Yes, you. You are the enemy.

Actually, it’s not you. It’s nothing personal. It’s your attempts to exercize those Constitutional rights you used to have.

With me, it is personal. I was once a commissioner of police. One of my grandfathers was a sheriff; the other was a chief of police. In tracing my ancestry I discovered several family members that served as sheriffs, even extending back to England.

One day my chief was speaking with one of our citizens. The person said to his child that he better behave or the police would come to get him. The chief admonished him not to engender fear of police in his child.

He stated that the police were there to serve and protect citizens. They were his friend. That lesson stuck with me but, today, that lesson seemingly has been largely lost.

What happened? Those riot cops don’t look all that friendly. They have been immitating the military, in both equipment and attitude.

They see themselves as being immune from the laws that give them warrant. They seem to be more the army of an invading enemy than our protectors.

This past year they have been more frequently the agents of disorder, rather than those seeking to exercise their rights of assembly, speech and petitioning for redress.

How many incidents just this past year have produced video for the media of unprovoked assault of peaceable, unarmed fellow citizens? It took several days before the media admitted there was a story.

Those imaginary liberal media, you know, the ones owned by super-conservative mega-corporations, waited until the “law enforcement” proved they didn’t know how to play bridge legally.

Do these policemen feel themselves in jeopardy? Are these the perpetrators of violence from whom we are being protected? Who is out of control? Who is menacing whom? Who is trashing the Constitution?

Once there was the occasional Rodney King atrocity. Now, almost every city with an Occupy presence seemed to be using the same handbook. The problem was, as a few courts reminded them, that these were citizens with rights, not their spouse’s paramours.

I was taught to respect the police. I complied, because I generally saw them as deserving that respect. Of late, I have had my doubts.

The Police Union?

The Occupy Wall Street movement is aimed at those responsible for, among other things, gambling away the retirement funds of untold millions. A large segment of those lost retirement funds belonged to unions and their membership. It was natural, therefore, that the labor unions supported the Occupy movement.

There was one little problem that nagged at me. The Wall Street casinos had also gambled away the retirement funds of the police unions. Surely, they weren’t stupid enough to support those who stole from them against their fellow victims. That’s just what they did. But, why?

My wife has a cousin who is a state legislator. He is also a captain of the fire department and former state president of their union. I asked for his take on why they would be so ready to break the law and violate the Constitutional rights of their fellow Americans, particularly their fellow unionists fighting for redress for them as well.

Mike admitted that the police union had almost always been a thorn in the side of the union movement. They see themselves as special. They see themselves as a breed apart. That seems in tune with the ‘law unto themselves’ demeanor that is far too frequently apparent.

As commissioner of a small town police force back in the 1970s, I never had to deal with that bullying attitude that fellow commsioners often lamented. I was aware that the profession particularly appeals to that mentality but had no first-hand experience in dealing with it. It is not by any means universal but it has always been there and seems to have grown into a significant problem of late.

Is This What a Free County Looks Like?

It’s difficult to watch a video of New York City’s phoniest and correlate that with the memories of those who served our city, or the respect, even love, shown my grandfather when I was a kid.

One grandfather died before I was born but the chief of police was also the city manager and in charge of the water department. He was more than fully employed during the Great Depression. One day he saw a man with some of his kids. They were all barefoot. He told the man to gather up the rest of his kids and bought them all shoes.

It had been payday. When my grandfather got home, my grandmother was waiting for the pay envelope. He finally admitted that he had bought shoes for the guy’s 8 kids. She reminded him that he also had 8 kids to provide for. He may have been in trouble at home but his kind of bond with the community won’t show up on the local news in Manhattan.

Okay. So things change. But, now all police misbehavior is excused as necessary. Homeland Security says so. Whatever fails to come under that umbrella, is serious enough to invoke the Patriot Act. I find the title ironic for a statute that violates so much of the Constitution.

You don’t need a copy of the Constitution if you have pepper spray, a helmet with face shield, jack boots, a big gun, body armor and an attitude. Are the police just simple minded or bullies. I think many are complex enough to qualify on both counts. If they were rational, acting on behalf of their own self-interest and devoted to upholding the law and the Constitution, they would be joining the protestors, not harassing them.

As a former foreign correspondent, I found the following interesting. Last week an international group that ranks press freedom around the world released their report for last year. Thanks primarily to the beatings, incarceration and other means of interference with the press with regards to the Occupy movement, the U.S. dropped from 20^th to 47^th.

Maybe it’s just one more of the burdens of getting old. You have a memory to compare with the present. I find it impossible nowadays to think of this as a country as free as the one I grew up in.

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Thanksgiving is coming, in case you forgot. It has both a positive and a negative aspect for me.

Well, okay, there are two problems if you count staying on my diet.

My wife and I were married the Saturday before Thanksgiving. So, I always think of our anniversary as being on Saturday. Unfortunately, the 19^th (I verified this) doesn’t always fall on a Saturday.

I hope everyone reading this has a plate full of things for which they can be thankful. That is not the case for far too many Americans.

The bulk of this article will be extracts from one by Michael Snyder, who maintains a blog called, The Economic Collapse. It lists several statistics related to the poor and extremely poor in this country.

