Is this the next Great Depression or are we out of the financial woods yet? And is the middle-class getting screwed yet again?
Posted by Blueeyes at 2/7/2009 2:08 PM 
Categories: Debt, Law, Current Events, George Bush, Scams, unbelievable, Barack Obama, Politics, Economy, government gone wrong, TAXES, government gone bad, SCARY, Money, Business, Interesting, job and career, Wealth, Educational, Government
Categories: Debt, Law, Current Events, George Bush, Scams, unbelievable, Barack Obama, Politics, Economy, government gone wrong, TAXES, government gone bad, SCARY, Money, Business, Interesting, job and career, Wealth, Educational, Government
Just when we thought as Barack Obama became president that things would change and the economy would improve, we had another round of layoffs, firings and bankruptcies that takes us to over 500,000 jobs lost in just the month of January alone. Since the start of this recession (or depression as some people referring to it as) America has lost over 3 1/2 million jobs.
It is common knowledge now that between one and two out of every 10 people are currently either in or have gone through foreclosure. That means a whole lot of people lost their houses, possibly their belongings and who knows what else. On CNN news they just announced that one out of every 10 people is on food stamps.
So what happens? Nancy Pelosi comes up with this new bail out that really isn't much of a bail out all. According to Wall Street experts, to appropriately deal with the financial Armageddon that is going on currently, we need it least $300 to $400 billion in planned infrastructure spending. Nancy Pelosi has only equipped to bail out with $30 billion in planned infrastructure spending. That is not enough to deal with what is going on and won't even come close. Instead, she and the other Democrats had earmarked over $800 billion to go to various items that lobbyists and big donors and big corporations would like instead.
You see, the rich will always have tax attorneys and accountants to help them find every possible legal loophole from C. corporations, to charities that solely exist for their benefit and for, of course, tax write offs, asset protection, etc. this is why the average person that makes over $1 million per year only pays about 1% or less in taxes (and that includes both state and federal). The average middle-class American pays between 30 and 35% of their earnings in taxes - is that fair?
How could one possibly change things so that it would be fair to the middle class? Apart from subsidizing or a putting a price ceiling on lawyers and legal fees, or making lawyers work for free, it will never happen. Every time the Senate, Congress, whatever comes out with a new bill or new law that is supposed to change the tax code and tax laws to favor the middle class, the tax attorneys out there for the rich go to work and find all the loopholes in it which means it just circumvents right back to the middle class again.
Just look at the alternative minimum tax, the AMT, it was written to make it so that the rich had to pay a certain minimum amount and couldn't get away without paying taxes. Instead, it is catching the middle-class and making them pay more than ever in taxes. It does not catch one rich person ever. Boy, that's a really effective tax law to help the middle class, huh?
And it gets worse - the middle-class and poor pay the majority of their state taxes through property and sales taxes. The rich don't. They use their C. corporations, various asset protection strategies, worthless charities that exist solely to enrich them, etc. to register their vehicles in various corporate entities from states which don't charge taxes, to owner properties under structures that pay the least taxes possible, and so on.
What's funny, or actually it's not really funny but it is true unfortunately, is that the rich have caused this bad, serious recession to occur. Now with these billions and trillions of dollars in help from the government, the middle-class will once again be forced to buy its way out. Of course the rich won't be paying these taxes they never do. Just go and take a look at the Bush family (not just George W. Bush, but his father and mother, brother Jeb and others) and dig into how much they really pays a percentage of their earnings in taxes. You would be surprised to find the real answer. They were only ever truthful when they had to be during their presidency.
Look at some of the big players in NASCAR or other various sports. They have really learned how to hide and cover their assets so well they pay almost nothing in taxes. Not only that, but unlike the rest of us they also know how to hide their assets that you can't even sue them if they did something wrong. Look at Hulk Hogan and his son Nick. Nick was obviously racing, has a history of racing, speeding and lawlessness and he caused his friend to become brain-dead. Through it all he has shown zero remorse and his only interest is in having a reality show.
You know that the Hogan's have their various assets protected under various structures to include trusts, corporations, etc. so that when the Gratiano family does win or if they decide to take settlement they will be forced to take a much, much smaller amount because they can't extract anything else. The only big expense the Hogans will be left to face will be their high powered attorney's fees. Now if you or I or anybody else that's in the middle-class or under faced these same problems we would just be financially wiped out.
So the real question here is, is this a recession or depression that affects everyone, or is it mainly a recession or depression that affects the middle-class and under. Because were the ones that have to buy this country's way out of this. Yes, some fat cat CEO's have lost their $30 million a year jobs and such, but they, for the most part have made, on average, several hundred million over the past decade or so and are far better off than the average middle class American. In the end, the middle-class will bear 99% of the higher taxes, inflation costs and more that will be brought on by these bailouts and the financial duress caused by the fat cats on Wall Street and in corporate America.
The real fix would have been to just let the organizations and companies that are on the brink of financial collapse to collapse. Ever hear of the saying only the strong will survive? Well in the free market system this is very true and by the governments trying to fix up this problem and that problem with one bailout followed by another all we're really doing is creating one problem or bubble after another. When is this all going to end? It will end when the middle-class become so overtaxed and so overburdened that they revolt. Then it will all change. This is exactly what happened with the storming of the Bastille in France and the French Revolution. History will repeat itself again - it's not a matter of if, but when.
