This is going to be one of the most complicated posts I have tried so far and I am beginning it in fear and trepidation. The war against the rich is quite simple and very easy to track. The war against the poor is much more subtle and complex, and I wanted this blog to be easy to read and understand for beginners in the field of political analysis. So please bear with me here. I will be connecting the dots. It is unlikely that I will be able to present my basic thoughts on this subject in just one post. It may even take two or three. Jesus Christ is quoted as saying— “the poor we have always with us.” I don’t think this is necessarily a given in our society so you see I am going to disagree with Jesus. Setting out my reasons will take some space.
How shall we define “poor?” Rich and poor are such relative terms, dependent upon many differing factors such as cultural expectations(this is a big one), cultural standards, (these vary from place to place), exposure to comparison groups, public focus on select issues, etc.. Perhaps best stated by a quote of some antiquity which is… “I thought I was poor because I had no shoes until I met a man who had no feet.”
Here in America lately, we have had much public wailing about “The Poor” in capital letters, without any sort of definition as to what exactly defines “poor” to these people. The same goes for legislative rhetoric about “The Rich.” I will condense the howlings of the past fifty years or so into a workable definition for the purposes of this blog. We will start at the top, most public layer and work our way down. I will be giving some tried and true methods of self-defense also because people who get to feeling poor can use some encouragement. I don’t mean to just yak about this war, I mean to offer some weapons that can be used against the aggressors.
We may take the idea of poverty as those people who feel themselves divorced from or shut out of, direct legislative authority. We may also take the idea of “rich” to encompass those the public feels are in control of this process. Most people feel disempowered and helpless to make the changes necessary to regain some control over their finances and their lives, ergo, they feel poor. Voters all over this country fall under this heading regardless of their income.
Congress is running wild, ignoring the wishes of the electorate and following an agenda not approved by the people for the benefit of a select group which Congress is pleased to call “the poor” but which most Americans know really means “the rich” per the definitions I just gave. Right now, when these few instigators on Capitol Hill say “poor” what they really mean is “those without health insurance.” Your first weapon will be to publicly refute this special interest definition.
A select few in Washington D. C., led by Obama, a group of women, and a few token males are attempting to ram socialized medicine down the throats of Americans using “The Poor” as an emotional catch-all phrase. They do not address any basic issues such as asking hard questions as to why health care became so overpriced in the first place. We hear nothing about the huge overpricing practises of the big drug companies. We hear nothing about the overpricing of medical equipment. We hear nothing about lowering the cost of health care itself by addressing the enormous price affixed to malpractice insurance that no doctor will practise without today or the judicial rulings and settlements that drove it up to begin with. These are the underlying issues involved but this Obama fronted women’s group has been very careful to direct public focus away from and not towards them. Americans know this but most have lost sight of the underpinning behind this insurance scam now before us in the name of healthcare, and this creates the feeling of disfranchisement that we all are reacting to.
This feeling of malaise has been created very deliberately, a fact which almost all Americans know at some level. This is what drives most of our resentment against “the rich.” Our first line of defense in the War Against the Poor, and it will be very effective if implemented, is to refocus our attention on the items I have italicized above and to refuse to allow the professional politicians to sidetrack us with the emotionally based redirection tactics at which they all excel. Those of you who are not doing so now, need to turn a deaf ear to the specious, alligator tears tactics of these few women and their token males when they start in about ” X—- NUMBERS OF AMERICANS HAVE NO HEALTH INSURANCE!” Sob, Sob, Sob. These bleeding hearts do not care about “the poor” and do not seek to benefit them. The only people they seek to benefit from health insurance are the big insurance companies. Here in New England we have our own definition of SOB’s. Think of this when these sob sisters turn on the public tears.
Sick people need medicine and/or medical attention, not insurance. Healthy people don’t even need that. In this particular campaign in the War Against the Poor, the big insurance companies and their lobbyists/politicians have brought out their very biggest guns–lack of hindsight/foresight by the average voter, public misdirection of needed focus areas, fear, and financial insecurity. And they have done all this, not to improve our health, but to guarantee an investable capital base for their own profit. These tactics are very cheap but very, very effective in manipulating the public. What we need to do is insist that legislatures focus on the causes of inflated medical related pricing in every related healthcare field, and not quibble about more insurance that will only continue to inflate this wholly unnecessary gravy train.
