"Warren Buffet thinks it's time for the super rich to pay a lot more in taxes. I couldn't agree more. If you, and me, and 199,198 agree, we'll deliver Warren's op-ed and all the signatures to Congress."
The Comment after that was from someone who said he "sort of" has a point.
Well... I'm an interesting "sort of" person. And, out of that "interestingness", I had to respond. You know what they say, "To whom much is given, much is required." Well, God has blessed me with a LOT of exposure to a LOT of different kinds of people.
I was born and raised on the South Side of Chicago. Spent childhood summers on a chicken farm with my Grandparents in Dumas, Arkansas, sat in old fashioned, white-washed, wooden churches in the pulpit, watching my Grandfather preach as old black women caught the Holy Ghost and sent fold up chairs flying. I attended a high school that was the junior equivalent of the United Nations, college in "The Redneck Riviera", worked in Commercial Lending on Wall Street, Advertising with the world's largest agencies, sat in Corporate Boardrooms as an adult, and on concrete stoops in Lawndale in my cousin's gang meetings, when I was a child. I've travelled across the world and across the country, meeting and getting the perspectives of people as diverse as those living in one room tin huts, to those with multiple, million dollar homes. I've worked in Cook County jail and I've shared dressing rooms with some of Hollywood's most beloved stars. To say I've been around, would be an understatement.
And, this is why I feel uniquely qualified to put in my two cents on this whole "rich paying taxes" thing. I can't say I know a lot, but this I know, both through public information and through personal confidences:
Major corporations paid ZERO in taxes last year, due to slick, LEGAL tax loops. TRILLIONS were tucked away by the super rich in ILlegal, offshore accounts, hidden for years by UBS and LGT, who simply REFUSED to cooperate with the IRS. The IRS conducted a sort of "surveillance" of these activities for eight years (from 2000 to 2007) and when they felt they had an "airtight case" they went to the two powerhouse capital managers. LGT patently IGNORED them. UBS agreed to give them LESS THAN 10 PERCENT of the names of their clients, under the condition that they would have a kind of IMMUNITY from prosecution-- even though they were patently guilty of "participating in a scheme to defraud the United States".
FROM LESS THAN 10 PERCENT OF THE CRIMINAL TAX EVADERS, THE UNITED STATES STANDS TO RECOUP BILLIONS! Do you hear me? BILLIONS!!! OF DOLLARS in otherwise uncollected taxes as a result of this paltry deal. Now, just imagine if they collected the DUE TAXES from the FULL 50,000 (THAT'S FIFTY THOUSAND) SUPER RICH TAX DODGERS that the IRS was initially going after, in this just ONE case!!!!
The rich are so powerful that they made the FEDERAL GOVERNMENT SETTLE FOR A MEASLEY 4,450 SUPER RICH TAX CHEATERS! THIS CASE ALONE, COULD HAVE SOLVED THE US DEBT CRISIS AND IT'S STILL JUST A SMALL TRICKLE OF THE AMOUNT OF LEGAL TAXES THE SUPER RICH HAVE BEEN ALLOWED TO GET AWAY WITHOUT PAYING! We don't even need to raise their taxes! We just need to make them pay what they already owe! Amend the loopholes, and launch a mission as "determined" as the one in Iraq to shut down the offshore stashes. But that won't happen. They're all friends with the legislators and policymakers. Neighbors, golf buddies, and the legislators have stock in THEIR companies! They have a vested interest in the set up.
So, there is no real incentive (besides the drowning of this country) to make them pay their fair share. They make money in this country, BIG money, but they just take, and take, and take it out and put nothing back! They've all got lifeboats, posh gated communities, and golden parachutes so who cares? But, what happens when you put a straw in a glass and suck out its' contents without refilling it? Exactly what's happened to this country. It goes dry. I worked on Wall Street back in the day and I saw it there. I lived in what is considered the "richest city in America"... and listened to them there. They are ADAMANT against paying ANY taxes, but they want everything they can suck out of this country.
Everything.
At one point, they fought against "taxation without representation" (See, The Boston Tea Party). Now, today they are fighting tooth and nail for "representation without taxation"! (See today's "Tea Party").
