NUMBERS ON PAPER - MONEY

NUMBERS ON PAPERS

Do you remember way back to 2011 when a billion dollars was still a lot of money and national debt was well below $20 trillion? Ever wonder where the government gets all that money it wastes (sorry, spends)?
According to the Tax Foundation, “Tax Freedom Day” will take place on April 9th [2011]. They say this means on that day Americans will have earned only enough money to pay off their total tax bill for 2010.  By these statistics Americans work 99 days—or 26.89 percent-- of the year for the government while having the remainder of the year to pay for all necessities.  If it helps any, apparently in Great Britain “Tax Freedom Day” doesn’t come until May 30th.

Let me get this straight…

In order to run the government the feds need us to pay them some enigmatic amount of money based more-or-less on how much of this money stuff we had pass through our hands the previous year.

Every time this money thing passes from one hand to another to another we are supposed to dutifully report the amount so that the government can get their fair but indecipherable share.

And, why exactly do corporations not want to make more profit because they'd pay more taxes?

As a society we have learned to spend and not try to keep any of this money, even though the receiver must pay part in taxes.  If we just put it in a box, the government punishes us by printing more money than it has money.  If carefully invested the government punishes us by taking “their share”.

In order to collect their share of our money the feds (and state and county and city) set up innumerable and money-consuming bureaucracies – any one of which might just cost as much to maintain as taxes collected.

If you and I agree to exchange, say, my brilliant writing skill for your apple pie, we each have a “value” which, technically and legally, is also income, maybe.  The duty dutifully due cannot be paid in writing skill or apple pie, but in mere money.

If I have U.S. Bonds the interest gained cannot be taxed by the Great State of Indiana (which might actually need it); but I do pay tax to the federal government on money they paid me.  This after I agree to pay a “tax” of accepting lower interest.

In like manner, federal employees generally work for less money (e.g. President Obama’s new Chief-of-Staff took a huge pay cut), but they still pay taxes on what they get.  As someone asked, are they really paying taxes or just taking a further cut in pay?

Just incidentally, The Great State of Indiana seems to have both a billion-dollar reserve and massive debt (to the federal government of all people).

In all of this we have to use the cash money the federal government prints and issues; they can’t just use some of it themselves and leave us alone.  Better yet, let us print our own and they can just keep theirs!

We hear tell the “value” of the dollar is kept “up” or “falls” depending on what the markets dictate; unless one government or another does this-or-that to control their currency’s “value”.  This seems to mean we shouldn’t go to Europe next summer, but drug-war ridden Mexico is fine.  Think I’ll stay home and count what little is left of my numbers on paper.
David L. Lewis is an observer of and sometimes commentator on life who may be reached via e-mail at thedaddy1776@gmail.com

Please Note: This blog was first published on the Brazil Times website on March 29, 2011.

This is part of complying of Blogs posted from May 17 2008 to May 10 2015 on the Brazil Times website under the by-line MY VIEW FROM THE BACK PEW.  Not all Blogs can or should be included -- that's well over 150,000 words which nobody much read the first time around.  And, some will be edited for timeliness, relevance, or just plain keeping short enough to be read.  These Blogs can no longer be found on the Times site and are reproduced here from original document files; my understanding is they remain “property” of the paper, so acknowledgement is given.

GLEN ALLEN WALKEN FOR POTUS

Glen Allen Walken for President!

Probably best known as Dan Conner on “Roseanne”, veteran actor John Goodman has been in over 50 movies and awarded a Golden Globe and two American Comedy awards.  His role of a lifetime, though, may well have been portrayal of Glen Allen Walken on TV’s “West Wing”.

According to the story line Walken is Speaker of the House and the political enemy of sitting President Jed Bartlett.  Bartlett’s Vice-President had resigned in disgrace, making the Speaker constitutionally second in line for the Presidency. 

Bartlett’s daughter is kidnapped, and in the best interest of the country Bartlett turns over the office of President to Walken.

Walken, knowing the country can have only one President at a time, says “You are relieved Mr. President”.  Walken’s character then proceeds to take command and make decisions about which Bartlett’s staff is not sure.

As the story develops Bartlett’s daughter is rescued.  Then comes one of the great scenes of American television: Walken turns the power of President of the United States back to his political enemy, Jed Bartlett, as also provided for in the Constitution.

It was great television precisely because this is what we want to believe about America and about the people we elect to represent us in governments:  When faced with a crisis of command, enemies -- politically and perhaps even personally -- will act with honor, putting the best interest of the nation above everything.



