Dear Occupiers: You are absolutely right to fight against the corrupting influence of corporatism in our political system, but your 13 point demand list is a victory dance for the very guys you are drumming against.
Do you want to actually do something worthwhile? Then cut your list of demands down from 13 to just these 2: abolish the Federal Reserve and enact the FairTax.
The Government could not spend 60% more than it takes in without someone loaning them the money. Would you loan your own money to a deadbeat who had neither the wherewithal nor the intention of ever paying it back? Let me rephrase that. If you had any money, would you… And neither would the rest of the world, which has pretty much quit buying U.S. debt.
So the Federal Reserve steps in and prints money out of thin air, virtually gives it away to those Wall Street banks, which turn right around and loan it to the government at 3.7% interest at the Treasury auctions, a damn fine profit for the couple of nanoseconds it takes to process the two transactions on their servers. You can’t rack up billions in profits one $2.00 ATM fee at a time, you know; people take too long to push the buttons.
And what do you occupationists’ demand? Even more government spending - which means more borrowing, which means more counterfeiting of currency, which means more profits for the Wall Street banks, not less. They are secretly cheering you on behind those brass doors you are hollering at. And all that fiat money inflates the currency, raising prices and depressing real earnings. You would already be making a living wage if the Fed hadn’t turned your dollars into dimes; your ideas turn them into pennies faster than they are headed already.
Here’s an analogy the stoners among you might understand – it’s not fair that your street dealer has such fine rims and a smoking hot girlfriend so your answer is demand even more addicts. Wrong. Abolish the drug cartel (Federal Reserve) and shrink the number of addicts (Government programs). Here’s what will happen; drug prices drop (currency normalization) the girlfriend leaves (externalities) and the guy in the wife-beater has to make an honest living (real GDP growth). There is a little more to macroeconomics and monetary policy than that, but not enough to warrant taking out another student loan.
You are wasting your time on the wrong street, my friends. You aren’t even in the right town, unless Timmy Geithner still has an office there. Go down to K Street in Washington D.C. if you want to stop corruption in politics. That’s where all the lobbyists hang out, and that is where the actual corrupting takes place.
There are more than 14,000 lobbyists in D.C. and their job is to take the money from special interests (meaning the other guy’s association, not mine) and spread it around to Congressmen and regulators, who gladly provide a return on that investment in the form of tax breaks, subsidies, boondoggle spending, and regulatory preferences, which further enrich the special interests, who give even more money to lobbyists, who spread it around like manure – and round and round it goes, getting deeper and deeper with each lap of the spreader.
Who do you think will put an end to it – those guys? The status quo is a win-win-win for the revolving door of special interests, lobbyists, and politicians sucking away at the public teat down on K Street. One day you’re the nipple, the next day the lips; and the taxpayer gets milked – there’s your moment of clarity.
Those Wall Street banks are just the errand boys that move cash from the Fed to the government to the special interests to the lobbyists to the regulators and campaigns of the folks desperate to operate the machinery for next four years. Rich errand boys to be sure, but errand boys nonetheless.
Want to put an end to the racket? Then join us to enact the FairTax – a national sales tax which replaces all other federal taxes and abolishes the IRS. With no tax breaks to give, there is no reason to lobby, and no purpose for the special interests. Just like the dealer with the spinners, everybody with their snout in the trough down on K Street has to go get honest work.
And we save $400 billion in compliance costs that the current tax system extracts from the economy each year. Hit the bong and contemplate that one for a moment; that is a $400 billion job stimulus - not just this year but every single year until hell freezes over. C’mon President Obama, say it just once, I double-dog dare you - “Pass This Bill!” I didn’t think so; there is a campaign war chest to fill.
If abolishing the Federal Reserve and implementing FairTax is a little too radical for you (in which case I have no idea why you are reading this column), then Herman Cain’s 9-9-9 tax plan and re-purposing of the Fed mandate onto sound money is the next best thing. Keynesians mock it and Arthur Laffer loves it; good enough for me. Mr. Cain’s plan takes the best of the FairTax, the best of the Flat Tax, and levels the playing field for all businesses while improving our global competitiveness.
And if you want to close your own personal income gap, go occupy North Dakota. The place is busting out at the seams with the oil boom that is going on there; 3.4% unemployment and jobs going to the highest bidder. You lefties drew your line in the sand on fossil fuels – the unemployment line. If you want to make a living wage, put down your bongos and get your butts out to Williston.
We just lost Steve Jobs – my generation’s Thomas Edison. The guy secured over 300 patents and unlike the politicians and charlatans who heap praise upon themselves, he did literally change the world. We lose phones with more computing power than the million dollar mainframe computers he liberated us from. And he got mad, silly, stinking rich doing it. Should we hate Steve Jobs because he climbed to the other side of the income gap? No, we should thank our dear Lord for him and people like him with each click of the mouse that he invented.
Dear occupiers: the liberals who have promised you hope and change don’t have either to give you. You are waiting for a bus to prosperity that will never come. Start walking; you will be surprised how fast you can catch up.
“Moment Of Clarity” is a weekly commentary by Libertarian writer and speaker Tim Nerenz, Ph.D. Visit Tim’s website www.timnerenz.com to find your moment.
