Post by TomLine on Aug 22, 2015 9:07:46 GMT -5
POVERTY
by Tom Lineaweaver
by Tom Lineaweaver
Who better to explain poverty than someone who is in it. According to the Poverty Guidelines, I am in poverty... aspe.hhs.gov/2015-poverty-guidelines
The poverty line in my category is $11,770 per year. My income is $9061.20 per year, at least for 2015. So, I am below the poverty line. I know what it's like to struggle to pay bills, making the decision to buy food or pay more for electric. What does one do when the bills are constantly higher than the income? And the CEO of the electric company don't care about that. Neither does the cable company or the phone company. And, politicians don't care. Nor does it seem Donald Trump cares. But I do. And that is one of the reasons I want to be the next President. To fix the problems that caused poverty. Who better to fix the problem with poverty than someone that understands poverty and the causes of it. And after looking at the poverty guidelines, I may have to change my tax plan. No one under the poverty line should have to pay taxes of any kind. No income tax, no sales tax. No tax.
What about the causes of poverty? Well, I have already written about this in August of 2014 when I was trying to become the next Governor of Pennsylvania. So, I will just incorporate that article into this one.
Like it or not, we live in a capitalist nation. That simply means the economy is driven by money. People who have a lot of money are much better off than people who don't. I think that's reasonably understandable, so I will move on.
Here in the United States we have one currency based on the dollar. But we have a 2 pronged need or want for that one currency. The one prong is the private sector, which is private businesses and people. The 2nd prong is the Government, the public sector. The founders of this Country established the principle of limited government, hence the need for currency was also limited. And the private sector would have more than the public sector. By this we understand, or at least some understand, that the more the one prong has, the other one has less. That is a concept that is still true today.
Since the founding, government at every level has grown, thus increasing their need for more money. The problem, the more the public sector has, the less the private sector has. The private sector has their money by conducting business. The public sector has their money by taxing the private sector. So, the more the public sector takes from the private sector by taxation, the less the private sector has to do business with. The private sector still has the same needs as before, but doesn't have the money it started out with, so the private sector has to make adjustments. One adjustment is to raise prices so they can recuperate their losses. But, because the prices went up, the demand goes down, because some people will not pay the higher prices. So, the need for the supply goes down. When that happens, the need for as many people to make that supply also goes down. That leads to layoffs.
The more the taxes go up, the less the private sector has to make their supply with. But, taxation is not the only method the Government takes from the private sector. Along comes a ton of regulations, forcing the private sector to pay the cost of making sure they are keeping up with those regulations. So, then they have less to make the supply at the same level, also forcing them to pass their increased cost on to the people, creating the situation where the people will not purchase as much. Thus the need to make more supply goes down, and the need for the people to make the supply goes down. This leads to more layoffs.
Now we have an unemployment problem. There is a steady amount of people unemployed. So, government decides they need to help those people. So, they create a system of unemployment compensation. Now these unemployed people are receiving money from the Government. This creates a greater need for the Government to have more money. So, what do they do? They create an unemployment tax that the private sector businesses have to pay, forcing the businesses to make further adjustments in higher prices. We already know what happens when they raise their prices. And this leads to more layoffs creating a greater need for unemployment compensation.
Now the Government decides the people need more money so they can afford to buy more, which, according to them, will make the private sector economy better. So, they add a minimum wage. But guess who has to pay that minimum wage. Anyone that employs people. This includes private businesses and Government. So, the Government has created a greater need for Government and the private sector to have more money. By now you should understand what each sector of the economy does to get more money they need. The private sector raises their prices, and the Government raises taxes.
So, now we have the private sector and the public sector taking more and more money from the people. So, what people have the most money that is left over? The rich. So, this process I have described has create a huge disparity between the rich and poor. So, now we have to find a way to help the poor. Therefore we create "Entitlements." And guess who pays for those entitlements? The government. And where does the government get their money? They tax the private sector.
Now, in the middle of all this today, there are some bloomin' idiots that say we have to raise the minimum wage to $10.10 per hour. That creates a further need for the government and the private sector businesses to have more money so they can afford the greater payroll. So, the government will have to raise taxes, borrow more money from China, or just let the already unsustainable debt grow. And the private sector will once again either raise their prices, or layoff the people they can't afford to pay. Thus creating more poor people, and a further need for entitlements. And it goes on and on and on.
What is all this leading to? To a time when the government takes it all, and everyone has to go to the government for what they need. Folks, that's called socialism. And that is where we are headed. But, there is a way to fix this problem.
Here in the United States we have one currency based on the dollar. But we have a 2 pronged need or want for that one currency. The one prong is the private sector, which is private businesses and people. The 2nd prong is the Government, the public sector. The founders of this Country established the principle of limited government, hence the need for currency was also limited. And the private sector would have more than the public sector. By this we understand, or at least some understand, that the more the one prong has, the other one has less. That is a concept that is still true today.
Since the founding, government at every level has grown, thus increasing their need for more money. The problem, the more the public sector has, the less the private sector has. The private sector has their money by conducting business. The public sector has their money by taxing the private sector. So, the more the public sector takes from the private sector by taxation, the less the private sector has to do business with. The private sector still has the same needs as before, but doesn't have the money it started out with, so the private sector has to make adjustments. One adjustment is to raise prices so they can recuperate their losses. But, because the prices went up, the demand goes down, because some people will not pay the higher prices. So, the need for the supply goes down. When that happens, the need for as many people to make that supply also goes down. That leads to layoffs.