Michele Bachmann recently shared her Christian spirit with us when she said that a person that didn’t work shouldn’t eat. Her separation from the real world is great enough to be listed in the Guinness Book of World Records.

The reason for being unemployed is largely a factor of there not being enough jobs. Also, the majority of the poor are employed. A sizable percentage of the poor are seniors. I realize these facts don’t comport with her fantastical world view but that won’t be a consideration, once she realizes she is a former candidate.

Anyway, here is some food for thought:

The following are 19 statistics about the poor that will absolutely astound you . . .

#1 According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the percentage of “very poor” rose in 300 out of the 360 largest metropolitan areas during 2010.

#2 Last year, 2.6 million more Americans descended into poverty. That was the largest increase that we have seen since the U.S. government began keeping statistics on this back in 1959.

#3 It isn’t just the ranks of the “very poor” that are rising. The number of those just considered to be “poor” is rapidly increasing as well. Back in the year 2000, 11.3% of all Americans were living in poverty. Today, 15.1% of all Americans are living in poverty.

#4 The poverty rate for children living in the United States increased to 22% in 2010.

#5 There are 314 counties in the United States where at least 30% of the children are facing food insecurity.

#6 In Washington D.C., the “child food insecurity rate” is 32.3%.

#7 More than 20 million U.S. children rely on school meal programs to keep from going hungry.

#8 One out of every six elderly Americans now lives below the federal poverty line.

#9 Today, there are over 45 million Americans on food stamps.

#10 According to the Wall Street Journal, nearly 15 percent of all Americans are now on food stamps.

#11 In 2010, 42 percent of all single mothers in the United States were on food stamps.

#12 The number of Americans on food stamps has increased 74% since 2007.

#13 We are told that the economy is recovering, but the number of Americans on food stamps has grown by another 8 percent over the past year.

#14 Right now, one out of every four American children is on food stamps.

#15 It is being projected that approximately 50 percent of all U.S. children will be on food stamps at some point in their lives before they reach the age of 18.

#16 More than 50 million Americans are now on Medicaid. Back in 1965, only one out of every 50 Americans was on Medicaid. Today, approximately one out of every 6 Americans is on Medicaid.

#17 One out of every six Americans is now enrolled in at least one government anti-poverty program.

#18 The number of Americans that are going to food pantries and soup kitchens has increased by 46% since 2006.

#19 It is estimated that up to half a million children may currently be homeless in the United States.

As Michael notes, you don’t see the media giving this subject a great deal of coverage. He provided a link to the following video.

Regardless of how you feel about the subject of same-sex marriage, that is not the real point of the video. It’s merely a convenient conveyance. Please stay with the video through the 1:15 mark. The remainder makes the real point overwhelmingly.

Try to remember the poor at your holiday dinner but also think of things about the country of which you can be proud.

Best wishes,

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My occasional resort to language of a somewhat bombastic flavor may lead some to believe that I generally take an aggressive stance on practically every issue. That’s not necessarily so, but in the matter of class war, I am a super hawk.

Oh, am I not being divisive? No. It’s several generations too late for that. The war has been in progress since before Old Hickory was president. And that’s just in this country. It actually began millennia ago.

For those who think that the prostitutes of the elite, otherwise known as politicians and media mouths, are on to something when they accuse the victims of fomenting class warfare, think again. Most people have failed to notice the war because they have not been drafted. The actual war has been deliberately obscured by an extensive, expensive, all-pervasive campaign of disinformation.

Wall Street was bailed out by John Q. Public in order to protect their multimillion dollar bonuses.

College students were not bailed out of their onerous student loans.

You thought you had a right of free speech? You’re getting that mixed up with the Supreme Court ruling that money is free speech. You don’t have enough money. Sorry.

Over 800 people of Occupy Wall Street have been arrested. No Wall Street executives, those creating the problem, have been arrested. Hmmm. How many arrests were made of Tea Party demonstrators that were making threatening statements and even carrying guns on federal park land? Well, anyway, we are all equal.

Homeowners who are victims of mortgage companies or the disappearance of their jobs, or both, are on their own, while the government turns a blind eye as the mortgage companies ignore the niceties and laws of foreclosure.

Have you selected your park bench for retirement?

If you think the country’s economy is the nirvana our beloved leaders and Wall Street guaranteed, go back to sleep. If you want to do something to improve the situation for yourself, your family and your country, get yourself a draft card. How’s that?

Replace your present credit cards and accounts with the Wall Street casinos with cards and accounts from local banks and credit unions. Obviously, there are a wide range of other measures you can take but his has to be a minimum, a first step.

Was the economic meltdown just one of those things? Was it something that periodically besets us that cannot be avoided? Was it an accident? Was it the result of a mistake? No. It was caused by the unbridled greed of simpletons that considered themselves and referred to themselves as Masters of the Universe. They actually thought they had triple digit IQs. If they are so intelligent, why do they worship such a simplistic ideology? How can intelligent people fail to see its absurdities?

Investment banking, if you consider it a necessary evil, cannot justifiably represent more than 3-4% of the national economy. It now represents over 20%. It rakes in 50% of all of the country’s profits. One percent of the people own as much as 90%. Four hundred people have as much wealth as 150,000,000. This represents a gross distortion of the economy. So what?