Do you want to actually do something worthwhile? Then cut your list of demands down from 13 to just these 2: abolish the Federal Reserve and enact the FairTax.
The Government could not spend 60% more than it takes in without someone loaning them the money. Would you loan your own money to a deadbeat who had neither the wherewithal nor the intention of ever paying it back? Let me rephrase that. If you had any money, would you… And neither would the rest of the world, which has pretty much quit buying U.S. debt.
So the Federal Reserve steps in and prints money out of thin air, virtually gives it away to those Wall Street banks, which turn right around and loan it to the government at 3.7% interest at the Treasury auctions, a damn fine profit for the couple of nanoseconds it takes to process the two transactions on their servers. You can’t rack up billions in profits one $2.00 ATM fee at a time, you know; people take too long to push the buttons.
And what do you occupationists’ demand? Even more government spending - which means more borrowing, which means more counterfeiting of currency, which means more profits for the Wall Street banks, not less. They are secretly cheering you on behind those brass doors you are hollering at. And all that fiat money inflates the currency, raising prices and depressing real earnings. You would already be making a living wage if the Fed hadn’t turned your dollars into dimes; your ideas turn them into pennies faster than they are headed already.
Here’s an analogy the stoners among you might understand – it’s not fair that your street dealer has such fine rims and a smoking hot girlfriend so your answer is demand even more addicts. Wrong. Abolish the drug cartel (Federal Reserve) and shrink the number of addicts (Government programs). Here’s what will happen; drug prices drop (currency normalization) the girlfriend leaves (externalities) and the guy in the wife-beater has to make an honest living (real GDP growth). There is a little more to macroeconomics and monetary policy than that, but not enough to warrant taking out another student loan.
You are wasting your time on the wrong street, my friends. You aren’t even in the right town, unless Timmy Geithner still has an office there. Go down to K Street in Washington D.C. if you want to stop corruption in politics. That’s where all the lobbyists hang out, and that is where the actual corrupting takes place.
There are more than 14,000 lobbyists in D.C. and their job is to take the money from special interests (meaning the other guy’s association, not mine) and spread it around to Congressmen and regulators, who gladly provide a return on that investment in the form of tax breaks, subsidies, boondoggle spending, and regulatory preferences, which further enrich the special interests, who give even more money to lobbyists, who spread it around like manure – and round and round it goes, getting deeper and deeper with each lap of the spreader.
Who do you think will put an end to it – those guys? The status quo is a win-win-win for the revolving door of special interests, lobbyists, and politicians sucking away at the public teat down on K Street. One day you’re the nipple, the next day the lips; and the taxpayer gets milked – there’s your moment of clarity.
Those Wall Street banks are just the errand boys that move cash from the Fed to the government to the special interests to the lobbyists to the regulators and campaigns of the folks desperate to operate the machinery for next four years. Rich errand boys to be sure, but errand boys nonetheless.
Want to put an end to the racket? Then join us to enact the FairTax – a national sales tax which replaces all other federal taxes and abolishes the IRS. With no tax breaks to give, there is no reason to lobby, and no purpose for the special interests. Just like the dealer with the spinners, everybody with their snout in the trough down on K Street has to go get honest work.
And we save $400 billion in compliance costs that the current tax system extracts from the economy each year. Hit the bong and contemplate that one for a moment; that is a $400 billion job stimulus - not just this year but every single year until hell freezes over. C’mon President Obama, say it just once, I double-dog dare you - “Pass This Bill!” I didn’t think so; there is a campaign war chest to fill.
If abolishing the Federal Reserve and implementing FairTax is a little too radical for you (in which case I have no idea why you are reading this column), then Herman Cain’s 9-9-9 tax plan and re-purposing of the Fed mandate onto sound money is the next best thing. Keynesians mock it and Arthur Laffer loves it; good enough for me. Mr. Cain’s plan takes the best of the FairTax, the best of the Flat Tax, and levels the playing field for all businesses while improving our global competitiveness.
And if you want to close your own personal income gap, go occupy North Dakota. The place is busting out at the seams with the oil boom that is going on there; 3.4% unemployment and jobs going to the highest bidder. You lefties drew your line in the sand on fossil fuels – the unemployment line. If you want to make a living wage, put down your bongos and get your butts out to Williston.
We just lost Steve Jobs – my generation’s Thomas Edison. The guy secured over 300 patents and unlike the politicians and charlatans who heap praise upon themselves, he did literally change the world. We lose phones with more computing power than the million dollar mainframe computers he liberated us from. And he got mad, silly, stinking rich doing it. Should we hate Steve Jobs because he climbed to the other side of the income gap? No, we should thank our dear Lord for him and people like him with each click of the mouse that he invented.
Dear occupiers: the liberals who have promised you hope and change don’t have either to give you. You are waiting for a bus to prosperity that will never come. Start walking; you will be surprised how fast you can catch up.
“Moment Of Clarity” is a weekly commentary by Libertarian writer and speaker Tim Nerenz, Ph.D. Visit Tim’s website www.timnerenz.com to find your moment.
