Posted by Tina
Charles Koch has penned an article, published in the Wall Street Journal that I hope you will read. Having contributed mostly to charitable and to educational endeavors through the years he explain why he decided in the last ten years to get involved in politics as well. As many of you know I have been a defender of the Koch brothers, their politics, and the personal character i see displayed in the way they run their businesses and their lives. Charles Koch writes about his business, the exceptional record achieved by his employees, and his personal vision for America and concludes:
If more businesses (and elected officials) were to embrace a vision of creating real value for people in a principled way, our nation would be far better off—not just today, but for generations to come. I’m dedicated to fighting for that vision. I’m convinced most Americans believe it’s worth fighting for, too.
I couldn’t agree more.
You’ve probably heard at least some of the disparaging remarks made about the Kochs…please give your careful consideration to the thoughts of the man himself.
Found it Peggy…just got deleted by accident with the spam that is so bad right now…sorry!
Another article worth reading.
The Age of Civil Unrest:
By Martin Armstrong
“All governments had better open their eyes for we are on the brink of a major convergence between both the Cycle of Civil Unrest, Civil War & Revolution and International War. Both of these models converge and as I pointed out at the Cycles of War Conference, this is the first time we have seen this convergence since the 1700s.
This is no plain modern event with civil unrest erupting because of an interconnected world. These are grassroots uprisings cross-fertilized perhaps from a world contagion yet they often have similarities – corrupt governments. Turkey, Ukraine, Thailand, Venezuela and Bosnia-Herzegovina are all middle-income democracies with elected leaders besieged by people angry at misgovernment, corruption and economic sclerosis. These days it is no longer just dictators who have something to fear from the crowd. This is the promise of Marxism that centralized planning and false promises are coming home and governments are too corrupt and incompetent to deliver what they have claimed for decades.”
Continued
http://armstrongeconomics.com/2014/03/31/the-age-of-civil-unrest/
One more worth reading especially by those who support the current administration.
More Americans see middle class status slipping:
“WASHINGTON (AP) — A sense of belonging to the middle class occupies a cherished place in America. It conjures images of self-sufficient people with stable jobs and pleasant homes working toward prosperity.
Yet nearly five years after the Great Recession ended, more people are coming to the painful realization that they’re no longer part of it.
They are former professionals now stocking shelves at grocery stores, retirees struggling with rising costs and people working part-time jobs but desperate for full-time pay. Such setbacks have emerged in economic statistics for several years. Now they’re affecting how Americans think of themselves.
Since 2008, the number of people who call themselves middle class has fallen by nearly a fifth, according to a survey in January by the Pew Research Center, from 53 percent to 44 percent. Forty percent now identify as either lower-middle or lower class compared with just 25 percent in February 2008.
According to Gallup, the percentage of Americans who say they’re middle or upper-middle class fell 8 points between 2008 and 2012, to 55 percent.
And the most recent National Opinion Research Center’s General Social Survey found that the vast proportion of Americans who call themselves middle or working class, though still high at 88 percent, is the lowest in the survey’s 40-year history. It’s fallen 4 percentage points since the recession began in 2007.”
Continued
http://news.msn.com/in-depth/more-americans-see-middle-class-status-slipping
Peggy…they can count me in on that survey! My income has sure plummeted since the recession and it’s not come back!
My business is down by two thirds and my costs are rising thanks to Obama’s policies. The jobs picture is so bad we are holding on in an attempt to help our employees…we had hoped it would be necessary for only 4 years. But it is costing us and we may be forced to close our doors later this year when we get the delayed cancellation letter for our insurance with an offer to re-insure but at a much higher premium cost. We are basically volunteers ourselves. In this time the cost for the parts we use has gone up as has shipping. We just were notified of a substantial rent increase too.
The policies of the left sure make it tough to be a job creator.
Tina I am so sorry to hear this. You’ve put so much into your business. This is terrible news. Your landlord is being foolish because he’s going to wind up with no rent. Times are tough, rent should be coming down to meet our lowered incomes, not going up, but everyone is feeling the pinch so they do exactly the opposite of smart and they try to raise prices. More often than not this just results in making things worse. Kind of like what happens when gov. raises taxes, production falls off then too. I worry what next year will bring, there’s a lot of red flags on the horizon.
