Corporate Inversion

          Corporate Inversion is not normally a subject of dinnertime conversation. Most people haven’t even heard of it. What most of us are hearing, and frequently, are the constant complaints of our illustrious Corporatocracy regarding our nation’s corporate tax rate as compared to most other countries in the world. They say we have, on average, the highest corporate rate of all. I don’t remember when the change was made, but I do remember back in the seventies when the corporate tax rate was 51%. Today that rate is 35%, down 16%. Help me understand.

In past postings to this blog, I have on more than one occasion pointed out the lack of patriotism on the part of our nation’s corporations. I have pointed out their lack of care for our environment, loyalty for their employees, and, for that matter, even loyalty for their customers. If in the seventies their rate of return on investment was acceptable then, why is not their present rate of return at a tax rate of only 35% acceptable now—especially in light of the enormous national deficit and debt with which our nation is now burdened and their share of the profits embedded in that debt? This leads me to another question. Why is our Corporatocracy complaining about a 35% tax rate? I’m not going to bore you here with a detailed discussion on taxation (I confess. I don’t want to do the necessary homework), but the fact is our corporations, for the most part, do not pay taxes at anywhere near that high rate. On average, they don’t pay half that. Many pay nothing, absolutely nothing. But, to take this just a little further, beyond taxation, still dissatisfied with their return on investment, they—as you know, are outsourcing labor (jobs) to the detriment of our nation and our economy, to slave labor abroad (Insofar as I am concerned, child labor and the labor of those living in substandard living conditions, and dormitories or barracks, is slavery—a rose is a rose by any other name).

Now, still dissatisfied with their return on investment, the Corporatocracy has gone even further. More and more companies are moving their jobs, production, profit centers and profits out of the country—our future if we continue to accept the current system and the endless job of trying to make it more fair and consistent. They are resorting to corporate inversion (and they have been doing this for several years). They are moving their corporations overseas (the complete hypocrisy of which is indicated by the fact that their CEOs aren’t required to move with their company)—one popular location among others is Ireland, a country with a very low tax rate. Sandy Cutler of Eaton moved his company’s domicile to Ireland in 2012 by buying Cooper Industries, a company run from Texas which already had a foreign address, via a 2002 corporate inversion. He predicts his company’s tax rate will be about 5% this year. Are you kidding me? Does anyone think that a country like the United States of America can govern a country with a corporate tax rate of 5%, given the immense amount of programs we have going—and necessary programs at that? Do you really think we can successfully compete, tax wise, with other much smaller countries at those or similar tax rates? Do you think we can successfully compete with slave or other labor with similar rates? What will Mr. Cutler do next? At what rate of return on investment will Mr. Cutler and his partners be ultimately satisfied? Is their objective to enslave the world? Is that what it will take for them to achieve their ultimate goals? When people like Ted Cruz and Grover Norquist (and all the others in their party) advocate so small a government and so low a rate of taxation that they can squeeze it in the palm of their hand, where do you think they are taking you? Why do you think your economic status has fallen so greatly while theirs and the stock market has gone through the roof? You surely must see the truth. Look at the past; Look at the present; Predict the future—your future. This is where the Corporatocracy and Power Elite, our Shadow Government, is taking us—back to serfdom, where our forefathers were centuries ago and from which they escaped to come here, to the "land of opportunity", The United States of America.

Reference: Tax Break ‘Blarney’: U.S. Companies Beat the System With Irish Addresses,  www.bloomberg.com;

Moving Your Company Overseas Is So Evil, Jack Lew Would Ban it in the Past!, www.reason.com

Ronald Miller

Email me at mtss86@comcast.net

Our Affordable Care Act

          What is it that our government (and far too many of our people) don’t understand about the need to replace the ACA, the Affordable Care Act, aka Obamacare, with national healthcare for all, i.e. universal access to healthcare for all citizens from the cradle to the grave modeled after our present system of Medicare, and do it now. Our people need it; our country needs it; and, our government needs it—replacing ACA with universal healthcare for all will most surely take a multitude of monkeys off their backs as well as ours.

          Today, two different federal appeals court panels issued conflicting rulings on whether the government could subsidize health insurance premiums for people in those states that use the federal insurance exchange, rulings which declare that government cannot subsidize insurance for those in states that use the federal exchange. Here we go again! Around and around we go; where we will stop, nobody knows. Of course, these will be appealed, and you can read all the details in the media; but these are just more among many stumbling blocks in the face of progress—and to what end? Where beyond mass chaos is all this going? Let me ask some questions. How much longer do Americans have to suffer the worry, uncertainty, insecurity, poverty, and, yes, even death before our government will adopt a universal national healthcare system with access by all—healthcare wherein all one who has a legitimate medical need can go to an emergency room, or to his or her doctor of choice and make an appointment for service. We don’t have to reinvent the wheel, the system(s), minus whatever tweaks may be necessary, are essentially there, they are in place. What we are doing and where we are going is abhorrent and for what—to what end?