Something like this really did happen to real people in the real world.

On August 8, 1974, having been told by his longtime political supporters that it would be impossible for him to remain in office, President Richard Nixon announced he would resign the Presidency effective at noon the next day.  Vice-President Gerald Ford, who had not been elected to that office, would be sworn-in as President.

There was a story told at the time of a man living somewhere in the Midwest who bundled his 12-year old son in the family car and took off that August night for Washington, D.C. to be there for the departure of Nixon and swearing-in of the new President.

That man wanted his son to see what was happening:  What he did NOT see was just as important.

The Washington Mall did NOT fill with a million good people demanding the ouster of a bad man; nor of a million bad people demanding removal of a good man.

The United States Army was NOT called out, the National Guard NOT put on alert.

The military Chiefs of Staff did NOT meet to decide who would now be President, whether to fire the Cabinet, or if Congress would be adjourned.

What that man wished most to have his son see was this: What men of honor do when faced with a crisis threatening peace and the pursuit of happiness.   And, why it is that God still blesses America.

David L. Lewis is an observer of and sometimes commentator on life who may be reached via e-mail at thedaddy1776@gmail.com



Please Note[1]

This is part of complying of Blogs posted from May 17 2008 to May 10 2015 on the Brazil Times website under the by-line MY VIEW FROM THE BACK PEW.  Not all Blogs can or should be included -- that's well over 150,000 words which nobody much read the first time around.  And, some will be edited for timeliness, relevance, or just plain keeping short enough to be read.  These Blogs can no longer be found on the Times site and are reproduced here from original document files; my understanding is they remain “property” of the paper, so acknowledgement is given.

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[1] Posted on The Brazil Times  February 15, 2011

BEAUTIFUL LADY @ PROVIDENCE

Beautiful Lady

This blog appeared on Brazil Times website March 12 2009.  If you’re around me very long you have heard be refer to someone I should know as either “brother” or “pretty lady”.  This is solely because I can’t remember names. But, in this case I’d like to specifically dedicate this re-print to some of the beautiful women I know whose name I do remember.

There is an old song, “This is all I ask”, one version of which I recall a line as rendered:  “Beautiful lady walk a little closer when you pass my way.”  The song, as this old man thinks of it, is a ballad sung from the perspective of an old man.

I thought of that song the other day waiting in a doctor’s office and watching a “beautiful lady” quietly deal with a man she’d apparently known from working in a sheltered home of some kind.  She was perhaps, to be polite, in her late forties; and there was nothing remarkable about the woman’s appearance.  Yet she was one of those people you might have noticed in a crowd even if the man hadn’t drawn attention to her.

In the time the man was talking we learned a lot about him, he talked freely about himself and did so quite loudly.  I’m not sure of the politically correct term, so I shall say he was “developmentally disadvantaged.”  In the process any observer who cared to could learn something about her.  What was most valuable about the conversation was not what he said, but how patiently and politely she listened to him ramble on.  Everyone in the vicinity could tell she felt a certain sense of relief when his name was called.

As the man walked away the lady said, “I don’t know how he remembered me.”  I leaned over and told her the obvious truth she’d overlooked:  He had remembered her because she is a very beautiful person.

It seems to this old man that there are certain people who just stand out.  Somehow such folk project a sense of knowing who they are and being content with that person.  I am not sure whether this is an attribute or an accomplishment, but you do see it in people if you’re observant. Our daughter Susan is someone like that, as is my [self-appointed] “god-child” Robin Fine Bradley.  Another one I wouldn’t want to fail to mention is Lynn Llewellyn, [former] General Manager of The Brazil Times.  I’ve never made a secret of being an admirer of Lynn for all of the 12 years I’ve known her (did one of us get 12 years older, Lynn?).

To be fair and balanced, this quality I’m talking about is certainly not confined to women.  I’ve seen it in men many times.  The reason it stands out so much in my mind when I see it in a woman is simply because I am getting to be an old man who has seen the world change considerably.  It seems to me the generation that has come of age during my lifetime simply has no comprehension of any other world than one in which someone can be a “beautiful person” without regard to gender.  And, that’s a good thing.

 But, if it wouldn’t be too much trouble, “Beautiful lady walk a little closer when you pass my way.”

David L. Lewis is an observer of and sometimes commentator on life who may be reached via e-mail at thedaddy1776@gmail.com.