I’m a member of the used to be middle class too.
My estimated tax payments tripled this year, with NO changes from the past years.
I need to put a new roof on my house this year and for the first time am trying to figure out where to cut and what to not spend on. Looks like no week long vacation to the coast with a girlfriend. Can’t take the chance of not being able to pay my bills.
Went to the grocery store and was shocked at the prices. Five bags rang up at $116.00. The most expensive thing I bought was some ham for a pot of split pea soup. I don’t know how a family of four or more manages.
Just curious. I posted an article by Martin Armstrong about Civil Unrest. Was it removed or was there a problem with my posting?
Tina,
I’m not sure if you want to make the name of your business public on this blog. If you do, we might be able to send a little business your way.
Thanks for the support More Common Sense…it reflects the American spirit that I love so much. I don’t want to make the name of my business public on the blog. I have several reasons for not wanting to do so but I really appreciate the offer.
Jack I can’t fault my landlord he’s been good about the rent for over twenty years…and I know he’s hurting too. You’re right about it not being the wisest thing; I’m sure he’s also worried about losing renters because of the higher rents.
I’m concerned too. We keep trying to put a happy face on the bottom feeder economic numbers but real growth just isn’t there. I feel very badly for the younger kids…then I get frustrated because they also believe what the left tells them. its such a weenie position…vote for us; we’ll give you stuff and our opponents are big meanies.
Thanks for the support. We’ve been through some pretty dark days before; we’ll manage to get through this too.
Tina, well, that was sure nice of Common Sense, and I’m sure he isn’t alone. There’s plenty of people that would like to help if they could, but given the nature of your business it’s not likely their in that position.
I’m worried about my kids future just like you are for yours. Times are tough.
We’ve never recovered from the Great Recession and as the years roll by I wonder if the economy hasn’t reset to a lower status and this is our new reality? I’m sure this 17 trillion dollar debt Obama forced on us isn’t helping. The stock market recovered some this year, but it was largely a fake recovery built on borrowed money. It’s over bought now and that means as summer approaches you can expect the market to fade too and when the infusion of government stops it’s going to really fade! Things are not looking good.
“I have several reasons for not wanting to do so but I really appreciate the offer.”
I’ll bet. Come on? Could it be that the sequester has eradicated your spot at the trough? You’ll never own it. Any such confrontation with the irrationality of your political prejudices would see you carted off to the funny farm … except … that there is no room at the Inn of the Funny Farm … is there?
And my landlord, also, has raised the rent. Zillow tells him that he should be getting another $50 a month, and so, of course, he has assessed it … never once considering that I have NOT had a $50 a month raise, and … if I had had such a raise … HE would GET it ALL.
Landlords are scum. They always have been, and they always will be.
Libby: ” Could it be that the sequester has eradicated your spot at the trough?”
As I’ve explained before I do not sell to the federal government…mostly to cities.
Liberal city councils and many states have done a bang up job all across America destroying budgets and putting infrastructure on hold…indefinitely! That probably has affected the level of business in my field…as has the destruction of the housing market…a source of local taxes.
Perhaps, since this is at least the third time I’ve informed you of this fact you should take yourself off to said funny farm.
If you had to deal only once with the scum that rents in many cases, especially these days, you might change your tune…a friend went in to paint and carpet a rental property only to find that the last tenant had ripped all the kitchen cupboards off the wall and otherwise destroyed walls, floors, and appliances.
As I said, my landlord has been very good with the rent over more than twenty years.
Are you just now noticing that the middle class is dying? It’s been slowly going on for 30 years! It’s a combination of factors including globalization, and low taxes on the wealthy. The disparity between the rich and middle class is huge, and growing wider.
While you are going broke, corporate profits are very high. They are doing well, the Koch brothers are doing very well. But we aren’t. Proof that ‘Trickle Down Economics’ just doesn’t work.
Jim we are not “just noticing”…don’t know why you would say that.
Please explain how taking more money from the rich in taxes provides more opportunity to grow wealthy for the middle class. I think if you are going to make such a spurious charge you should understand then mechanism that makes it true…how does it work?
