Submitted by James Folsom on Mon, 07/04/2011 - 11:07
This is what you do not have a right to. You do not have a right to other people's money. They earned it. It's theirs. Not yours. There is a concept you need to learn. It's called "thou shalt not covet" and "thou shalt not steal." That goes for everyone, including the government.
So here we are at the end of another year. We're deeper in debt than ever before. We have more people unemployed than ever before. We have more people losing their homes and their life savings than ever before. And our answer from our government is that we need to tax rich people more money and let anyone and everyone except pro-American white males do and say whatever they want. Yeah. That'll fix everything.
It's the Fourth of July once again. We made it another year. Barely.
If the men who wrote the Declaration of Independence would have had a crystal ball and could see what this country would end up becoming, they would've likely said "just pay England what they want." No need to even bother fighting for liberty and freedom just to watch future generations squander it looking for government hand outs and freebies. Those men would be absolutely sick to see that we elect leaders because they can read a script. They would cringe at the fact we elected a president based on nothing more than his skin color. They would be utterly disgusted at the fact that most of us have absolutely no clue what the free market system, individualism, or personal responsibility even are, much less that they are what this country was supposed to be about.
If the men who wrote the Declaration of Independence would have had a crystal ball and could see what this country would end up becoming, they would've likely said "just pay England what they want." No need to even bother fighting for liberty and freedom just to watch future generations squander it looking for government hand outs and freebies. Those men would be absolutely sick to see that we elect leaders because they can read a script. They would cringe at the fact we elected a president based on nothing more than his skin color. They would be utterly disgusted at the fact that most of us have absolutely no clue what the free market system, individualism, or personal responsibility even are, much less that they are what this country was supposed to be about.
America In Moral & Fiscal Crises
These men envisioned a limited federal government with limited power. The monstrosity we have today would have them fighting mad. They would most likely be screaming for a revolt. England's government was nothing compared to what we put up with today. And the sickening part of it is, most of us want more. Most of us would gladly ( and have) cut off their own arms for some perceived safety net. We want the government to provide us with everything from a place to live, to food, to health care, to a retirement. Whatever happened to earning those things?
We fall hook, line and sinker for any career politician telling us we have a "right" to free this or free that. "Yeah, we are Americans! we have a right to free health care! We have a right to eat! We have a right to a roof over our heads!" No you don't. You have a right to pursue those things. You have a right to earn those things. You do not have a right to those things. You have a right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That's it.
These men envisioned a limited federal government with limited power. The monstrosity we have today would have them fighting mad. They would most likely be screaming for a revolt. England's government was nothing compared to what we put up with today. And the sickening part of it is, most of us want more. Most of us would gladly ( and have) cut off their own arms for some perceived safety net. We want the government to provide us with everything from a place to live, to food, to health care, to a retirement. Whatever happened to earning those things?
We fall hook, line and sinker for any career politician telling us we have a "right" to free this or free that. "Yeah, we are Americans! we have a right to free health care! We have a right to eat! We have a right to a roof over our heads!" No you don't. You have a right to pursue those things. You have a right to earn those things. You do not have a right to those things. You have a right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That's it.
The Over-reaching of the Left
This is what you do not have a right to. You do not have a right to other people's money. They earned it. It's theirs. Not yours. There is a concept you need to learn. It's called "thou shalt not covet" and "thou shalt not steal." That goes for everyone, including the government.
You also do not have the right not to be offended. Other people have the right of free speech. If what they have to say offends you, tough. You have every right to say what you want and probably do not care who it offends. So what makes you special? I'm offended by Muslims. I'm offended by flaming homosexuality. I'm offended by anti-American apologists in our own government. Nobody tells those people to shut up. Nor should they. Whether or not I am offended by them does not have anything to do with their right to say or do what they want as long as they are not hurting anyone. But somehow people who are pro-Christian, pro-freedom, pro-liberty, pro-America are told to shut up. I've got news for you. Many people have gone through hell fighting in many wars to give me the right to say what I want. I am not about to make their deaths meaningless by caving to a bunch of spineless wimps afraid somebody might be offended. Screw them.
