Monday, October 13, 2008

Give them just enough

The market started coming back today without intervention from the Gov. I can imagine the conversation.

"We need to give them something or else they will take it all." "Well I am not giving up mine." "What do we do?" "I don't care but we need to maintain the status quo!!" "Bernanke, fire up the presses!!!" "Oh wait, it is fixing itself without our help....quick, get a press conference together so that we can claim responsibility."

Just to let you know...the status quo is a fancy way of saying more of the same. We had an opportunity to make a change on the heels of this crash but we didn't take it. Who knows if the crash is over...this could be the calm before the storm.

Here is a funny way of looking at the numbers. The market fell 41%, roughly, over the last year. People lost 41% of their retirements or savings. The citizens of the U.S. are taxed so much for everything we do that we lose roughly 41% of our current worth. We work until June every year before we get to keep any of the money we earn.

And we are relieved that the status quo is maintained. It reminds me of the boiling the frog story. If the citizens lose 41% of their worth quickly, we panic, but if the government takes it from us slowly throughout the year via payroll deductions, taxing every stage of production, sales taxes, property taxes, etc, we sit back and accept it.

I don't get it. Think about how much better off we would be if we could keep that 41%. Last year the citizens of this country donated 295 billion dollars to charity. The government collected 249 billion dollars from individuals in taxes. Add this up and you get over half a trillion dollars that can be used for charity. If we didn't let the government tax everything to death that amount would go even further. Remove a majority of the abusers of the system and the corrupt actions of those who manage that money and you have yourself quite a nice system that would benefit those who truly deserve it and not foster the perpetual welfare state we have now.

I don't have all the answers but at least I am thinking about it. Do your own due diligence and think about this subject. Welfare is not bad...we should help our fellow man, our community, our families, but when an entity takes free will away from an idividual something is wrong. I have never questioned the need for charity; I have questioned the means by which this money has been procured.

Free will...if you are religious, a God given gift. If you are not religious, the perk of being an autonomous, sentient being. Either way you look at it we are having ours stifled.

Be good to one another,
Rev. Biggus

2 comments:

NICK said...

OK DAD U CAN QUIT THE REV. RUN ACT NOW

NICK said...

AND IM BEING SERIOUS

"REV. BIG NICK"