Sequestration is just a smokescreen

Sequestration is just a smokescreen for the real crisis of growing corporate power

Well, we’ve experienced the first two parts of the quote above, now we are fast falling into the third. There is a “smokescreen” being laid down in front of us to hide the real crises confronting the United States of America. I tend to think that “We The People” are being hood-winked by some explicit, grand design.

The government “sequestration” is not a crisis. At best it is simply forcing us to tighten our national budget belt. There seems to be a concerted effort to have the American public believe that our national budget deficit is getting larger and larger with every passing day of the Obama Administration. This is not only untrue, but exactly the opposite of what’s been happening over the last five years. Our budget deficit has been shrinking, and is now approximately half of what it was at the end of 2008. While all these scare tactics are flooding the country, the stock market has just reached an all-time high.

There must be a “grand design” meticulously constructed by the real people who run this country; Our captains of industry. What a perfect design it is! Our major Industries have abandoned this nation’s labor force. They have sent us all straight down the crapper without so much as a thank you. As I recall, it was the middle class that brought the United States into its golden era of manufacturing and production of goods and services. The rest of the world couldn’t wait to see what was coming out of America at any given moment.

Then something went terribly wrong. It started slowly with a handful of greedy manipulative business men. They started making obscene amounts of money, not a bad thing in itself. They took their companies public, again not a bad thing in itself. The more obscene profits they made, the more they were willing to pay out as dividends to a relatively small group of “investors”. That’s when things began to snowball down a long steep hill to the two-class society we are morphing into today.

Meanwhile, back at the farm our businesses were growing exponentially as were their profits and investor dividends. Finally the federal government woke up and came to the realization that there was quite a bit of tax revenue to be had by taxing these businesses more and more. On top of all that, our government started coming up with certain regulations which very few wanted to understand, let alone follow. This is where the fat cats got more than just a little nervous.

The big bad wolf (the fed’s) was coming for more, and more of their money. It didn’t take business and industry very long before they figured out how to sidestep both corporate taxes and federal regulations. The answer; take it all off-shore and hide it, so off-shore they went!

While they were busy finding their way around all this “big government” stuff, they found it well worth their while to hire some folks to go to Washington, DC and do their bidding. We saw the birth and maturation of the “lobbyist”. With the influx of lobbyists from all sorts of businesses, our members of congress had very little time to do their jobs.

They relied, more and more, on lobbyists to actually craft and write the legislation that our congress was to consider making the Law of the Land. The end result, with few exceptions the laws that got passed and signed heavily favored the same businesses whose lobbyists had written them; a reasonable conclusion.

What got lost in the mix? A number of things got lost in this transformation that took over half a century to complete. Perhaps the most damaging of all is our corporate tax structure. In a nutshell it allows corporate profits to be sent out of the country thus avoiding taxation. It allows for corporate losses and write-offs to be kept here and deducted from any domestic tax liability. The gain is usually a fat “refund” for corporations who really don’t need it and certainly don’t deserve it.

This tax situation in turn made it more profitable to to ship jobs out of the country. This kept American businesses ahead of the government and handed the American public the bill. The American middle class was just wealthy enough to foot that bill for a number of years, but now the middle class has shrunk to the point that it can no longer sustain the nation’s tax revenues and is in debt itself.

It’s not clear what the continuance of this grand design is, but when you take a serious look at it there is nothing good for “We The People”. So, are we doomed to a government by the corporations, of the corporations, and for the corporations? This is the real crisis…

Heads in the Sand

The out of touch world  

inside the Washington 

Beltway

https://www.facebook.com/ACauseForIdeas

The more I read about the U.S. Government’s view on what happened to the Economy in 2008, the more I am convinced that there is a rather large Ostrich Farm located within the confines of the Washington, DC Beltway. The Beltway is the area inside the I-495 highway that circles the Nation’s Capital. Within this circle reside our federally elected officials and an enormous number of Government employees. These good folks seem to be of the mind that all is truly well with the Union; after all, the President told us it was back in January. I can understand a little of their “head-in-the-sand” mentality, but, come on. Someone there must watch the News, or C-Span, or some form of media that gives them some sense of where the American Public stands on issues as large as the Economy.

