Let’s face it. I’m in a weird mood tonight. I will forewarn you that the following was originally meant to be a small little piece about the government and my concerns and confusion, however it has quickly become quite a large beast (somewhat like our government *nudge*), and it has also quickly become very late. Sorry for some things lacking facts and references, I did verify much of it, but seeing as I am no economist there WILL be some errors, however I am pretty confidant most of the facts are there, and the points are valid. Please feel free to voice your opinion in the comment section (please keep it polite), cheers!
People of the United States!!!! (and the rest of the world… cause you’re all pretty cool too)… (for being second best).
I, the indomitable Mullet, have been thinking! Yes, you know me well (probably not, nobody reads this site!), this is going to be a political piece. I know I know I know… you’re probably wondering when I will get to the nice light and fluffy stuff. Don’t worry your little heads, however, for I have out of the kindness of my heart linked a video of a fuzzy little kittens at the end of this video. You have two options, read through the next boring segment and reward yourself at the end with furry goodness, or be a douche and skip to the furry goodness (pick the first option).
Yes. I went there. But in all seriousness I’ve been thinking a lot lately. I was reading online about bail-outs, and the government, and spending and (insert angry comments about the government’s failures here). It seems to me that there is a lot of blaming going around, and to be honest… as we were just in a recession there probably is a lot of blame to be given…
General Anger and Anxiety:
My thinking is, however, if we are in a democratic republic, where we choose the people to represent us, can we really put all the blame on some far away government deal? Maybe we should look in the mirror. Who put these people in power? (rhetorical question, but the answer is WE did–whether you voted or not) Sure, maybe they messed up, but did they LIE to us when they were running? Did they say they were going to do anything different than what they have done? If so then we should have a just cause to impeach AND fire them. If not… then we actually can put almost all the blame square on our own shoulders (please note this is not a paragraph to you perfect people out there who have always voted for the right people and never made a mistake in your life.)
Not only is there bitterness toward the government, there is obviously a lot of tangible bitterness and a touch of lemony spite towards the “fat cat bankers.” “MAIN ST, NOT WALL ST!!!” Was the political running slogan for 90% of the people in this midterm election (on both sides). Of course, we all know where this HALF stems from. Who could forget reading about the Wall St. Bonuses of yore? Who could forget how long we had to go through all that drama? That was a just cause for bitterness. However, how much have you heard lately about the banks paying back the TARP money? Probably very little. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if you haven’t heard anything about the fact that MOST of the money that went into that has been returned, and it is estimated that we might lose 30 billion dollars out of the whole deal. Not a success story, per se, but considering it’s the federal government we’re talking about, a 5% margin of loss isn’t all that bad (I have no idea if it’s 5% of what was originally paid or not, I just pulled that out my butt).
Stimulus (continued from last paragraph):
That aside. There has always been bitterness toward banks. Why is that? It’s probably related to drama with credit cards, greed, dishonesty and a whole host of problems that are very real and relevant in banking. However, it is rarely these issues that are addressed by the media, or the people who are complaining in general. People simply don’t like the fact that these guys are filthy rich. Therefore we label them “fat cats,” and greedy Wall St. Bankers. These names are partly true, I won’t say otherwise, however they are not the solution to the problem. Here’s the REAL problem: Not only do we get mad at these fat cats, we take that anger and put it into ANYONE who is better off than us. See what road we’re going down now? (hint: it’s called socialism, and it’s ugly, and you couldn’t make it work on a small-scale, and it’s even worse on a larger scale, like as, say, a government.) The beauty of America is that i don’t feel like less of a man than any other because I have less money than him. Some people probably do, but I don’t. You know why? I have the same freedoms as that man, the same opportunities, and the same time and energy. I may choose to put all that time and energy into getting myself filthy rich so I can breed filthy rich spoiled brats, but for some reason that’s not all that appealing to me. I don’t find value in my net worth.
You see what I’m saying? People got mad about TARP, and so did I. The problem is, people weren’t mad because it was unconstitutional and a generally a bad idea (although in hindsight, the results could have been worse), they were mad because this money was going to RICH PEOPLE!!! I went online and searched for the words “bail-out” (recently) and it brought up a bunch of forums of people brain-storming on how bad this was and how it could be so much better. One person suggested we “give everyone 100,000 dollars… think how that would stimulate the economy.” … The sad truth of the matter is, it wouldn’t. People seem to think money grows on trees, or that the way government economics works is that the government can print a lot of money and it will retain its value!! What people don’t understand is that, ever since the dollar went from the gold standard (being backed up by gold), it has been essentially based on the worth we associate with it, and the worth of goods.