How much longer must employers, especially small business’s many of whom cannot afford the costs, be straddled with ever increasing employee healthcare costs, costs which inhibit planning and destroy profits, putting many out of business? How much longer will the public put up with a dysfunctional government which refuses to do the job for which they are paid? How much longer will we the people put up with a Shadow Government which has usurped the rights of the people through bribery, deceit, “revolving doors” and other nefarious courses of action?  How much?

When adopted, this healthcare plan should and must be administered from a “stand-alone”, “pay as you go”, fund just like Social Security, completely transparent to the public and funded by a specific tax designated for that purpose. I suggest a surtax on income from all, adjusted annually so as to run neither a deficit nor a surplus. This should be managed, in my opinion, by experienced doctors and monitored for efficiency and good service to the benefit of the people.

Think about all the good this will accomplish if properly managed (and that is what we pay our government to do—in the final analysis, they are public employees and it should be no other way):

This will be a huge relief to our employers.

This will (and must) amount to a huge reduction to healthcare costs as a whole as well as an immediate reduction to our national deficit and consequently a venue toward the ultimate reduction of our national debt.

This will lead to the addition of thousands, if not millions, of hours to the time schedules of our Congress spent in arguing and bickering, which, when added to the elimination of the four hours or more they spend every day collecting money from the lobbyists, representatives of our Shadow Government which buys their votes (this to be accomplishment by a Constitutional Amendment to eliminate private money from all political campaigns upon penalty of imprisonment) will be a beginning in their getting a job done, once more, for the people.

This will enhance the morale of the people taking one big monkey off their back.

This will reduce poverty.

This will be a boon to our economy and our prosperity

          The list above is not all inclusive. I’m sure other benefits will become evident as we put the new system into effect. Also, the people should not be fed a false bill of goods as they have too often in the past. Although total costs will be reduced, no one should be led to believe that the benefits are free. They will not be—all must pay their fair share. In fact, supplemental insurance may be necessary as is now so with Medicare; and, in fact, close surveillance must be maintained with imprisonment for those who abuse the system, including doctors, business owners and managers, and all other abusers.

          With freedom goes responsibility. Put all the pressure you can on your representatives and the President to get this done as soon and as much as possible. Pressure them to get this done and put it behind them so they can solve the next many problems before them.

Ronald Miller

Email me at mtss86@comcast.net. I welcome your comments.

Empathy

          Empathy, a word seldom used in our daily conversations, the meaning of which is understood even less by many of us, is defined in Wikipedia as “the capacity to recognize emotions that are being experienced by another…. being”, i.e. putting one’s self in another’s shoes—to feel another’s pain. Obviously, it is very difficult for one to feel another’s hunger when one’s stomach is full. It is very difficult, when one’s belly is full of expensive wine and luxurious dinners, when his baths are furnished with $4,000.00 shower curtains, when he lives in large and expensive homes, and when he drives expensive automobiles, perhaps even chauffer driven, to comprehend the needs of the poor for basic food, clothing, and shelter. After all, you worked hard for yours, and they can do the same for themselves. Doesn’t everyone have equal opportunity? Think about it. Do we? Do we really? How many of you who read this have ever known hunger? How many know the absolute fear in the pit of one’s stomach when losing his job, with neither food in the closet, or money to pay the rent. How many have been out of work for a year or more with no job in sight and absolutely clueless as to where to turn? How many have had that feeling of being all alone with nowhere to turn—homeless perhaps? I dare say, not many.

          I suggest this to you, to everyone who reads this. The good old days are over; and, for most of us, they aren’t coming back—not in our lifetime anyway. We need all the empathy we can get—especially from government. If you think I’m nuts, you haven’t been keeping abreast of the news in the papers, on television, and/or on the internet. Our economy is in recession, our demand for product and services, the real producer of jobs in our economy, is down, and we as well as our government are in debt “up to our necks”. To exacerbate our problems as a nation even further, we are in a pseudo civil war with our government which has been overthrown by an oligarchy of the Corporatocracy and Power Elite within.

If you and I entered into a conspiracy to overthrow our government, we would be arrested, thrown in jail and, perhaps even shot. Our Corporatocracy and Power Elite, on the other hand, have taken over without firing a shot (that we know of), and not one of them have gone to jail. All that has happened to them is that some of them have been forced to pay huge fines, the money for which has come on the backs of their stockholders. They have usurped the power and authority to run this country from the three branches of our government which are supposed to be in authority.

