By Rich Kozlovich
An article appeared on the 26th by Daniel Halper entitled, “Over $60,000 in Welfare Spent Per Household in Poverty”. The article went on to say that;
"According to the Census’s American Community Survey, the number of households with incomes below the poverty line in 2011 was 16,807,795," the Senate Budget Committee notes. "If you divide total federal and state spending by the number of households with incomes below the poverty line, the average spending per household in poverty was $61,194 in 2011." It further went on to say that; "If the spending on these programs were converted into cash, and distributed exclusively to the nation’s households below the poverty line, this cash amount would be over 2.5 times the federal poverty threshold for a family of four, which in 2011 was $22,350 (see table in this link)."
The question I have always had when I hear this stuff about how much the nation spends on eradicating poverty I keep asking myself….where in the world has all that money gone? Clearly it isn’t going to the poor. If when President Lyndon B. Johnson started his Great Society programs we had given every poor man, woman and child in the nation a million dollars and told them they were then on their own, it seems to me we would have saved billions. Let’s explore this whole problem.
When the housing market collapsed due to the incentives created by Jimmy Carter's Community Reinvestment Act a lady, who I have known for years, told me she was going to lose her house. I was amazed because for many years her husband had worked at a very well paying job, and they had been in the house for 27 years. Yet they still owned over $130,000, and now unfortunately her husband had lost his job permanently, and was having serious health problems that was going to keep him out of the job market. And she wanted the government to bail her out…..and it was time for the rich need to start giving back.
Sound familiar? So I asked her what it was that she gave to the rich that required them to give back anything to her and how much? Of course she touted the argument about the roads, bridges and ….well you get the idea. An argument that is functionally ridiculous; after all, where did they think the money to build all that stuff came from in the first place anyway? The government has no money except that which they extort (a necessary extortion to maintain a stable society, but it is nonetheless done by force of law, making it extortion) from the people, but that is what is heard on the news from the left stream media, politicians and bureaucrats, so why wouldn’t someone in this situation jump on this bandwagon?
Then I told her that “The Rich” give back constantly. She of course laughed, snorted and looked at me as if she was talking to an idiot child. I then asked her how much tax was taken out of her paycheck. I then went on to outline the percentages of who pays taxes, how much they pay, and how many are paying nothing in federal income taxes at all. Then I told her that in point of fact it is the rich that pay all the taxes….100% of all taxes. Then I asked her where that tax money came from. None of that was her money until she received the check. It was the owner’s money. All the Federal, State, Local, Medicare/Medicaid and Social Security taxes paid started out as the owner’s money. She had no money unless it was given to her from the owner of the company. Of course she worked for it, but if the owner said she was fired…..then she had no money, because it is only her money when the owner gives it to her for labors performed…but it originated from someone else’s pocket. That nebulous reviled evil group called…”The Rich”!
Then came the old class warfare red herring about how well they live compared to the rest of us. Well….so what? I personally could care less how big someone lives their life as long as they can pay for it. I don’t care how they got that rich as long as they didn’t steal it. I don’t care if it is worked for or it was inherited. It isn’t my business nor is it my concern what they do with their money. In America anyone can become wealthy if they devote their lives to it and their children can reap the rewards….and should reap the rewards. It is obscene for the government to come in and steal a major part of a family’s fortune (a fortune that huge amounts of taxes had already been paid on) when the parents die due to death taxes. Those who believe this is right are morally defective.
I went on to tell her of a man who built a five million dollar home, twenty years ago, when a five million dollar home was a lot more money than it was just before the housing collapse. She said that was the kind of thing she was talking about. I said this is the kind of give back I am talking about. She was clearly puzzled so I went on to ask her a series of question. I asked her how much cement did the man pour in laying the foundation? The answer was none. How many cement blocks did he lay in building the basement? None! How many nails did he drive building the frame? None! How many sheets of dry wall did he hang? None! How much paint did he put on the walls? None! He hired someone to do it all! Then he filled the house with carpeting and furniture. Stuff that someone had to produce, sell, transport and deliver! Then after all of that was done he hired a housekeeper, a grounds keeper and an exterminator. He keeps giving back because he created jobs. All the giving back the “evil” and reviled “Rich” do is based on long term solutions that work. They create jobs!
I told her the only thing I resent about this man is that he didn’t build ten five million dollar houses, because every penny went directly back to the community, where they spent it on houses, carpeting, dining out, going to the movies or whatever else they darned well pleased, and without any strings attached as to what they could do with it, All this was done without going through a government that wastes untold millions on themselves and frivolous spending that had done nothing to end the poverty targeted by Johnson’s Great Society programs. If that five million had gone to the government first just how much does anyone think would have made it back to the community….and without strings?
As for my friend; how did she get into this mess? She loved credit cards; hating making payments and the high interests so kept taking out loans on her home to pay her credit cards off. And she did it for years. For the record. I resent the government bailing out Wall Street, and General Motors. Wall Street became seriously corrupted due to the Community Reinvestment Act; but they were still chose a course of corruption nonetheless, and should have been allowed to fail and many of them should have gone to jail….including the Fanny Mae and Freddie Mac bosses along with Sen. Chris Dodd and Rep. Barney Frank. General Motors failed because it was the accumulation of years of bad decisions and they didn’t have the guts to stand up to the unions. Their failure was of their own making and should have been allowed to go through the legal bankruptcy system instead of the governments illegal solution.
Also….for the record. I’m not one of the “Evil Rich”. I wouldn’t mind being one of them, but having a great deal of money and owning a lot of things never interested me. Perhaps that's a serious character flaw, but I never needed all of that to feel just as good as anyone else. I never felt wealth made the man! As long as they live honorable lives I don’t look down on people who have little, and I don’t look up to people because of their prominence in life or their income……as my friends will attest.
I grew up in Southwest Pennsylvania, which during my youth was considered part of poverty stricken Appalachia. I always thought they were talking about all the people around us. Everyone had so little I didn't know we were poor. I used to say there was something to be said for having grown up in poverty and not knowing it. I have revised that. I now realize that I grew up in a rural mountain area where many had gardens, farms, hunted, fished, and canned their own foods, which created a general attitude of being self sufficient. That is what creates an attitude of worth in people. Self sufficiency! Knowing you can make it on your own. That is what the “Rich” give back when they create jobs.
Also….for the record. I’m not one of the “Evil Rich”. I wouldn’t mind being one of them, but having a great deal of money and owning a lot of things never interested me. Perhaps that's a serious character flaw, but I never needed all of that to feel just as good as anyone else. I never felt wealth made the man! As long as they live honorable lives I don’t look down on people who have little, and I don’t look up to people because of their prominence in life or their income……as my friends will attest.
I grew up in Southwest Pennsylvania, which during my youth was considered part of poverty stricken Appalachia. I always thought they were talking about all the people around us. Everyone had so little I didn't know we were poor. I used to say there was something to be said for having grown up in poverty and not knowing it. I have revised that. I now realize that I grew up in a rural mountain area where many had gardens, farms, hunted, fished, and canned their own foods, which created a general attitude of being self sufficient. That is what creates an attitude of worth in people. Self sufficiency! Knowing you can make it on your own. That is what the “Rich” give back when they create jobs.
If a society can't define things properly it can't fix its problems. Perhaps we just need to reevaluate and find out who the "Evil" really are. Because it isn't the "Rich"!
