Questions and Thoughts I Never Expressed in Parochial School

The Bible consists of 4 Gospels written by 4 Apostles per our Christian teachings. However, none of the Apostles wrote the gospels. They were illiterate. Gospels were written decades after the Apostles died. Before that, the teachings of the Apostles were communicated verbally from generation to generation by each family. The odds of each family communicating the same teachings “verbatim” over generations are astronomically low. When the gospels finally were written down, in order to gain greater readership among competing written gospels, the anonymous writers chose Apostles as the authors, instead of themselves.

There were actually 50 gospels, not 4. So how did these 4 get chosen. About 300 years after the death of Jesus, the pagan Roman Emperor Constantine, just before a battle that he won, saw a comet explode in the shape of the Cross. He did not understand that it was a comet and took it as a sign from God to convert to Christianity which he did. Since there were so many different essentially unorganized sects of Christianity, Constantine wanted to have one organized religion and use it to support and unite his empire. So he convened a meeting with different religious leaders to determine which gospels best supported his goals of empire. That's how those 4 gospels were chosen and the rest ruled as heresy, punishable by death to believers. He made Christianity the official religion of his empire to more firmly control his empire. Other religions such as the Muslim religion initially used religion for military conquer and control purposes of a single leader/dictator. Even though the Muslim religion officially believes in the Ten Commandments, the Sixth Commandment – Thous shall not kill – was ignored and violated repeatedly.

God always existed. That makes a lot of sense to me because if God evolved, then that really does not fit the description of what we believe God to be. The problem for me comes when I think seriously about the timeframe of infinity. For example, a million years is a very long time. A billion years is 1,000 time longer. A trillion years equals a billion years one thousand times. Hard to fathom such a long period of time. Even harder to fathom 100 trillion years. Now think about 100 trillion years repeated 100 trillion times. Go back that unimaginably back in time, and by definition God would still exist. So why did he wait so long to create us? Wasn't he bored?

Looking into the future in the timeframe of 100 trillion years repeated 100 trillion times, how can a loving and merciful God punish anyone in unimaginable pain in hell for such a long period of time? That amount of terrible punishment for so long a period of time would make Hitler look like a mere choir boy. It does not fit with God's image of infinite love and forgiveness. How could a single person deserve such an overabundance of punishment? More likely, the image of an infinite horrifying hell for “sinners” was conjured up as a way to enforce the authority and discipline of the Church through fear, than to convey reality.

Even looking at the concept of an eternally happy heaven in the timeframe of 100 trillion years repeated 100 trillion times, how can we find enough interesting things to do to keep us from being overwhelmingly bored. Most of us during our very short human lifetimes have periods of boredom, more so when we retire. We have very intelligent minds which our souls keep – our minds need to be occupied and stimulated. Finding new things to do and think about is an important part of that. Seemingly we would run out of new things to do and think about within the timeframes of infinity. It might just be better to be non-existent after death.

God is all knowing. So then he must remember his very first thought as God. Remembering that thought would also date that thought. Since God always existed, that would seem to mean, whatever the date of his first thought, he went hundreds of trillions of years without any thoughts. Makes no sense to exist for what would be an infinitely long time without any thoughts.

Why did God make it so hard to find the one true religion? The purported religious events found in the Bible, Koran, and other religious documents each happened at a local place on Earth (which is 24,000 miles in diameter) during times when it was impossible to communicate worldwide and when entire Continents with people were unknown to each other. Consequently, we have many different religions – Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, Buddhism, etc. and each of them have multiple divisions within themselves where people have different beliefs. Essentially, your parents' religion becomes your religion, and few people ever deviate from the religion of their birth to join another religion. Each religion has its very ardent believers who think that all other religions are heresy with some believing that those of other religions should be executed, or forcibly converted, or are doomed to hell. Given the lack of worldwide communication when these religions were created, why didn't God do something more “fantastic” on a worldwide basis to let all of us know at the same time who God is and the true path to heaven instead of fragmenting the way we have into numerous religions and beliefs?

How did God get so lucky? It must be nice to be all powerful, all knowing, all good, and perfect in every way. No risk of going to hell which is a risk that the rest of us supposedly have.

Why are there so few saints in the Catholic Church compared to the Earth's population? Shouldn't the overwhelming majority of us be going to heaven? If not, then why were we created? So that the majority or very substantial percentage of us would burn in hell forever?!! Would be better to never have been born then to involuntarily assume the risk of eternal hell.

Why did the Catholic Church ignore the Sixth Commandment – Thou Shall Not Kill – for hundreds of years, cruelly murdering millions of people? Why are some of the Popes who led this effort canonized as saints? Shouldn't they be in hell?

Every person in hell has a mother and father. If that mother and/or father are in heaven, fully knowing the unimaginably horrific ramifications of hell on their child, then how can either parent be happy in heaven?

