TOP EXECUTIVES CALLING FOR HIGHER TAXES

Today’s news brings some top executives into the headlines, calling for higher taxes, and a boycott for campaign contributions.

 Warren Buffet said it is time to stop pampering the rich – he was referring to corporation owners – and start taxing them the way regular people are taxed.  They should have been saying that, years ago.  Corporations have been running our country into a hole for years.  They have been ripping off our government for years.   He talks about being a frugal billionaire.   He advises people to stay away from credit cards, and to start their own businesses.   Warren does not know poverty.  He was lucky.  Warren advises us to make it on our own.  Instead of working for companies, start your own.  That is good advice to give workers who lost their jobs when corporate factories shut down in, America. 

Most people grew up to work.  They depended on jobs created for them by companies and factories.  In years before that time, people were serfs and farmers.  Corporations drove people off their farms and into their cities.  They wrote laws to eliminate small farmers from competition.   They competed to put the small companies out of business.  Now our corporate legislature wants to raise property taxes, in spite of falling property values.  They will not talk about taxing their vacation homes that keep rising in value.  Instead, they want to cut off soldiers’ retirement checks.  We can save billions that way,  just, stop paying soldiers, and cut off Social Security – that’s big government we cannot afford.

The legislators in favor of cutting our Social Security and pensions for soldiers who put 20 years in the service are all rich.  They work for big corporations.  They do not want their tax dollars paying for this nonsense.  Let the people fund their retirements with IRA’s.   It makes sense.  Corporations bundle packages of mixed stocks for employees to choose from.  They get to decide whether they want low, medium or high risk bundles.  The bundles are intended to fail over time, leaving investors with little or nothing.   IRA’s are about as safe as condoms with holes.  Some people do OK.  Most people will lose money on IRA’s that will not keep up with the cost of living.

Our legislators do not want to cut their own wages or lavish retirement plans.  They worked hard for us.  They fought for us and they remind us each election.  Executives deserve to be better off than their constituents are.    People who work hard have earned that right.  Company employees should not expect as much.  They do not need much because the work they do is of a less significant nature.  It is OK to lie to employees and promise them retirement packages that they will not receive.  A healthy economy depends on such strategies.

The main reason we have financial problems are the corporations who purchase and legislate to our legislators.  Star Bucks owner said that we should boycott campaign contributions until they get it right in Washington.  He did not say that we should ban corporations from contributing and that people should be limited to amounts they are allowed to give.  He did not say that all advertisements should disclose the individual people responsible for ordering the ads.  He would not recommend a rule for campaigners doing negative advertising, to fund the rebuttals.   He never said anything about transparency in government, and never mentioned having a written plan to publish.  However, rules such as that might make a big difference in getting honest officers.