Is This Really The Change We Were Promised? I DO NOT BELIEVE!
Feb 11 '09
The Bottom Line Dr. Spock once said the needs of the many outweight the needs of the few. I agree. POLITICIANS DO NOT - AND THEIR ACTIONS PROVE IT.
Hi everyone... I will do my best to skip the long intro and get right to the point: I am a patriot and I LOVE AMERICA. Having lived all over the planet I have come to truly understand, appreciate and love the life we enjoy here, and the little everyday things that give us so much to be thankful for, here in the good ol' US of A...
Sadly, many adverse changes have come to bear on our country -- We see "crisis" everywhere we look and we are ALL hemorhaging money -- Regardless of how little of it we started with!!! What makes me even more sad is that in this mess, many people have forgotten about the things that make this place great -- They're too busy drowning in the doom and gloom all around (particularly in the broadcast news) and they've neglected their love for America! After all, we ARE a nation of immigrants - who LEFT another place and came here to make a better life... would any of us really be doing better "back home" wherever that is??
On the flipside of this however, another issue lies beneath, and ALWAYS HAS. It is the issue which IS making American's forget the great things that this place is all about and MAKING them question things. I have traveled to many different nations on 5 continents and I believe people everywhere are asking similar questions . I AM GLAD THEY ARE QUESTIONING THINGS SURROUNDING THIS ISSUE - THEY HAVE A REASON TO! This issue is The Issue of the Rich versus the Poor. This issue is largely tied to wealth distribution, and I hope throughout this article I will make you a believer -- but regardless and whether agree OR disagree, I would LOVE to hear your thoughts -- this is supposed to be about open forum and I wanna hear from ALL OF YOU! So PLEASE - Lets TALK baby!!! Use those "comments" let's START ASKING QUESTIONS TOGETHER!
Here's what this piece is about: It's about promises made to ALL Americans and about the BAD bill of goods we were all just sold. I think I have very valid reason to questions things with this article, FOR THE GOOD OF ALL AMERICANS. We just elected a president who promised us CHANGE! -- Change we could believe in. Well, please read the below - I'm penning my thoughts because in light of today's AMAZING DISPLAY OF EVIDENCE, I say this: WE WERE ALL SOLD A BAD BILL OF GOODS! THIS IS NOT THE CHANGE WE ASKED FOR - THIS IS NOT THE CHANGE WE CAN BELIEVE IN.
Before I dig into this BTW, I want to point out that I GENERALLY LIKE OBAMA, and this has nothing to do with him and this IS NOT an article throwing the guy under the bus! It's only been weeks and let's face it folks -- Obama's got a hell of a task at hand!
Personally, I just hope Obama is as smart as he is a good speaker -- because personally public speech is where W really fell apart, and I think THE SYSTEM just figured out that they should put a guy in in office that IS a great speaker, and DID SO. Thus far, a good speaker is all he appears to be... And to boot, Timmy Geithner just happened to pay his in-arrears income-taxes (AFTER he got put in office). Well done sir - Well done indeed... :( Hrummmmph.
THE PROBLEM IS THE SYSTEM and ALL the PEOPLE RUNNING IT -- I was hoping Obama might maybe be the beacon that RAN AGAINST THIS CURRENT. Unfortunately, that continues to NOT APPEAR TO BE THE CASE.
Obviously OF COURSE I agree that we DO need change! But WE NEED TO MAKE SURE WE MAKE THE RIGHT CHANGES! Not just start "throwing switches" and making a test-tube abortion out of everything in our country!
Let me digress... Getting back to the CNBC-broadcast of the Hearings on Capitol Hill today, while the good parts WERE BRIEF, here's the handful of good ones that are worth discussing - LET'S GO:
1) THE BANKING SYSTEM: Why I am skeptical of the "solution"
To preface this, let me point out: THEY HAVE NOT ACTUALLY SPECIFIED A "SOLUTION" YET - they're still just talking rhetoric! (Probably a very valid reason to be skeptical).