As I’m reading “Foreign Affairs” (Jan./Feb. Issue), I realize that the article I’m most interested in is written by an ex-U.S. Deputy Treasury Secretary. I figure that, now that he’s out of the political circus, he may actually be in touch with reality and make a rational argument for his theme, “The Fall and Rise of the West”. And, then I hit upon the excerpt below:

“While the grim effects of the 2008 financial crisis still resonate across the globe, the recession wasn't all bad:” ^[1]

“…the recession wasn’t all that bad..?.” If it was just a recession, perhaps it would not have been that bad, but we encountered a modern-day Depression: not a recession. Anyone who was paying attention will agree. A look at the real numbers will tell you right away that our Financial system, backed by our Corporate giants, brought this Country and the entire World to its knees. Since its inception in 2008, this Depression has effectively bankrupted the Economies of some heretofore stable Countries; Greece, Spain, Great Britain, Russia, Japan, the United States, and Mexico to mention a few.                                    

 “…the result is a U.S. economy poised to emerge stronger than it was before...” ^[1]

We have a “bought-and-paid-for” Congress that keeps trying to secure our National slide into the gutter. We have a large group of “higher moral” States that feel they, too, can run roughshod over the American Public. All this is fully supported by a relative handful of U.S. based multinational Companies, and their puppets in Washington, DC. If you doubt this for one second, I refer you to ALEC, the American Legislative Exchange Council.

Here are a few demographic numbers that will bear out an argument for Depression:

BLS = U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics

Who would ever have thought that the Carter years saw the highest manufacturing employment years? (almost 20 million jobs) There are figures that some believe describe the true unemployment rates in the U.S. (the SGS Alternate) With the true unemployment figures alone, this statement is ridiculous.

                                           SGS = Shadow Government Statistics

                                                         http://www.shadowstats.com/alternate_data/unemployment-charts

Definition of an Economic Depression:

1. a decline in real GDP exceeding 10%, or

2. a recession lasting 2 or more years.

 http://www.tradingeconomics.com/united-states/gdp-growth

Still, none of our financial “leaders” have been indicted, stood trial, or gone to jail.

^[1]    Roger C. Altman, Why America and Europe Will Emerge Stronger From the Financial Crisis

       Foreign Affairs Publication, Jan./Feb., 2013

Taking a stand against PTSD

Taking a stand against PTSD

Brought to you by Fox Noise

Well, it’s Saturday afternoon, and I thought it might be nice to get horizontal on the big couch and watch some television. I was surfing through the channels when, low and behold, I caught a wave at Fox Cable Network News. The “show” that was airing at the time was a re-run of “The Five”. Those of you who watch Fox News already know who the five panelists are, and the rest of us really don’t give a damn. I could only watch about twenty minutes of this show, as I was doubled over in laughter and fell from my perch on the big couch more times than I care to remember.

Very loosely, the main topic of discussion was that of street violence and the efforts at small arms gun control. The panelists started out with three bad people who have been up front in the News lately. First up was a discussion about the South African paraplegic Olympian who allegedly shot his Super-Model girlfriend. It didn’t take the Fox Noise Makers more than thirty seconds before arguments centering around Apartheid took over the conversation. It was at this point that I figured I had better stay tuned to see where this path was going to lead. Well, sure enough, it lead to the college student in Georgia who went on a rampage killing anyone who even resembled a white person. Stating Anthropology as his college major, he obviously blamed his curriculum for creating the rage inside him to boil over. He claims he was trying to get even for the slave trade in this Country. Then came their “Piece d’Resistance”. Center stage shifted to the ex L.A. cop turned murderer. Immediately the claims of liberal bias were leveled at the 47% of this Country who have put this man up on a pedestal, and are using him to point out all the conservative short comings of our Society.

