Taxing Times in America

History is filled with people being fooled by unscrupulous groups.

And we in America are certainly not immune to the tactic.  In fact sometimes we do it to ourselves as with the many who mined fools gold thinking it was the real thing.

But our nation is in the middle of new era of fools being fooled and this time it could cost us all!

Our lives are now affected by events that take place anywhere in the world.

Remember the day prices on the stock market resembled a scary roller coaster ride?  The day prices dropped a thousand points and then recovered just as fast?
That event came to be known as the “Flash Crash.”

Well we finally know that the Wall Street Flash Crash was caused not by someone actually on Wall St. but by a company in Overland Park, Kansas.

Waddell & Reed had a computer program set to instantaneously make trades when it saw a trend. The trend that day was down so it fulfilled its ‘self fulfilling prophesy’ by selling $4.1 Billion in an instant.

That sale caused other computers to get 'e-nervous' and sell as well and before you could say “Holy nano-second, Batman” the market had crashed.

But as with all greedy investors and computers the sudden low pricing of all these artificially lower priced stocks created a fantastic buying opportunity.  And the silicon masters of the financial universe bought back those beaten down securities just as swiftly as they had sold them.

The end result was mass panic and tremendous losses for individual investors who thought they protected themselves with “stop loss” orders. Those are automatic instructions to sell a stock if the price starts to drop so as to minimize one’s losses.  But the prices dropped so fast that these individuals were totally screwed on the prices and lost the stocks well below fair value.

And to make matters worse when the prices recovered these people no longer held the securities.  In effect they were kicked out of the game and handed a loss while the big guys once again laughed all the way to and from the bailed out bank.
Lost in the shuffle is the fact that the problem was not initiated on Wall St.
There used to be a close knit society of brokers and traders working on that fabled street but now firms hire lower paid workers outside New York and obviously the United States to do the same job and possibly cause the same or worse damage

The President and many honest Democrats have tried to put strict restrictions in place to stop the huge investors from gaming the system and stealing individual investors’s chances of making a buck.  But every time a proposal is put forth to regulate the billionaires or at lease make them pay their fair share of taxes it is struck down by vote or filibuster by the Party that is proud to just say NO!

The wealthy business owners have socked away the billions and billions of dollars they have stolen from the US Government and the citizens of America by not paying their fair share of taxes.  They have, when forced hired qualified workers at a fraction of their worth giving them part time jobs with no benefits so as to save even more money.

These non-patriotic individuals then use some of that ill-gotten cash to purchase propaganda time on television and cable networks or newspapers and internet ads.  They pay spokespeople to say things that sound so sincere as to make you want to cry for them!

Here’s an example (totally made up by me but who knows…)

Picture the screen showing Americans in depression era tones walking around filthy dusty streets. The camera moves in on a woman sitting on the curb holding a baby in her arms and crying.

The pleasant female voice over starts:

“Millions of Americans are out of work and millions more are in danger of losing their jobs. These people could even end up losing their homes and families - or worse.”

(Scene switches to show shuttered factories)

“And while the business community struggles to find ways to employ these hard working Americans the Democratic Party under the leadership of Obama, Pelosi and Reid are looking for ways to stifle their efforts.”

(Unflattering photos of the three leaders are shown one after the other in a fade in-fade out way)

“By raising taxes on honest business owners this Democratic troika is forcing these well-meaning individuals to ship more jobs overseas in order to keep pace with their European and Asian competition.”

(Scene now morphs from Democrats to the factories and finally back to the crying woman in the gutter)

“Unless our businesses are allowed to use their profits for the better good they will be forced to send more jobs overseas and more Americans will be out of work!”

(Scene now shows a 1930s bread line)

Tell the Democrats we can’t afford higher taxes!

Tell them by voting for the fiscally responsible Republicans!

Tell them we need America to be great again!!”

(Final morph shows American flag being raised on Iwo Jima and then fades to white)

DON’T BE FOOLED BY THIS SPIN!

In order for America to be great again we must all pull our own weight; not allow the few to throw theirs around!

This is still a free nation and we each have one vote to cast as we see fit!  Don’t waste that important vote by giving in to the wealthy party line.

The greatest periods of prosperity this nation has ever seen were during times of higher FAIR taxes on our highest earning citizens.

When we allow corporations such as EXXON/MOBIL, the most profitable corporation in the history of the universe to get away without paying one penny in taxes – NOT ONE CENT – while the rest of us are struggling to make our pennies meet something is very wrong in America.

And anyone who believes that the Exxons of the world will pull in their reins and stop doing business because they suddenly have to pay taxes on a small portion of the profits they hide is either deluded or a Republican on their payroll.

While nobody enjoys paying taxes I firmly believe that most of us would also not enjoy watching America be destroyed by the greed of the few.

Do not punish the Democrats and yourself by allowing the villains of the economic disaster to gain control of the Government.

Tell them: 

WE WON’T BE FOOLED AGAIN!