THAT'S a very big part of the real problem.
But, to be "bi-partisan", that is, equally excoriating of the rich AND the poor, I'll ask today's popular question. Are the poor wasteful, also? Absolutely. Wasted food, wasted money, paying too much for EVERYTHING (but then, that is by design. The poor are always gouged. I remember as a child, visiting a building with my mother, who was a Social Worker, and walking into an apartment that was literally SNOWING INSIDE from an approximate 4-foot wide hole in the ceiling. The residents were forced to pay the hell-bound slumlord MARKET RENT to live there! Also, did you know that in Beverly Hills, you can pull as little as FIVE DOLLARS out of the ATMs? They don't MAKE the rich take a whopping $20 out of their accounts. Leave that money in there to keep collecting interest!)
But, I digress... Anyway, back to the poor. Just as I've sat in the living rooms of the ultra rich, and listened to their obsessive determination to avoid taxes, I've watched the extravagance of people who do not have to EARN anything. The young women frequenting the welfare offices of this country pretty much all collect their benefits with the freshest hair weaves, fly-est manicures, and the trendiest clothes. My mother complains about me wearing the same faded T-shirts I had in HIGH SCHOOL! Well, thank God I can still fit them cause I couldn't afford their wardrobes, let alone their hairstyles! And, I've had a professional manicure only three times in my life!
However, the most egregious welfare queen could not even begin to touch the thievery of these "immune elite". And, that includes those just getting here from other countries. There are particular groups (I won't say which ones cause I'm scared of them :-), that come here, actually TAKE UNDERGROUND CLASSES on how to bilk Medicare, and set up Home Health and Hospice agencies. Within six months, they are literally extracting MILLIONS... ALSO from the United States government.
No welfare queen, black or white (and I'm sure you know by now that the majority of people on welfare are NOT black), comes even remotely close to the burden these IMPORTED "immune elite" place on the system.
And, let me mention just one more thing: The banking bailout. Banks were given a TON of money to make new mortgages to potential homebuyers. To NEW, middle income homebuyers, to my understanding.
Well, they sat on the money for a lonnnnng, lonnnnng time. Giving each other even BIGGER bonuses than the bonuses they were chastised for. Then, certain of my neighbors in this "rich" city I mentioned earlier, shared with me something very interesting. They were getting called, out of the blue, by banks offering to refinance their nearly paid for million dollar homes with next to no interest. I'm talking homes with less than 50-thousand dollars on the balance. The neighbors were like, "Sure! Why not? I can take this measley balance, stretch it out another 30 years and pay virtually no interest? I can then take the mortgage I HAVE been paying and make money on it elsewhere?"
It's a win-win! The homeowner gets to continue to live opulently, make more money, and the banks get to say they technically issued a "new" loan, satisfying government requirements for the bailout!
Another neighbor, who's monthly mortgage on THAT home (like I said, they have more than one), is $15,000 a month, said that if she wanted to, she could just stop paying it, cause the banks have lost the papers on so many of the rich's multi-million dollar homes, that if she did, they probably wouldn't even notice. She won't do it, but has friends who have.
What you're hearing on FOX news and all these other propagandic media, is a smokescreen to cover their own raping and pillaging.
Like I said, to whom much is given, much is required. I've been given a lot of this information so I'm just doing my duty and sharing it.
Dont shoot the messenger. I'm just telling what I know. I'm not a huge fan of taxes either, but Jesus said, "render to Caesar what Caesar is due." (Mark 12:17)
What do YOU think?
*NOTE: A lot of people are telling me they posted comments on earlier blogs but they didn't come through. I think I fixed the problem. Now, I believe all comments will be accepted, so feel free! Love you much!
Rayel
I don't know if what I'm about to say is a pessimistic viewpoint but...
ReplyDeleteUnderstanding how the system works by the "filthy rich" can be learned by others who will actually put the benefits to good use. In my life experience, rebelling against the status quo seems to instantly attract the powers-that-be into snuffing the movement before it gains any momentum thus, I believe, the best method is not to work outside of the system but within it and in between the cracks.