Forum Post: Yes and no part 1
Posted 13 years ago on Nov. 6, 2011, 11:22 a.m. EST by NotYour99
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"We are the 99%," you cry. But in reality you are not. You are a minority of that 99%.
You ask for some kind of financial equality, something you call a fairness. Many cry for an end to capitalism. Others for simply an end of corruption within capitalism.
The 1% already pays 37% of the taxes. 47% of the 99 pay no taxes. Where is the fairness there?
OWS was started by subversives, not even citizens of our country. While a few of you state you are just out to end the corruption and the other broken aspects of our country, you are a minority in the OWS movement. Too many of you are socialists, anarchists, or worse. This country was not created in any of those images. It will not become such. In this goal there is nothing for you but failure. However, there are also many tenets and elements of our government that also are not working as they were originally designed and these things do need to be fixed. The focal point is not and should not be Wall Street and/or wealth. It should be our government.
At this point, as shown by Oakland and other violent activities, the various OWS groups have ceased to be something to be listened to. Instead they are now simply hostile Occupation Forces in MY country. They have brought violence and unrest against honest, working members of the 99, and against those that do their best to protect us from harm. When they are met with resistance they cry "oppression" and claim that their rights have been violated when they are forced to stop illegal activities. This is deplorable.
By your definition, I am one of the 99. But I work my hardest every day to move towards that 1%, knowing that I'll likely never make it, but happy with every little bit closer I get. Happy because I've worked hard and earned what I have. Some of you will speak up and say that I am not the target of your ire. But plenty of you would see me be denied any benefit the government might offer me just because I make more money. Again, that is where OWS is broken. Too many of the "have nots" who have nothing better to do than protest are becoming your voice and it's the wrong message. It's a message of injustice, redistribution of wealth, and wanting a socialist nation. They blame the wealthy, Wall Street, the banks, the government, anything but themselves.
So what do we do? Instead of trying to radically change our country, instead of issuing ridiculous demands like every government official should quit, we should be working to get this country back to it's original path. That path includes capitalism. Period. If that's not for you, then you are in the wrong place. There are socialist nations for you elsewhere.
Part 2 So where do we start?
We can all agree that our current president is ineffectual, and has been for his entire term of office. He should not be allowed another term. I see plenty of ranters saying it's Bush's fault, or goes back to "X" president. But you know what? That really doesn't matter. What matters now is NOW we don't have a balanced budget. NOW we have a government that is way to large. Obama has blamed his shortcomings on Congress and has tried his best to vilify them to the American public. He has stated they are opposing not only him, but the will and betterment of the people, when in this case they are actually protecting us. In this ONE point I stand by our Congress.
However, Congress is probably the largest issue facing our country. The political machine that is our legislative branch is NOT what our founding fathers intended. Lack of term limits and career politicians are a huge problem. Serving the government by fulfilling a role in the Legislature was supposed to be just that. A service. Not a career. Career politicians leads to lobbying and the perpetuation of corporate funding and involvement in law making. This current Legislature is crippled in its effectiveness because so much effort is required to maintain their careers. Removing this focus by installing term limits on our legislators will drastically sharpen their focus.
On a similar note, Bills should become Laws without bastardization by deals and addendums made to garner votes. A Bill should be important enough to stand alone, and should be voted on and passed or failed based only on it's relevant content.
Taxes. Taxes should be fair to all. So much focus and media squalling recently has been about past tax cuts to the wealthy, increasing the tax rate on the rich, etc. Truth is, the percent of tax you pay increases the more you make. So not only do the wealthy pay more because they make more, but they also pay a larger percentage as well. Yes, someone that makes more should pay more taxes, but to be fair, they shouldn't have to pay a higher percentage of their earnings. We need either a flat tax with no deductions or a consumption tax with the abolition of the current federal income tax code.
Our budget doesn't have to just be balanced right now, it has to be fixed where we have a net gain to put towards the debts we already owe. Government spending has grown out of control. Billions, trillions spent on programs and personnel that are not necessary to run our government. We need fewer handouts, not more. This will lessen our budget, lessen our tax burden, stimulate our economy, and bring us back to our America.
As for corporate bail-outs, in a fixed America they wouldn't happen. Yes they were government distribution of our tax dollars to private businesses, and that money should be returned. But its hard to deny that if it wasn't done it would have had a huge negative impact on our economy. It's something we can learn from and move forward, but what's done is done.
So, straighten up your act. Too much of what is OWS is broken or just wrong. Your focus is off. It should be correcting our government. The rest will follow. But make no mistake. If your Occupation Forces continue to be aggressive towards MY America, I will stand against you. To the last.
Fairness of taxation is important but I think you're most right about term limits on congress and getting legislators hands out of corporate pockets.
Something else I saw here where someone said that candidates should be government funded and no private funds allowed I think would head off a lot of corporate influence before it even gets started.
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