Tax the rich

Bernie Sanders the only avowed socialist in the United State Senate was on TV echoing The Presidents call for a more equal distribution of income and he suggested higher taxes on the rich. I have to believe that both of these gentlemen understand that this will not work because there are too few rich and too many not rich. In 2010 the 1.35 million taxpayers who represented the top one percent earned 19% of the total gross income and paid 37% of all federal income tax which means they paid in 354 billion dollars in taxes. If we double their taxes and collect another 354 billion and distribute that to the remaining 99% they would each receive $3,000. This is not a very effective way to help the 99 percenters. A much better solution is to grow the economy and a proven way to do that, is free market capitalism and a good starting point, is the energy sector and specifically start using natural gas for power plants, and change over to natural gas in transportation. This is all shovel ready stuff and is underway in certain areas. I don’t understand what we are waiting for!

AIG bailout

AIG the large insurance company that had to be bailed out by the taxpayers is running ads on TV toting the fact that they paid back the bailout money. These are people who purchased high risk mortgage backed bonds and lost the bet. The bonds turned out to be junk and this company filled with investment experts lost their shirts. The government stepped in and purchased 95% of the company and allowed them time to restructure their company and then over time they bought back their stock from the government. Today they are bragging about their come back. Was anyone punished for this risking behavior? Quite to the contrary they were rewarded. American International Group is set to pay $450 million of bonuses to employees of the unit that was largely responsible for the New York insurer's near collapse last fall. Here is how our watch dogs in the congress responded. Rep. Elijah Cummings plans to send a letter Monday to Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner expressing his "outrage" that insurance giant AIG, the recipient of more than $170 billion in government aid, will dole out $165 million in corporate payments this week as part of its $1 billion retention program to keep senior executives at the company. They sent a nasty letter and that was the end of it. Congressional oversight committee members did not see the threat coming and when it was exposed they sent a letter and that was it. No one at AIG was ever punished. This is what many citizens see as corruption and this is what most upsets people but they re-elect these people year after year.

Calling

Here is something I sent to a young person who asked me what they should do with their life. As your children reach the right age they may find this helpful. When discussing the kind of work people do, most of us understand what is meant by a job, a career and a profession but a calling is something most do not give much thought to. The words themselves are somewhat interchangeable but in my way of thinking they are distinctly different. To me a job is something you get without much preparation and you can change jobs frequently and not suffer any adverse consequences. A career on the other hand requires some commitment beyond being there from 9 to 5. A career is recognizable to others and normally requires some degree of expertise. A profession means you are a professional. This usually means a lot of time and effort directed at a very narrow course of action. Professionals make a career out of their job. Professionals are highly skilled either by formal training or natural ability. Calling is in a class by itself and not many are called or more precisely not many recognize their calling. Biblically Mathew in the New Testament says, “many are called but few are chosen”, which to me means that we may all have a calling but only a few of us recognize it and even fewer follow up on it. A calling sometimes comes from the inside out and that happens early in life. Other times it comes from the outside in and that can happen at any stage in life. Most of us are familiar with people who have a calling from within. Many people miss their calling because they are tied up just with making enough to support their families. Many pass by opportunities because of a fear to take a financial risk. Many do not think they are worthy……no one in our family ever does anything important. A man can have a good life, meaning he has a job that provides for his family, he enjoys going to work and feels like he is making a difference and that satisfies him. Sometimes a man in that position gets to midlife and realizes that something is missing. If he looks into it he might discover a part of himself he did not know existed and upon further study can come to understand that there is something more important in his future. Such a man will seemingly stumble into his calling. Since he has searched and studied, this it is more than a stumble, it is an example of serendipity Money is rarely the clue to someone’s calling….more often it is a desire to share ones talents, experience, and knowledge in ways that can be helpful to others. It has little to do with fame and fortune. In answer to your question, we are all born selfish and as we go through life we should reach the point where we realize that happiness comes from giving. I would say that a man recognizes his calling when he realizes that the secret to happiness, is in giving. It does not matter what method (type of work) he uses to share what he has but it is in the sharing that he begins to use his calling.

Read my lips

When the first George Bush was running for president in 1987 he said, “Read my lips, no new taxes”, and then after he was elected in 1990 he agreed to raise taxes. He was defeated in his re-election for 1994, almost four years after the tax increase and seven years after his pledge. Looking back many analyst feel the breaking of his pledge cost him the second term. Now we have the case of Hillary Clinton who made the now infamous statement about those who died in Benghazi saying, “what difference does it make how they died”, and some say it will cost her the election in 2016 only 4 years after she made the remarks. Others say it will all be forgotten in 4 years and I believe they are correct because even in this short time the public attention span has gotten so much shorter.

cost

When congress passed Obamacare the estimated cost for the first ten years was 900 billion since he said he wanted to keep the cost under a trillion. The latest ten year cost projection is 2.6 trillion. Now we find out that there is a clause in the act stating that if the insurance companies lose money the government will reimburse them. This will happen if not enough young healthy people sign up to offset the cost of the previously uninsured who are quickly signing up. We have seen many times over The President saying that if you like your insurance you can keep it and how this was not the case but we have yet to see his statement that this plan will not add one dime to the deficit. That will probably be on our screens this coming year.

Gas

A common question regarding the price of gasoline is why is the price still over $3 when we are producing so much more oil and the answer is that the price of oil is set on the world market. The increase in production here in the US has been offset by an increase in demand in the rest of the world. If we had not increased our output through fracking the price would be much higher. The easiest way to lower the price of gas is to have a substitute fuel such as natural gas. If we converter all semi-trucks to natural gas we would eliminate our need for Saudi oil and the price would come down. It requires the instillation of natural gas pumps at all truck stops. The cost of all of this would be less than what the government has wasted on wind and solar experiments that have gone bankrupt. In spite of this the march toward natural gas is inexorable because of free market forces. The changes are already underway as we move from coal power plants to natural gas and semis will follow.

Unemployment

A bill is being introduced to extend unemployment benefits and it will be paid for by calling it a national emergency and the cost will be added to the deficit. That is a great idea. Now why not add to that the millions who are homeless and all those who don’t have enough to eat. I have a plan to pay for these new programs. Just ask the big banks to pay. The government has given them two trillion (with a T) over the past four years and they are just sitting on it as excess reserves. Here is their chance to be good citizens.