"If we believe that A GOVERNMENT SHOULD PROVIDE a base level of income or services for all, rich or poor, we are considered to be a socialist. I am OK with that."
Ah, the fly in the ointment.
Ah yes, the drift was first from our country founded as a republic. Then the continued outcry became that which one eventually became accustomed to--& it went from their to democracy, where the 'American dream' could be achieved if one worked hard & achieved it .
Now the SLIDE is into socialism, where the outcry is those who obtained the American dream successfully should
BY GOVERNMENT MANDATE & LAW FORCE YOU TO pay their fair share to others who have not worked for it rather than the free will offering to help others, which our country used to do regularly.
It is not something you work hard & earn, it is something demanded of you & it is a right of the government to take your hard earned money & forcefully by law redistribute it AS THE GOVERNMENT DECIDES what the money should be used for, contrary to the government of the people & by the people & for the people.
Where there is a concentrated structure of power, influence & wealth in the hands of a few people in government, there will be many crimes of extortion, murder & favors of wealth paid, etc. & still the people can no longer get ahead. The most recent example of this in history is the failed Venezuelan government.
Remember the overhaul by Hugo Chavez, of turning a democracy into a socialistic state controlled by the government. Here was the boasted pride of saying the country will become better under socialism. Now we see the horrific results of this failed socialistic project. They went as a country from a dictatorship to democracy to socialism & now back to an almost dictatorship government, with crooked election results & protest after protest. So much for making things equal & helping
Market Ponders The End Of Venezuela's Failed Socialist Project
Under the rule of the Socialists United Party, Venezuela has fostered the biggest migrant crisis in Latin America. Nicolas Maduro now presides over the largest failed state in the Americas. Other than Cuba, Nicaragua & Bolivia, no country in the Americas recognizes his presidency at the time he was elected this year. What was one of the largest oil reserves in the Americas, in the country’s once-proud oil giant, PdVSA, now has their defaulted bonds selling at 80% discounts.
"PdVSA is the owner of Citgo, a brand every American knows. Citgo, like the country that owns it, is being kept afloat by Russian and Chinese money, and maybe a few rolls of duct tape." Kenneth Raposa, senior contributor to Forbes
This situation has happened as a prime example in my own state. In the past people get tired of THE GOVERNMENT INTERFERING in businesses like the phone companies & MANDATING BY LAW (ever checked how many different federal, let alone state taxes have been levied without voter approval; it will astound you the number of them) TAXES WITHOUT REPRESENTATION & the approval of the voters--& using them for whatever the government decides.
That is why so many have abandoned their home phones & went to standard, inexpensive cell phones, where the extravagant taxes are not nearly present. Those who still pay for the most expensive cell phones are doing so because of the unjust taxes placed on them, making their prices so high.
The latest one, as I previously mentioned has to do with the now exorbitant taxing, again by the government, on license fees for vehicles, some have older vehicles that the license fees become more than the vehicle is worth!
In the past, when these abuses of government interference occurred, the people took advantage of the checks & balances that the founding fathers of our once republic government provided, by using the referendum & initiative process to bring sanity to an overspending government out of control. This happened a number of times in the past, especially on license fees, in the state i live in.
In fact one legislator put forth Initiative 601, which passed by the people for the people on stopping the government spending more than it took in. Within ONE YEAR the government went from being in the red to being in the black.
I remember it as I was a state worker & watched the overhaul of state government--cutting many administrative positions down to a reasonable number & holding departments to spending what revenues they had, rather than spending beyond what they had & having to pull out of the 'general' fund. Yet that lawful mandate no longer exists. Spending more than what is taken in has become rampant once again.
Oh by the way, that legislator went on to the US congress. In a short time there, this congressperson said what was done in the state I live in could not be done in WA, DC, because they would be found dead in an alley somewhere.