There was a similar distortion in 1929. In fact, every such major financial meltdown was preceded by this type of distortion. An economy cannot function properly when class differences are so pronounced.

The irony is that the elite are doing themselves a great deal of harm in their pursuit of this folly. They seem satisfied to be oligarchs in a banana republic. For some reason a strong nation with a vibrant economy isn’t appealing to them. By nurturing a large, healthy middle class, the economy is more stable. Business failures decline. Poverty declines. People claim to be more satisfied with their lives – people, not oligarchs.

These intellectual giants appear to be convinced that their happiness can only be based on the misery of the serfs and peons. Strangely, the elites’ happiness goes down as the people’s increases. I guess that’s okay, because the happiness levels of the majority of the elites never are positive.

If you won’t do it for your own benefit, get involved and participate in the class war for the 1%. We don’t want these brilliant people failing in 80% of the businesses they create in only 5 years. It might cause them to have self-esteem problems; problems that can only be remedied by wreaking havoc on the poor and the remnants of the middle class. They can only win the class war if they have no opponents, if you won’t fight back.

Since you persevered, I have a video for you as a reward. Enjoy.

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Eureka!

There; I said it.

While everyone else is looking at pieces of the problem, I found the crux. Therein, I also found the solution.

The only catch is that our leaders have not the intelligence, inclination or interest in fixing it.

Unless you have slept through the entire debt ceiling debate you have heard someone claim that 48% of Americans pay no tax. Those who wish to protect the wealthy and the corporations from the IRS consider it to be the ultimate argument. It would still be a stupid argument even were it true.

Follow this, step by step. In their ignorance or prevarication, they have inadvertently pointed the way.

That 48% are not paying income tax, as defined by the IRS.  They don’t make enough. Don’t you envy them? They do, however, pay FICA (Federal Insurance Contributions Act).

FICA is composed of 12.4% of your salary going to Social Security and 2.9% dedicated to Medicare. Ones paycheck will reflect half of that 15.3% tax. In order to not scare people so much the law says that the employer covers the other half. That half is also a part of ones compensation. It is simply a hidden tax for the employee.

As a point of interest, compare that 15.3% the capital gains tax of 15% for those who gamble rather than work.

That 48% pays sales tax, state income tax, gas tax, excise taxes, real estate tax, car tax, numerous fees and more. They pay no tax? Bat feces.

Social Security and Medicare taxes are generating surpluses, which are put into trust funds, until Congress replaces them with IOUs. That means those entitlement programs are paying their own way and making loans to those programs that don’t.

Cutting back on those programs hurts those programs and makes more money available in the trust funds for the Congress to borrow. Making their slush fund larger will not encourage congressmen to economize. It solves nothing for the government nor for the people, just for the politicians. They will be back for more cuts in the future.

Well, there’s no solution there.

That leaves increasing revenue. The parasites on Wall Street are adamant they will not pay their share. So, does that mean we suck more out of those on the bottom rungs of the economic ladder? Yes.

What?

‘splain yourself, Lucy.

The cost of the federal government as a percentage of the Gross Domestic Product is close to a post-WWII low. Then why are we running such debts? Because of a shortfall of revenue. This is not a problem that began in this millennium.

Some of that is easily explained by the Chicago School of Economics’ trickle down theory, an impractical joke. Cut taxes and job creators will create more jobs. But, in the real world, we have lowered their taxes and they didn’t produce; at least not in this country.

The wealthy and the corporations not pulling their own weight makes us justifiably angry but something else they have been doing is of greater import. Something else has been far more insidious, far more destructive of the country, the economy and the people.

You’re angry that we bail out the gamblers, the freeloaders, the parasites. You wonder what they could have done that was worse.

They set about to destroy the unions. They largely succeeded. The middle class was the strength of our economy and thereby the foundation upon which our status as the superpower has been based. The middle class came about only through the existence of the unions.

They didn’t stop with their victory over the unions. They set about dismantling the entire middle class. Our highest inflation-adjusted personal income happened in 1973. The oil embargoes of 1973 and 1979 started the descent. Trickle down and deregulation turned a temporary setback into a decline and fall of at least a couple of generations.

The relative size of the middle class has shrunk. That 48% not earning enough to pay income taxes is your proof. Masses of people continue to be booted from the middle class. Wages and salaries are not keeping up with inflation. Fewer people make enough to contribute to the non-FICA revenue.

So, the government remains the same relative size while revenue decreases. Simple subtraction. Too much subtraction. Too many negative notations.

The real solution is to make it possible for more people to attain and remain in the middle class. Then they will make enough to get the attention of the IRS. Then the government will have sufficient revenue. Wow! A revenue increase without a tax increase.

Our leaders can try this and try that. They can try all of the solutions they want. Some may work. Most won’t. Regardless, unless we reverse the decline of the middle class those other solutions will just buy more time for us to endure the decline of our country and its economy.

I didn’t promise an easy or quick solution. It will take time. But, it is the only long-term solution. Will it happen? Not unless we try something new – electing competent grownups.

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Yes, I’m back from vacation. I know. You didn’t even realize I was gone.