You don’t believe me. Tell me. Who said corporations have the rights of free speech when they aren’t people. For that matter, who said they are people? I’ll tell you, but you already know. Our Supreme Court of the United States of America did. Not only did they do it once; but, also, they did so more than once. Now that doesn’t come close to being in our Constitution, does it? But they did it anyway. Was it cause or effect? I’ll leave that to you, but one thing is obvious, we are no longer a government of the people, by the people, and for the people. Our government, our Shadow Government, an oligarchy of the Corporatocracy and Power Elite, has their money in the pockets of a significant number of the elected members of our government; and they are pulling the string—running the show. They have effectively usurped our vote. Our underclass is growing, our middleclass is rapidly disappearing, and we are melting into the status of serfdom, not unlike Nero, fiddling while Rome burns.

What should you do about it? There is much we should do about it and it begins at the ballot box. Vote for a party of the people. Stay away from any candidate whom you think may follow the money and turn from the people when the going gets tough. Stay away from those candidates who follow the money. Stay away from any candidate who votes for the oligarchy of the Corporatocracy and Power Elite—especially those corporations which don’t pay income taxes and/or move their companies overseas. Vote for high tariffs on all products of those companies that move overseas and sell their products back here, especially those using slave labor abroad (If their wages and standard of living is less than ours and they work under sweatshop conditions, they are slave labor—a rose is a rose by any other name). Let’s adopt an amendment to our Constitution that takes private money out of politics and pay for elections from a surtax on corporate income (this would be a good time for a comprehensive reform on voting and elections as well as taxes).

This is just a beginning but we should begin with the election coming up in November. Let us shed our bumper sticker mentalities. Let’s really take back our country. Let’s get the Corporatocracy and Power Elite out of our government and out of our affairs. They exist to serve us—not us to serve them. Jobs? They’ll come. They’ll come when we start spending again—when our demand for product and service comes (Perhaps we should start with our infrastructure and go from there).

Ronald Miller

Email your comments to me at:

mtss86@comcast.net

Government and Religion

          My designated title for this posting notwithstanding, what I am going to discuss today is freedom of religion. A lengthy email was sent to me, allegedly forwarded from Ben Stein, regarding religion in America. I’m not going to copy it because of its length; but, essentially it says, “I have no idea where the concept came from, that America is an explicitly atheist country….” etc. Frankly, the way emails are being constantly abused, I don’t know whether he said it or not, but I hear this kind of statement not infrequently from other sources—thus the reason for this posting. I think his comment should be addressed.

          If I’m wrong, I want someone to tell me, but it is my understanding that our nation is a secular nation with a Constitution that guarantees freedom of religion for all, freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom to bear arms, and all the other subjects covered by our bill of rights. In his book, The Faiths of the Founding Fathers, David L Holmes provides us with an excellent documentary of religion in our country from our very beginning. As I understood his writing, the preponderance of the original settlers consisted of Deists, Protestants (this would include Puritans and Unitarians), and unbelievers. For the most part, Catholics and Jews came later with Muslims and others much further up the line in our history. By the time the bill of rights was written, it provided freedom of religion for all—for everybody. In my mind, this means the freedom to not believe as well as the freedom to believe, and that implies or infers we are a secular nation.

          Now, let us get to Dr. Stein’s concern which is the degradation of values in today’s society; and I must say that I agree with him. I’m not going to attempt to write a thesis in theology here because I am not qualified; but I will say this. One’s religion, one’s beliefs, i.e. your religion, your beliefs are only as real and valid as your personal relationship with your God. One’s faith doesn’t begin with government. It begins with the person—within himself; and, if his faith is real, anyone within eyesight can see it in how he lives. What is more, God gives everybody the right to live as he wishes, believe what he wants to believe, and accept or reject His Lordship as he so chooses. It’s called freewill. He doesn’t force himself on anyone; and, in my mind, this implies that He doesn’t expect His followers to force Him on others either. Rather they are to spread the Word, to plant seed, to set an example—not to force anyone.

          I have told you before, I am a Christian. It gets awfully hard sometimes when I take one step forward and two steps backward, but I do my best. And I continue to do that because I believe. But my point in all this has to do with Dr. Stein’s (a Jew, by the way) concern for the degradation of values in our society. The fact is that the degradation of our values began in our homes—in our living of our lives. Children aren’t born with faith. It must be taught to them in the home. It is an absolute fact that the human being learns more from what he sees than what he is told. What one sees has more credibility than hearing. Your have heard many times, I am sure, that “seeing is believing”. One’s “actions speak louder than words”. We go to school to become educated, but it is in our homes, in our churches, in our synagogues, in our mosques, etc, as well as, just as importantly, from our associations with others that we learn values. We are experiencing degradation in our values because of the degradation of the family. As that institution fades into the past, so also will our values—the direct result of worshiping mammon instead of God, the Corporatocracy and Power Elite.

