BO will of course promise even more of the same along with increased taxes on the top 1% (millionaires & billionaires who make more than $200,000 per year) while professing to be for the middle class & the most vulnerable Americans that make up the other 99%.  An establishment Republican opponent will campaign for something a little less in spending than BO.

This of course is the theme of Death Of Democracy that I have written about for years – it explains exactly what has happened to every democracy in history as voters discover they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public treasury by finding candidates who promise the most benefits.  America is just the latest example of this as the mindset of the country changed from freedom & abundance @ the founding to apathy & dependence today -  accelerating quickly to total bondage - the last stage.

With the above stats in mind it is not a winning strategy for any presidential candidate to complain that everyone should have skin in the game.  Who can think that presenting this idea this way, @ this time, is a winning issue when you are looking for a majority.  Even the excellent candidate Michele Bachmann seems to beg for "everyone to pay @ least $1 in income taxes."  All of the horses are out of the barn that is on fire.

People who have skin in the game want everyone else to have skin in the game. I was interviewed on the Anna Little radio program in January 2011 & it took less than five minutes before one of the co-hosts asked me a question leadingly recommending that everyone have skin in the game - he implied that many people don't & that the FairTax would solve his perceived inequity. This co-host was an obvious conservative with skin in the game looking for help from people who do not have it readily to give.

Now it is human nature to not want to have skin in the game if you are able to play the game & either don't have any skin in the game or think you don't.

Now luckily for us the nation does not turn simply on who does not pay income tax – it turns on who votes & more importantly who they vote for which in our case for non-income tax payers will be BO if he can get them to the polls.  The 2010 mid-term election is representative of other mid-term elections in that thankfully only about 41% of the 218,000,000 people eligible to vote actually voted. The 2008 presidential election had a voter turn-out of 57% - an increase of 5 million from 2004, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. This increase included about 2 million more black voters, 2 million more Hispanic voters, & about 600,000 more Asian voters. Other than Asian voters the other two groups overwhelmingly favor BO who will call on all of his community organizing skills – skills that he has been trained in & perfected following the Alinsky method - to get voters to the polls.  Please remember that people of substance are so hopelessly outnumbered that if BO does a good job of getting every homeless person (we used to call them bums) he finds & motivates with $5 & a pack of cigarettes to the polls we are indeed doomed – @ least for now. 

When you look @ the type of people that BO will call on to support his re-election campaign you can easily see how his entire presidency has been a lie perpetrated on people who have either not educated themselves to understand the assault upon us all or the very poor & needy who live to be taken care of.  He will not call on people who are working two or three mediocre jobs – many of whom will still vote for him.

The negative principles of Death Of Democracy are the most powerful forces in any mature election process because they have brought down every democracy in history within 200 years of inception.  We know better in America based on history so it is only our fault if we let it happen to us.  We are @ the doorstep.

So what are we to do with so much working against us? – double or triple your efforts to influence people especially those of the more statist mindset.  Write your own blog or @ least send these messages to an additional three people & follow up with them to make sure they see that the skin they have in the game is that their entire way of life is about to change starting in 2013 if BO is re-elected.

Thanks to a long time member of our readership who sent along this new word & definition that clearly describes our situation:

"Ineptocracy"

(in-ep-toc'-ra-cy)

- "a system of government where the least capable

to lead are elected by the least capable of producing,

and where the members of society least likely

to sustain themselves or succeed,

are rewarded with goods and services paid

for by the confiscated wealth of a

diminishing number of producers."

Responses - Free Market Solution For Trophy Generation

As was very predictable Professor Friedman carried the day in the responses to the subject message last night with such comments as "great links, I used them, thanks" & "Wow! Have we come full circle back to the 70s. I always admired Milton Friedman; now I know why. Thanks for sending!"

Free Market Solution For Trophy Generation

Thanks to a long time reader for sending this link showing the OWS chapter in Oakland CA.  The video presents the socialist root of the OWS movement. 