Well, it wasn’t really a vacation. It was 9 days at Fall Creek Falls State Park with about 70 of my wife’s relatives. No it wasn’t as bad as it sounds.

Actually there is a little good came about while I was there. Perhaps I should relate that before preaching on the topic of the day. Each family is assigned a meal to cook. They either produce their specialty or whatever is easiest to prepare for that size of a mob. Hot dogs and hamburgers are de rigueur for the 4^th. Diet food, it ain’t.

That’s the problem. I overcame seven books on economics in the past couple of months. Why? Research on my next book.

I needed a break. So, I did some Internet searching for ideas on nutrition and downloaded to my Kindle 3 books that seemed to make sense. Okay. So it’s my form of recreation.

Actually, as age and weight have crept up I have been tested for diabetes, metabolic rate, tumors, everything. It’s nice to know I don’t have any of those problems but there were no definitive answers. Nothing seems to work.

The good news? Having just begun reading 2-3 days before the trip, I was far from having mastered the subject. Again, their wasn’t any diet food in sight. Considering those conditions, I am shocked that I lost over 7 pounds. I was not reducing calories. None of it was the fluid loss that causes many diets to look good the first week or so. The theory is that it’s what you eat, not how much and that your body will find its own ideal weight. I hope so.

I didn’t starve. I didn’t explore the great outdoors. My arthritic joints and ever-present cane have trouble navigating a round trip to the rear of a Walmart. But now, back to the topic of the day.

Dancing On The Ceiling

What is going to happen with regard to the debt ceiling? What will happen if it isn’t raised? The truth is that no one knows.

But, how do I answer the question? I am neither a prophet nor a fortune teller. They are different. Prophets don’t predict the future. Most everyone misunderstands. A prophet passes on messages from God to the people. Most fortune tellers are gypsies.

Neither Oral Roberts, nor Bob Jones, nor Jerry Falwell’s Liberty Bible College is on my résumé. I am not a gypsy. I’m just going to rely on my unfamous (infamous?) ability to see through political BS.

First, they will not recognize the unconstitutional nature of the debt ceiling law. Politicians prefer complex and obscure machinations. They offer opportunities to hide from and/or misrepresent to their constituents what they are really up to. They are not fans of Occam’s Razor.

The debt ceiling will be raised. The Republican leadership in the Congress publicly assured Wall Street that it would. The Democrats’ action was never in doubt. Both are owned by the casinos and have heard  their master’s voice.

There possibly is a horsefly, or the rear of a centaur, in the ointment. Eric Cantor has put Speaker Boehner under siege in his quest to satisfy his ego, his desire for John’s job. To do this, he has decided to sell his soul to the Tea Party. Why is it so common for a centaur to be looking to the rear?

By some counts, Eric can muster more votes from their caucus on this issue than can John. Eric hopes that will translate to votes for John’s office. That explains Mitch, over in the Senate, showing the white flag with his Rube Goldberg proposal.

Dissension among the Republicans in the House has given Obama a chance for victory. I have trouble crediting the White House with mature, nuanced strategizing but they have made a helpful move or two; even if by accident.

This hullabaloo about the debt ceiling is mere political posturing. It has been brought in to the game solely for political reasons. The last Bush raised the ceiling 7 times. St. Ronny did it 17 times – yes, 17. There should be a clear-cut severing of the problem and the play.

Obama should say that the question of the debt ceiling will stand on its own. Vote it up or down. Let the people decide who is jeopardizing the world economy.

Since I see it as almost a given that the ceiling will be raised, what remains in question is the timing. The financial world may be foolhardy gamlbers with other people’s money but they are cowards when their own neck in on the block. They are getting skittish.

One final point. The Treasury has actually borrowed more money from the Social Security and Medicare trust funds than from China or anyone else. That money may have been borrowed by Congress but it isn’t theirs.

If creditors are to get paid while others stand by, Social Security and Medicare should be at the head of the line. They are just getting back their own money. That is not the same as the oil, agricultural, drug and other industries holding out their hands for subsidies.

The President has been speaking about the possibility of Social Security checks not going out on time. That is pure political theater. It is scare tactics. No group shows up at the polls in higher percentages than do seniors. No one wants to alienate them. Enjoy the show but live in reality.

Just remember the problem. Our economy is sick because there is insufficient blood (money) flowing through the system. Sending money to China and not letting seniors put it back into our economy would be the height of stupidity.

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Oh, how I wish this were the knockout blow. Sorry, it’s not. Nothing will ever get through the thick skulls of the ideologues.

How many times must I tell you? Ideologies are oversimplifications by the intellectually constipated that appeal to the intellectually lazy and are usually wrong? Harsh? Hardly. Regrettably, my vocabulary is inadequate to do that subject justice.

Most people are merely victims. The powers that be control the media, the curriculum, the government. Sadly, any alternatives are available almost exclusively from questioning the almost universally accepted. It’s no surprise that everyone accepts such tripe as engraved on stone tablets.

I saw a report today. It stated that states making drastic budget cuts were experiencing worse unemployment and economic results than states that increased spending to deal with our financial crisis.

Wisconsin’s Governor, Scott Walker made himself the poster child for laying the blame on state employees while giving tax breaks to business. However, he wasn’t the only practitioner of this ideological absurdity.

