Boss
Take a Memo:
How many times have we heard this meme in recent years... The rich are getting richer while the poor remain poor... the gap between the wealthiest and poorest is widening... we must take some kind of governmental action to rectify this "problem" and ostensibly return us to a "fairness" in wealth distribution. A lot of young mush-brains, who weren't very astute in history, may believe this is some new recent phenomenon that needs addressing, but the fact of the matter is... it has always been this way, and always will be this way.
For the most part, not in all cases, but mostly, the wealthy people got to be wealthy because they had the motivation and drive to succeed, more drive and motivation than poorer people. They were smart with money, they made wise decisions, worked hard and didn't squander resources, made the most of what was available to them, and prospered. While they were doing all of this, the poor people sat in their chairs and blamed their condition on others, made excuses for why they couldn't achieve, or just became content and complacent about the status of their wealth, in return for happiness in the moment. There is nothing wrong with either perspective, but the wealthy person tends to continue gaining more wealth over time, just by nature of their drive and ambition to succeed.
The interesting aspect is, where does this meme come from? We have to go back to the 1700s, where Europe was mostly dominated by dictatorial regimes and royal families, and there was no freedom and democracy like we have in the US. In most of those situations, the citizenry was divided by class as a matter of public law. There were laws which only applied to peasants, and the ruling class could virtually do anything they pleased. Of course, work ethic, drive and motivation, meant absolutely nothing in such a setup, because the ruling class controlled everything, the power and the wealth. Therefore, the common people had little hope for any kind of a future, and they certainly weren't going to ever attain the wealth status of the ruling class.
Enter the idea of Socialism and Marxist philosophy, intended and designed to appeal to the common man, a way to right the injustices of a very biased and unfair class society. The people were energized by this promise of hope, and saw this new idea as a possible way to escape the dead-end fortune of being part of the peasant class. This all sounded great in theory, but as the people revolted and installed socialistic governments, the reality was a vulcanization of the ruling class, who still controlled all the wealth and power. It seemed to work in the beginning, but corruption quickly killed any progress, and the peasants found themselves again, being subjected to the whims of the ruling class. However, a new idea had come of age in America, the idea of a classless society where all men were equal under the law, and free to utilize the tools of capitalism to gain prosperity for themselves. Of course, there were still wealthy people who had an advantage, but this system seemed to enable even the poorest of the poor, to rise up from poverty and become successful.
Now, this free market capitalist system had some flaws, some capitalists exploited advantages and orchestrated monopolies, to become super-powerful and wealthy, but as time went by, we changed and tweaked the system to eliminate such exploitation by unbridled capitalism. The free system worked well for America through two world wars, where our ability to grow and prosper, enabled us to simply out perform our enemies on an economic level. But after the second world war, we moved into the 1950s and 60s, with a resurgence of this Marxist philosophy, and the systemic dumbing-down of Americans, through our institutions of higher learning, and later, our secondary and elementary education systems. People simply stopped being taught about these two competing ideas, and were educated to believe that Socialists were Communists, and Communists are bad people. Of course, by the 1970s and 1980s, young people rejected the old school teachings, and opened their ears to the Socialist philosophy, like never before.
Today, the same exact memes are being used to promote the same exact Marxist ideas, but a "perception" has to be drawn. They have to convince people that we live in a non-free country, where people don't have opportunity to succeed, and face a hopeless situation, where the ruling class controls everything and we are powerless. This is where the idea that "rich people pay lower taxes" originates. As if the wealthy "class" has a different set of rules and laws, like in 1700s Europe. This is ALL perception, because the reality is, we all have the exact same US Tax Code, we are all eligible for the exact same tax breaks and loopholes. The reason wealthy people generally pay lower taxes, is because their incomes have already been earned and taxed, as earned incomes. They are now using their remaining income to invest, in order to make more money with their money.
Now, think about this... You pay about 30% tax on your earned income from work, it is deducted from your paycheck, right? But, when you go to the store to buy something, are you charged 30% tax on what you buy? No. You are likely charged a sales tax, which is considerably lower than 30%, and this is okay because your income has already been taxed. The same principle applies to a wealthy investor, their incomes have already been taxed, they are now spending their incomes on something to make more money with. They don't have to do this, they can just keep their money or spend it on stuff like you do, and only pay sales taxes, but they have this drive and ambition I referred to earlier, so they invest instead. And it's important they do this, because it gives little guys the capital needed to get their business off the ground, where they can also become wealthy.
Those who have bought in to the Socialist meme, are not realizing the consequence of Socialistic government, or what will ultimately happen to the "greedy 1%" they hate so much. We will continue to have a Top 1%, that never will go away. At this time, in a free market capitalist system, anyone can become part of that 1%, if they have the proper drive and ambition to do so. However, once you've destroyed free market capitalism, the Socialist ruling class will obtain all of that wealth for themselves, through graft and corruption, and then you will be left with a Top 1% who control all political power, all the wealth, and the ability to make their own rules. Gone, will be your opportunity to compete in a free market system, to achieve wealth status at all, to ever become part of the 1%. While you are free to bitch and moan about wealth disparity now, you won't be able to do so then, because the ruling class will put a stop to it. In the past, they have executed people, imprisoned them, taken their limited rights away, in order to remain in power.
Of course, mush-brain young people will not listen, they believe they know everything, and have very little knowledge of past history, so... just like Obamacare, they will press on with the meme, and insist we need to destroy the only hope any poor man will ever have of gaining wealth status, the free market capitalist system. Completely oblivious to the ramifications or consequences, and unable to recognize the fault in their plans. When they finally discover how screwed we are, it will be far too late to reverse course. How do I know this? Because it has happened over and over again, everywhere people have attempted to install Socialistic government. It is a guaranteed recipe for failure.