God is supposed to know what each and everyone of us thinks or does 24/7 for our entire lives so that he could judge us at death. That's 7 billion living people thinking in hundreds of different languages and God knows what each of us is saying or doing every second of every day. Hard to imagine how. Add to that the people and angels already in heaven and hell, and it's at least 100 billion souls. And what if other intelligent life was created by God in our massive universe of hundreds of trillions of stars (why so many stars if life only exists here)? How does God have any time to have some fun and enjoy himself?

Bottom line – blindly, unquestionably following your religious beliefs in much the same way that a small child unquestionably believes in Santa Claus is likely to be more “comforting” to you personally than actually thinking in depth about the afterlife ramifications of one's beliefs to ourselves and others. Those who do try to get their human minds to wrap around the concepts of the infinity and fairness of heaven and hell, and what we actually would do for so long a period of time in the infinite afterlife find that our minds are too small to understand how it will truly work for us. I still believe in the afterlife though I do not fully understand it, nor how I can live forever without ultimately being bored, but I do believe that the infinitely horrible hell preached by religions cannot exist as described, but rather was and still is a tool of “control” used by religions and emperors to exert their absolute power over us. I'm not saying that there is no punishment for our sins, but infinite horrific punishment would seem to be incompatible with a loving and forgiving God.

The Democratic Party has Morphed into America's Communist Party

Ocasio-Cortez, in addition to being a newly elected Democratic House Representative is also a member of the Democratic Socialists of America or DSA - a group that Democrats have openly embraced. The DSA advocates for the abolishment of profits and the nationalization of private industries to be run by government. That is the textbook definition of Communism - the most repressive and failed economic system ever, Venezuela, once the richest nation in South America and now the poorest with one million percent inflation and very serious food shortages is its most recent victim along with the former Soviet Union and all its Eastern captive nations from WW2, China before introducing capitalism, Cuba, North Korea, and Zimbabwe - all miserably poor basket case nations where people suffered mightily. Now you know - your Democratic party has morphed into America's new Communist party. Be very wary and scared!!!

Want more proof that the Democratic Party is morphing into the Communist Party?

Today's large, far left “Progrssive” Democrats want Medicare for All, which amounts to a government takeover of the medical industry - one sixth of the total economy, despite the fact that it would almost double Federal spending leading to annual deficits of 3 to 4 trillion dollars - totally unsustainable. In addition, they want to take over the energy industries of America by mandating the elimination of fossil fuels within 10 years - a move that would send energy prices soaring to levels most Americans could not afford. Progressive Democrats are also advocating for a guaranteed minimum income for everyone. The only way to get that is to steal the profits of companies plus raise Federal income taxes to 70% on the wealthy which is being advocated by Progressive Democrats, and transfer them to the rest of the people. Democrats may not call this Communism because they understand the harsh political backlash that would occur if they admitted the truth, and believe correctly, that most Americans are too uneducated on the subject of Economics to understand the ramifications of the extreme policies that progressive Democrats are advocating. But make no mistake, they are marching toward a Communist America despite the fact that Communism is historically the most repressive and failed economic system ever devised. 

See links - https://www.dsausa.org/ and https://capitalresearch.org/article/democratic-socialists-of-america-the-new-democratic-kingmakers/?fbclid=IwAR2K0QHpuCtBuizbLOgu_9c_dLn0tWEa_4X2YoIrRJXSqWix5VCVLPGID4Y

Dixiecrats and the Democratic Lie that the Political Parties Switched Platforms

Democrats argue that the Southern Dixiecrat racists fled from the Democratic Party to the Republican Party after the Civil Rights Act in 1964. That would of course be an odd thing to do, given that Republicans, who had a 100-year history of support for civil rights, voted for Civil Rights with much larger majorities than Democrats, who have a 150-year history of support for slavery, segregation, and the Ku Klux Klan.

Of the 21 Democratic Senators who opposed the 1964 act plus the 5 Dixiecrat segregationist Governors, only one (Senator Strom Thurmon) would ever switch parties. The rest remained lifelong Democrats. Nor did the segregationist constituencies that elected these Democrats throw them out in favor of Republicans: The remaining 20 Senators and 5 governors continued to be elected as Democrats or were replaced by Democrats. It was, on average, nearly a quarter of a century before those seats went Republican. Another segregationist Democrat – Miles Godwin, who became the governor of Virginia in 1965, also later switched parties.

See links:

http://egnorance.blogspot.com/2012/10/where-did-all-of-dixiecrats-go.html

https://pjmedia.com/michaelwalsh/2013/3/29/history-lesson/

http://www.nationalreview.com/article/386257/myth-republican-racism-mona-charen

https://www.waynedupree.com/the-democrats-big-lie-dixiecrats-switched-to-republican-party-with-racist-agenda/

Affirmative Action and Diversity are Code Words for Discrimination

"Affirmative Action" and "Diversity" are code words for Discrimination. If you are the most qualified candidate for college admission, or a job, or a promotion, but you have the wrong color skin and/or gender, a less qualified person may be taken over you. That is NOT what Martin Luther King marched for. He marched for NO Discrimination, to be judged on your merits and nothing else. It is way past due to end Affirmative Action and Diversity goals and replace them with very strict Non-Discrimination policies. The best, most qualified candidates get admitted to college, or to a job, or gets the job promotion. Everyone must earn their goals in a competitive environment, strictly on the merits. Anything else is discrimination, punishing people for the wrong colored skin and/or gender - totally at odds with fairness, civil rights, and the American spirit.

