[Pages 126-133]
For 30+
years or more, the people have looked to and fluctuated back and forth between
Party A or Party B and just like every mirage in a desert there is never any
water or shade at the promised oasis. It’s no different than watching an
endless ping-pong match . . . back and forth, back and forth and the only
people winning are the political class along with the mega-rich that own both
of the two major political parties.
Economically,
let’s look at the basic pitches for party A. then party B. Party A basically
says that, ‘if we and our backers are allowed to get even richer you’ll get by
somehow.’ It’s a firm belief in most circles, a true Americanism, that “if they
don’t get theirs, we won’t get ours.” It’s all based almost 100 percent on flawed
“trickle down economic” thought. Over the past 30+ years the economy has grown
and jobs have been created, but where is there any direct evidence that any of
the jobs were created by via “trickle down economics” and more importantly . .
. where has one dime of wealth trickle into anyone’s pockets outside of the top
10 percent of citizens? Economic changes occur and developments such as the
tech boom and the Internet come along, but surely — no one can claim either was
created by trickle down economics and massive wealth accumulation at the top.
The stark
undeniable statistics clearly demonstrate one single direction on wealth
accumulation during the last 30+ years . . . ALL UPWARD! So obviously, no one can claim that “trickle
down economics” creates wealth accumulation for the vast majority of the
American people . . . it’s just not possible to make such a claim! It can of
course be “claimed” that trickle down economics creates jobs, but there is no
way to prove or document such a claim. Yea, president, Reagan cut taxes and
that happened to coincide with the tech boom and creation of the Internet. Would
anyone, except the radical right, claim that tax cuts created the tech boom or
the Internet? Of course not! Nonetheless taxes on the mega-rich have been
ridiculously low ever since Reagan.
Since the
mega-rich have never had more money than right now, why isn’t the economy
booming? Why aren’t jobs being created? How in the world can Party A be
advocating for even more money to be given to the top as a way to turn around
the economy? Nothing could be more far fetched or illogical than to contend the
mega-rich don’t presently have enough money to create jobs. Only an idiot,
completely unaware of the massive wealth disparity and money sitting at the top
of the food chain, as documented herein, could still buy into the same old
Party A mantra of ‘we can’t tax the job creators.’
Where is
the cause and effect relationship between massive wealth accumulation at the
top and, for instance, the tech boom and creation of the Internet? The tech
boom and development of the Internet, largely responsible for much of the
economic growth in America during our lifetimes, was driven by
the government who created the Internet, average entrepreneurs and not in any
way from massive wealth accumulation at the top.
If trickle
down economics = wealth accumulation for the vast majority of the American
people — then it’s a complete abysmal failure proven by the statistics herein. If
trickle down economics = creation of millionaires and massive wealth
accumulation at the top then it was a success. Does that equate to private
sector job creation, as is so often claimed, or do innovations and economic
factors such as the tech boom and development of the Internet create jobs?
Businesses and individuals invest in opportunities and opportunities are not
driven by massive wealth accumulation at the top. In fact, such massive wealth
at the top chokes off economic growth via monopolies, collusion and way too
much power in the hands of too few. Money in the hands of average people gets
spent to stimulate 70 percent of the economy, but mega-money gets hoarded and
redoubled via the stock market. The American people haven’t had any money to
spend in well over a decade and what was being spent was credit card and home
equity money. Both those sources of spending were wiped out and cancelled via
Wall Street’s greed and the housing bubble they exploded upon America. Anyone waiting for consumer
spending to turn the economy around had better not hold their breath because
there simply is no money available.
Of course,
anyone that still has a job in America is glad to have it, but no cause
and effect relationship can be made that jobs are created by trickle down
economics and massive wealth accumulation at the top. In an August 2011 op-ed
piece, billionaire, Warren Buffett, said, “I have worked with investors for 60
years and I have yet to see anyone — not even when capital gains rates were
39.9 percent in 1976-77 — shy away from a sensible investment because of the
tax rate on the potential gain. People invest to make money, and potential
taxes have never scared them off. And to those who argue that higher rates hurt
job creation, I would note that a net of nearly 40 million jobs were added
between 1980 and 2000. You know what’s happened since then: lower tax rates and
far lower job creation.”1
In spite of
all the evidence to the contrary, even with a billionaire like Warren Buffett
weighing in, Party A just continues forward with their same old mantra that ‘we
can’t tax the job creators.’ Amazingly, far too many Americans continue to buy
into such stupefied rhetoric as all the wealth in the U.S. has been transferred to the top
over the course of 30+ years.