The more the taxes go up, the less the private sector has to make their supply with. But, taxation is not the only method the Government takes from the private sector. Along comes a ton of regulations, forcing the private sector to pay the cost of making sure they are keeping up with those regulations. So, then they have less to make the supply at the same level, also forcing them to pass their increased cost on to the people, creating the situation where the people will not purchase as much. Thus the need to make more supply goes down, and the need for the people to make the supply goes down. This leads to more layoffs.
Now we have an unemployment problem. There is a steady amount of people unemployed. So, government decides they need to help those people. So, they create a system of unemployment compensation. Now these unemployed people are receiving money from the Government. This creates a greater need for the Government to have more money. So, what do they do? They create an unemployment tax that the private sector businesses have to pay, forcing the businesses to make further adjustments in higher prices. We already know what happens when they raise their prices. And this leads to more layoffs creating a greater need for unemployment compensation.
Now the Government decides the people need more money so they can afford to buy more, which, according to them, will make the private sector economy better. So, they add a minimum wage. But guess who has to pay that minimum wage. Anyone that employs people. This includes private businesses and Government. So, the Government has created a greater need for Government and the private sector to have more money. By now you should understand what each sector of the economy does to get more money they need. The private sector raises their prices, and the Government raises taxes.
So, now we have the private sector and the public sector taking more and more money from the people. So, what people have the most money that is left over? The rich. So, this process I have described has create a huge disparity between the rich and poor. So, now we have to find a way to help the poor. Therefore we create "Entitlements." And guess who pays for those entitlements? The government. And where does the government get their money? They tax the private sector.
Now, in the middle of all this today, there are some bloomin' idiots that say we have to raise the minimum wage to $10.10 per hour. That creates a further need for the government and the private sector businesses to have more money so they can afford the greater payroll. So, the government will have to raise taxes, borrow more money from China, or just let the already unsustainable debt grow. And the private sector will once again either raise their prices, or layoff the people they can't afford to pay. Thus creating more poor people, and a further need for entitlements. And it goes on and on and on.
What is all this leading to? To a time when the government takes it all, and everyone has to go to the government for what they need. Folks, that's called socialism. And that is where we are headed. But, there is a way to fix this problem.
There is something I did not cover in the above article. I have written an article many, many moons ago that was probably in the Public Forum of the Lebanon Daily News in Pennsylvania. Even back then I saw where we were going. In that article I stated that there was too much to do with money than there was money to do it with. And of course Government, in their wisdom or lack there of, dealt with that problem. They took us off the Gold and Silver Standard.
Okay, follow me here. There was just so much Gold and Silver, and when you make more paper money than what you have Gold and Silver to back it, you go off the Gold and Silver Standard, then you can print all the paper money you want. And that is what happened. So, the Federal Reserve printed gobs of paper money and loaned to the Federal Government. The Federal Government taxed the American people to pay for it. And that today is what our wealth is based on. It's based on debt. And that is called "fiat money." and the more fiat money we have, the more it is devalued. So, now we have a dollar that's worth about 3 cents. And the buying power of the people go down, and the process written about above continues. Buying power goes down, the need for goods and services goes down, so there are continual layoffs. And many people have just enough to buy the bare necessities.
We started making money with no backing during the Carter Presidency. It caused double digit inflation Ronald Reagan was so fond of pointing out. What did Reagan do? Lowered the visible taxes, but raised the hidden taxes, which wasn't bad. It put more money in the hands of the people, and that means purchasing power went up. So there was a modest economic recovery. Why do I say modest recovery? Because Reagan never fixed the underlying problem. The economy was still based on worthless paper money. So, eventually that modest recovery would come to an end. That happened in the 90s. What did Bill Clinton do to spur on the economy. They passed a law forcing lending institutions to borrow to high risk borrowers to buy houses. That eventually led to massive foreclosures.
All this time, poverty continues to get worse. And many had to go on Government programs just to survive. Now we have massive Entitlements we can't afford. All because our Government has mismanaged our economy really badly.
Now, you know the problem. How do we fix it? This is a question I have pondered for a long time. So, I came up with solutions based how to best help me. Remember, I am in poverty. Helping me will help others in poverty. But then, helping people that are in poverty will also help others. The so called middle class will be better too.
What we need to do is eliminate the causes of poverty, which are too much Government and greed. And that is what my economic plans will do, or at least that is what they are designed to do.
First, we must get back on the Gold and Silver Standard. Then we must get Government back within Constitutional boundaries. Then we need a tax plan that will lower taxes for everyone, while paying for our necessary Government functions, and pay down our debt. And I believe my economic plans will do that. When the debts are paid, we can lower taxes even more, and hopefully eliminate the income tax completely.
We also have to bring manufacturing jobs back to America. To do that I proposed that we strengthen the "Made in America" laws. We need to get out of trade agreements that are detrimental to the American people, and establish trade agreements that will benefit the American people. You can see my economic plans here: line2016.freeforums.net/board/2/economy
One of my plans is to get Government out of the way so a hemp industry can be developed. This will strengthen the economy in many ways. It will create manufacturing jobs, and help the struggling family farms.
My economic plans might not totally eliminate poverty. But they will take a huge chunk out of it. I care about the poor, and designed my economic plans to help the poor.
Government plans of the past have not worked. The so called war on poverty has only created more poverty. It has created entitlements that is a drain on our budget. We must get as many people we can off entitlements, and back to work.
I realize liberals won't like this. But then, I am not an economic liberal. What we call liberalism today is the very thing that has caused poverty. We must eliminate Government liberalism and corporate greed in order to really take a bite out of poverty.
Once again, I come to ask that you come join the team.