[Pages 16-17]
Now that
some of the damage already done has been documented and I’ve alluded to a possibly
bleak future to come for most Americans — it’s time to place some stakes firmly
in the ground as to what I believe to be bedrock America values. First and foremost
understand that I’m NOT a socialist, communist, anarchist or member of either
of the two political parties, herein referred to as Party A (Republican) or
Party B (Democrat). In fact, I’m not a member of any political party for
several reasons, as follows: 1) While some have suggested that America would be
better off if all political parties were outlawed, I don’t by any means believe
or adhere to that radical mindset, but I do clearly see the damage done to “democracy,”
the political process and our economy by what are known as “party politics” and
power grabs. I’m not a member of a particular political party simply because I
don’t see one I can fit within. Therefore I’m a registered Independent which
now accounts for somewhere around a third of American voters. Surveys regularly
indicate that more than 80 percent of Americans would vote for another party
and most voters registered in Party A or B only do so in order to vote in party
primaries. With that as reality, neither of the two main political parties — or
even the two parties combined — can say they represent the majority of the
American people. 2) As evidenced by the dismal economic statistics, I simply
don’t see how anyone in America can be either a proud member of
either Party A or Party B? In the No. 2 spot, just behind the government’s role
of providing national security, is government’s role in providing a level
economic playing field upon which all Americans can compete and prosper.
Clearly, if
that is the measurement of our two-party system then the current system is an abysmal
failure. If you’re not yet convinced of that fact, then I’m quite confident you
will be when the statistics on wealth disparity in America are revealed herein. Now, for any
of you political party loyalists out there who contend that America just hasn’t had enough of one party
or the other — consider that in the last 35 years, America has had a Party B president for 15
years and a president from Party A for 20. That fact begs the question, ‘which
party has America not had enough of?’ Perhaps the
more practical question is, ‘why have both political parties been such abysmal
failures at providing a level economic playing field upon which more Americans
can compete for their slice of the American Dream?’
Make no
mistake whatsoever: I’m a capitalist 100 percent that believes in the “free
enterprise system.” With that said however, life experiences teach that a free
enterprise system cannot operate unrestrained without major problems for the
majority of the American population. On the opposite side of that coin, are the
fringe left a.k.a. “closet socialists” who don’t really believe in the free
enterprise system at all. Who knows, socialism may be the best answer, but
history’s answer to that question is an emphatic “NO!” What socialists don’t
realize is that if a perfect socialist state were imposed upon America tomorrow, it would be horribly
corrupted with gross inequalities within a week without the same checks and
balances we’re missing today in our American free enterprise system.
The other
element within the fringe left, who claim to believe in the free enterprise
system, are those that believe money grows on trees and that you can fund more “government”
without more money. That same crowd have now coined a new term called “corporatism”
which at its core has the belief that everything that involves corporations and
business is pure evil from the bowels of hell. They even take offense to the
term “business friendly” as if an environment conducive to business and a
strong economy is something evil. There are absolute multitudes of good
corporate citizens in America, good employers, great places to
work and business owners that value their employees with pay beyond absolute
minimums to fill the job. As will be explored herein, many businesses most
especially Small to Medium Enterprise (SME) operations are just as economically
challenged as the American workforce. A global economy, coupled with
corporations that have morphed into behemoth corporate monsters via mergers and
acquisitions and way too much money concentrated at the top of the food chain
have many SMEs gasping for air. Herein, when corporations are maligned, it’s
not describing the vast majority of businesses in America, but instead refers to the
top-heavy corporate beasts that dominate the economic landscape who use their
position to unfair advantage and manipulation of the marketplace. Much of the
stagnated wages/salaries environment in America that has occurred over several
decades is systemic to marketplace pressures and not due to abuse or exploitation
of the American workforce. It is primarily the economic table being tilted in
favor of the behemoth corporate entities and their mega-rich stockholders that
now have the vast majority of American businesses and the workforce alike in
the same sinking boat.
To paint
all corporations with the brush of evil as is done by many on the fringe left
is just wrong! To expect pay and benefits to exceed marketplace norms and profit
constraints is simply unrealistic. While there is widespread abusive and out of
whack corporate entities with CEO pay and profits that are obscene, most
corporations in America operate in an environment of
restraint via some semblance of conscience and marketplace confines. As noted
already, the free enterprise system is far from perfect and to expect utopia
detached from marketplace realities is simply not realistic.
Those on
the fringe left in America that believe “profit” is a bad word simply don’t
understand what makes the world go around. Where is it that these people think
money comes from I don’t know, but what they don’t get is that food comes from
the same place. Everyone can’t have a job working for the government simply
because there would be no paychecks to tax in order to pay the government
workers. Why is that you may ask? Simple, the government doesn’t have even one
penny of their own. It all comes from taxes, tariffs, arms sales or the newest
source: lending Wall Street our money at a ridiculous low rate. In order to
collect 10 cents in taxes from a government employee, you first have to pay
them that dollar and if everyone works for the government there is no one in America to create those government payroll
dollars. While all this may seem like a basic “duh” for most people, for many
Americans this reality is a real epiphany. Furthermore, if the government just
prints more money to pay for more government employees, the dollars in every
American pocket simply become more and more worthless as time moves forward.
Stating the obvious, on occasion, unfortunately is required simply because many
Americans believe we can have it all and not pay for it somehow.
The last
resort, now already exhausted, was to borrow trillions of dollars from
Communist China until we’ve reached a point that we can’t afford to even to pay
off the interest money we owe them — much less the actual debt. Only Wall
Street gets ridiculously low interest rates from U.S. taxpayers, but China is not as stupid as U.S. taxpayers. Because we unfortunately
don’t have the Chinese government in our hip pocket (like Wall Street does our
government) . . . we pay real interest rates to China on the money we’ve borrowed from
them. It’s too bad China hasn’t yet experienced “freedom”
and developed “democracy” like us; if they had — we could make some big time
campaign contributions and get some better interest rates like Wall Street did
from Congress.
Bottom line,
what does all this really mean a.k.a. what’s the skinny? The skinny is that a
whole lot of Americans currently working in jobs for federal, state and local
governments are going to be out on the street and getting a government job is
going to be extremely difficult going forward. Therefore the 30+ million under
and unemployed at present is going to grow by leaps and bounds — via government
workers tossed out into the streets via austerity measures — if we do not
create millions of new jobs in the private sector, hold the line on American
jobs going off shore and bring jobs back to America.
Now, with
this painful lesson in economic reality in place — it must also be noted that,
within every economic system, there will be winners and losers as well as
disparity in wealth. With that said, our American free enterprise system has
proven itself to be the best economic system found to date for delivering the
widest benefits to the most people within a society; however the free
enterprise system is a creation of “man.” It is NOT some perfect organism with
natural self-correcting mechanics that will deliver the most value to the most
citizens without some degree of government, and just as importantly consumer
intervention a.k.a. a “shoppers’ conscience.” Even with both government and
consumer intervention — utopian existence within America or anywhere in the world will never
happen, but there should at a minimum be a more level playing field upon which
most can compete for economic equality. Furthermore, participants within our
American free enterprise system should be handsomely rewarded for their hard
work and victories within the system. Those rewards should include great
wealth, ownership of property and the ability to pass down a significant amount
of that that wealth to their family.