Did you happen to watch the Congressional hearing today, on CNBC, regarding TARP and the banks involved? I did. While nearly all of it was pretty drab, I have to admit; There was one point where it got really interesting. This fleetingly brief moment is what prompted me to write this -- however I must sadly report that otherwise, today's hearings were nearly meaningless, and a sad waste of more tax-payer dollars.
While that's BAD, here's what's REALLY BAD: I learned that most of our so called "leaders" in the house and senate are NEOPHYTES in the areas of Finace and Economics! The majority of what they said and the questions they asked were trite and superfluous. Bernie Frank in particular should BE CHARGED MONEY for his time on the floor - he actually cut off the few people with something good to ask, while he let others dribble on and on about meaningless crap (economically, on about the 4th grade level I might add)! Good use of TIME pal !!!
The good points were FEW and FAR BETWEEN, however let's discuss a few, below:
A Senator asked all the CEO's of the TARP banks the following:
Q: "Do you expect to be able to pay back ALL the TARP monies, WITH interest? Furthermore, do you anticipate needing more TARP money BEFORE you can pay it back?
EVERY BANK HAD THE SAME ANSWER UNANIMOUSLY:
ANSWER: "YES! We expect to pay back the funds entirely, WITH interest, and WITHOUT the need for additional TARP contributions.
MY FIRST QUESTION: WHY THEN, IN LIGHT OF THE ABOVE, IS OBAMA TELLING ALL OF US TAXPAYERS THAT WE NEED TO THROW MORE MONEY INTO THIS TARP PLAN??
2) JUST TODAY (the timing couldn't have been better in light of the hearing) I received a pamphlet from my local assemblyman indicating that my Senator proposes ELIMINATING THE STAR REBATE PROGRAM. You know, the one THAT HELPS LOWER AND MIDDLE/WOKING CLASS HOMEOWNERS.. you know - the particular people WHO ARE BLEEDING MONEY THE MOST RIGHT NOW... So thanks Mr. Patterson - please accept this thanks directly from one of your tax-paying constituents: Clearly it seems that YOU DO NOT HAVE THE BEST INTERESTS OF THE WORKING CLASS IN MIND (NOR ANYONE ELSE, EXCEPT YOUR RICH CAMPAIGN CONTRIBUTORS). IT IS CLEAR YOU DON'T GIVE A DAMN ABOUT THE RIGHTFUL and LEGIT HOMEOWNERS OF AMERICA! (I'm not talking about the ones who shouldn't have been allowed to borrow money for a home in the first place)
LET'S NOT FORGET THE PLAIN-ENGLISH VERBIAGE OF THE ACTUAL PROBLEM HERE: Rich bankers lent money to THE WRONG PEOPLE. THEY TOOK ON BAD RISK! Now instead of those banks paying for it, UNCLE SAM IS SAYING THAT WE ALL ARE - THE TAXPAYERS!
Holy Cow: did I just read that right? Wait, so there's really only (put simply) 3 parties here:
1) The banks who are guilty of lending to the wrong crowd
2) The wrong crowd, who is guilty of LYING ABOUT THEIR INCOMES (among other things) to help facilitate getting lending when they were NOT WORTHY nor QUALIFIED FOR IT.
3) The rest of us - WHO ARE NOT GUILTY OF EITHER OF THE ABOVE.
SOMETIMES YOU JUST HAVE TO SIMPLIFY THINGS TO LOOK AT THEM MEANINGFULLY!
Hmmm... so 1 and 2 are guilty, number 3 is totally innocent & has nothing to do with the subprime crisis... BUT NUMBER 3 IS GETTING PUNISHED AND BOTH GUILTY 1 & 2 GET A REPREIVE!!!
ASSININE. BACKWARDS. FOLKS- WHAT ARE WE LETTING HAPPEN?
Need I mention Madoff ??? (dont worry, I will in a moment)
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I can go on and on, but I probably needn't... Im sure EVERYONE of EVERY BACKGROUND has already had common sense and/or their gut/intuition tell them "I SMELL A RAT." It is time for ALL Politicians to STOP LYING TO THE PUBLIC AND STOP SCREWING OVER EVERYBODY, SIMPLY TO BENEFIT THE FEW "HAVES"!!