A job is a
job but it’s NOT wealth accumulation unless it pays above the level of basic
survival with something significant left over . . . nothing significant has
been left over for the vast majority of the American people for more than 30+
years and it’s getting worse by the day. For the last 35 years, we’ve had party
A in the oval office for 20 of those years. In 20 years, assuming trickle down
works, there should be some evidence of it working, but if wealth accumulation
for the middle-class is the yardstick . . . there is no evidence of it working
whatsoever — zero! The statistics just don’t lie . . .
Since party
A is an abysmal failure, then party B must be the way to go, right? Their basic
economic pitch is some kind of quasi “trust us and we’ll take care or you”
message, but no one really knows what that exactly means. Whatever it means it
must NOT mean being enabled to compete for a piece of the American pie on a more
leveled playing field since party B has held the oval office for 15 of the last
35 years. Surely if “we the people” were going to see any results from party B it
would have happened by now, but once again, just as with party A, the evidence
and statistics say complete abysmal failure. The Party B loyalists will of
course say “they tried really hard,” but that bad Party A kept them from moving
the ball forward. Almost all Americans [that still have a job] go in for a
performance review each year. What happens if you deliver zero results, but say
you tried really hard? You’re either fired or given 90 days to show results. In
the case of Party B and Party A . . . they have had 30+ years to turn things
around economically for the American people and have failed miserably, but they
still have a job and hold power?
The truth
is, as far as wealth accumulation for the vast majority of the American people,
creation of good jobs and protecting the jobs we still have — there is no party
in Washington, D.C. accomplishing anything in that
regard and it’s been that way for 30+ years. If you’re poor, homeless and struggling,
you don’t even exist — unless of course Party B throws you a bone from time to
time in exchange for your vote. While the poor have the lowest percentage of
voters and participation in the political process, by a wide margin — virtually
everyone making six figures or more votes. Politicians therefore, know that the
top 10 percent of voters are largely responsible for getting and keeping them
in office via the ballot box because A) they vote and B) they contribute to
campaigns.
Since America’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) has
grown from $3 T in 1980 to around $14 T in 2010 it means that billions of
dollars in profits are going somewhere? With that much wealth floating around,
you would think that Party A or Party B would have gotten a couple of those
dollars into your pocket. Since not a dime of those additional revenues have
shown up in your pocket there are three and only three logical conclusions possible:
1) we just haven’t had enough of Party A or 2) we just haven’t had enough of
party B or 3) we’ve had all we can stand from both Party A and Party B a.k.a.
the status quo.
There could
however, be a fourth conclusion that’s logical . . . what if essentially there
really is no party A or B? What if it just looks like two parties, but it’s
really one party with the same ultimate goal . . . take from the vast
middle-class and working poor and give to the mega-rich? Like a greedy version
of Robin Hood, who sometimes impersonates the elephant and sometimes
impersonates the donkey. The rhetoric and lofty speeches are different at times
and both parties claim to be looking out for “the people” in their own way, but
a 30+ year financial loosing streak for the American people clearly
demonstrates that based on results . . . it’s all total BS! Massive wealth
accumulation at the top and nothing whatsoever for the people over the course
of 30+ years would lead any logical person to conclude that — either this two-party
thing isn’t working or “we the people” are getting the shaft from both parties.
Which party
loyalists are the biggest suckers is the only question that remains to be
answered. While Party A devotees continue to await their slice of the American
pie via trickle down crumbs, Party B loyalists are still buying into the “party
of the people” mantra as the mega-rich laugh all the way to the bank. If you
believe that Party B is “the party of the people” then how do you explain the
undeniable fact that toward the end of 2010 that the mega-rich got a huge tax
cut? President, Obama, during his entire election campaign, said over and over
and over, ‘no tax cuts for the rich when I’m in the White House.’ He got elected
and Party B controlled both the House and the Senate by large majorities. If
you control all 3 legislative entities . . . done deal, no tax cuts for the
rich, right? Wrong!