We all Won Life's Lottery

While we all all hope to be the big winner in a big lottery and win lots of money, against incredible odds, each of us have won the lottery of life. The day we were conceived in our mother's womb, we beat out an average of 30 million other potential lives that day and in some cases 100 million lives. If any other of the 30 to 100 million sperms rather than the one sperm that created any of us had instead united with our mother's egg, a totally different person with a different set of hereditary genes, perhaps even a different gender, and a different consciousness would have been born instead of us. If our parents had tried multiple times to conceive before conceiving, we could have been one in a billion competing lives. The same goes for our parents and all the thousands of grandparents and great grandparents who were our ancestors. Any one of their sperms had been different, we wouldn't be here. That's one in trillions!! So totally rejoice in our good fortune for having won the most important lottery of all – the lottery of life!!

Eliminate All Federal Subsidies

As of 2018, there are over 2,200 Federal subsidies and we've been adding about 100 new ones each year recently. They cost hundreds of billions of dollars every year – the lowest estimate I've seen is 400 billion dollars a year; the highest estimate is one trillion dollars a year. Elimination of all Federal subsidies would balance the budget and perhaps provide surpluses to pay down our massive national debt. We need to do that now and make it permanent.

Subsidies are hidden in every government departmental budget so that there is no viable way to view all of them together with their annual costs. You can access a general list of them (again without costs) at this URL - https://www.investopedia.com/terms/c/catalog-of-federal-domestic-assistance-cfda.asp . Essentially, all of these subsidies amount to political bribes to help politicians get elected. All of them need to be eliminated. The largest subsidies, but not all subsidies, go to three major areas - state and local governments to help with the hiring of police and teachers plus other “needs”, farmers, and hundreds of charities. Let's examine each:

State and local governments, by law, must balance their budgets. We should never have given up this needed practice, of forcing state and local politicians to actually make the tough spending and revenue decisions to accomplish a balanced budget that they were elected to do, by allowing them to “out source” some of their spending decisions to the Federal government which is allowed to work without a balanced budget. Most of these subsidies are spent on our largest cities who have managed to avoid the tough decisions on budget balancing. No more. Over a 5 year period, in order to give them sufficient time to adjust their finances, reduce these subsidies by 20% a year, so that they are zero at the end of 5 years.

The average wealth of farmers is two million dollars each. The Federal government should not be subsidizing multi-millionaires. However, the Agricultural subsidy program is so large, that it cannot be withdrawn in one year without creating burdensome chaos. Therefore, cut these subsidies 20% a year to reach zero in 5 years, allowing farmers ample time to adjust to market realities.

Fortunately, most of the hundreds of charities subsidized by the Federal government only cover 10% or less of their annual budgets by these subsidies. Charities should be and are supported by people and businesses, and never should be supported by government. When government supports charities, it is telling all of us individual tax payers that no matter how much you gave to charity, even if it was 10% or more, it was not enough. Therefore, the Federal government is taxing us higher than it otherwise would so that it can force us to give even more to charity. That is just unfair and wrong for government to do to taxpayers. Eliminate all Federal subsidies to charities and do it immediately.

Finally, eliminate every other Federal subsidy immediately.

For each of the 2,200+ Federal subsidies, now growing at 100 new ones per year and costing hundreds of billions of dollars each year, there are legions of defendants and lobbyists for these "free" goodies from government. Meanwhile, our 20 trillion dollar Federal debt ($60,000 for each man, woman, and child in America) keeps growing. We can't afford these politically motivated subsidies and need to eliminate all of them. Yet, the liars who defend these subsidies try to distract us from the real problem by promoting the false concept that cutting government spending means deep cuts to Social Security, Medicare, Defense, etc. No, we don't have to cut any of them. We have to just cut the Federal subsidies which are deliberately put in every government departmental budget to hide them from American citizens and make it difficult to find and analyze them in total. Simply add a single departmental budget for all these subsidies, show what they all combined cost now and cost in the past, and then re-state all the other Federal departmental budgets, including their cost history, without these subsidies in them so that we know the true costs of these programs without irrelevant subsidies.

Marriage – Keeping the Romance Alive

Marriage always starts in romance. There's the romantic steps of courtship, the wedding, and the honeymoon. Of necessity, marriage also immediately evolves into a business – income earned, expenses, and yes, profit or loss (savings or debt or break-even). It is important for that marital “business” to be conducted as an equal partnership on major business decisions (housing, cars, furniture, vacations, etc.) and not into a boss-employee type of relationship if the romance is to stay alive. There is no “my money” and “your money”. There is only “our money”.