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I wrote a letter to my assemblyman, in light of the STAR rebate information I received in the mail this morning. Please allow me to read you an excerpt of it, below;
Dear Honorable Assemblyman;
Eliminating the STAR is firstly, a raucous disservice to tax-paying (mostly working class or lower) citizens, including senior-citizens on fixed incomes -- Who is looking after their best interests here anyway?!?! Because of the economic crisis people all over are hemorhaging money! People who were once middle-class/working class are being driven to poverty! Tax paying citizens have BEEN PUNISHED ENOUGH BY THE MISTAKES OF THE FORTUNATE FEW. WHY ARE YOU NOW ASKING THE WORKING CLASS TO DIP FURTHER INTO THEIR POCKETS - WHY NOT ASK THE RICH FIRST- THEY HAVE MUCH MORE TO GO AROUND. (Need I mention wealth distribution in the US over the past 25 years?)
Please pardon the urgent tone in my massage -- but this IS an urgent issue. Eliminating the STAR program will have a devastating effect on the "quality" of this entire area - it will drive the younger "up and comers" and middle-aged working people OUT - it's already too hard to afford life here! Those people add to the circular flow THE MOST, ergo it would be a doubly damning effect on the local economty if those people were driven out! This is turn, would then trickle down to ALL other income/asset classes and basically effect those that can't afford to take the hit the most anyway! This would have a triply damning effect and let's not mention what would be happening around neighbordhoods and "main street" either...How many other trickle-down effects can you cite now having looked at the issue that way I ask you!?
When I was a child, inflation already eliminated most chances of a married couple owning a home on a single income. How the hell are familes supposed to stay families?? With two full-time working parents, who's REALLY going to parent those kids- and INSTILL VALUES to them? And in the vein of that question, has anybody in Washington paying attention to the US's overall performace in SCHOLASTICS as opposed to te rest of the world?? Is anyone taking note what is happening in many public schools and to the degradation of our childrens' education??
END OF EXCERPT
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Let me leave you with one last thought;
WEALTH DISTRIBUTION IN AMERICA
Folks, back only as recently as the mid 80's America had the classic 80/20 split regarding wealth distribution: 20% of the people controlling 80% of US money. Now while that (at face value) may sound extremely skewed, I assure you, THAT 20% IS QUITE ALOT OF WEALTH!
so if you think 80/20 is bad, how would you feel to know TODAY in 2009 (or actually back in 2004 when the data was compiled) it turns out that well over 95% of the wealth is controlled by ONE AND HALF PERCENT OF THE PEOPLE - OR LESS !!!!!!?!!!!!!! That's right folks... numberically the picture looks like this:
1985: 20% population controls 80% wealth.
2005: 1.5% of the population (or LESS) control 95+% of the wealth!!!
Clearly the gap between the Rich and The Middle Class has grown TREMENDOUSLY in a very short time. More importantly, back in the 80's that "Top 20 percent" of the money was NOT solely concentrated with the "rich" - we actually had an "upper middle" between the middle and the rich, and as it happens, that top-20% was spread between ALL OF THEM. Nowadays, the numbers show things have goten VERY POLARIZED:
OR SIMPLY: ONLY the rich are getting richer and EVERYONE ELSE is getting poorer. FAST! Are you all getting the picture here folks?? And let's talk about the race issue while we're talking - WE SHOULD BE PAST THIS CRAP ALREADY. The media IS BROADCASTING DIVISIVENESS and causing more of a rift. IF anything, shouldn't WE, ALL OF US be EVOLVING and learning that if we're going to get anywhere, WE GOTTA GET THERE TOGETHER?!?!
Bottom Line: For ME, if you want to earn MY BELIEF in your vision of change (since I'm just a lowly middle-class schmuck... or as THEY put it: A HAVE NOT) How about telling me about some change where we actually make efforts to re-distribute some of that 15%+ FAT wealth, which has now COMPLETELY been driven into the SUPER RICH CLASS (regardless that it STARTED OUT spread out across the middle class and UP! ( 95%+ minus 80% = 15%+ ) --> Doesnt this math now seem too obvious? This "15+% of wealth" is basically that aforementioned "top 20" I'm talking about. Since it got taken away from the middle anyway - GIVE THAT BACK TO EVERYONE - DONT SCREW THE MIDDLE TWICE TO GIVE THE RICH ANOTHER PASS!!!! Go back to that "Top 20"% of wealth and target ITS redistribution before you ask middle class and POOR class people to start digging into their pckets - THAT IS GARBAGE. THAT IS UNNACCEPTBILE.