From the report there were 24 states that took similarly drastic steps. Twenty-five didn’t. Yes, I know there are 50 states. Perhaps the statistics from that last one were not available in a timely manner. Or, it may have neither increased nor decreased spending.

Those numbers are sufficiently comprehensive for averages to account for any outliers due to a unique circumstance in this state or that. I am aware that imposing budget butchery on a state is not the only possible variable. But those variables are often found to go hand in hand with the mindset that is willing to apply such cuts.

Let’s take a look at the numbers first. Then we can analyse them.

My first thought was, of course. You cut that many state employees; the unemployment rate rises. The unemployed tend to spend less and the state cuts other spending. That means less money flowing through their economy, so it declines. Simple.

Then I looked at the numbers. The states that increased spending saw decreases in unemployment of .2%. The cost-cutting states? Increases of 1%. Was that solely due to state employees? No. Private sector employment went up 1.4% in the 25, while employment dove 2.1% for the budget cutters.

The difference in economic growth was also dramatic. There was a .5% rate of growth versus a contraction of the economy of 2.9%.

We were assured that those budget cuts would juice up the economy. They would mean that the private sector would create so many jobs we would be begging for college-educated immigrants. So? Were are the clowns jobs? We know where the clowns are. They were elected.

These little goofs probably believed what they were saying. They have never been accused of being geniuses. After all, they were just parroting the lines provided by the Koch brothers and friends. They remind me of Joe Theismann’s famous quote. “Nobody in football (substitute politics) should be called a genius. A genius is a guy like Norman Einstein.”

So why didn’t it work out as promised? There are many reasons; none of which fit in their bumper sticker ideology. One factor that is essentially a mandatory partner to such heavy-handed budget cutting is fear. The businessmen, some of the very ones ordering those cuts, saw such drastic action as portending the worsening of the economy. Ironic, is’t it? They helped create a self-fulfilling prediction.

It’s called leadership, even if is incompetent leadership. Those evincing some faith in an improvement, by investing even just a little in the economy, led the business community in the direction of hope, and engendered enough confidence to instigate growth.

The same ideology, the same people that urged the drastic cuts are the very ideas and people that created the global economic meltdown that is approaching 4 years of age, with no end in sight. Why do we listen to these people? We should be able to forget about them until their parole hearings come due.

It really is simple. The problem with the economy is too little money flowing through it. The answer is not to further reduce the flow. The consumer will hold on to what little they have until they feel the economy is improving.

The banks are making record profits without investing and with no risk. Their arms can be twisted to encourage them to invest in America and its people. The ideologues will scream that it is anti-capitalist. Good. Because that is just where the answer is hiding. Laissez faire capitalism is the problem not the answer.

Corporations have been and are being led by trepidatious leadership that inspires neither hope nor expectation of growth. The leadership on The Hill and in the Oval Office needs put the county above the Beltway games. They need to face the facts and convince business and consumers that we all need to sacrifice and invest in our futures, while kicking Wall Street out of their offices and back to Lower Manhattan.

While we seem to be lacking the intelligence to escape the clutches of ideologies, we must have leadership. None of the candidates for president nor any of the officers of Congress have ever shown any. A soft voice is acceptable . . . if it is accompanied by a big stick, and a willingness to wield it. Where is Teddy Roosevelt when you need him? Obama thinks he can handle it by being a teddy bear. It’s not quite the same.

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Maybe not you, maybe not me, but tens of millions of people need jobs. It’s not just them that suffer from the lack of a job. Most have families.

It isn’t even limited to them. It affects the entire economy. That means it affects you and me.

Foreclosures mean the Great Recession lasts longer. More foreclosures means your home is worth less. Want to move? Lots of luck. You just discovered that you don’t own your house. It owns you.

Congress is our enemy. They shot down the elimination of tax incentives for moving jobs overseas.

The Republicans were very successful in the last election cycle. How? By promising jobs. How many job creation bills has Boo-hoo Boehner introduced in HIS House? None. Really? Not a single one.

Well, that may not be exactly true. Those family values bills he keeps giving time and attention to might create . . . Well, probably not.

Paul Ryan’s budget is predicted to end the deficit in Fiscal Year 2052 and only cause the loss of 2.5 million more jobs initially. That 2052 date is just to end the annual budget deficit. The national debt would be with us until 2087. We’re going to have to have a party to celebrate.

One representative tried to defend that by misstating that the number of jobs lost would only be 250,000. Then he claimed that the entire 250,000 would all be state and local government jobs lost.

He laughed as he claimed that was good, since they needed to go out and get real jobs. The ones that don’t exist? Who are these good-for-nothings that need to get a real job? Policemen, Firemen, Teachers. I can think of quite a few others on the government payroll who should get a real job. I wish I had saved the clip of that interview to share.

Maybe Peter King can help. His committee has announced another round of Muslim radicalization hearings. Maybe some Muslims will get pissed off and leave. Someone could pick up one of their jobs. I need to send him a thank you note for devoting all of his time to such a high priority.

Congressmen have successfully prevailed upon the SEC to ease back enforcing those new laws to restrict derivatives. That means that Wall Street will need a few dozen more parasites. Is someone keeping count of all our representatives are doing for us by making job creation their number one priority?