Most marriages involve the creation of children which is about a 20 year obligation, often more, on each child created. Though not a business, raising children requires a great amount of time, expense, and effort that, depending on how performed, can either enhance romance (which it should) or take away from it (which it shouldn't). Yes, children reduce the amount of private, personal time together for parents, but the love for your children is or should be a love that reinforces your own love for each other as you each, separately and also together, as the need or opportunity rises or is deliberately planned and created, make efforts to attend to your children's needs and aspirations.

Given the business needs and the children needs of marriages, which of necessity consume huge amounts of time, it is easy for romance to take a back seat and/or for “irritations” between husbands and wives to occur. The challenge is to keep the romance alive and thriving. There are many ways to achieve this goal. Here are just a few:

• Always kiss and/or hug each other when you wake up, go to bed, or leave your home for any reason (work, shopping, etc.). Say the words “I love you” and mean it frequently.

• Kiss each other for no reason during your waking hours. For example, sometimes when passing by your spouse in your home for any reason, such as something as simple as getting up to go to the kitchen for a bite to eat while watching TV, divert for a few seconds and kiss your spouse and say I love you and mean it.

• Don't have the time nor inclination for sex every time you go to bed or wake up in the morning (normal), then just hug or hold each other for a few minutes at least a couple of times each week as time permits.

• Get ticked off at your spouse for whatever reason (going to happen occasionally), remember all the reasons you love him or her, and keep your voice low. May not always work because emotions come out sometimes before the brain kicks in gear, so if on the receiving end of a spousal outburt against you, resist the natural inclination to yell back. Speak softly instead. There is no “winning” of spousal disagreements by dominating or bullying your spouse through yelling. Such actions are a marital loss for both people

• Small things count too. For example, when walking from the car together to go to a store, restaurant, or movie, take that opportunity to hold each other's hands. Such simple gestures reinforce the romance, as touch is a very powerful sensory feeling.

• There will be times when you cannot agree on significantly important matters such as what house or car to buy, a child's disciplinary action, important spending and savings decisions, etc.. That is “normal”. There is usually no right or wrong involved in these disagreements. Treat each other's differences with respect and make an effort to understand why your spouse feels the way he/she does. That is much more important than the actual decision ultimately made. Sometimes these disagreements may need to be “tabled” and discussed at a later date when both of you are less emotional.

• When your spouse is sick or tired or just not feeling right, help out however you can even if it means going beyond what normally has been each other's “chores”. Tell each other you love them. The person being helped should say thank you to their spouse either then or when feeling better.

• Stay sober, faithful, and (illegal) drug free at all times.

Federal Tax Cut Historical Impacts on Annual Tax Revenues 5 Years Later

Federal Tax Cut Historical Impacts on Annual Tax Revenues 5 Years Later

1964 (Lyndon Johnson):

Annual Federal Tax revenues grew from $106 million dollars to $153 million dollars within 5 years – an increase of 43%.

1981 (Ronald Reagan):

Annual Federal Tax revenues grew from $517 million dollars to $734 million dollars within 5 years – an increase of 42%.

1986 (Ronald Reagan):

Annual Federal Tax revenues grew from $734 million dollars to $1.032 billion dollars within 5 years – an increase of 41%.

2001 (George Bush):

Annual Federal Tax revenues grew from $2.035 billion dollars to $2.406 billion dollars within 5 years – an increase of 19%.

For historical tax receipts by year, click on Table 1.1 in the following link - https://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/historical-tables/

The Top 10 Laws and Policies Needed in America

The Top 10 Laws and Policies Needed in America

1. Eliminate all 2,300 Federal Subsidies.

Growing at 100 new ones per year and costing hundreds of billions of dollars annually, subsides try to over ride market forces and are therefore a “slice of Communism” - the most failed economic system ever. Here is where you can find lists of the subsidies - https://www.cfda.gov/ Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance. However, they don't show the budgets and spending here. Instead the government deliberately hides the subsidies in many departmental budgets so that we the people cannot see their true annual costs. So when the government asks you what you want to cut to reduce spening – Military, Medicare, Social security, etc.? - tell them to just cut all the subsicies and restate all the departmental budgets for the last 20 years with the subsides out of them and instead in one Federal Subsidy Budget, namely the Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance.

2. Kill and Replace Unaffordable Obamacare

Focus first on cost reduction measures. Government medical fraud is estimated to range between 10-25%. Private insurance is estimated to be less than 1%. So let private insurance companies instead of government workers manage government medical programs. Do real tort reform to cut down lawsuits that all of us pay for in our insurance and medical costs. Half of all Medicare costs occur for patients in their last year of life. Much of it are for procedures on terminally ill patients that don't really help the patient but are great for doctor and hospital revenues. Have cancer and only six months to live – well you also have blocked arteries, so let's do an expensive and painful quadruple bypass so that we can make sure that you suffer expensively and needlessly for the entire six months. The terminally ill patient may not even be capable of making such medical decisions. So in order to cover those situations without intrusive and unwanted government interference, everyone who signs up for Medicare (or is already on it) must also complete a thoroughly designed living medical will (which they can change at any time), available online to all medical providers, who are required to follow it and that no one, including family members, can over rule. Require all medical providers to charge the same price for their medical services to all patients. No more one price for the insured, and a price ten times higher for the uninsured. Get rid of all State insurance mandates so that national insurance policies can be competitively sold including "disaster" policy options for those that want medical insurance only for the large medical expenses.

