On the eve of two political conventions the free people of America are about to enjoy their ability to bash each other about the head rhetorically. Considering the physical violence present in other cultures the conventions will be two quite civil events. Unfortunately the bashing will hide the overwhelming evidence that America is thriving and growing exponentially compared to most of the civilized world. That is because the people are free to demand of themselves the best society can do to better itself.
The most important thing on the minds of ordinary Americans this election cycle is the failure of its politicians to manage the economy in order to make life financially easier for the majority of working class Americans. A liberal pundit on the Fox cable news channel put it simply – the “trickle down” (economic theory) has not worked for ordinary Americans for the entire Bush term – people are worst off than they were before Bush was elected. As this conclusion is believed by most to be true, it is expected that the Democrat Party, who is promising to change that condition will sweep into Washington in January, 2009.
What is missing in this perception is that ordinary Americans are not complaining about the failure of ‘trickle down” economics but its success. They are complaining about their failure to get their piece of that pie. Literally hundreds of billionaires have been created in the last seven years and literally millions of millionaires as well. The only option offered ordinary Americans by their politicians to rectify their failure to participate in this bonanza is to tax these “rich people” and redistribute that money to them. Unfortunately two of the country’s biggest billionaires, Warren Buffet and Bill Gates, are supporting this taxing scheme – a scheme that has never made the poor or the lower middle-class richer but guarantees their continued state of poverty and need.
What the people are missing is the basic concept of freedom in their financial lives. The American people have bought into the fallacy that big government, rather than free individuals, can deliver the American Dream. The fact is that big government can’t and never will unless it gets out of the way of that freedom. What the ordinary people don’t know is that they have been fooled into believing that the “rich” bear the greatest tax burden to pay for this “redistribution” scheme. The fact is they don’t.
That burden is primarily paid for by ordinary Americans committing 15% of their lifetime income to pay for these redistribution entitlements. They are called payroll taxes and are taken out of the paycheck so the ordinary citizen never realizes what a fool he is – how his financial freedom is confiscated from him. If the people sat down and realized what they could make in the stock market by investing 15% of their lifetime income they would revolt against the very politicians that enslave them. As it is the Democrat Party has decided not only to support these entitlements but to substantially increase the payroll tax making it even more difficult for ordinary Americans to achieve the American Dream.
Freedom is a funny thing. You don’t have it unless you demand it of your handlers. In America we have lost a lot of freedom by failing to demand it from our political handlers in Washington. Americans need to wake up to the socialist trap they have fallen into. Entitlements are simply a Marxian concession to collective weakness. We can restore our strength by replacing entitlements – by privatizing (the ultimate in freedom) that 15% and investing it in the stock market for the working life of the people. The S&P 500 has been churning out an average 12.8% annually for the last 30 years. Warren Buffet has been averaging 24.8%. At 10%, even the lowly minimum wage worker will end up with a nest egg of over a million dollars.
Most of you will just yawn and say it is impossible to change our system. You will discount how easily you caught on to using cell phones, the internet and Blackberries. The change we need to make is easier than you think and we still will have the present entitlement system as a base under which no citizen can fall. A comprehensive plan can be accessed here if you are interested in being a millionaire and destroying the socialism that is creeping into our culture. If not don’t complain about galloping socialism and reduced benefits and increased taxes promised to you by the Democrats and Barack Obama.
