List of Links disproving the Big Lie

I list below links that tend to disprove the Big Lie (previous blog post) that giving the rich more money creates jobs.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-05-29/irs-finds-one-in-189-high-earners-paid-no-2009-u-s-tax.html

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-05-08/private-jobs-increase-more-with-democrats-in-white-house.html

http://www.dailyfinance.com/2012/01/13/its-official-wealth-gap-has-turned-america-into-a-seething-pit/?icid=maing-grid7%7Cnetscape%7Cdl16%7Csec1_lnk2%26pLid%3D128160

http://usnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/12/15/9461848-dismal-prospects-1-in-2-americans-are-now-poor-or-low-income

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45319319/ns/us_news-the_new_york_times/#.T8VwALBfEwA

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/lookout/numbers-income-top-one-percent-skyrocketed-over-last-153005722.html

http://money.msn.com/investing/why-us-should-spread-the-wealth-fiscaltimes.aspx?GT1=33002

Some of these links have more to do with income inequality.

It seems to be that we are turning into a Third World country regarding incomes - either you are rich or you are poor. The middle class at the top of the bell curve is missing.

No one has disposable income except the rich. This is why the economic recovery is so long delayed. There will be no job creation until consumers have the money to spend. The rich will be unable to continue this trend forever. Eventually, they too, will be effected. Until then, it's the rest of us who suffer.

I worked at a food pantry for 5 years. Beginning in 2007 we began seeing the "newly poor." They were losing jobs they had been at for decades.

How many rich have suffered?

It's time to stop believing lies.

Palmetto Bug

PS, if any of the links stop working, please let me know so I can remove them.

PPS: This link came in after original publication of this post. http://money.msn.com/investing/americas-highest-paid-ceos-2012 

The BIG Lie

“The great masses will more easily fall victim to a big lie than to a small one."

-Adolph Hitler

Why do we believe these lies? I can’t understand it myself. It seems so clear to me. But some accept these lies as facts. They have been repeated over and over again. People accept them as gospel. Politicians base policy and campaigns on them. But they are lies. They have NEVER been proven true and current conditions PROVE them lies. Still, people repeat them. And believe them. And base policy and laws on them. And yet, despite the failure of these lies to product the results they claim will happen, they are still believed.

“Where’s the beef?” the old commercial asked. This could be an example of scientific thinking. If the expected result does not happen in an experiment, you must abandon the theory. If you think that if you do A and B that C will happen, and then C does not happen, then A and B are false. If C never happens, then A and B are LIES. Yet time and time again, we want our “facts” to be true, so we refuse to accept the conclusions.

Anna Anderson was proven by DNA not to be Princess Anastasia Romanoff. In fact, she was proven to be a member of a Polish peasant family as other Romanoff’s claimed. Those who believed her claims, continue to do so in spite of the evidence. DNA has freed many who were wrongly convicted, yet there are some who reject overturning their previous conviction.

Where is the evidence to suggest that not taxing the rich and lessening the taxes of corporations leads to job creation?  The rich are fighting attempts to raise their tax rates, other than those who stand with Warren Buffet. Some say this tax increase would only raise minimal funds anyway. In some instances, corporations – large, huge firms –are paying no corporate income taxes. Some of these firms borrowed taxpayer money (funny since some of them paid no taxes) to pay for million dollar bonuses at the time when our economy was at its worst since the Great Depression.

These are facts. The rich are VERY rich. They are not taxed fairly. Corporations contribute to the politicians who pass tax breaks for the corporations.

Our unemployment rate is around 8% down from over 10%.  But it is still too high. We are creating more jobs but they are not replacing the higher income jobs that were lost. The actual unemployment rate is acknowledged to be higher because there are those formerly on unemployment rolls who are still unemployed.  The jobs are not there.

Where’s the beef? IT’S NOT THERE.

There is no REASON to believe the BIG LIE anymore. To do so, is unreasonable.

So let’s stop.

I don’t claim to have the answer, I just know this lie is not creating jobs and saving the economy. So we have to try something else. Don’t believe the BIG LIE.

Palmetto Bug

Again with the Compromise

[Note: This was going to be about another topic but as writing sometime does, the topic went a different way. Palmetto Bug]

People are condemning the job the government does. Congress’s rating is low. Some conservatives are preparing for revolution – a “shooting revolution.” Some are Occupying Wall Street and other places. People challenge the government’s collection of taxes.  They search for any weakness in opposing candidates on any level. An elected official was shot and gravely injured. People died there. Both sides bemoan the lack of civility in rhetoric. People refer to the government as an enemy.

What people forget is that “WE, the people” ARE the government.

Our Founding Fathers didn’t agree, they compromised to make our government. Jefferson and John Adams were both close friends and bitter enemies. Burr and Hamilton dueled to the death. Calhoun and Lincoln would have disagreed had they been contempories.

One of my more favorite professors (I had two at the top and others really, really close) told us about recent scholarship regarding Lincoln and the Gettysburg Address. People should read the last line as, “. . .  government of the PEOPLE, by the PEOPLE, for the PEOPLE, shall not perish from the earth.” This is instead of the usual emphasis on “of, by and the.” So if you are complaining about the government, you are complaining about yourself. Change the government; start with the person in the mirror (Yes, from MJ).

Don’t appeal to Jefferson and Adams, or Hamilton and Burr, or Calhoun and Lincoln for what we should do. They would have laughed at the idea as ridiculous and it is. They are not the government; they are dead. WE, the people are the government.

WE have the control of our destiny. WE have to compromise to live together. If our government falls apart, it is because we could not find a way to do it together. We have already had our revolution and our civil war. We don’t need another war with Americans fighting Americans, brother against brother. Nothing is inevitable.

Divide and conquer is the warriors maxim. We seem to be doing dividing ourselves. We divide ourselves by race, religion, gender and innumerable other criteria.  I have seen both liberal and conservative claim that only they are the true Christians.

Rather than divide us, we need to find ways to work together. Not your way or my way, but our way.

All of this to say if America fails, it will be your fault and my fault. I will express my views and you yours. I know I can’t change your mind and you won’t change mine. So let’s stop trying to say who is right. What’s the old saying, the truth is probably somewhere in the middle?

Isn’t that what compromise is? Isn’t that what our Founding Fathers did? Isn’t what that what Americans always do? You are not my enemy though we disagree. I am not yours. We must compromise to get along and to move our country along.

If America fails, blame the person in the mirror. My mirror, your mirror, and all the other mirrors.

Palmetto Bug