It is common knowledge now that between one and two out of every 10 people are currently either in or have gone through foreclosure. That means a whole lot of people lost their houses, possibly their belongings and who knows what else. On CNN news they just announced that one out of every 10 people is on food stamps.
So what happens? Nancy Pelosi comes up with this new bail out that really isn't much of a bail out all. According to Wall Street experts, to appropriately deal with the financial Armageddon that is going on currently, we need it least $300 to $400 billion in planned infrastructure spending. Nancy Pelosi has only equipped to bail out with $30 billion in planned infrastructure spending. That is not enough to deal with what is going on and won't even come close. Instead, she and the other Democrats had earmarked over $800 billion to go to various items that lobbyists and big donors and big corporations would like instead.
This will in no way help the majority of Americans or be in the favor of America at all. Instead it will help special-interest groups to rise their prices and and create price floors and monopolistic behavior which is both counterproductive and wrong at this time. What one up happening is that the corporate CEOs of these special-interest groups will gain bigger, fatter salaries at the expense of the taxpayer. And not only is at the expense of the taxpayer, but it is at the expense of the middle class taxpayer because they actually pay the most in taxes by a long shot.
You see, the rich will always have tax attorneys and accountants to help them find every possible legal loophole from C. corporations, to charities that solely exist for their benefit and for, of course, tax write offs, asset protection, etc. this is why the average person that makes over $1 million per year only pays about 1% or less in taxes (and that includes both state and federal). The average middle-class American pays between 30 and 35% of their earnings in taxes - is that fair?
How could one possibly change things so that it would be fair to the middle class? Apart from subsidizing or a putting a price ceiling on lawyers and legal fees, or making lawyers work for free, it will never happen. Every time the Senate, Congress, whatever comes out with a new bill or new law that is supposed to change the tax code and tax laws to favor the middle class, the tax attorneys out there for the rich go to work and find all the loopholes in it which means it just circumvents right back to the middle class again.
Just look at the alternative minimum tax, the AMT, it was written to make it so that the rich had to pay a certain minimum amount and couldn't get away without paying taxes. Instead, it is catching the middle-class and making them pay more than ever in taxes. It does not catch one rich person ever. Boy, that's a really effective tax law to help the middle class, huh?
And it gets worse - the middle-class and poor pay the majority of their state taxes through property and sales taxes. The rich don't. They use their C. corporations, various asset protection strategies, worthless charities that exist solely to enrich them, etc. to register their vehicles in various corporate entities from states which don't charge taxes, to owner properties under structures that pay the least taxes possible, and so on.
What's funny, or actually it's not really funny but it is true unfortunately, is that the rich have caused this bad, serious recession to occur. Now with these billions and trillions of dollars in help from the government, the middle-class will once again be forced to buy its way out. Of course the rich won't be paying these taxes they never do. Just go and take a look at the Bush family (not just George W. Bush, but his father and mother, brother Jeb and others) and dig into how much they really pays a percentage of their earnings in taxes. You would be surprised to find the real answer. They were only ever truthful when they had to be during their presidency.
Look at some of the big players in NASCAR or other various sports. They have really learned how to hide and cover their assets so well they pay almost nothing in taxes. Not only that, but unlike the rest of us they also know how to hide their assets that you can't even sue them if they did something wrong. Look at Hulk Hogan and his son Nick. Nick was obviously racing, has a history of racing, speeding and lawlessness and he caused his friend to become brain-dead. Through it all he has shown zero remorse and his only interest is in having a reality show.
You know that the Hogan's have their various assets protected under various structures to include trusts, corporations, etc. so that when the Gratiano family does win or if they decide to take settlement they will be forced to take a much, much smaller amount because they can't extract anything else. The only big expense the Hogans will be left to face will be their high powered attorney's fees. Now if you or I or anybody else that's in the middle-class or under faced these same problems we would just be financially wiped out.
So the real question here is, is this a recession or depression that affects everyone, or is it mainly a recession or depression that affects the middle-class and under. Because were the ones that have to buy this country's way out of this. Yes, some fat cat CEO's have lost their $30 million a year jobs and such, but they, for the most part have made, on average, several hundred million over the past decade or so and are far better off than the average middle class American. In the end, the middle-class will bear 99% of the higher taxes, inflation costs and more that will be brought on by these bailouts and the financial duress caused by the fat cats on Wall Street and in corporate America.
The real fix would have been to just let the organizations and companies that are on the brink of financial collapse to collapse. Ever hear of the saying only the strong will survive? Well in the free market system this is very true and by the governments trying to fix up this problem and that problem with one bailout followed by another all we're really doing is creating one problem or bubble after another. When is this all going to end? It will end when the middle-class become so overtaxed and so overburdened that they revolt. Then it will all change. This is exactly what happened with the storming of the Bastille in France and the French Revolution. History will repeat itself again - it's not a matter of if, but when.
You are absolutely right and I am sick of how the rich get richer and the rest of us get poorer and poorer all the while.
Reply to this