Here's another angle, showing the HUGE shift in the last 20 years:
Back in the mid-late 80s a guy named Michael Milken was indicted for embezzling around 400 million or so. THE WHOLE WORLD WAS FURIOUS!!!
Here we are only 20 some-odd years later, and THE WORLD JUST WATCHED A 50-BILLION DOLLAR PONZI SCHEME GET UNVEILED! FOLKS- do you think Bernie Madoff is living anything less than a uber-ridiculous lavish lifestyle right now? What happened to Michael Milken after 20 years and his prison stent anyway??
$400,000,000 WOW- that's a big number...
...or is it:
$ 50,000,000,000.00 Holy Christ.. THAT is one BIG number!!!
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WHAT IM SAYING AMERICA (ALL COLORS OF AMERICA!) IS WAKE UP!!! Don't you see that underneath it all, the super rich WANT RACIAL and CLASS TENSION?? It allows them to take more of the SMALL AND INSIGNIFICANT AMOUNT OF WEALTH THEY HAVEN'T ALREADY SCREWED US ALL OF!
THE TAX-PAYING WORKING CLASS SHOULD NOT BE FORCED TO CARRY THIS BURDEN, INFLICTED ON ALL OF US BY THE FORTUNATE FEW. MIDDLE CLASS OR NOT, THE MIDDLE CLASS IS STILL INCLUDED IN THE POOR MAJORITY! (per the wealth distribution model above: Ya got your 95+% and yA got your 1.5%).
2) WHAT IM ALSO SAYING IS THE RICH AREN'T GOING TO LOSE IN FIXING THIS!!!! Once it gets fixed, THE RICH ARE GOING TO PROFIT PLENTY MORE ANYWAY - and since their "upper middle class" competition will have effectively been killed off, THEY'RE MAKE AN EVEN GREATER PERCENTAGE ON THOSE RETURNS NOW, THEN THEY WOULD HAVE BEFORE!!!! ISNT THAT JUST AMAZING?
We can solve our fiscal woes with the aforementioned 15%+ and in doing so, SINCE ONLY 1.5% OF THE RICH FEW CONTROL 95% OR MORE OF THE WEALTH ANYWAY, the only thing that stands to happen in doing it this way is this: THE POOR AND MIDDLE AND WORKING CLASSes IN AMERICA WILL NOT GET SCREWED AS BADLY AS IF YOU MAKE THOSE PEOPLE PAY FOR MISTAKES CAUSE BY THE RICH FEW IN THE FIRST PLACE!
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I think at this point I should point at that tonite, February 11th, 2009, Bernie Madoff and his wife continue to sit in their multi-million dollar penthouse triple-suite in Manhattan. RIGHT NOW while I'm eating my cheap-o ramen noodle dinner! YUP. (well, maybe I'm exaggerating a little.. I'm eating take-out egg foo young at 4.65 a pint).. Don't worry though: I'm sure our ol' Bernie and wifey are eating lobster, filet mignon and drinking wine that costs's more a bottle than I make in 3 months! And technically WE ARE PAYING FOR IT.
I think I should ALSO point out, Michael Milken is WAY past his prison days, he is currently listed as Forbes' 458th richest person in the world... which is EFFING FRIGHTENING, because he IS WORTH 2.1 BILLION EFFING DOLLARS! HoLY S !!! I wonder what the other 457 people are worth combined!!?!?!??!?!?!
AMERICANS: Here's my direct thoughts: I do not know how many individuals in America make more than 5 million dollars per year. I DO KNOW THAT ANYONE MAKING THAT MUCH (OR MORE) ARE CLEARLY IN THE 1.5% MINORITY!