Somehow the
mega-rich got their taxes cut? The spinners, experts and so called political
pundits as usual told the American people what to think and how to think and
most Americans were none the wiser. Pick your excuse: A) the mandate after the
November election dictated that president, Obama and members of Party B in
Congress had to pass tax cuts for the rich or B) president Obama and Party B
just happened to run out of time and wanted to go home for the holidays. Is excuse
A true? Nope, they had the votes and the veto power of the president to stop
any tax cuts for the mega-rich. Then B must be true? Nope once again, they had
two years, knew the issue was coming for two years and did nothing whatsoever
to stop tax cuts for the mega-rich. Either Party B is guilty of being “poor
time managers” or they were 110 percent complicit?
How could
this have happened? How could the mega-rich a get tax cut, that will add
approximately $700+ B to the deficit over a decade, when president Obama essentially
said ‘hell no’ during his campaign? The answer to that question is the same as
it has always been for more than 30+ years: the mega-rich always get what they
want because they own Congress and the corporate media machine. It simply could
not have been done if Party B was not complicit . . . now way, no how, not
possible. Party A wasn’t going to bring up the issue, so it was up to Party B and
they just decided to just sit on the issue and allow the clock to run out. As
long as Party B could somehow create “political cover” a tax cut for the
mega-rich was going through. The political cover came in the form of the “good
cop bad cop” game. Party B played the role of “good cop” and Party A gave them
cover by playing the role of greedy “bad cop” — along with their typical smokescreen
that the billions in tax cuts would create jobs and “trickle down” to the
people [just like it hasn’t since 1980]. As if the game wasn’t insulting enough
to all Americans with any brain, president, Obama came out in the fall of 2011
with another hollow call to “tax the rich’ as an re-election ploy . . . knowing
by then that it was safe to make such a call since Party A owned the House and
such legislation didn’t have a chance in hell of passing. How convenient . . .
Party B
could then use their old tried and true smokescreen of “we tried,” but those
bad people in Party A wouldn’t allow it. Only a fool wearing rose colored
glasses can twist the reality around in their mind to not see that Party B was
100 percent complicit in getting the mega-rich a tax cut and that all calls for
a tax hike thereafter are just part of the game. It’s all a sophisticated ruse
upon America and it’s the same game played out
repeatedly over 30+ years to rob “the people” and give to the greedy. What’s
amazing is that so many in America are still to this day taken in by
the game. You would think that after 30+ years, Americans would wise up? Anyone
that can’t see through the game may as well stop reading now because you’re
just not going to get it. Before you sign out, please don’t forget to tell all
the rest of us how ignorant we are about politics, how we just don’t understand
“the legislative process” and how Washington, D.C. really works. [Please pardon us if
we happen to snicker, just a little, at your condescension] The majority of
Americans are now finally realizing that it’s all a big game where in Washington, D.C. the people lose and the mega-rich
always win somehow.
When it
comes to promises and politics we Americans have zero long-term memory and only
focus on the latest media contrived political frenzy, while anxiously awaiting
the next one, like a junkie needing their fix. You would think that someone
would be tracking it all and keeping score, but we as a people just continue to
follow either one party or the other in order to maintain the status quo. The
adage, “fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me” seems
appropriate, but in this case it is fool me for more than 30+ years and we
still don’t get it . . . that’s not a shame but absolute stupidity! As will be
repeated numerous times throughout this book, the definition of stupidity, as
you know already, is to “repeat the same behavior over and over and expect a
different result.” More than 30+ years is a lot of repeating to still not be
getting it . . . don’t you think? Almost everyone in America would agree that the two-party
political system is completely broken and simply doesn’t work, but in reality they
could not be more wrong. The two-party political system is working to absolute
perfection. In fact, it couldn’t be working any better more according to plan.
The problem is that it is not working for the American people and works only
for the greedy who run it via corrupt politicians and media manipulation.
Anyone that
has been to Las Vegas to gamble knows that the house
always wins. You lose at one casino, become frustrated and then go down the
street to the other casino and you lose at that one. Of course a few people win
and as long as “the people” see some win they continue to play. It’s the same
reason state lotteries publicize their winners and give them those really big
oversized checks on TV — it keeps the suckers coming back to the game.