3. Fix Social Security

Most of us only think of Social Security as a pension fund. However, it is three separate insurance programs – pension, disability, and widows with minor children. We currently fund them all with one Social Security tax. That tax is capped at a set dollar amount of $128,400 in 2018. Income above that limit does not get SS taxed. I agree with the reason not to tax all income in terms of the pension only. All of us in the pension plan should get back, when we retire, what we put into the program plus reasonable investment growth. So yes, we need to cap the income level for SS pension directed taxes to equate with the maximum limits set for Social Security benefits.

However, on the other two SS insurance funds (disability and widows with minor children), those are purely “welfare” programs. On welfare programs, a progressive tax on all income earned is typical and fair. So let's have two SS taxes – a capped tax for just the pension meant to equalize investment and return, and a SS welfare tax with no income cap on the rest. The tax percentage on the welfare part would likely need to be about 2%, with about 4% taxes to the cap for the SS pension. The exact numbers can be worked out by actuaries.

When your spouse dies, you receive the higher of the two SS checks and lose the other check. Depending on your spouses beneifts, that is a 33 to 50% loss of income. Your expenses (housing, property tax, insurance, car payment, energy bills, etc) don't go down 33 to 50% when a spouse dies. So offer upfront, at the beginning of collecting SS benefits, same as is done with private pensions, to collect slightly less SS benefits while both are alive and not lose the entire second SS check when one spouse dies.

One last recommended reform regards SS disability benefits. When unemployment benefits ran out after being extended to two years during the 2008 Recession, some unemployed applied for and received SS disability payments due to “stress”. Supposedly, they were too “distressed” to work. Close that ridiculous and expensive loophole by eliminating “stress” as a covered SS disability. That will help reduce total SS costs fairly so that we can keep SS taxes from rising to unacceptable levels.

4. Kill the Social Security "Torpedo Tax" on Earned Benefits:

This hits the middle class retirees hard. Once income is past $32,000 for singles and $44,000 for married couples, you may be subject to SS taxes that can be as high as 50%!! That is a much higher percentage than the wealthiest Americans pay on their income taxes. Eliminate the Torpedo tax. Better yet, eliminate all taxes on SS benefits which were originally promised never to be taxed.

5. Make all Decisions based on Race or Ethniticity illegal:

Only merit should be considered for college admissions, job offerings, and job promotions. Those with the most merit are admitted, hired, or promoted. No more reverse discrimination to achieve "diversity" goals.

6. Stop All Illegal Immigration with Real Tough Policies and Enforcement Measures:

No jobs, no schools, no housing for illegals and require strict checking and enforcement at businesses and schools. Anyone, including mayors, governors, and police who do not enforce these laws or does not report immediately to immigration authorities, or actively seeks to protect illegals go to jail for a long time. No asylum given at our borders. Illegals who want asylum must apply to the US Embassy in their own country and get approval or denial there. Anyone caught illegally in our nation is photographed, fingerprinted, and DNA taken, then stripped of all money and possessions except clothes, and immediately deported without trial. They are never allowed to come back to the US and if they do will be sentenced to jail first, then deported.

7. Re-define Citizenship to fit the Realities of our Modern World:

Only children born to American citizens anywhere in the world and those born in the USA to legal residents are citizens. The rest are “foreign nationals” born on US soil, not citizens. Neither they nor their parents are allowed to stay here. No more "anchor babies".

8. Stop all School "Social Promotions:

Much of the failure of public schools is a parental problem of some parents not working with their children to make them focus on their school work. Their kids are not trying, the parents are doing nothing about it, and expect the teachers to somehow do the teaching and the parenting job. Send kids to “study” detention daily who are failing, and if needed to summer school to learn the material. No more "social" promotions to the next grade. Leave them back in the same grade if they fail. If it happens a second time, bring the family to Family court. Those kids may be in a poisonous parental situation (for example drug addiction or alcoholism) and may need to be separated from the parents who have failed them.

9. Eliminate All taxes on Overseas Profits Invested in the US:

We want overseas profits to be invested in the US. That brings jobs and wealth to America. Though we have reduced the tax on overseas profits invested here, we remain the only nation on Earth who taxes these investments in our american economy. It is the height of stupidity to punish global companies who invest their overseas profits here. Let's end this immediately!!!

10. On Civil Lawsuits, Loser Pays All, including the attorney fees of their opponent:

We are a sue happy nation and ultimately all of us pay for those costs. Most other nations have much less lawsuits than America because they employ the loser pays all rule. If the loser used a lawyer(s) and did not lie nor withold important information to that lawyer(s), then the lawyer(s) pay all the opponent's cost plus refunds their fees to the loser. This should greatly reduce the number of frivolous lawsuits, plus encourage legitimate lawsuits to be settled out of court.