My posting today doesn't focus on the hardcore socialists shown in the video but rather concentrates on the fraction of the occupiers who are disillusioned with their future prospects for making a living in the real world.  Such people have been drawn to the demonstrations hoping to find an answer to their problems starting with they can't find a job.  Without thinking for themselves they feel they did what they were told were all the right things to do like going to college - but majoring in fields that have very few employment opportunities.  These people now have tens of thousands of dollars in student loans & some are desperate enough to look to these occupations.  The smart ones should have already given up on this approach.

Please contrast the point of view of the people in the above video with the message on this link of Professor Freidman being interviewed by Phil Donahue sent to us by one of the many doctors in our readership.

Naturally Professor Friedman provides the answer to all in the aforementioned disillusioned Trophy Generation (aka Millenials - defined here as (young) people who are the first to come of age in the new millennium - they voted for BO in 2008 better than 2 to 1).  If these people are honest they will admit they need both job counseling & training in a field other than their college major in order to make a living.  Politically they also have to admit that all of BO's programs & policies are designed for them to have no hope or chance @ a life that is not full of government dependence.  There are about 5 jobless workers per job opening so BO has all of these people exactly in the dependence mode he wants them in.

Below are Andy Kessler's thoughts that define the problem after visiting the Occupy San Francisco protests.  Professor Friedman provides the solution above – not just for the Trophy Generation but for all of us.

---Andy Kessler Directly From OccupySF – WSJ October 22, 2011--- 

Maybe this is all really about disappointment.  I spoke to a young woman who had clearly bathed more recently than most.  I asked her why she was at OccupySF. She told me she'd done all the right things. Studied hard. Graduated college. (She was an art major.) And now she can't get a job. It didn't matter. It's all messed up. She was lied to.

Of course she was. She's a member of the Trophy Generation. Win or lose, you get a trophy. We embraced mediocrity to an entire generation of kids during good times who are now finding themselves mediocre in bad times. There still is that American dream: Go to college, get a job, buy a Prius. But like it or not, studying art or humanities or gender studies won't get you there. Marissa Mayer at Google complains she can't find enough computer-science majors. Civil engineers are getting hired sight unseen.

Responses - Electoral Map & Voting Standards

Thanks to everyone who provided their comments re last night's subject message.  Below are three very varied thoughtful responses.  A fourth was provided earlier today by the great Thomas Sowell on FBN.  When asked if BO could win Dr. Sowell thought for a moment & replied "I am afraid he might."

 

---Response #1---

 

I don't know where you go to get all this information and facts.  Makes for interesting reading.  As you mention, BO, even though hated by the general public, can still win.  He is a very good speaker and will visit strategic states he needs to win the election to talk to people there about his programs & will get plenty of TV coverage.  When he tells the public in these states, that the GOP is not doing anything constructive, and he is, it will stick with many dissatisfied people.  Remember, the wise person running for office, always mixes fact and fiction together, to get the public thinking his or her way.

 

---Response #2---

 

The election is a year off...DON'T PANIC ...Since BO was elected, FL, OH, and PA elected both Republican governors and senators...They can switch back, along with IN and NC. Nothing BO does (and deep down you know this) is going to help the economy....he can rant and rave about the GOP and Bush, or the bad weather...most voters just aren't listening. Sure, a lot can happen before the election; it's a full year for BO to screw up even more.

 

---Response #3---

 

Being a betting man, I am going to say that NJ's 15 electoral votes are up for grabs thanks to Chris Christie.  Also, I am predicting that Chris Christie will be the VP nominee if Mitt Romney wins the primary.

Should Christie be the VP nominee and if I were to engage in wishful thinking then several of the New England states including NY possible could be in play.

Is it fair to say that the 47% of Americans who pay no federal income taxes live in the blue states?