If we’re are not going to get more jobs from family value legislation, sending jobs overseas or by eliminating police, firemen and teachers, how are we going to increase the number of jobs?

Banks are sitting on $1.9 trillion that they refuse to loan out in this country. Other businesses are sitting on another $2 trillion that they are refusing to invest in job creation. In fact, big business is where most of those jobs losses are from. Sorry. No help from that quarter.

How about small business? Sorry. Did you know that a many of the small businesses are created by big businesses? They back some employees in start-ups for their own advantage; to get various breaks. Transferring one of their employees to a small one they create does not increase the number of jobs.

With most health care tied to employer-based insurance policies, would be entrepreneurs are reluctant to leave the nest. It happened to me in the 1970s. It is even greater a barrier now, with the high unemployment rate. Also, they can’t get necessary start-up funding.

Even that bastion of conservatism, Time Magazine, realizes that entrepreneurs are not going to be our salvation. They have an article on five myths of our economy. Let me provide a paragraph from that article:

Entrepreneurship is still one of America’s great strengths, right? Wrong. Rates of new-business creation have been contracting since the 1980s. Funny enough, that’s just when the financial sector began to get a lot bigger. The two trends are not disconnected. A study by the Kauffman Foundation found an inverse correlation between the two. The explanation could be tied to the fact that the financial sector has sucked up so much talent that might have otherwise done something useful in Silicon Valley or in other entrepreneurial hubs. The credit crunch has exacerbated the problem. Lending is still constrained, and the old methods of self-funding a business — maxing out credit cards or taking a home-equity loan — are no longer as viable.

That 1980s date mentioned in the article just happens to coincide with the frenetic push for deregulation initiated by St. Ronny, which lead to credit default swaps and other derivatives, ‘no doc’ mortgages, rescission of the Glass-Steagall Act, quadrupling of the Wall Street share of the economy and the other contributions to the economic mess. I would disagree with the article’s placing of the blame on Wall Street sucking up all of the talent. It sucked up the money. They pay more in bonuses than they invest.

Let me describe a typical small business start-up in the present. It’s an underfunded, one-man consulting firm. It doesn’t manufacture anything. It may operate out of a home office. The person may prevail upon a relative to help out. Most of these ‘entrepreneurs’ are doing this because they have no other choice. They come mainly from the unemployed and underemployed. Most will fail. It hardly seems right to count most of these as small businesses or think of them as hiring employees.

A significant number of these are financial advisers. They aren’t telling their clients anything that will help their clients. As when they were employed by the financial firms, their script is limited to advice that will benefit those in the industry. There has been a slight increase in business for CPAs. Many of these new businesses need the services of a CPA to keep them out of trouble with the IRS.

To continue carrying the burden of the real estate situation may very well lead to a double dip. With the government, the banks, big businesses and small businesses unable or just refusing to create jobs, it’s difficult to see how a double dip can be avoided. It’s hard to contemplate the misery that long-term unemployment will cause.

Our “leadership,” both public and private are sitting on their hands, They have no personal financial worries beyond reducing or avoiding taxes. I wish the rest of us lots of luck.

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I went to search for some images of the untouchables of India.What appeared was almost entirely from the television show and the movie loosely based on Eliot Ness and his homies.

Is it possible we aren’t all that aware of the rest of the world?

The word untouchables is applied to the crew of Ness and the Dalits of India. I, however, think it an appropriate descriptive for another group.

The Dalits are subjected to treatment that can only be described as horrific. It is as open and cruel as the terrorism of the Ku Klux Klan at its height. I may cover this in detail in another article.

However, my immediate intention is to address a completely different demographic. This is a group of Americans that, unlike the Dalits, are deserving of the discrimination and violence to which those in India are subjected. They are our plutocrats. They are the special people of America who are not subject to the rules and laws that govern the rest of us.

Have you ever watched testimony before Congress? Oil men, tobacco executives, Wall Street vultures, these and others routinely lie to the committees. They aren’t even good liars. They obviously don’t even try to be good liars. They know that it doesn’t make any difference.

Let me be more specific. It is illegal to lie to Congress. Also, it is illegal to lie to the FBI, the IRS, the Department of Justice. In fact, it is illegal to lie to almost every agency and department of the federal government. Similar laws govern the states.

It seems not to have stopped these liars. Could it be because the government almost never pursues perjury charges against these special people? I think that may have something to do with it.

Now, let’s change our point of focus just a little. Let’s look at the hoi polloi. It’s just us. It’s just those who are expected to behave. It’s just those who are really subject to punishment for violation of the laws.

You lie to the IRS at your peril. Lying to the FBI isn’t recommended. Even being dishonest with Congress puts you in jeopardy. Yeah, I know, they prefer testimony by the big shots. They garner more attention from the cameras. But, they do, on occasion, interrogate us peons.

Since few of us have the temerity to lie to big brother, this may not seem to be of much consequence to most of us. That may not be the proper way to look at this particular situation.

However few may be affected by it, you need to recognize how fundamental it is to our status in this society. Those plutocrats who have nothing to fear from breaking the laws stand above the rest of us. In effect, they stand on us. They are the elite. We are the subjects. It puts into sharp relief that we are not considered citizens of this country.