In reality,
speaking economically, voting for one party over another is gambling with your
money. Like it or not, government and the legislation they pass or don’t pass
along with their management of the economy largely determines your financial
well being or lack thereof. Be it taxes, trade agreements, banking regulations,
consumer protection laws, or regulations that impact the industry you work within
— they all impact your wallet either directly or indirectly. As long as the mega-rich
own and control all of our government, via two horribly corrupt political
parties — the mega-rich know “the house” will always win at the game. The
American people have done nothing but switch from the Party A or Party B “house,”
then back again, for 75+ years or more. Just like in Vegas you’re never going
to beat the house — no matter which of these two corrupt parties are in
control. Anyone that thinks they are beating the house in this two-party casino
game needs only to view their complete lack of winnings over the past 30+
years. You have no chips to cash in at the window . . . while the mega-rich
have it all. What else do you need to know about the two-party political game?
During the past
35 years America has played in the Party B casino
for 15 or the Party A casino for 20 and we’ve lost our financial posterior no
matter in which casino we’ve played. In all those years, both parties have
“promised the world and delivered nothing” into the wallets’ of average
American citizens, but like fools we continue to play the same game. There will
of course be party loyalists out there who will believe, no matter how much overwhelming
evidence there is to the contrary, that if only their party had been in control
all those 35 years that things would be better for all American wallets. It
can’t of course be proven that these types of people are wrong, so all that can
be said is ‘keep inserting those coins and keep pulling that party lever and
maybe you will win some day?’ The house a.k.a. the mega-rich just love players
like you . . .
Instead of
hugging your party out of desperation, however, at least ask yourself the
question: if “diversity” is good for America in regard to people, then why
wouldn’t it be just as good for our political system? In Part II: The
Resistance, for those of you willing to think outside the two-party box, a
beginning step-by-step methodology for diluting the two-party political
monopoly will be presented to begin making the American economy work for the
people once again . . . instead of only the mega-rich. Let’s first get beyond
the bright lights of the Party A and Party B casinos and see just how they got
us to come in the door to gamble all our money away.
The first
most essential thing they had to do was get us to believe that there are two
different casinos owned by different owners with two different ideologies. Each
party picks a different set of bright lights to draw as many people as possible
into their casino. The bright lights are called hot button issues such as:
patriotism, the flag, same sex marriage, abortion, poverty, immigration,
national security, freedom, the deficit, racial inequality, family values, gun
control, religion, women’s rights and hundreds of other issues that will elicit
fire in the belly and focus within each gambler. Now, ask yourself, just how
many of these issues would really matter to you if there was an empty dinner
plate sitting in front of you?
While the
people are mesmerized by every issue but money, the mega-rich and their two
political parties are focused on nothing but money and power. It’s not some
grand conspiracy on the part of the two political parties, but instead just two
different routes to the same goals . . . power, control and money. Both casinos
really do want to gain the most players at their table, in order to win
elections, because it means they can funnel more money to themselves and their
mega-rich campaign contributors who bankrolled their respective campaigns. The
mega-rich are very smart people that simply hedge their bets in every election
by backing both casinos. If the odds are that “the little people” are going to
vote in Party A, they place more money on red and if it’s Party B they put most
of their money on blue. When you have billions of dollars, a few million here
or a few more million there are like nickels and dimes to us average Americans.
By betting both
red and blue, the greedy win no matter which political party comes out on top.
Voila! Creation of an oligarchy were the mega-rich control it all no matter
which party Americans gamble on, we lose over the long-term when playing on the
American monopoly board. When it comes to money, the rules of gravity that
dictate “what goes up must come down” simply don’t apply. The money that goes
up stays up forever and is multiplied exponentially. In more than 30+ years, as
evidenced by the statistics — not one single penny has “trickled down.” Yes America there were boom times, some people
got rich and built big houses, but during all those periods the mega-rich were
becoming even richer while carefully consolidating their control tools in order
to overtake the entire American Monopoly board.