You don't have the right to demand free stuff. Every freebie you get, somebody had to work for. You want free health care? Who's going to provide it? Do you think doctors and nurses work for free? The taxpayers should pay for it? Do you know who that is? THat's every American who gets up and goes to work everyday. You want to take money out of their paychecks? That's their money, not yours. Here's an idea. Get off your lazy butt and go to work. When did health care become a job benefit? One reason it is so out of whack is because of the lack of competition. If people shopped for health care the way they shop for everything else, doctors and hospitals would have to compete with each other. This would drive down costs immediately. We might have to put up with annoying commercials like "You need brain surgery? I have 20 years experience and have over 90 per cent success rate." But that would be a small price to pay to put some free enterprise into the system. Competition drives down prices. It works every time it's tried.
Also a "loser pays" legal system would do wonders for driving down medical prices. The way the system works now, there is no incentive not to sue. You lose, you're out nothing. Lawyers only collect if you the plaintiff collect. Get rid of that. Make the loser responsible for the legal fees of the winner. Frivolous lawsuits would disappear. The only people who sue would be people who are pretty darn sure they will win. This would drive down the cost of malpractice insurance, thus driving down prices.
You don't have the right to punish people who have obtained more than you have. If they got what they have honestly, it's good for them. They owe you no apology. Politicians have just about ruined America while lining their own pockets exploiting this "punish the rich" mentality. Everything from our tax system to our media to our education is all about punishing the right...er...rich. The income tax we have is nothing more than legalized stealing. That's all it is. Somebody steals your money before you even see it. You have no choice. You have no recourse. If they decide they didn't steal enough, they will demand you give them more. NONE of this has anything to do with providing necessary services. It has everything to do with buying votes.
There are more people at the bottom than there are at the top. Look at where you work. There is one big boss. There are a few middle managers. There are a lot of lower wage hourly employees. The man at the top has a lot of responsibilities. That's why he makes the big bucks. Without him, there is no company. The guy driving the forklift? Not so much. Any idiot can drive a forklift. Without him, the company trucks along just fine. All he has to do is pick this up and put it there. That's it. That's why it doesn't pay. Just because you can pick up a pallet and set it down does not give you the right to live like the rich and famous. It's not the government's responsibility to see that you get a new flat screen and a nice ride. You want that stuff, work harder and earn them. You don't want to do anything but manual labor? Then live with what that brings. Drive a used car and watch a small TV.
Politicians have devised this ridiculous tax system to exploit the envy of the masses against those who have achieved wealth. "Vote for me and I will make them pay." they use catchy little phrases like "their fair share." Really? Their fair share? So them paying practically all of the federal budget is fair? This while most "working people" get ALL of their money back and then some? That's fair? What's fair is everyone paying the same percentage of what they earn. Or even better yet NOBODY paying ANY income tax. The state of Florida has no income tax. They seem to get along just fine on sales tax. There is no reason the federal government cannot do the same. But they don't want to. Because they can't buy votes that way. They can't go to the masses and say "see what I did? I stuck it to those big evil rich guys." Rich people spend more money. So it stands to reason they would pay more taxes even with a sales tax. It's not about them paying their "fair share". It's about making them pay everybody's share. Someone came up with a great analogy once. I wish I could remember it all but here is the upshot:
There were five old friends who grew up together and ended working at the same company. One of them was in high level management, one in mid-level management, and the other three were hourly employees. Every Friday after work, the five would go out for drinks. At first, they went Dutch. And this was fine. The "rich" guy would buy expensive drinks and the others were drinking the Happy Hour two-for-ones. But after a while they had a discussion about what was "fair" and decided they should divide the tab according to each man's salary. Since one of them made about 90% of the money that all five made put together, they decided that he should pay 90% of the tab. The mid level guy would then pay 10% and the other three should drink free since they had "no money." The next week, the "rich guy" decided to go to a different bar. The other four were left to fend for themselves. The next week they decided they could no longer go drinking. People want the "evil rich" punished for moving their businesses overseas. Well, what do you expect? You make it impossible for them to do business here, why would they stay?
This country has no chance of survival. We are a country of petty little jealous wimps. And we're lazy to boot. We don't even have the stomach for enforcing our own laws. Illegal Mexicans flood our borders and steal our jobs, demanding free government services along the way and what do we do? We call people who actually want the law enforced racist? No wonder we're headed straight to hell in a hand basket! We passed those laws for a reason. Did we not have any intentions of enforcing them? Apparently not. Instead we look the other way when they work here illegally, take the money out of legal citizen's wallets, and pay no taxes on it. Then to add insult to injury, they send most of it back to Mexico. All under the noses of our president and his minions. He sees no problem with it because they are potential voters for his party. And of course they are "people of color."