High is a relative term. some corporations are growing, technology for instance, but some are failing. Corporate profits are growing due to emerging markets…they are selling overseas to new customers and new products to Americans…even the poor are buying phones. The middle class is shrinking because the government has made risking investment in growth unattractive or impossible and because it has targeted the engines of growth, lending and energy. the healthcare takeover has created more uncertainty about the future. Government has added thousands of pages of regulations that require spending on lawyers rather than new hires…proof that trickle down does work and the government has damned up the system. Money is being held in limbo because of bad policy…get rid of the lousy policies and the flood of investment would be incredible…the jobs would follow and the natural trickle and flow would commence.
I can tell you how trickle down works. There is nothing magical about it. The idea that business people prefer to hoard their profits rather than letting it work in the marketplace is insane. If they are not disincentivized to invest they are more than happy to take the risk but they aren’t going to risk losing their cash on hand in production costs when they might need it to meet payroll, rents and other costs of keeping the lights on over long periods when sales are way down…like in this very bad non recovery. They aren’t going to feel like risking when the tax and spend leadership continues to add tax and regulation costs and threaten to do more.
Nobody responds positively to oppressive costs. How is your budget impacted when inflation raises the cost of groceries, gasoline, and utilities. In those times how well does your money trickle? Not well! Your purchasing power is diminished…your ability to spend and support your neighbors businesses locally is blunted…it’s the same, on a much larger scale, for business.
Businesses thrive when conditions are nonthreatening. When businesses thrive they expand and they hire. They become more innovative and creative which sparks entire new production areas of growth and need to hire. This wealth building machine creates a flow, or trickling of money into smaller business and service industry jobs as the employees spend their dollars.
The opposite is true when government takes money out of the private sector and places too many costly restraints on production…money trickles to government and poverty trickles up in the private sector.
Government doesn’t create wealth when it taxes. In fact it wastes a lot of the resources in bureaucracy so that the people it pretends to be helping are just barely getting by and the opportunity that the middle class needs to thrive is diminished.
Compare the recovery records of Reagan and Obama. See also here.
Tables comparing taxes and spending under Kennedy, Reagan and Bush are illuminating, particularly in terms of military spending and the percentage of taxes paid by the rich are here, debunking the lies about defense spending being too large and the rich not paying enough of their “fair share”.
The problem in our economy is government spending, debt and waste. America is finding it hard to be the powerhouse we once were because the producers of wealth are being robbed of the opportunity to grow and provide jobs by the big bloated government leviathan.
This is just common sense. I cannot believe the left has managed to pull the wool over so many eyes and convinced them that business is the problem or that government can create prosperity.
Jim current conditions can be explained in part by this:
Tina – “Please explain how taking more money from the rich in taxes provides more opportunity to grow wealthy for the middle class.”
Currently under the low taxes of the Obama administration, the wealthy are taking their profits out of the country, or hording them. When you raise taxes, then they will need to do things to avoid paying the higher taxes. The easiest way to do that is to reinvest in your business. Every dollar invested in a business or paid for labor is tax deductible. So higher taxes encourage reinvestment, and lower taxes discourage it. This is big reason why the economy has been spiraling down for the last 30 years.
I am aware that the utopian dream of some is that the rich will just invest because they like to. But it’s clearly not working out that way. Business needs strong financial incentives to force them to reinvest, and higher taxes do that.
Tina – “Government doesn’t create wealth when it taxes.”
True, however it does pay down the debt that we have. We still haven’t paid off the stimulus that Reagan spent.
Tina – “Major Regulations 153% Higher in First Five Years Under Obama Than Bush”
So what! Corporate profits are at an all time record high under Obama. Maybe the regulations are helping stimulate business? I don’t know, but I do know that the business climate is great, for the wealthy. So why aren’t we doing better?
http://www.forbes.com/sites/robertlenzner/2013/11/30/there-are-far-fewer-bears-on-the-stock-market-today-than-at-the-peaks-in-2000-or-2007/
We have been trying this joke of trickle down for 30 years, and we keep digging ourselves into a deeper hole. It’s time to stop digging.
The seven most useless words in political debate today may be “according to data from the Heritage Foundation.”
Jim- “Currently under the low taxes of the Obama administration, the wealthy are taking their profits out of the country, or hording them.”