The Top 10 Economic Lessons for America with Explanations

The Top 10 Economic Lessons for America with Explanations

1. No other financial vehicle has created more long term wealth for Americans than the stock market. Take any 75 years of stock market performance you want and the average annual growth will work out to 10-11%. Here is a chart of stock market performance starting in 1900 - http://stockcharts.com/freecharts/historical/djia1900.html Also, check any 30-40 year period you want to see how the stock market grows if you buy and hold - Stock Market Performance Calculator - http://www.moneychimp.com/features/market_cagr.htm

2. A single stock market investment of $2,000 for a newborn child, based on historical stock market performance, has a high probability of being worth over $1,000,000 by the time the child turns 63. Can't afford $2,000? - $1,000 could grow to over $500,000; $500 could grow to $250,000. Still substantial. If you are fortunate enough to have the funds, a single $5,000 investment at birth could grow to over 2.5 million dollars by age 63, while one $10,000 investment could grow to over $5,000,000. Why not do this for your newborn child or grandchild? Note - Even if the future growth rate of these investments is less than 10-11%, the results will likely be quite good too. For example, $2,000 at 8% growth still will be worth over $250,000.

3. A person who invests $2,000 a year in the stock market every year starting at age 23 until age 65 will make a lot more money than a person who waits until age 44 to start. How much more? Based on long term stock market performance, the 23 year old at age 65 could potentially collect $128,000 a year for the next 42 years while the 44 year old would likely collect only $16,000 a year for only 21 years. If you invested $5,000 a year, the 23 year old would collect $320,000 a year for 42 years, while the 44 year old would likely collect $40,000 a year for 21 years. Give yourself the power of compounding growth by using time (youth) to make your fortune without ever having to 'earn' big money in your job in order to get rich.

4. Invest in Roth IRAs (and Roth 401Ks if available), not Traditional IRAs (nor Traditional 401Ks if the Roth option is available). Traditional IRAs are a government designed sucker's bet. Since over decades, your IRAs are likely to be worth many times more that your initial investment each year, the taxes on your withdrawals will be much larger than paying the little bit of tax the year you put money into a Roth IRA. Additional advantages of a Roth IRA include not being forced to withdraw funds each year starting at age 70 plus your heirs won't have to pay taxes on withdrawals from their inherited Roth IRAs. For example per point 3 above, would you rather be taxed on $2,000 income today by investing $2,000 in a Roth IRA or $128,000 worth of income or more 42 years later by investing in a Traditional IRA?

5. Never buy individual stocks – buy mutual funds, ETFs, and Index funds instead. Hold them for decades – don't buy and sell them as the stock market inevitably churns. Individual stocks can go to zero, but the other vehicles spread the risks over many companies and they are not likely to all go out of business. Most people simply do not have the time to study stocks that they bought on a daily basis to determine when to buy and sell. They are already at a disadvantage to the mutual funds which make up 80% of the marketplace that constantly buy and sell these stocks and ultimately they, not you determine if a stock is going up or down. Also most people are too emotional to make smart decisions or correctly time the market on buys and sells. Most people tend to buy when the stock market is doing well and sell when it is doing poorly. That results in emotionally buying at high prices and selling at low prices – a recipe for losing money and/or reducing long term growth results. When stock markets tank, 3 out of 4 stocks go down with it. That's just a historical fact and it sets up the emotional panic that influences people to make bad choices on buys and sell. 4 excellent ETF stock indices to consider purchasing - SPY (S&P 500), SLY (S&P 600 small caps), MDY (S&P 400 midcaps) and QQQ (Nasdaq Top 100).

6. Mutual funds, and ETFs are categorized several ways - by industry or 'general' – multiple industries, by growth or value funds, by small, medium, and large caps or a mix of all of them, by region of the world, by emerging markets, etc.. Over time as you purchase them, you want to move toward a mix of all of those categories. Keep in mind that it is easier for small and medium sized companies and emerging markets to grow more quickly than large sized companies and mature markets. For example, when companies like Walmart and McDonalds had only 100 stores decades ago, there were more opportunities for them to double and re-double repeatedly across the nation and world then now that they have saturated the nation and/or the world with thousands of stores. Therefore, the case is the same for mutual funds specializing in small and mid-size companies – and since they have research departments plus are spreading the risk among many companies, their downside risk is smaller than with an individual company.

7. Never increase your mortgage payments to pay off your mortgage early. You are giving the bank an interest free loan at great risk to yourself. Instead, put the money into a savings account or CD. It has a couple of advantages. Even at low interest rates, it will grow in time to an amount large enough to pay off your entire mortgage sooner than if you paid it off through higher monthly payments. More importantly, if a financial crisis occurs (loss of job, medical crisis), you will be better prepared to hold onto your house to either weather the crisis or sell your home before bankruptcy occurs, preserving your hard earned equity in the house. By paying off your mortgage through extra monthly payments, you have less money in your personal savings accounts, possibly little or nothing left, to weather the crisis and may lose the house and all your savings that went into it. However, don't put all of your savings into this mortgage payoff endeavor. Leave a significant amount of savings to invest in higher risk but higher long term return (stock market) investments even if it means taking longer to pay off your mortgage.

