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The WMail Newsletter Essays
Volume VII - Issue #65 - November 2006
There is indeed much today for which thank you is not the appropriate response, for which Congressional investigation, criminal prosecution, and long and hard effort by government and the People will be required to address and correct.
For example:
THE ECONOMY
The National Debt is approaching ten TRILLION dollars. The U.S.A. is effectively bankrupt.
Your share as a taxpayer is today $120,000; the share for each man, woman and child living in America
is roughly $35,000.
The economy is doing so well that Dubya is borrowing $32 billion from China next week.
(per Rachel Maddow, Nov 2006)
At this rate, the National Debt will grow by two trillion a year, which will set an interesting record: George W. Bush
will probably leave office having racked up a debt of $14 TRILLION, a near-tripling of the National Debt.
Your share as a taxpayer in 2009 will be around $170,000; the share of each and every man, woman and child
living in America will be about $50,000. Yup, each child born here will have a debt of $50,000 from the day
that they first take a breath.
"CEOs saw a pay increase of almost 300 percent between 1990 and 2005."
"The top 5 percent of the wealthiest American families now receive 20 percent of total U.S. income, up from 15 percent
in 1974. In 2001, 7 percent of national income went to corporate profits; in 2006, [it is] 13 percent. In the past five years,
domestic corporate profits have soared by an extraordinary 72 percent."
"At the current minimum wage, a wage earner with two children would have to work 150 hours a week
to raise the household income above the poverty line.
— Perry L. Weed, in The American Spectator
The median price of a new home plunged in September [2006] by the largest amount in more than 35 years.
Is your mortgage paid off? If the real estate bubble cools or bursts, what will you do?
What if the economy tanks? which you can indeed expect (since the U.S.A. is bankrupt).
AP News story 26 October 2006: The Commerce Department reported that the median price for a new home sold
in September was $217,100, a drop of 9.7 percent from September 2005. It was the lowest median price for a new
home since September 2004 and the sharpest year-over-year decline since December 1970. The weakness in new
home prices was even sharper than a 2.5 percent fall in the price of existing homes last month, which had been
the biggest drop on record.
TAXATION WITHOUT REPRESENTATION
In October 2006, individuals paid $86 billion in taxes, versus $9 billion paid by corporations. (per radio host Thom Hartmann)
"Since 1946, the effective federal tax paid by the richest
Americans has fallen by 60 percent."
— Perry L. Weed, in The American Spectator
The Oligarchy has no intention of paying off any share/portion of the National Debt.
"In 1962, the wealth among the richest 1% of the population was 125 times that of the median household.
Today, that ratio has risen to 190." (Economic Policy Institute, 2006)
"The median wage of all [U.S.] men, discounted for inflation ... is lower today than it was in 1973. But the median
male worker with only a high school diploma earns 14 percent less today ... than the median worker did in 1973."
— Jeff Madrick, in The Nation
"The culprit for growth stagnation in the 1980s was the massive transfer of the tax burden from the rich to the poor."
— Al Besler (Technology Digest, 1998)
GLOBAL WARMING
Scientists are reporting major die-offs of polar bears in the Arctic and penguins in the Antarctic. The basic problem
is that as the ice shelves disappear, polar bears can no longer reach the seal-grounds (causing death by hypothermia
and starvation), while the penguins cannot reach the krill.
Portugal is experiencing a huge die-off of cork trees. (news item ofn October 2006)
240 species of birds in the U.K. have moved 40 to 60 miles north of their previously recorded habitat.
(news item of October 2006)
"About 90% of the ocean's big predators like cod and tuna have been fished out of existence."
(Time Magazine, November 2006)
IMMIGRATION
The key word is illegal immigrant.
The Bush Administration has refused to enforce the existing laws against illegal employment of undocumented workers.
The solution, of course, is to enforce the laws, to give heavy fines to any employer who employs undocumented or
falsely-documented workers. A program across the board will do it: Turn over drivers without insurance or licenses
over to the I.N.S., and turn undocumented criminals/suspects over to the I.N.S not now being done because the
I.N.S. releases them, per Bush doctrine. The I.N.S. can then interrogate to gather leads to the employers, who can
then be busted.
If there are no jobs waiting, the illegals will stay home.
ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION
The Bush Administration is shutting down the Environmental Protection Agency libraries, in order to prevent access
to scientific studies & materials by the public and by other agencies. While the matter is described as 'cost cutting',
the Chicago office, for example, sold off $40,000 of office furniture and equipment for $327! (per The Al Franken Show}
It snowed yesterday where I live, all day. The air is crisp as can be and the stars last night made the snow sparkle.
Next year, there will be Congressional oversight for the first time in six years.
Young people (18-25) showed up in record numbers to vote in November.
The internet is still a free territory. So far.
Sales are up at my five online bookstores.
Excellent coaching at the gym has improved my posture a lot.
I am thankful for the V.A. Health System, underfunded though it be.
Next week is the Santa Fe Film Festival.
The Third Annual Landmark Graduate Event was fabulous, and I look at my refrigerator magnet almost every day. (The delivered distinction was what I call The Fourth Dimension of Integrity.)
So take a look. Step outside the Mom and Apple Pie conventions of the recent holiday, and look to see what there is in your life that is To Be Thankful For, which genuine examination will also produce What Not To Be Thankful For.
Rust never sleeps, nor does Evil. Applaud the good things in your life and then get to work correcting whatever is not. This is the only way that humans can make a difference, by replacing what does not work with what does work.
The existential Universe has provided great games to play, scary windmills to tilt at, and endless hurdles to overcome.
Be thankful that you are in The Game. And then go out and play to win.
For the full contents of this issue of the free 'WMail' ezine, click here.