Electoral Map & Voting Standards

Just how far our country has slipped (changed) can easily be seen - the above electoral map shows the inside track that BO is on for winning the presidency in 2012.  The fact that this election could even be thought to be close is astounding.  It won't take much for BO to be reelected if he holds all of the blue states on the map.  As more people become dependent on government programs & the Latino electoral clout increases former reliably GOP voting states like Virginia, North Carolina, Indiana, Colorado, & Iowa are either in play or are already lost to BO.

Now the table directly below indicates that we had record federal spending in FY 2011 so many of us are asking what difference does it make who we vote for – is record federal spending what 87 Republican freshman were elected to the House to preside over?  As readers of this blog know the overwhelming majority of these Republican freshman quickly abandoned their fiscal responsibility campaign promises & voted in lock-step with the old guard Republican establishment headed by the despicable John Boehner & Eric Cantor.  Judge Napolitano believes there is only one (big government) party & it has two wings.

Now I certainly am not trying to move the election process forward but it is happening anyway – the first caucuses & primaries are in less than three months.  Herman Cain, the current leading Republican candidate, still has not finalized the details of his 9-9-9 Tax Plan so how in the world is anyone to know what they are voting for with him – a slogan, & we see where that got us with BO.  We have readers in many early primary states – like NH & SC.

So that we are not fooled again it is best to contrast catchy one liners from debate performances with years of an actual record.  By this standard the only three unblemished believable candidates are Ron Paul, Michele Bachmann, & Gary Johnson.  For an example of how Mitt Romney betrays this standard please review this link.  Please feel free to provide comments either way.

As has been pointed out on this blog many times recently we have our work cut out for us to hold on to what we got.  I take solace in believing that people of substance will not see their way of life changed by an election that cements socialism in place to be funded through ever higher taxes & ultimately confiscation of assets.

Al Garrett provides a history lesson for us when he writes "Despite his poor record to date, BO may be betting that his re-election in 2012 hinges on next summer's trends, not today's dismal numbers...If actual unemployment next summer is a little better than 9%, BO can claim that his new jobs plan worked.  If the numbers remain above 9% he can say that Republicans blocked key parts of his initiative because they were interested in preserving tax cuts for the rich.   FDR's re-election success in 1936 provides useful historical context.  He won 46 of 48 states in his re-election bid, despite an unemployment rate of around 14% & a stock market down about 50% from its peak.  But the numbers were all a little better in 1936 than they had been in the summer of 1935...BO only needs to win 16 deep- or dark-blue states plus Ohio & Florida in 2012." 

When you start with California, Illinois, & New York (& the the rest of the Northeast) against you the best you can hope is to pull out a squeaker no matter how rotten your opponent.

Response - BO By the #s - Facts Overridden

Thanks for all of the responses to the original subject message – I responded to several privately.  The one below from a subscriber to ReturnToExcellence.net perfectly understood the point & seriousness of the message.

 

"If you go by the numbers in the video, BO is apparently, A LOSER.  When you factor in half of our country does not have any "skin in the game", as we've talked about before, combined with so many poorly educated people who are not able to read the numbers, and an electorate that is half enamored with the simple phrase of "Hope & Change" and the other half so enthralled with the historic notion of having a black president you just begin to see the need to triple your effort to defeat BO. Ladies & Gentleman America is deeply in trouble. Stand up and do what you can to get the BO out!!!"

 

BO By the #s - Facts Overridden

Thanks to our SC businessman for sending us this link of a video that shows every logical reason (pretty close to reasons A to Y posted in August from Bret Stephens column) why BO should not be reelected.  The #s in the video are disastrous for America – all per BO's design.

Please look @ the facts in the above video & contrast them with the mindset of the American people in some recent opinion polls (WSJ & FBN) below which of course backs up point Z that is not mentioned in the above video analysis:

1. 66% of respondents want millionaires & billionaires to pay more taxes,

2. by 51% to 43%  respondents blame Bush for the nation's current economic problems rather than BO,

3. by 37% to 18% respondents support Wall Street protestors without knowing what they are protesting,

4. deficit/government spending has declined in importance to GOP primary voters from 35% to 27%,

5. once BO's jobs bill was understood to be funded by increasing taxes on the wealthy it was favored 63% to 32%, &

6. no GOP candidate beats BO in a head to head race bringing us full circle back to point Z.  