Ronald Miller

Email me at mtss86@comcast.net

Immigration Reform

          Almost constantly discussed in the media of late is the subject of immigration reform, a subject of which, among many other subjects, I am woefully ignorant. Almost every time, a discussion of immigration reform arises, sooner or later, someone will question border security which puzzles me to no end. Just what is meant by border security? Really! What are they talking about? I wish someone would tell me so that I may understand. I’m not sure I know. In my view, we have excellent border security between the United States and Mexico—certainly much better than we have between us and Canada or on either of our two coast lines. In fact, I submit to you that, with all its inadequacies, our border security is better now than any time in our nation’s history. What are these people talking about?

Does border security mean that we don’t permit anyone to cross our border anywhere or anytime along its vast stretch without our permission, apprehending, arresting and incarcerating everyone who does each and every time? Using our border with Mexico as an example (It seems to be the one most frequently discussed), where does our enforcement of border security begin? As these immigrants come to our border, at what point do we stop them? When they are still on the other side of the Rio Grande River, before they cross, do we stop them there? And just how do we do that? Maybe we should stand on our side of the river and shoot them. We could go out into the Rio Grande and drown them as they are crossing. We could throw rocks at them, driving them back. Of course, these approaches might be considered a declaration of war with Mexico, which certainly wouldn’t have been a problem with President Polk back in 1846.

 On the other hand, let’s pretend they get to our side of the river and we catch or stop—even incarcerate or, again, shoot—them. Is that border security? Do we have border security then? At what point do we have border security? Are these people even allowed to knock on our door and say, “Please, may we come in?” After all, that’s what these children from Central America are doing. If our illustrious media is telling it like it is, that’s how I read this present crisis. How can someone knocking on our door and saying, “Please”, indicate a lack of border security in any way? It is reported. These people cross the river and turn themselves in to authorities. Help me. I’m confused. I’m sure you will have an answer Mr. Cruz.

That a group of immigrants sneak across the border and infiltrates into our country unbeknownst to us, without a doubt reflects error or weakness of some kind on the part of our security—in that or those instance(s), something went amiss; but, especially in light of the fact we already spend billions of dollars every year on border security, does it mean we don’t have border security? Only Jesus is perfect, so at what point are we willing to accept the adequacy and degree of perfection of our system. For that matter, maybe our system is already as perfect as one can reasonably expect technically. Perhaps the problem is that our system(s) is underfunded relative to our expectations. Perhaps it is understaffed. Perhaps it is not managed efficiently (as is the case with our Veterans Administration). I think we have the system. The problem lies somewhere else—most probably politics. I suspect that somewhere behind the scenes certain people don’t want the system to work—not for now anyway. President Obama has asked for $3.7 billion to help finance the resolution of the present refugee crisis on our border with Mexico as well as shore up other financial needs with our immigration service. As is true with anything, if we want product or service, we must pay for it—unless you want to work for free, that is.

As an adjunct to this essay, allow me to ask one last question. We are told there are twenty million or so illegal immigrants in the United States, and our government over the past thirty-some years has lost track of who and where they are—can’t even find them. We are further told that over half of these people came here legally with passports, and they are now illegal because their passports have since expired.  Why do you think a nation with the ability to track down a mad cow in a barnyard in Timbuktu can’t find an illegal immigrant right in front of our face, i.e. in our midst? I submit to you that the problem with the INS, our Immigration and Naturalization Service, is the same as with our Veterans Administration, and other departments within our government. It is underfunded, understaffed, and poorly managed. I forgot to especially mention our Securities and Exchange Commission. Do you remember a while back when it was reported that their employees were caught watching pornography on their computers during working hours?

We need Border Security. We need the INS. In our civilized society, we need many other services from government. We cannot live civilly without them. But nothing is free. We must pay for what we get, and those payments can only be through taxes based upon one’s ability to pay, i.e. a progressive tax system. To this end, watch who is clamoring for increased border security while simultaneously voting against the money to pay for it. It’s kind of ironic that those who are paid so much for accomplishing so little expect others to climb mountains for nothing. These politicians talk dumb to we the people. Perhaps they do so because they think we are dumb.