By playing primarily
to hot button issues via the “social liberal” or “social conservative” game, both
of the political party casinos ensure that by the time we come through their
front door we’re filled with hot blooded passion, fired up and completely
bought in emotionally to one of the respective casinos ideologies. They even
have the equivalent of adult pep rallies called political conventions to get us
in gear and headed to their casino to gamble our future away. The more
passionate we are about our casino, the less likely we are to stray down the
street to the other casino — more importantly we’re far less likely to keep our
hand and eyes on our wallets. We forget about our money and plug in like
zombies to either one ideology or another. Who cares about money . . . just
give Americans their hot button cultural and social issues while bleeding them
dry of money.
We sit
down, get very comfortable at the table and away we play. We read about our
casino, we comment online back and forth about how great our casino is and
about how evil the other is. Those in casino A scream that the casino B is full
of anti-American socialists, towel heads, faggots, egg heads, atheists, baby
killers, big spenders, free loaders, tree huggers and the N word. The other
casino members scream back that that casino A is full of hate mongers,
capitalist pigs, holy rollers, war mongers, imperialists, flag wavers,
rednecks, mother earth haters, labor haters, free speech haters, want to
control women’s bodies, homophobes, haters of the poor and are racists. The
idea that either of these two casinos calls the other “hate mongers” is
absolutely hilarious! Where is the lack of hate from either side? Polarized,
hypnotized by the bright lights and drunk with the cocktails of hate being
poured like gasoline upon a fire by our corporate owned media — we fight the
“liberals” or fight the “conservatives” while the mega-rich that own the house
laugh all the way to the bank. It’s only slightly less contrived and absurd
than betting on a WWF pro wrestling match.
In futility
we sit at the same table and gamble day after day, year after year, decade
after decade. Have you stopped to count up your winnings lately? Where is all
the polarization and hate from both sides getting the average American
financially? All the statistics and facts say nowhere. It’s like two sides of a
boat with each side rowing frantically in opposite directions . . . the result
is an endless spin of total futility that has America sinking and stuck in neutral.
We and our
forefathers built America and we work everyday for ourselves
and the benefit of the American economy at large. In other words, this is our
casino that we built and own and we should be setting the rules — more
importantly we should be setting the odds of winning for average Americans.
Because we’ve been brainwashed by the idea that we have only two options,
casino A or casino B, we sit at the table and support our party of choice or
the lesser of the two evils. Yet somehow, we continue to lose money no matter which
casino we play within. Through our sweat and taxes we continue to put our money
on the table, but our number never seems to come up. That big check never
arrives and the dice never roll our way. We’re somewhat aware of the money on
the table we’re losing, but we never even see the money that’s leaving our wallets
year after year from under our American monopoly board through inflation and
wildly stagnated wages over the course of 30+ years. It’s like a big lake being
drained from the bottom by the mega-rich and because the lake was so large at
one point in time, we just recently noticed that the entire shoreline is
receding. Such a practice is called skimming and we covered it in some detail
when we looked at all the productivity gains and wealth gains within the U.S. over the past 30+ years that you
have missed out upon. You now know where all that money has gone and who took
it, but how they got you to go along with the theft was very sophisticated
indeed.
At the very
top of the pecking order leading both of the two major political parties, think
tanks, the media and corporations are the mega-rich behind ever single door. Once
you’ve tasted mega-money you forget average Americans no matter if they are a
member of your political party, a member of your union, civil rights group or
the poor. Without an ethics chastity belt welded in the locked position, ethics,
principals and integrity get kicked to the curb. It is all about greed,
personal gain and paying back campaign contributors as long as “the people” are
anything less than 100 percent vigilant. We all wish it were not true and like
to believe otherwise, but greed rules the day. If mankind is not regulated,
investigated and monitored very closely, he will take the money and run if
enough money is put on the table. The sad thing is that, many politicians as
well as corporate leaders, had high ideals and started out with honorable
intentions, but in time man will always fall short simply because no one is
looking, no one will ever know and virtually no one in America has been the wiser . . . until now!
Even for those Americans that do realize the corruption and the game being played,
they tell themselves that ‘at least we don’t live in China where they don’t even have
elections.’ The question you need to begin to ask yourself is, ‘do we actually have
elections?’ Are we really given choices as for whom we vote?