8. Avoid investments in illiquid companies that pay monthly dividends for two to eight years, before self liquidating. Also avoid investments in commodities and especially avoid General and Limited Partnerships in oil and gas exploration despite the nice tax breaks. Rule 5 applies here. These are indivudual companies, not pooled assets, and they can and sometimes do go bankrupt. They are bought through certified Financial Planners (not stock brokers) who are associated with a larger company enforcing financial guidelines with their Financial Planners. Madison Avenue Securities and also VFG Securities are common companies that work with their associated Financial Planners. Normally, these investments maintain limited flexibility to either liquidate early or late so that they liquidate in hopefully the best market conditions. For oil and gas General Partnerships (normally for one year to get the tax break, and then changed to a Limited Partnership), though they carry lots of insurance, if sued, all your assets and wealth can be utilized to satisfy the final settlement – not a risk worth taking.

9. Raising taxes on Corporations is really a tax on you. Corporations get their money from their customers – ultimately you. They cannot print money like the government. So when you raise taxes on corporations, they must get the money to pay for the taxes somehow while still making the investment returns expected by their stockholders and board of directors. Their first choice in dealing with the additional taxes is to raise their prices – you pay for that. However, market resistance to the new higher prices has the natural impact of lowering demand for their products and services, thus reducing their revenues. Unacceptable result for any corporation. They have two choices – lower prices to get more demand or hold prices and find other ways to reduce costs so as to increase profits. Either way, they have to come up with other options to pay the extra tax. The options are not good ones – layoffs, salary cuts, reduce or eliminate raises, slow down or eliminate business expansion, or go out of business. All those options are essentially a hidden tax on you because you are ultimately paying the price for this tax in reduced income to you either directly or indirectly (as the people laid off, etc. spend less making your employer poorer which eventually affects your income). Note, if they cannot maintain their previous profits even after taking these actions, then their tax liability goes down and despite the higher tax rates, the government loses, not gains tax revenues because there is less profit to tax. More so, when employees are laid off or salaries cut or grown more slowly – since government taxes their income too but can't tax zero income or must accept smaller income available to tax.

10. Raising Minimum wages only hurts the people you are trying to help. Getting a job and job experience is the key to eventually entering the middle class for those without job experience and/or skills. They have double to quadruple the unemployment rate of skilled and/or higher educated workers. 75 years of 30 minimum wage history shows that whenever minimum wage rises, the unemployment rate for unskilled workers rises. History also shows that most of these workers are under 24 and most live in middle class households with multiple family earners. Also, people earning more than the minimum wage are also hurt by “compression” as their wages are now worth less than before in terms of purchasing power. That is because whatever the bottom minimum wage is, products and services have not been increased. So income dollars, though nominally higher for minimum wage workers can't buy any more goods and services than before because there aren't more to buy. A minimum wage worker now more highly paid due to government raising the minimum wage does not produce any extra goods and services. More money chasing the same amount of goods could become inflationary and those earning the least amount of money will always be able to buy the least amount of (the same amount of goods and services produced in America). The often quoted “liberal” argument that minimum wage workers will spend all or most of their raises thus lifting the economy leaves out the fact that businesses will have less profit to invest in expansion and/or give more raises or hire more people offsetting the money spent by minimum wage workers. It also forgets that the always sky high unemployment rate for low skilled workers gets worse every time the minimum wage is raised.

Vegans and Vegetarians Kill more Animals than Meat Eaters

It's kind of ironic and counter-intuitive that meat eaters like myself keep more animals alive than vegans. Think about it. What would happen if overnight, the entire world would turn vegan? First of all, the hundreds of millions of chickens, cows, pigs, and lambs raised for human food consumption would no longer be needed. The farmers who own them could no longer afford to feed them. Those animals would starve to death whether released (not practical) or not. The land the farmers own, including grazing land and therefore could no longer feed the farmers grazing animals, would need to be converted to crops to feed humans, but that would not be enough land to do the job. Also the land used to raise crops such as corn to feed farm animals would also need to be converted to feed humans. Still would not be enough food generated. Prairies and forests would then need to be converted for human food production. The animals and insects that occupied that land would lose their habitat and also die of starvation. Many will likely go extinct. Ocean fishing would increase dramatically in order to feed humans and the fish population would decrease substantially. Eventually, food sources may still be insufficient leading to higher levels of human starvation. In other words, vegans upset the balance of nature and through their diets kill more animals than they save – the direct opposite of their intentions.