For the most part, not in all cases, but mostly, the wealthy people got to be wealthy because they had the motivation and drive to succeed, more drive and motivation than poorer people. They were smart with money, they made wise decisions, worked hard and didn't squander resources, made the most of what was available to them, and prospered. While they were doing all of this, the poor people sat in their chairs and blamed their condition on others, made excuses for why they couldn't achieve, or just became content and complacent about the status of their wealth, in return for happiness in the moment. There is nothing wrong with either perspective, but the wealthy person tends to continue gaining more wealth over time, just by nature of their drive and ambition to succeed.
The interesting aspect is, where does this meme come from? We have to go back to the 1700s, where Europe was mostly dominated by dictatorial regimes and royal families, and there was no freedom and democracy like we have in the US. In most of those situations, the citizenry was divided by class as a matter of public law. There were laws which only applied to peasants, and the ruling class could virtually do anything they pleased. Of course, work ethic, drive and motivation, meant absolutely nothing in such a setup, because the ruling class controlled everything, the power and the wealth. Therefore, the common people had little hope for any kind of a future, and they certainly weren't going to ever attain the wealth status of the ruling class.
Enter the idea of Socialism and Marxist philosophy, intended and designed to appeal to the common man, a way to right the injustices of a very biased and unfair class society. The people were energized by this promise of hope, and saw this new idea as a possible way to escape the dead-end fortune of being part of the peasant class. This all sounded great in theory, but as the people revolted and installed socialistic governments, the reality was a vulcanization of the ruling class, who still controlled all the wealth and power. It seemed to work in the beginning, but corruption quickly killed any progress, and the peasants found themselves again, being subjected to the whims of the ruling class. However, a new idea had come of age in America, the idea of a classless society where all men were equal under the law, and free to utilize the tools of capitalism to gain prosperity for themselves. Of course, there were still wealthy people who had an advantage, but this system seemed to enable even the poorest of the poor, to rise up from poverty and become successful.
Now, this free market capitalist system had some flaws, some capitalists exploited advantages and orchestrated monopolies, to become super-powerful and wealthy, but as time went by, we changed and tweaked the system to eliminate such exploitation by unbridled capitalism. The free system worked well for America through two world wars, where our ability to grow and prosper, enabled us to simply out perform our enemies on an economic level. But after the second world war, we moved into the 1950s and 60s, with a resurgence of this Marxist philosophy, and the systemic dumbing-down of Americans, through our institutions of higher learning, and later, our secondary and elementary education systems. People simply stopped being taught about these two competing ideas, and were educated to believe that Socialists were Communists, and Communists are bad people. Of course, by the 1970s and 1980s, young people rejected the old school teachings, and opened their ears to the Socialist philosophy, like never before.
Today, the same exact memes are being used to promote the same exact Marxist ideas, but a "perception" has to be drawn. They have to convince people that we live in a non-free country, where people don't have opportunity to succeed, and face a hopeless situation, where the ruling class controls everything and we are powerless. This is where the idea that "rich people pay lower taxes" originates. As if the wealthy "class" has a different set of rules and laws, like in 1700s Europe. This is ALL perception, because the reality is, we all have the exact same US Tax Code, we are all eligible for the exact same tax breaks and loopholes. The reason wealthy people generally pay lower taxes, is because their incomes have already been earned and taxed, as earned incomes. They are now using their remaining income to invest, in order to make more money with their money.
Now, think about this... You pay about 30% tax on your earned income from work, it is deducted from your paycheck, right? But, when you go to the store to buy something, are you charged 30% tax on what you buy? No. You are likely charged a sales tax, which is considerably lower than 30%, and this is okay because your income has already been taxed. The same principle applies to a wealthy investor, their incomes have already been taxed, they are now spending their incomes on something to make more money with. They don't have to do this, they can just keep their money or spend it on stuff like you do, and only pay sales taxes, but they have this drive and ambition I referred to earlier, so they invest instead. And it's important they do this, because it gives little guys the capital needed to get their business off the ground, where they can also become wealthy.
Those who have bought in to the Socialist meme, are not realizing the consequence of Socialistic government, or what will ultimately happen to the "greedy 1%" they hate so much. We will continue to have a Top 1%, that never will go away. At this time, in a free market capitalist system, anyone can become part of that 1%, if they have the proper drive and ambition to do so. However, once you've destroyed free market capitalism, the Socialist ruling class will obtain all of that wealth for themselves, through graft and corruption, and then you will be left with a Top 1% who control all political power, all the wealth, and the ability to make their own rules. Gone, will be your opportunity to compete in a free market system, to achieve wealth status at all, to ever become part of the 1%. While you are free to bitch and moan about wealth disparity now, you won't be able to do so then, because the ruling class will put a stop to it. In the past, they have executed people, imprisoned them, taken their limited rights away, in order to remain in power.
Of course, mush-brain young people will not listen, they believe they know everything, and have very little knowledge of past history, so... just like Obamacare, they will press on with the meme, and insist we need to destroy the only hope any poor man will ever have of gaining wealth status, the free market capitalist system. Completely oblivious to the ramifications or consequences, and unable to recognize the fault in their plans. When they finally discover how screwed we are, it will be far too late to reverse course. How do I know this? Because it has happened over and over again, everywhere people have attempted to install Socialistic government. It is a guaranteed recipe for failure.