What did he just say? Yes, it’s true. We are not citizens of this country. Citizen and subject are not synonyms. A citizen is a member of the state, the country. He is entitled to rights, civil treatment and has various civic obligations. A subject is one ruled over by another; a monarch or a government.

It isn’t just a matter of semantics. It isn’t just a fine academic point. It is real. It has consequences.

It may seem of little import when one of these plutocrats walks away from the scene of his perjury. You may not be planning on lying to Customs officials on your return trip. But, it does matter.

It matters how those in charge perceive you and me. How they do affects the way laws are written; the way they are enforced. Don’t forget, tax rules and regulations are laws. They throw in a little deduction here and there for you and me. For the elite they make the laws and their lack of enforcement a cruel joke. At least it’s cruel from our perspective.

The mindsets of the government and the elite have other consequences. Have you written a letter to you congressman? Have you complained to the Bureau of Indian Affairs? And, what was the result? Did you even feel that they really paid attention? You mean you didn’t have your lawyer, the one with the K Street address, make the call for you?

We’ve heard the refrain thousands of times: All men are created free and equal. True, we know that should be interpreted as equal before the law. That’s what our social studies teachers told us. You don’t still believe that, do you? Free and equal, in the constitutional sense, are too closely entwined to be separable. If you are not equal, your freedom is less than you might think.

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I have been so otherwise engaged these past few weeks that much of my usual reading has been thrown in a pile.

I watched an interview this morning with Chrystia Freeland. It concerned her newest article in The Atlantic. I will get to it. That is one of the magazines in my pile.

According to the interview her article focuses on the ultra-wealthy. However, the most salient points she makes are also pertinent in understanding various other communities.

She points out that the wealthiest one-tenth of one percent, or so, the ones who actually own most of the governments of the world, have more in common with each other than with you and me, or even most of the members of their country clubs. These people are constantly seeing each other at meetings in Hong Kong, Biarritz, St. Barts or Wal-Mart. However far-flung their primary residences, they see more of each other than of their fellow PTA members.

On the surface one might not see the commonality. Here we have the latest senior member of generational European wealth. There we have the newest of the new; the winners of the transition resulting from the fall of the Soviet Union.

Do they really have so much in common? Yes. They have more houses than they can use. They have more yachts than they remember. They have multiple private jets. Yet, they still have money; tons of it.

What can they do with all of that money? Is it useless? Hush yo’ mouth.

Money can be converted into power. Even the most jaded scion of title and fortune can get enthusiastic about power. They have the two most powerful aphrodisiacs. How much more do they need to have in common?

Back in my salad days, I would frequently have reason to associate with another special community. It is the diplomatic corps. Diplomats from the US and Libya have much more in common with each other than either shares with those they represent: Moammar Gadhafi or the people of the US.

They speak a common argot. They attended the same schools. They have the same interests. They are a community.

Then we have the most obvious: politicians. You may see differences in Republicans and Democrats in Washington  that don’t really exist. You may see them excoriate each other on C-SPAN or on the cable channels. You don’t get to see the parties they attend most evenings. The speak a common language. It’s one you think you understand. It isn’t.

They smooze the same bagmen. They feed from the same trough. They are a special community.

None of these communities understands your daily commute, your car payments, how much an illness in the family will cost you in financial and emotional stress. They can’t relate to the trauma caused by a layoff, actual or potential.

Neither do they care.

Most people don’t know the people in their own neighborhood, other than to say hello when putting out the garbage or bringing in the mail. You have some sort of community but it is unlikely to be based on the block on which you live. Community has changed. This isn’t Mayberry any more.

Some of these communities, such as the diplomatic corps, just don’t have you on their radar. Others do. They are looking for ways to use you or otherwise screw you.

You may think of various dangers represented by various communities. It could be argued quite easily that the oligarchs, the Wall Street parasites and the politicians have done us more harm than the terrorists. I wish we had a system where the politicians were a part of our communities, instead of apart from them.

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Here I offer you yet another one of my pet peeves. I seem to have a very full treasure trove of them but this ranks high on the list.

Government should be run as a business, so they say. One of the problems is that they are so ignorant of government, and possibly of business as well, that they actually believe it. Business seems always to get lots of undeservedly good press.

Don’t try to count the number of times you’ve heard it today. I’m not lending you my fingers and toes.

Back in the Dark Ages when I first attended college, I don’t recall there being any majors in recreation or underwater basket weaving. The jocks were, for the most part, directed to the crip courses that already existed. They were to be found in the Business Department.

Business is not rocket science. Those who consider it so likely find themselves challenged by a body of work that seldom requires more than a double-digit IQ. To say that mastery of it requires intelligence is to define more the person making the statement than the subject itself.

“Oh,” someone says, “what does he know about business?” Just to mark the playing field, I have engaged in a number of types of business. At one point I had a business selling vegetables on the side of the road; not exactly a Wall Street takeover target. There was the business selling objets d’art to high-end gift shops and department stores. Then there was the computer store back in the early and mid- 80s.

Later I had a company that manufactured automation systems. There was also a publishing company I owned. Presently, I am winding down a consulting firm. Does any of that matter? Does any of that count?