Appropriately sprinkled throughout this panel discussion was black-on-black crime, white-on-black crime, the ACLU’s unconditional love of criminals of any color, or gender, and President Obama’s attempt to quell his detractors by showing up in Chicago to speak about gun control. I won’t get into the statistics that were quoted, because I don’t want anyone falling off their perch in uncontrollable laughter. Of course, the rightwing mantra was repeated over and over again, “The Government wants to take your guns!” As I exited stage left, there was an equally humorous advertisement about how “Obama-Care” is about to deny everyone in this Nation medical care of any type, and how “Obama-Care is about to bankrupt every business, large and small.

I have one small request of Rupert Murdoch; “Please rename Fox News as The Comedy Channel II.” I think your ratings might actually go up.

Support for small businesses falling short in BC

Posted by Felix on Friday, February 15, 2013 · 1 Comment

Conference to support local businesses in Vancouver does everything but

Brought to you by big business, local politicians, with support from Vancouver’s finest economic institutions comes another conference about local business that does not support it.

In response to the Vancouver Economic Commission’s post on their Facebook page advertising the local economy summit aimed at developing local businesses, I ask the question of just how useful these conferences really are for small-to-micro sized local businesses. With costs of just attending at $200, not to mention costs in time and other expenses: is this kind of development purely aimed at those with comfortable government salaries or larger ‘local’ businesses?

Hosted at the Westin Bayshore (not a local brand by far) and supposedly attended by “advocates from around North America, local government leaders, officials from across BC, and well-known economic development experts”, the list excludes the local business community entirely. You know, people that the event is supposed to support. Simultaneously, the event is failing to support local business as their conference is being hosted at an international hotel chain. How does the hosting of a conference to promote and, I would hope, support local businesses get hosted at a large international hotel chain?

We are witnessing the spending of local tax payer money through the attendance of BC government officials on a taxpayer salary and they are excluding the small underfunded businesses that would most benefit from such exposure and networking.

Seeing this lavish use of local tax money to effectively pat each other on their backs while ignoring the real issue of growing local businesses begs the question; what does the government really do to support small businesses?

The government does little but pander to big business with such broad economic policies as the BC Jobs Plan and fails miserably in addressing the issues of small businesses. Small Business, the main source of new jobs, as opposed to big business who are cutting staff to remain LEAN.

Discussions of tax regulations and other macro level solutions that are of little value to the start-up entrepreneur who would find more value in good connections and accessible opportunities are all too common

Furthermore, the BC Jobs Plan that aims to create jobs does little more than add fundinginto an already bloated public education system. A system that already produces more graduates than jobs in many sectors and does little to create new businesses in the province. The additional funding into education seems as mindless as the failure to recognize local businesses.

The BC government and other organizations supposedly trying to support local business or create jobs in the province fail to understand the fundamental building blocks required for small entrepreneurs to succeed. With the exception of companies like Lulu Lemon, or the Jim Pattison group, most jobs are either directly in our government or lost to international competition supported by the same government.

Failing to bring entrepreneurs attainable and realistic opportunities or providing them with the tools and knowledge to create them, the government cannot hope to create new jobs in the economy. Likewise, investing further funds into an education system that is not known for producing entrepreneurs so desperately needed by the local economy will have little effect.

 

 

One Comment on “Support for small businesses falling short in BC”

Hutch Dubosque , February 15, 2013

This event peels the cover off the reason that the entire North American Continent is in for a really big surprise in the next six to eight years. Public money is being pushed into middle and higher education in an “effort to compete in the World Economy”. What we have here is the quintessential “chicken, or the egg” question. What we will be left with is a glut of B.A.’s, M.A.’s and PhD’s looking for non-existent jobs. Your “conference” in Vancouver is nothing more than the 1% trying to decide on what feel good story they are going to tell the 99%. Major problem #1: the Public (99%) swallows this garbage hook, line, and sinker. Wake up, folks! You are not being sold down the river; you are already there, just waiting to be loaded onto the ships. You are allowing History to repeat itself. You are fast becoming slaves to the ruling class. Stand up before it’s too late! REVOLUTION, NOW!