One of the greatest crises in the US is the social security fund, once THE largest fund of the government, which was not to be used for anything but that. What caused the crisis? Lack of money to cover the fund. How did this happen with Americans continuing to take their hard-earned money & putting it in?
The problem was NOT a lack of funds to run the program, the problem was ROBBERS IN CONGRESS who kept stealing out of the fund for years, to pay for whatever program they so chose to bail out. It wasn't a social security problem, it was a theft problem for so many years, to the point that it can no longer run solvent in the near future.
It was government bankrupting the supposed government of the people by the people & for the people. Representatives no longer represent their constituents but now whatever they deem is needed for party lines.
Now back to the state I live in. A new referendum in 2019, lowering vehicle license fees passed overwhelmingly by the people. Yet the government stepped in & stopped it from becoming law, because the excessive taxes, used for government chosen programs, was being threatened. It wasn't because the referendum wasn't LEGAL, but because the government decided it shouldn't be made law & stopped it.
The state I live in also has the 4th highest gas tax in the country next to California, Pennsylvania & Illinois. The current rate is 49.5 cents per gallon AND THAT DOESN'T INCLUDE THE FEDERAL TAX OF $.18 ON TOP OF THAT. The government is in the phone business, is in the gasoline business, is in the...etc.
So, where's that money going? The original purpose of a gas tax was to pay for road maintenance. Oregon became the first state in the country to implement a tax on gasoline to the tune of one penny per gallon. In some states, the gas tax increases automatically every few years due to inflation. As construction costs rise, governments turn to the tax to help pay for road projects.
The 18th Amendment in the state I live in restricts the money from fuel taxes to be used for "highway purposes," like bridges, road repairs, or traffic signal management & it includes the State Ferry System.
Therefore, using fuel tax money for other forms of public transportation would be illegal. Instead, states &municipalities draw from a number of different sources for public transit need, like federal money, private grants and then local taxes. In my state, that means property taxes, sales taxes & car-tab fees & exorbitant taxes on businesses. I know. I once owned a business.
In my locale, the GOVERNMENT was supposed to take 'set aside funds' & build structures for flooding. It wasn't done. As a result, 300-400 business owners confronted their legislators & county commissioners, etc. for their businesses & inventory being ruined after massive flooding occurred, including stopping the main freeway north AND south, adversely affecting many more businesses in many other counties. I was involved in that. New legislatures were elected & county commissioners removed.
I was involved in a state-wide survey of people & businesses who were affected by dept of ecology rules & regulations. I talked to business owner after business owner who were in the process of leaving the state I live in & doing business elsewhere.
Washington among most-taxed states
A study finds that the state I live in has the highest sales & excise taxes in the country. Despite having no state income tax, my state ranks a lowly #37 in a study on the best & worst states for taxpayers. WalletHub analyzed real estate, vehicle, income and sales and excise taxes. The state I live in also finished No. 29 for its level of property taxation.
The national debt just passed $22 TRILLION for the first time in 2/19, after being just half that a decade ago. In 2014 25.7% of the US population earned $100,000 or more, leaving 3/4 of Americans incomes below that! With the debt that high this year, almost $90,000 of every American pay is to go to paying that debt off.
3/4 of Americans would have to forfeit their whole year of income just to EQUALLY SHARE the burden of the government's excessive spending, leaving them nothing to live on or pay their bills. OH--never fear, socialism is here, the government will pay your income for the year, putting the national debt (do the math: $90,000 X 1.31 million FULL TIME workers (doesn't include part-time workers or seasonal workers, etc.) as of 11/19 {again government figures
equals 117900000000 added to the national debt EVERY YEAR & it keeps going up!
This is the definition of INSANITY: doing the same things over & over again & expecting different results.
These things cannot continue. A collapse is coming. Are you prepared for it? Those who are in the know concerning economics are predicting it. The government now runs out of money every 1-4 years & simply legislates a bogus law & prints more money that has no backing behind it, so to fund the government.