"I worship individuals for their highest possibilities as individuals, & I loathe humanity, for its failure to live up to these possibilities."  - Ayn Rand

Response - A Look Back To March 2010 - Same Problems & Solutions Needed

Thanks to our Wall Street Financial VP for sending us his thoughts below re last night's subject message.  I am honored to have a person of this quality provide his thoughts for all of us to learn – a Wall Streeter of the caliber like those who worked for Cantor Fitzgerald who leaped off a 110 story building on 9/11 – what brainpower was lost for America that day.

 

---Response From Wall Street Subscriber---

 

Doug – your last blog is one of your best ever. You are on fire!  I responded and am enthusiastic about expanding upon your message as I continue to blog to IBD and The Hill.

The stats are astounding, especially the fact that lower 20% pay net -3.8% and the lower 20% to 40% pay -4.3% of all personal income tax revenues.  The stats are worse than I thought. What a great service in advertising these stats. I will now do so in my blogs.

And yet our current very progressive tax system is not enough for many. Many like the Wall Street demonstrators want the top 1% to pay even more. How much more - 50% instead of 40%? Christina Romer, before she accepted the position of Head of Council of Economic Advisors for BO (then subsequently resigned in disgrace) published an elaborate analysis of the impact of tax increases on GDP growth in the US since the end of WW2. Her conclusion was that a tax increase of 1% of GDP will subtract 2% to 3% of GDP. Are the Socialist leaning unaware of this and oblivious of what a 40% to 60% tax rate did to Europe?

But you opine what is a very likely scenario: that BO's secret plan is to destroy capitalism. He is doing this now by shifting blame for slow GDP result of his purposeful economic policies to rants of blame Wall Street, private corporations, and private entrepreneurs.

Let's look at Europe. At present, Greece, Ireland, and Portugal have no access to private financial markets. Two independent European think tanks concluded that the ECB is likely insolvent if one factors in all toxic securities they own. Paul Samuelson, by no means a conservative economist (but a very reputable one nonetheless) in IBD opined that in event of ECB insolvency a new European order may emerge: the world's major creditors such as China and Arab oil rich nations may impose their own solution on the ECB, European banks and thus Europe. This would include 'haircuts' to private creditors and mandated public expenditure cuts. Just as the US became the economic power in Europe in the 1950s subsequent to UK's financial demise, China may have that opportunity in Europe. And with the US now borrowing 43 cents on every dollar soon to be 46 cents some time in 2013, China may have another larger target – us!

Solution is for us to challenge the 'mindset' so ingrained in many Americans as you so effectively point our repeatedly. For us bloggers it is now time to challenge the assumption of perhaps as many as 70% of all Americans (some poll I read recently) that BO is a nice man but weak in economic expertise. Nice or not, this Saul Alinsky disciple, protégé of Rev Wright and Bill Ayers, and the one who hired renowned Communist Van Jones as a 'czar', is in process of destroying our economic lives. BO thinks that by destroying capitalism he will be promoted in a New World Order to share the wealth globally with his Alinsky disciples in charge. In a New World Order, those with the money and the ones who know how to grow the economy will demand BO get lost. This is BO's greatest illusion and misjudgment.

The next election will NOT be 'free' markets vs Nanny State. Why? Because worldwide and clearly on display in Europe, we are witnessing the beginning of the destruction of Nanny states. The ultimate money rich creditors will not stand for Nanny States.

The next election will be 'free' markets vs. U.S. economic collapse / loss of US identity. Bloggers and free marketers – the time to get intimately involved in local, state, and national elections 2011 and 2012 is now! And we all need to work extra hard because of a strong American mindset that is 'economically illiterate'.