Ronald Miller

Email me at mtss86@comcast.net

Public Servant or Master

                    Do you really think a public servant is a de facto public servant, i.e. serving the needs and interests of the public for whom he works and by whom he is paid, if he puts his personal interests and goals ahead of those whom he is supposed to serve? From another point of view—how long do you think you would last in a job working for a private corporation if you put your personal interests and goals ahead of those of the corporation?

Let me tell you a story and, what I’m going to tell you, I swear before God is true. Many years ago, my mother was dying (on her deathbed) in Ohio. My wife went up there to be with her and care for her—I could not leave my job here; and, since we also had a young son in school, I had to put him in daycare after school until I could leave work at the end of the day to pick him up. Inasmuch as the daycare closed at 6:00 o’clock P.M., I had to leave work at 5:30. Would you believe, I received a letter from my boss telling me I had to decide to either be a member of his company or to be a father.

This is an extraordinary occurrence. I recognize that. I worked in corporate life for over thirty years and this is the only time I ever worked for anyone that bad, but I’m trying to make a point. And that is, when you work for someone, they, within reason (and my example was beyond reason) they expect and demand your loyalty and utmost effort to do the job which you accepted with them. If you don’t, they will replace you just as surely as God made little green apples.

Let me ask you another question. If you were working for an employer and you simultaneously served the interests of his competitor rather than his. How long would you last? For that matter, would you consider yourself loyal? Or, if your employer was your country, would you consider yourself a loyal patriot? Or, conversely, would you be unpatriotic? Now that’s a thought—isn’t it?

Let me tell you something, folks; and you have to know by this time that I’m telling you the truth. We, our nation, are in serious trouble–we are on a dire precipice economically, politically, and internationally, regardless of the spiel they continually pour out with their daily propaganda. We’re not in trouble tomorrow or some Sunday after some Tuesday, we are in trouble now—today. You should also understand that these are not unsolvable problems. They can be solved—all of them; and most of them can be solved in relatively quick order. Our great nation (and it is still great in spite of ourselves) has been around long enough, experienced enough, and studied enough (some of these things have been literally studied to death) that we have the knowledge and the expertise to do it and do it now. Yet, our Congress, the only one with the legal authority under our Constitution, to solve our problems, refuses. They now serve our New King, the Corporatocracy and Power Elite, to whom they sold themselves along with their power. The interests of our New King are not ours. We are diametrically opposed; and, if we the people continue to let these people rule much longer, it will be too late for our democracy. This is being told to you, not only by me; but by many others much more qualified. It’s in the papers, in books, magazines, on television, and on the internet. The information is before you all the time. Sometimes, one must just read between the lines.

What can you do? For one thing, you can get angry. You can get on the backs of our Congress and stay on their backs. Perhaps we need a few more (not just one) million man marches on each of their offices at home as well as in Washington. You can get out and vote. Vote every one of them who do not support our government and our people out of office. I’ll tell you this. If you will do this, there won’t be many of them left. They’re corrupt! They have sold out! Many are unpatriotic! They shouldn’t be in their jobs. We didn’t hire them (that’s what we do when we vote, you know—we hire them. They work for us, or they're supposed to) to get in office and fill their pockets. We hired them to work for our good and that of the nation. We certainly didn’t hire them to sell their power, given to them under the authority of our Constitution, to the Corporatocracy and Power Elite, our New King. That’s why we rebelled in 1776. We threw out the king! And, we should throw out this King. In just four months you will have your chance to do it—to do just that!

I don’t want to tell you for whom you should vote, but I will suggest this to you. Don’t vote for anyone who supports Wall Street and/or the Big Banks. Don’t vote for anyone who supports the Military Industrial Complex—no one. Don’t vote for anyone who supports Big Oil. And, don’t vote for anyone who supports Big Corporations run by Overpaid CEO’s. None of these give a damn for you or for our country. They care only for themselves and their interests. Yes, I’m a little dogmatic; but business, as I have said many times in the past, is supposed to exist for only one purpose and that purpose alone, to serve the public, to provide a product or service. We the people created businesses and they aren’t people regardless of our politicized Supreme Court (That’s not Constitutional either, by the way. SCOTUS is supposed to be politically neutral). We the people also created government to govern us and business. We did not create business to govern us. Any government or business that thinks otherwise will not survive. You better believe it. Just read your history.

By the way, I just finished two books over the Fourth of July Holidays, Beyond Outrage and Aftershock, both written by Robert Reich, Chancellor’s Professor of Public Policy at the University of California, Berkley. They are highly readable and very informative as to what has happened (been done) to you and to our country over these past years since the last depression—especially since 1980.

Ronald Miller

Email me at mtss86@comcast.net