Police Shootings - Who's Guilty

When you are stopped by police for questioning and/or arrest and you run from police, what options does the police officer have? It's his job to protect the community and thus stop you from getting away. He could possibly run after you, not knowing whether or not you are armed, and risk getting shot and killed. If he catches up to you and a fight most likely ensues as you are trying to stop from being arrested, you might win that fight, grab the cop's gun, and kill him/her as happens a few times every year. If he doesn't catch up to you and you get away, then the community is at risk as you may be a threat to kill or rob others. So if the cop shoots you as you run away - that's your fault, not his. If you had obeyed police orders as you are required to do by law and did not resist arrest as again you are required to do by law, you would be alive, and if necessary, given a fair trial. Who is more likely to get killed as a percentage of population - Whites, Blacks, Hispanics, Asians, or cops? Correct answer - cops. Parents teach your children to obey police orders, don't resist arrest, and don't verbally curse or harass cops who have stopped them. If people actually do that, all groups will have a lot less deaths during police encounters.

Veterans Health Care – How to Improve

Give the veterans who qualify for health benefits under today's rules a special VA Medicare card enabling them to go anywhere for their health care needs. Sell off to private medical companies and/or close the VA facilites. It would be better for the veterans and likely much cheaper for the government. When I qualified for VA benefits 3 years ago, I was warned not to drop out of my Medicare plans. The warning was a good one. I simply don't utilize the VA facilites because there are very few of them, it takes a long time to get an appointment, hospitals are more than an hour away plus poorly rated by the VA itself, and anything "expensive" isn't covered. I feel sorry for the vets in need who have no other real options.

Illegal Immigrants - How to Handle Effectively and Fairly

Most illegal immigrants are coming here to better their lives, not because they are in mortal danger. A few, possibly, but not most. That's why we currently have asylum procedures at legal ports of entry. Illegally sneaking over the border outside of these legal ports of entry is done because they know that they have no case for asylum or for remaining in the US. Let's make some effective, common sense changes to our immigration laws that rewards people who come here legally and has zero tolerance for those who do not.

Yes, for the families who sneaked illegally across our borders, keep the children together with their parents and/or accompanying adults, and also photograph, fingerprint and DNA them, then immediately deport them without a hearing, plus make it the law that they will never be allowed in the US for any reason again, while instituting a policy of checking those seeking asylum at our borders against those records. Also, change the asylum laws. If that's what a person or family wants and believes they deserve, then apply at a US Embassy, not at a legal point of entry. It has to be quicker, cheaper, and faster to get to a US Embassy within their own country then to cross through Mexico for weeks to get to the US. If the embassy approves, you're allowed in; if not, you go home. Also photograph, fingerprint and DNA the ones approved to ensure that the approved people come here, and not others with that paperwork. Always remember, for non-asylum reasons, we already have procedures and laws that allow over one million new immigrants a year to enter the U.S. LEGALLY with a path toward citizenship – that's more than all other nations on Earth combined!!

Also, for those who come here legally and temporarily on a visa, but then stay past their visa date and tell nobody, also expel them, but first take their photo, fingerprints, and DNA sample. Make exceptions for those who may have been incapictated medically to leave or notify anyone on time. For those who request a visa extension before the visa runs out for common sense reasons, such as the need to repeat a failed college course in order to qualify for a degree, grant the extension.

Finally, for all illegals currently under the radar and in our nation, pass a new law - no jobs, no public education, no drivers' licenses, no house nor apartment rentals or purchases, and no government benefits. Pass another law giving them 9 months to get out from the date of passage and publish it massively. If they don't get out within the 9 months, when caught, have the government take all their possessions – houses, cars, furniture, money, bank and brokerage accounts, then send them back with just the clothes on their backs. The 9 month delay is a humane measure intended to give them ample time to sell homes, cars, businesses, etc. and keep their wealth before deporting themselves willingly. Mexico once had a similar law for many years to keep Central Americans from emigrating to comparatively “rich” Mexico and it was very effective. Last point - pass laws with extensive jail times for all politicians and police who won't work with federal authorities on identifying and transferring illegals in their custody, and also any American citizens who knowingly assist illegal immigrants to stay here and avoid immigration authorities.

How Much Savings Needed for Retirement

At an "expected" 6% return on savings, you need to save at least 17 times annual income to match your current income. At 4%, you need 25 times annual income; at 8% you need 12.5 times annual income. From those numbers you can subtract the annual "value" of your expected Social Security benefits. For every $1,000 a month in expected SS benefits ($12,000 a year), your SS "value" is equivalent to savings of $300,000 at 4%, $200,000 at 6%, and $150,000 at 8%. Therefore $1,500 a month in SS benefits increases the value 50% at each interest rate; while $2,000 a month in SS benefits doubles the equivalent savings value at each expected interest rate return on investment. Despite fears that SS will go bankrupt and there will be no benefit, that fear is illogical. SS benefits are paid out of SS taxes collected each month from those working. While it is possible that without changes, there may be future SS benefit reductions, it will never be zero. Worst scenario without changes is a 25% reduction in benefits. The wrath of the people will likely force Congress to make changes at the last moment of the start of benefit reductions, as has been done in the past. Finally, do not expect to need less money in retirement unless your plan is to watch TV all day, 7 days a week.