Let me break this down (I know you’re not dumb, I’m not trying to be patronizing here, just have to break it down for my own sake).
We give everyone 100,000 dollars. Everyone is now 100,000 dollars richer. Everything in the U.S. goes up in price. Boom. Not only that, even if we DIDN’T have a serious case of inflation, how exactly would 100,000 dollars stimulate the economy? I know if I had 100,000 dollars given to me I wouldn’t be working much. I’d plot out how long I could live off that 100,000 dollars without having to work. If no one works, no one gets anything… problem. Money doesn’t come from thin air. It is BASED on inputs, outputs, and supply and demand.
Taxes:
You might be surprised by what I’m going to tell you next. Rich people (here’s a secret) aren’t paying less than you in taxes. This is a common misconception spread by the Far-left media, who think saying something loud enough and long enough will make it true. It’s not true. Sadly however, it does seem to be working. The rich are currently paying about 31 percent of their income in income tax. This is after the Bush tax cuts, when he cut it from (dun dun dun, wait for it!) 34% to 31%!!! (roughly… sorry, I will admit some of these numbers are off the top of my head… the current percentage is, however, for sure.) This is contrasted to the 14% the average joe pays. Yes, that is twice the percentage of the joe schmoe, which means it is exponentially higher than what you are probably paying. (actually after deductions it will end up being around 11% and 23%).
A guy making forty thousand dollars in taxes every year will end up paying about 4,445 dollars a year. A guy making 200,000 thousand will end up paying 46,725 thousand dollars a year. Yes. That is 10 times as much as you are paying. And actually, that is only if you utilize your 8 thousand dollars in deductions and they utilize their 50 thousand (subtract each from you income.) What does this mean though? Well, when you deduct something from your income, it means you are taking out something that you ended up spending on your business. These dollars can no longer be taxed, as they are not really income. This means that the rich people SPENT that money on their business, as did you. These amounts are NOT put into your pockets to walk away with. (Further broken down: It’s taxing your NET earnings, not your gross earnings).
I’m not rich. I’m a poor, poor bastard. I am not poor because of poor decisions, though, I’m poor because I’m young and do not have a great job. This will change eventually, but I’m in no hurry.
Proposition Mullet:
Here it is, in all its glory:
1. We need to change our taxing system.
- Let’s change our federal taxing system to either a flat tax all around, or a strictly consumption tax. 15-20% across the board for every man and every woman.
- Get rid of tax credits. They are bullshit, and are simply a way of the government POORLY regulating (and thereby making it much less efficient) industry. (If you are going to regulate it, then regulate it for ethical and moral issues, however it is not within the jurisdiction of the federal government to favor one company or product over another, and thereby be a colossus of promotion.
- Let people keep their money, and let them decide how to use it.
- Of course you can’t just cut taxes (which although it is a nice concept, would be as bad as bail-outs). You must do more than just that, you must cut federal spending and balance the budget. (further expounded on in next part).
2. We need to stop giving bail-outs, and cease all entitlement spending.
- Let’s face it, after 70 years of failed programs by the government to “stimulate” the economy, we have yet to see them do one thing that could really be considered successful. In fact there are recorded success stories from when the government finally got its grubby hands OUT of the picture (farming is MUCH more efficient now than it was 10 years ago, if still a bloated system). (Random story, the federal government used to PAY farmers to NOT harvest their crops… so they were paid to leave the crops their to go to waste)
- Could we also establish the fact that FDR’s “New Deal” was a failure? I would really like to have the years of my life I spent in school having the New Deal spooned down my throat back.
- Let’s stimulate the economy by allowing people to have faith that America won’t turn into the USSA (united socialist states of america), and balance the federal budget so that we aren’t simply shuffling money from one place to another like a big Ponzi scheme.
3. We need to stop fueling the rage machine, as it is mostly contributing to rash decisions by voters, and politicians are only taking advantage of it.
- Yes there are problems with the government, but remember we elected them.
- We do need to limit our government’s power, and perhaps assess the balance of power as it is.
For all you who actually read all of that, I give you a gold pin. For those of you who didn’t, you’re ALL BUTT MUNCHES!