IT IS TIME FOR THE GOVERNMENT TO START LOOKING TO THE 1.5% TO SOLVE THIS MONEY SHORTAGE - STOP TRYING TO PAWN OFF THIS AWFUL BURDEN (A BURDEN ORIGINATING ONLY WITH THE RICH 1.5%) ON TO THE WORKING CLASS / THE 95%+ MAJORITY, WHO HAVE SO LITTLE WEALTH (COMPARATIVELY) WITH THE 1.5%.
As Doctor Spock once put it, the needs of the many, versus the needs of the few: The 1.5% can GREATLY HELP solve the problems THAT EFFECT ALL 100% of us - and doing so will NOT HURT them nearly as much as it will hurt the bulk majority of us.
AMERICA: what the hell are we doing to protect the interests of THE NOT RICH?!?!? WHICH IS BASICALL ALL OF US?!?!?!
Do we have a President in power who
A) actually cares about us as he SAYS?
B) actually has a clue about the ecnomy (point 1 seems to say NO). C) is willing to help the overwhelmingly poor majority (of which I am absolutely one of, and PROUDLY SO, thanks!)
Sorry folks - I'm just ashamed that I am my own ONE MAN MINORITY! I AM THE ONLY PERSON ASKING THESE TYPES OF QUESTIONS !!
If you agree with the above- PLEASE WRITE A COMMENT ABOUT IT
if you DO NOT agree: PLEASE WRITE A COMMENT ABOUT IT.
The most beautiful feature of the American way is that EVERYONE IS SUPPOSED TO HAVE A VOICE. Truly a shameful time IT IS when the poorer and powerless CANNOT have that voice. I am trying to BE THAT VOICE - because people stopped SPEAKING UP! Did you guys STOP CARING? Did you lose the gumption TO SPEAK THE F UP?!?!?!?!
All I hope is that America gets itself the hell OUT OF THIS CRISIS so that we can move things forward and HELP MAKING THINGS RIGHT ALL OVER THE WORLD: WE HAVE A WHOLE PLANET WRITHING AND DROWNING IN OUR POLUTION - WE HAVE A WHOLE PLANET THAT NEEDS TO GET GREENER...
Holy Cow! Green!?!?! I think I just figured out another totally positive thing for the economy....
The End.
A Brief Word After..
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Despite laying out a complete blueprint of how the rich are screwing us, I want to talk about another problem, which is the OPPOSITE esentially, and stems from the OTHER PEOPLE (meaning the NOT rich). IT IS THE SENSE OF OVER ENTITLEMENT going on here, and I think I have formulated a solution for it: Any person who exhibits this terrible type of behavior (C'mon folks- we all know the kind of entitlement I'm talking about here) well THOSE PEOPLE should be rounded up and TEMPORARILY DEPORTED TO A SPECIAL AMERICAN COMMUNE IN A SELECTED THIRD WORLD COUNTRY FOR A PERIOD OF 39 MONTHS. (not and even three years, but 39 months- just like insurance companies get to screw everyone for on their surcharges - if it works for them IT WORKS FOR THIS!) I TAKE MY OATH ON THIS: Those people I GUARENTEE, would come back and SHUT THE F UP about everything THEY DONT have - and would instead of b1tching about it, APPRECIATE (no matter how small) WHATEVER THEY DID HAVE. AND, if they WANTED MORE, they would probably have a MUCH BETTER CHANCE of GOING OUT AND WORKING FOR IT AND EARNING IT! LIKE THE REST OF US DO.
[Trust me - one must simply live in a small apartment abroad (anywhere other than America) and have to find a plumber...good luck.] Once upon a time I was a typical spoiled American kid and then I moved abroad young. When I came back, you bet your a$$ I appreciated EVERYTHING in this place a whole lot more. If we all start taking pride in being American again (in spite of all this crap happening) we'd all be incentivised to make this a better place and take care of it. A beautiful America she would be once again.
Sounds extreme?? I dunno - perhaps... But you see... Now that you've seen it this way, do you agree- the world REALLY COULD be a better place, if we all just started communicating better, working together and STOP LYING AND SCREWING EACH OTHER...
-RE- THE END.
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Location: Long Island, NY
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