Okay, why not apply business techniques to government? What does a business do with a building it just bought or built? Right. It puts it on the books as an asset.

Now, the government. What does it do with a building, a bridge, a sewer system? It counts it as an expense. Have you ever heard of a sizable corporation that didn’t have an established valuation? Yes, I know, there are various ways of evaluating a business. That means there is likely more than one valuation applicable to a particular business.

That sewer system, that bridge, those roads make it possible for businesses to function. However, when speaking of government, one is more apt to mention size. How many employees? How big is the budget. How big is the debt load? How big was its profit? Whoops.

A business is supposed to make a profit. A government is not. A business may pay its employees minimum wage with no benefits. The government cannot get away with that. Well, they can but not openly.

Have you heard of the Corrections Corporation of America? CCA is the oldest and largest private company that operates prisons and jails. Its first, or one of its first contracts was to operate the Hamilton County (Chattanooga) jail, called Silverdale. That began while I was living there and a close friend was on the county commission. He was the sole objector on that panel. He kept me up-to-date on it for a few years.

They said a private company could operate the jail more efficiently and cheaper. Absolutely cheaper but absolutely not more efficiently.

The first action they took was to fire all of the county personnel assigned to the operation of the jail. They offered them the same jobs back. Well, not exactly the same jobs. These new jobs paid minimum wage without benefits. That was less than half what their county salary had been. Those accepting the jobs became eligible for food stamps. That didn’t show up as a cost of the contract. Does a businessman need to be a genius to show a savings there?

Most of these people (remember that they are real people) had 12, 15, 20 or more years invested in a good-paying jobs that allowed them to provide for their families. At that time the situation was probably similar to today. Minimum wage today puts one far below the official poverty level, even though you are working full-time. It provides an income that equals about one-third of the average family income. Those benefits were pretty nice to have, too.

I said earlier that the goal of business is to make a profit. When it comes to jails and prisons, the primary purpose is usually agreed to be punishment. Is it possible that those two could conflict?

The county had, and continues to have, a policy of letting prisoners earn 3 days credit for each day that they work. The work may be picking up litter, growing food for the facility or some other activity that benefits the community and the government.

CCA is paid per prisoner, per day. That means that the more days they remain in custody, the more income for CCA.  CCA simply quit sending people out on work details. The food from the farm wasn’t available to supplement the diets. Trash around the community began to pile up. Extra manpower needs that the county might temporarily experience went unmet. But, CCA made more money.

Are you familiar with an ectopic pregnancy? That is where the embryo is outside the womb, commonly in one of the woman’s tubes. The embryo cannot survive. However, it must be removed or the woman will die. A prisoner at Silverdale became ill, seriously ill. She required hospital care. The problem was that this happened on a weekend. CCA had cut staff so much on weekends that no one was available to transport her to the hospital. She died. She died but CCA made extra money by cutting the staff.

This is not CCA’s jail. It belongs to the citizens of Hamilton County. However, the operation of that facility represents the citizens. Also, they are paying for it. They pay for the litter. They pay for the food stamps. They pay for the negligent homicide, though no one was so charged. The county considered it too embarrassing to bring charges against anyone at CCA.

Here in Tennessee, we are particularly lucky. There are two men running for governor who brag of their business acumen. They both claim to have what it takes to create jobs. The Democrat runs the family-owned beer distributorship his father once ran. The Republican used to run his family business also. It is admittedly quite a large privately-owned corporation. It owns the Pilot Truckstops. I still wonder why, if he was so good at running the business, three states have charged them with price gouging. Is that good business? Is that smart?

You may have read about the contract employees we pay for in Afghanistan. I haven’t kept up with the numbers but they may still outnumber our actual troops. They have caused a great deal of harm to our military and diplomatic policies. They have been responsible for what can only be described as pleasure, or perhaps psychotic, killings. It turns out that they are immune to prosecution. You are paying these contractees six figures. They represent America. They represent you.

The possible examples of how government differs from business are endless. The responsibilities differ. The accountability differs. One could as easily, and justifiably, say that government needs to be run by musicians, artists, nurses, garbage collectors, high scorers on video games or embalmers. Businessmen may on occasion provide a useful insight but that cannot be extrapolated to running government as a business.

Business operated at its most efficient levels during WWII, when the government exercised the most control it ever has. I am not saying we should go on a wartime footing. I am saying that government is not the same as business and businessmen are a long way from having all of the answers.

If one wishes to pay our Congressmen at the minimum wage level, I couldn’t honestly object but very few of our government’s employees are that useless.

One might think that moving jobs from Akron to Bangladesh where the pay is 13 cents an hour would ensure a profit. It does and doesn’t. There are businesses that have made such moves and still are going under. How stupid are those businessmen? Don’t fret. They will be alright. They will find the money to pay themselves the bonuses their brilliance is worth.

If you believe that our businessmen know how to create jobs for a state or our nation, you are terminally naive. If you believe that businessmen, as a class, are especially gifted, you are terminally gullible.

Anyone who seriously believes that government should be run as a business and that simply being a businessman is a sufficient qualification has proven himself so ignorant of government as to deserve eternal disbarment from public office.

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