A Look Back To March 2010 - Same Problems & Solutions Needed

Following last Friday's DOL unemployment report Carol asked me to repeat the message entitled All You Need To Know About Creating Jobs – this original message of March 8, 2010 is based on a metaphor presented to me by Professor Carbaugh of Central Washington University.  I presented it @ the last several FairTax seminars I have given in NJ & it sticks in people's minds.

 

As background, the unemployment rate in September remained 9.1% meaning that 14 million people who were looking for work could not find it.  More importantly the labor underutilization rate (known as U-6) increased to 16.5% meaning that over 25 million people are now covered by this broader joblessness rate – consisting of the aforementioned 14 million people plus 9 million people who are underemployed (part time but wanting full time work – those working part time out of necessity rather than choice) & two & one half million people who have stopped looking for work.

 

The Washington Times recently reported that the top 1 percent of income earners pay roughly 40 percent of all federal income taxes - the top 5 percent pay some 70 percent.  Meanwhile, the bottom 50 percent of earners pay just 3 percent.  About 47 percent of American households pay no federal income tax at all.

 

According to the Tax Policy Center, the breakdown works like this: The bottom 20 percent pay -3.8 percent (that's minus 3.8). That means they actually get money from the federal government. The second 20 percent gets even more — they pay -4.3 percent. Thus, the bottom 40 percent not only pay nothing, they get cash back.

 

The middle quintile — that 40 to 60 percent zone, which has an average income of $44,000 — pays 3.9 percent of the total federal income-tax revenue. The fourth quintile, with incomes up to $102,000, pays 15.1 percent.

So, 80 percent of American taxpayers combine to pay 10.9 percent of federal income taxes, according to the TPC — about $1 in every $9 of income taxes paid.

Now to those pesky millionaires and billionaires. The highest 0.1 percent of all income-earners (not 1 percent, zero-point-one percent), pay 16.4 percent of all federal income taxes — $1 in every $6 paid. Thus, the top 0.1 percent pay more than the bottom 80 percent, even though that much larger group made more than six times what the tiny top group makes.

BO wants to target "millionaires and billionaires" (although there are only 235,000 of them out of over three hundred million people — and FYI, that's a lot less than there were before BO took office).

 

Want to solve the problems with the above listed unemployment & income tax paying disparities?  You can narrow the degree of income inequality & reinvigorate America's middle class – refresh your memory from a year & a half ago with the piece below.  The numbers may be a little different but both the problems & their solutions remain the same today. 

 

---All You Need To Know About Creating Jobs – March 8, 2010---

 

Due to the arithmetic involved the unemployment rate was unchanged @ 9.7% in February but the more substantive statistic in our jobloss recovery was that 36,000 more jobs were lost in the month. Many people are calling on BO & Congress to switch from working on Healthcare reform & start working on creating jobs. I am asking them to stop working on both & just get the hell out of the way.

 

The way to maximize the creation of value producing jobs that increases our standard of living is for the government to stop its constant intervention & interference in the economy & unleash entrepreneurs & innovators in a true free enterprise system - which is far from what we have had in a long time. BO's policies not only don't maximize the chance for creating such jobs, they don't even minimize it - they virtually eliminate the possibility of any such jobs being produced. And of course this is by design.

 

To understand how value producing jobs are created think of the world economy as a ladder - a metaphor recently presented to me by Professor Robert Carbaugh of Central Washington University. The U.S. is currently on the top rung & developing nations with low tech labor intensive jobs are on the bottom rungs. The other countries are in between. All countries try to climb to the next rung. This works well if the topmost countries create new industries & products, thus adding another rung to the ladder like when we replaced horse drawn carriages that used buggy whips with cars. Older industries can move overseas while new jobs are generated @ home. It is when innovation stalls @ the highest rung that the portion of Americans near the bottom of the income distribution must compete with workers in developing countries. This is what we are facing today as far too many Americans are poorly educated with skills so limited that no employer can use them. It is only through constant brainwashing that the government will take care of you that would allow someone to become so ill-prepared to support themselves that they are now competing with third world people who make pennies a day.