Are you kidding me!!! You’ve taken the liberal propaganda hook, line and sinker.
Check your tax law!. The only way an individual (the wealthy) can take their profits out of the country and not pay any taxes is to do it illegally. If you have investments in another country you are required to pay income taxes on any profits less the taxes taken by the country where the profits are made.
It is different for corporations. Profits may remain in the country where they are made. The profits are only taxed if the profits are returned to this country. Of course since we have one of the highest corporate income tax rates in the world the corporations would be stupid to return this money to the US. Instead they use those profits to grow their business in other countries and provide jobs there instead of bringing the profit home and providing jobs here. This policy is another of the many many ways the current administration policies are choking the middle class in this country. They have made it more profitable to do business elsewhere.
As far as hording is concerned. Again… Are you kidding me!!!! Do you think the wealthy are stuffing their mattresses with cash. With the fed printing money without limit that would be suicide! Do you think they are just putting that money into CDs and enjoying the interest. Again, Are you kidding me! Current interest rates make putting your money in a bank account almost the same as burying it in the backyard in a coffee can. The wealthy are not putting their money in cash these days. You are right, they are investing outside of this country to get better returns. That is because government regulations are choking companies in this country. But, again, they can’t legally escape the tax on any profits gained outside of the country.
Jim… think for yourself! Quit buying the liberal propaganda.
“As I’ve explained before I do not sell to the federal government…mostly to cities.”
Who pay for your goods with DHS funds?
Let’s not have any obfuscating.
Libby: “Who pay for your goods with DHS funds?”
“Funds” are fungible. I have no way of knowing.
My best guess is that the chance that this is happening is fairly slim given my product’s purpose.
Also, I’ve been doing this for many years…long before Homeland Security started re-distributing cash. Wouldn’t it make more sense to rid ourselves of the redistribution and contribute locally…it would at least be more direct, less costly, and easier to monitor and evaluate in terms of public need.
Sorry, you will just have to take my word for it or go on believing what you probably want to believe anyway…makes no difference to me.
@ #1 Peggy…the next paragraph is even more interesting!
Interest on the debt is 70% now. What happens when the policies of this administration to keep interest rates very low run out of steam? To me it looks like a double or triple whammy happens! Interest on the debt could very well double, triple, quadruple…inflation/deflation will be horrendous. If we don’t do the wonky difficult thing very soon we will be looking at a deep depression and weakness at a time when the enemies of freedom would lov to crush America.
And it all seems to be happening at breakneck speed!
When the interest rates rise the house of cards will collapse. It will be game over and back to a worse Great Depression than the last one. Our grandparents didn’t rely on the infrastructure for their survival as we do today.
Everything now depends on electrical power. Without the generators supplying those living in urban areas transportation and elevator rides to their 20th floor apartment. Without gas pumps working have no choice but to start walking to the rural areas just like the dust bowl victims of the plain states did when they headed for California, like some of my family members did.
Rush recently laid it all out on his radio show and the future he predicts is not good for any of us.
‘Don’t Think That Can’t Happen’: Rush Limbaugh’s Terrifying Vision of Where the ‘Road We Are on’ Leads:
“Conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh on Friday painted a horrifying picture of “what things will look like” if the United States stays on the “road that we are on.”
“The road that we are on takes us back to the Great Depression,” he said. “That’s what things will look like: People lined up for food, shelter. It’s gonna be ugly. People will be losing their savings and their pensions and their investments, in any number of ways.”
Limbaugh said when a country truly “collapses” the value of money “evaporates” or the government “takes it, confiscates it.”
“Folks, the Reverend [Jesse] Jackson himself has personally suggested that government actually confiscate everybody’s pensions,” the radio host continued. “He says, ‘There’s trillions of dollars there. We need it. We need it for benefits.’ Don’t think that can’t happen. Pension, your investments, gone.”
He also warned Americans who are currently invested in tax-free municipal bonds, asking what happens when one day the IRS introduces a new regulation that removes the tax exemption from municipal bonds. They will suddenly become “worthless,” he added.”
http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2014/04/04/dont-think-that-cant-happen-rush-limbaughs-terrifying-vision-of-where-the-road-we-are-on-leads/