Have you ever noticed that there is no tolerance for white males? You can't say anything about anyone else, but white males are fair game. Watch TV. The "white guy" is always the doofus. "Dad" never knows what's going on. He doesn't know anything. He's a moron. It's all over commercials and sitcoms. White guys are gun toting, flag waving, to hell with you, idiots. White guys who are Christians, even worse. Hollywood admits that they have an agenda to discriminate against them. All in the Family, Family Ties, MASH, Friends, you name it. All these shows had a left wing agenda. Those shows were hugely popular and were pretty harmless. But they slyly pushed their agenda. They paved the way for Ellen, Roseanne, Will and Grace, and the later generation of leftist propaganda disguised as "entertainment." The civil rights movement was fifty years ago and all we have accomplished is we've shifted discrimination and intolerance onto a new group. We are no more tolerant than we were during to Jim Crow days. We just have a new target.
You don't have the right to demand free stuff. Every freebie you get, somebody had to work for. You want free health care? Who's going to provide it? Do you think doctors and nurses work for free? The taxpayers should pay for it? Do you know who that is? THat's every American who gets up and goes to work everyday. You want to take money out of their paychecks? That's their money, not yours. Here's an idea. Get off your lazy butt and go to work. When did health care become a job benefit? One reason it is so out of whack is because of the lack of competition. If people shopped for health care the way they shop for everything else, doctors and hospitals would have to compete with each other. This would drive down costs immediately. We might have to put up with annoying commercials like "You need brain surgery? I have 20 years experience and have over 90 per cent success rate." But that would be a small price to pay to put some free enterprise into the system. Competition drives down prices. It works every time it's tried.
Also a "loser pays" legal system would do wonders for driving down medical prices. The way the system works now, there is no incentive not to sue. You lose, you're out nothing. Lawyers only collect if you the plaintiff collect. Get rid of that. Make the loser responsible for the legal fees of the winner. Frivolous lawsuits would disappear. The only people who sue would be people who are pretty darn sure they will win. This would drive down the cost of malpractice insurance, thus driving down prices.
You don't have the right to punish people who have obtained more than you have. If they got what they have honestly, it's good for them. They owe you no apology. Politicians have just about ruined America while lining their own pockets exploiting this "punish the rich" mentality. Everything from our tax system to our media to our education is all about punishing the right...er...rich. The income tax we have is nothing more than legalized stealing. That's all it is. Somebody steals your money before you even see it. You have no choice. You have no recourse. If they decide they didn't steal enough, they will demand you give them more. NONE of this has anything to do with providing necessary services. It has everything to do with buying votes.
There are more people at the bottom than there are at the top. Look at where you work. There is one big boss. There are a few middle managers. There are a lot of lower wage hourly employees. The man at the top has a lot of responsibilities. That's why he makes the big bucks. Without him, there is no company. The guy driving the forklift? Not so much. Any idiot can drive a forklift. Without him, the company trucks along just fine. All he has to do is pick this up and put it there. That's it. That's why it doesn't pay. Just because you can pick up a pallet and set it down does not give you the right to live like the rich and famous. It's not the government's responsibility to see that you get a new flat screen and a nice ride. You want that stuff, work harder and earn them. You don't want to do anything but manual labor? Then live with what that brings. Drive a used car and watch a small TV.
Politicians have devised this ridiculous tax system to exploit the envy of the masses against those who have achieved wealth. "Vote for me and I will make them pay." they use catchy little phrases like "their fair share." Really? Their fair share? So them paying practically all of the federal budget is fair? This while most "working people" get ALL of their money back and then some? That's fair? What's fair is everyone paying the same percentage of what they earn. Or even better yet NOBODY paying ANY income tax. The state of Florida has no income tax. They seem to get along just fine on sales tax. There is no reason the federal government cannot do the same. But they don't want to. Because they can't buy votes that way. They can't go to the masses and say "see what I did? I stuck it to those big evil rich guys." Rich people spend more money. So it stands to reason they would pay more taxes even with a sales tax. It's not about them paying their "fair share". It's about making them pay everybody's share. Someone came up with a great analogy once. I wish I could remember it all but here is the upshot:
There were five old friends who grew up together and ended working at the same company. One of them was in high level management, one in mid-level management, and the other three were hourly employees. Every Friday after work, the five would go out for drinks. At first, they went Dutch. And this was fine. The "rich" guy would buy expensive drinks and the others were drinking the Happy Hour two-for-ones. But after a while they had a discussion about what was "fair" and decided they should divide the tab according to each man's salary. Since one of them made about 90% of the money that all five made put together, they decided that he should pay 90% of the tab. The mid level guy would then pay 10% and the other three should drink free since they had "no money." The next week, the "rich guy" decided to go to a different bar. The other four were left to fend for themselves. The next week they decided they could no longer go drinking. People want the "evil rich" punished for moving their businesses overseas. Well, what do you expect? You make it impossible for them to do business here, why would they stay?