 

Now the government intervention & interference I referred to is not limited to America's government because there is really no such thing as a fair & level playing field in the global economy of international trade. Virtually every country in the world uses tariffs, quotas, quota licenses, tariff rate quotas, export quotas, domestic content requirements, subsidies, export subsidies, dumping - sporadic, predatory, & persistent, government procurement policies, & social regulations such as the average fuel economy standards of cars to protect their workers. Of course the workers needing the most protection are the lowest skilled least educated people. Accordingly, as politicians try to buy votes to get re-elected there is no free & unfettered trade - protectionism of the weak in one form or another reigns @ the expense of the American consumer.

 

All of this falls in line with BO's plans for completing the socialism of America & people's dependence on his government. By pretending to be concerned about American workers he can talk up any program he wants that in reality will not help but most Americans are too ignorant to realize what is happening to them or our country.

 

To BO his success as President depends on the very misunderstanding he claims & pretends to protect. His policies will lead to more stagnation, no value producing jobs, & certainly more government dependence that will reward those statists in power with an anti-American agenda that preys on the populist movement through class warfare & economic illiteracy.

 

 

 

More Solutions - Card Trick Using Cybernetics & Concentration Powers

Four additional readers have responded below that they figured out the original subject card trick – this brings the total to nine out of what I estimate to be in the hundreds who received it. 

 

Our former Mid-west school teacher had a different take when she wrote "Can't tell you how many times I have received this card trick, and wondered how in the heck they did it!!!!!!! You guys are very smart! A+ for all!"  She was a tough grader – everyone who got it should be very proud of their analytical capabilities.

 

Please remember the deception illustrated in the card trick is one thing & it is the same thing BO uses everyday.  That is the ultimate lesson in this series of messages.

 

---Response #6---

 

Simple, none of the cards were the same. i.e.,: K of diamonds, Q, J of hearts became K of hearts, Q, J of diamonds.  It didn't take me 2 days to figure it out, I've been on vacation.

 

---Response #7---

 

The second batch of 5 cards does not contain any of the original six cards. By telling the viewer to concentrate on one card, the trickster hopes to keep them from recognizing that they don't have any of the original cards.

 

---Response #8---

 

I believe the answer to the card trick is that ALL the cards were changed and thus MY card would always be changed.

 

---Response #9---

 

card trip was good - noticed body of subjects were changed to different format.

Solutions - Card Trick Using Cybernetics & Concentration Powers

Thanks to everyone who responded to the original card trick message – five people solved the puzzle.  Four of these responses are below – the fifth (& first one received within minutes) makes up the body of this message including the card images directly below.

 

When I explained the trick to Carol she said "of course, of course" & then in what seemed like total disbelief asked "but how did you figure it out?"

 

The trick is that none of the original cards are in the final set, so no matter which one you first choose, it's guaranteed to be gone at the end. People are only focused on the one they chose, so normally don't notice anything about the other cards they aren't focused on. Like most tricks, it's about directing the audience's focus away from what they don't want you to see.  Exactly like the Alinsky method that BO is using to pretend to be working on creating (value producing) jobs when he wants anything but.

 

---Solution #2---

 

One card was removed and the suits on all the remaining cards were changed. All the cards were different in other words.  I was trying to pick between two cards and happened to remember them both; just noticed the second one was missing too.

 

---Solution $3---

 

All of the original cards that were shown were removed so of course the card I chose was removed. The cards shown at the end of the trick were all new cards.  The original cards were King of Hearts, King of Clubs, Queen of Diamonds, Queen of Clubs, Jack of Clubs, and Jack of Diamonds. The cards at the end of the trick were different.