A certain group of power investors artificially drove up the price of our healthcare to begin with, also deliberately, and they did that about 20 to 25 years ago. Remember, you are dealing with international corporations and they think twenty to fifty years ahead in their major game plans. Average people don’t generally do so and that leaves them at a huge disadvantage, which the big multinationals take full advantage of. Here is another self-defense weapon for the poor–when a given issue appears in the public arena, there is always an historical, political, legislative or financial background to it, going back several years. Look for the history if you want to fight effectively. The information you need will be available in the public records if you bother to hunt for it, and you will begin to feel much more empowered and much less like David against Goliath.
I have given here just a few examples of the weapons used by certain groups and individuals against the people in the war against the poor along with some very effective counter measures. In my next post, I will try to enlarge on some of the topics presented.
Next post—-The War Against The Poor…continued.
The Longest Journey Begins... 
The War Against The Poor…Simple Cures
Posted in War Stories, tagged capital gains, conservative commentary,, death duties, estate taxes, Industrial Revolution, legislation, medicare, social security, wealth on October 14, 2011| Leave a Comment »
Now strikes me as a really good time to provide readers with some historical perspective about our national financial situation.
The current financial policies pursued by voters in the western world have their beginnings in the Industrial Revolution of the 1700’s.
The factory and mine owners of those days were making enormous profits off of the sweat shop conditions of their workers and paying them in pennies. The immediate result of those policies was a virulent, unfocused hatred of all business people and a resentment of anyone who had acquired personal wealth regardless of the individuals own behavior. These feelings of resentment led to the formation of unions, not a bad thing, child labor laws, a very good thing, and the introduction of the income tax system — a very, very bad thing for everyone.
In a word, the general voting public is running about three centuries behind in its political awareness and the entire western world in general is suffering the ill effects. The cures are simple.
1.)We need to abolish both the state and federal income tax systems. We need to start phasing them out right now. The income tax was based on spite, the less monied classes cut off their own noses by it and it opens the door for all sorts of bureaucratic intimidation, interference and mismanagement. We can find other ways to fund the really necessary functions of government for a free nation. I will develop my views about the income tax in-depth in a future post. It covers a lot of ground, idea wise.
2.)We need to vastly reduce or eliminate the capital gains tax. We cannot have a prosperous economy if we penalize prosperity. This tax was also based on the spite of the have-nots.
3.) We need to eliminate all death duties and estate taxes. Same as above.
4.) We need to abolish the Social Security/Medicare system and we need to start phasing it out right now. It was a very bad idea and it is time we all admitted this. Let individuals save for their own retirement and manage their own funds instead. Let’s focus on why health care is so expensive and fix that instead.
Our governments are so intrusive these days and our economy is in ruins because our great grandparents voted in all the necessary ingredients for this to happen. They did this because of their class resentment against “rich” people. Well, our great grandparents generation are all dead now and we, their grand children, are having to live with the results of their political spite. Personally, I am against this.
We all feel that our government is too obtrusive in our lives and businesses and this interference is bad socially and financially. We can cure this mess and the first step will be to call a spade a spade. Those well-intentioned folks who are picketing Wall street today would be better served if they cleaned up their own back yards first otherwise they will only compound an already bad situation. The growing disparity between the incomes has been caused chiefly by legislation introduced by the lower incomes themselves and they are the ones who will have to cure it. I will elaborate on this theme more fully in my next post—
The War Against The Poor—Causes.
P.S. It is my contention that most American voters are not stupid or corrupt. They are, however, inclined to react only to surface stimuli and totally overlook underlying causes. This is where I come in. When you read my blog here, remember I point this stuff out so that we can change things for the better, and not simply to find fault. So keep up the good work everyone. I sense changes for the better on the way.
Rate this:
Share this:
Like this:
Read Full Post »