This country has no chance of survival. We are a country of petty little jealous wimps. And we're lazy to boot. We don't even have the stomach for enforcing our own laws. Illegal Mexicans flood our borders and steal our jobs, demanding free government services along the way and what do we do? We call people who actually want the law enforced racist? No wonder we're headed straight to hell in a hand basket! We passed those laws for a reason. Did we not have any intentions of enforcing them? Apparently not. Instead we look the other way when they work here illegally, take the money out of legal citizen's wallets, and pay no taxes on it. Then to add insult to injury, they send most of it back to Mexico. All under the noses of our president and his minions. He sees no problem with it because they are potential voters for his party. And of course they are "people of color."
Have you ever noticed that there is no tolerance for white males? You can't say anything about anyone else, but white males are fair game. Watch TV. The "white guy" is always the doofus. "Dad" never knows what's going on. He doesn't know anything. He's a moron. It's all over commercials and sitcoms. White guys are gun toting, flag waving, to hell with you, idiots. White guys who are Christians, even worse. Hollywood admits that they have an agenda to discriminate against them. All in the Family, Family Ties, MASH, Friends, you name it. All these shows had a left wing agenda. Those shows were hugely popular and were pretty harmless. But they slyly pushed their agenda. They paved the way for Ellen, Roseanne, Will and Grace, and the later generation of leftist propaganda disguised as "entertainment." The civil rights movement was fifty years ago and all we have accomplished is we've shifted discrimination and intolerance onto a new group. We are no more tolerant than we were during to Jim Crow days. We just have a new target.
America's Debt
So here we are at the end of another year. We're deeper in debt than ever before. We have more people unemployed than ever before. We have more people losing their homes and their life savings than ever before. And our answer from our government is that we need to tax rich people more money and let anyone and everyone except pro-American white males do and say whatever they want. Yeah. That'll fix everything.
We need to take a look in the mirror!
American needs a common cause. We need to rally behind something big. We have two wars going on, but a majority of Americans do not even thing about them at all - at any point during the month! We have lost are way, but we do not have anyone to blame but ourselves. Listen, America needs to Man-up here. We need to admit that we have been lazy and that we have been sucked into to spending ourselves into debt. We cant barrow money from China everyday and then bash them for being communists! Why not just stop borrowing from our enemies? Why not stop buying oil from our enemies? Why are we constantly underselling our riches for short term profits? We need to wake up. We need to stop blaming everyone and take a long look in the mirror, wash our face, and get back to work.
Interesting
Take a deep breath here. While you make some valid points, your spirit is reactionary and full of emotion. In my dumb ass opinion, some of the things you say are important. But if we are to move beyond these challenges lets leave the emotion to day time dramas. First, I think we been duped all along. Duped into thinking that there is such thing as a "Far Right & Far Left" This "frame work" doesnt allow for us Americans to agree on anything rational because of partisanship. We become focused on what we disagree on, as opposed to what we do AGREE on. (Hell, Im starting to talk like the president here!). Any negotiator or arbitrator would know (including the Founding American fathers who were all brilliant negotiators) that we start a discussion on what we agree on and move out from there. Now, this being AMERICA, we expect everyone to have their own thoughts. But lately, I have noticed, that we despise and hate other Americans that think differently from us (But isnt that unAmerican itself?) Meanwhile, the big multinational corporations *fleece* us when we aren't looking - when we are too busy yelling each other, they are lining are pockets with America's treasure. We get angrier and angrier and they get richer and richer. Is this how its supposed to work? Let's take NBC for example. Who is this "left" leaning company owned by? General Electric - one of the largest producer of Weapons and recipient of corporate welfare. Check out their board, you simply can't call any of them leftist liberals. I think we need to start leaving the emotion at home and start thinking a bit more.