 

---Solution #4---

 

Doug - I got it.  The results cards displayed after one picks a card are different from those initially displayed so, no matter what card you choose, it is not going to be displayed.

 

---Solution #5---

 

ALL of the cards changed - this was obvious – will try it on Jerry.....................I win the prize of having you and Carol for dinner!!

 

 

 

Card Trick Using Cybernetics & Concentration Powers

Back in August I presented a riddle asking why you can't draw the number "6" in the air with your right hand while making clockwise circles with your right foot – unless you think outside the box.  Only three people presented the correct solution for how to actually do this – there were some that said use your left foot & things like that but only three got the real answer.

In the same brain teaser mode please click on this link to see the relationship between cybernetics & your concentration powers demonstrated by a card trick.  I presented this card trick riddle to the three people who got the  hand-foot-clockwise riddle correct & none of them presented the correct answer.  Also the person who sent the card trick to me could not figure it out & asked for help.

Please offer your answer to this card trick riddle if you find one & I will post it for all to see if you get it correct.  Alternately, if you cannot solve this seemingly amazing riddle but would like to know the answer just let me know & I will explain it to you privately.  There is a very valuable lesson in participating in this exercise – otherwise I would not have presented it to you.

Responses - Letter From The Wall Street Demonstrators' Best Friend

Below are four responses to the original subject message that add to the discussion.

 

---Response #1---

 

Question of the day - Why are we willing to trade the possibility of corporate greed for the absolute certainty of Government greed?

 

---Response #2---

 

Doug - Your Wall Street friend is so right. It is unfortunate, but it's true that too many Americans have been oblivious to the changes that have taken place over the last decades and more people have bought into the Nanny State idea. They have become less willing to do what is necessary to empower themselves. Most college students are taking fluff courses just to get a degree but never really learn anything of value to succeed in life. The only ones who make it are those that learn a trade or profession that they can rely on even in bad times.

 

In addition, they haven't bothered to keep up with what has been going on in the world at large. If they had, they would have realized that the U.S. is well on it's way to disaster ala Greece or other nations that have instituted the nanny principle.

 

Had these young people been talking to their grandparents or other older people, they may have learned the lessons of the grand experiments of Communist Russia or China. In taking care of everyone (take from the rich, give to the poor) they ended up with more poor plus oppression and loss of freedom. As always, the only ones who are rich are those at the top of the pyramid. It's a crying shame that the real history has been taken out of our classrooms and replaced with untruths. I hate to think what this nation will be like when the last of the Depression Generation is all gone. Who will take our place to speak the truth?

 

---Response #3---

 

I concur. Many recent college grads, but not all of them, took easy courses that did not require much thinking. Now they learn - there aren't any jobs waiting for them. Since they have time on their hands, why not demonstrate their frustration.

 

---Response #4---

 

Well written commentary. The author is exactly right. Most of the problems the US is facing are of our own making. We have been on auto-pilot for years, fantasizing that we are "working harder than ever". We have got to get back to free market principles, change the tax code and begin to compete. Otherwise we will fall to second nation status.

 

 

Letter From The Wall Street Demonstrators' Best Friend

Thanks to our Wall Street Financial VP for sending me his comments to a local newspaper where he has been published numerous times.  The letter below highlights so many problems but I am drawn to his call to the hapless Wall Street demonstrators that he walks past every day – calls like so many I have made in my lifetime – to help the very helpless.

 

Dear Editor,

 

Why are many attacking the private economy when it is the private economy that creates most long lasting jobs? These jobs meet real demands of the populace and thus sustain themselves and then create ancillary and additional jobs. Contrast this with the many government jobs that cannot sustain themselves without governments further going into debt. Yet in a recent poll by a 50 % to 44 % margin, Americans favor more not less government involvement in job creation.

This morning I read 2 interviews with Wall Street demonstrators that exactly expressed this sentiment that government should do more. Instead government should do less and allow our capitalist economy to grow in the U.S.  Are we oblivious to the turmoil in Europe due to their failed experiment trying to grow the economy primarily via the public sector?

Perhaps there is some truth in President Obama's comment that over the past 2 decades Americans have gotten a little soft. After all in 2 decades our obesity rate has increased from 17 % to 34 %. Many Americans opt for quick easy fixes such as crash diets which rarely work. Sensible diets plus rigorous exercise work best but take some effort. In same way quick fix stimulus programs mainly just add to our debt. Also despite clear indications 2 decades ago that technology jobs were a wave of the future, many college students chose easy courses and now pay the price. I have been in Wall Street IT for 28 years and note that if it were not for many green card Asians, the U.S. Wall Street industry would be much weaker. We have difficulty finding American technicians.

So wake up America before it is too late and smell the coffee. Support politicians who will open up our free markets again.

And Wall Street demonstrators: I see you every day and wish you would take initiative by learning skills the private economy demands. If so I would be more than happy to assist you in potential internships.

Unstacking The Deck

BO's negative stats are amazing including those showing him losing the election to an unnamed Republican candidate.  The problem occurs when you put any of the current nine Republican presidential candidates in the slot against him – BO wins these match-ups which will only be accentuated if conservatives stay home & protest instead of voting.  Now before you say they are popular vote surveys & they don't count (as we vividly recall from 2000 – or did that one count more than we think?) – the electoral survey is even worse.

The dark blue states in the above map show the states that have voted Democrat in all of the last five presidential elections – these states total 242 electoral votes – only 28 short of the needed 270 to win the presidency.  A similar analysis for the Republicans totals 102 electoral votes for the states that have voted Republican in all of the last five presidential elections.  Hard to think America is a center-right country.

Results of recent polls show that 50% of Independents think that government should do more to help meet people's needs while 44% think government should do less.  When combining Independents & Democrats 51%  are in the do more camp while 46% said government is doing too much already.

Growing Latino populations in Arizona (11 electoral votes), Georgia (16), Texas (38), Colorado (11), & Florida (29) could secure the election for BO without even adding Ohio (18) which goes back & forth between the parties' nominees.  Results of the same poll question indicate that Latinos in Colorado favor more government by 56% to 37% & in Florida by 52% to 40%.  For the record its 59% to 30% in New Mexico.

Now this looks like the deck is stacked against America.  The idea that America can still challenge the statists obvious growing clout is best made if we spread the word articulated by Lt. Colonel Allen West (R, FL) who like Jon Voight & me believes that BO is intentionally destroying our economy.  Congressman West recently said "It's intentional because that's who this President is. The President is a Marxist who believes in the separation of classes." 

As written so many times on this blog BO follows the Alinsky method of community organization, which of course is another danger in the above long list as BO organizes his base of blacks, Latinos, union workers, single women, & the youth vote to win one more for the un-Gipper.  BO's community organization work plays directly against the mindset change that is needed to return America to the excellence of our founding principles. Our job is to convince people that less Government results in stronger economic growth and more jobs & that the current system is not sustainable as is.

All of these stats should make it clear to people of substance that our way of life & standard of living is being stolen right out from under us by the political elites of both parties, who clearly recognize 51% of the electorate when they see it, & given to the poorest, least educated, most unskilled, unaccomplished, & laziest people you can imagine – this happens everyday to one degree or another.

If this is important to you you should make sure that all of your friends, family members, neighbors, co-workers etc. know what is @ stake in November 2012 – namely the possible replacement of free market capitalism in America by socialism.  The results of this approach aren't good either – over one third of Americans under thirty see nothing wrong with socialism.   As BO continues to pretend that he is for America his anti-American plan continues to take hold.  Americans who are being devastated by the powerful force of having no sense of hope in supporting themselves become more disenchanted with the capitalistic system that got them here every day – all per BO's design. 

This is a call to double or triple your efforts because it is just too important not to.  We have the time to unstack the deck but we can't get started soon enough.