Ron Puma's Federal Taxes Plan – A Better way to Collect Taxes

 

Ron Puma's Federal Taxes Plan – A Better way to Collect Taxes

A. Goals:

Simplify taxes in a fair way – no more annual income tax forms to fill out. We've essentially done that for payroll taxes (Social Security, Medicare, and Unemployment Insurance). So let's do it for Federal Income taxes also.

Eliminate unfair taxes and socially destructive taxes to include:

1. Taxes on Social Security benefits (which was the original promise to us when SS was created).

2. Taxes on deposits and withdrawals to IRAs and 401Ks. Call it the Freedom IRA and the Freedom 401K.

3. Estate taxes. All the taxes were paid while the Estate was being built up. Estate taxes are therefore double taxation. Unfair and unreasonable. Plus estate taxes, in order to be paid, can sometimes involve the forced liquidation of businesses and farms in order to raise the taxes needed to pay off Estate taxes. This results in loss jobs of those owners and employees and lost future revenues from those businesses, a really stupid government consequence. Estate taxes only contribute one half of one percent of Federal government revenues so are near meaningless in total to the government, but can be devastatingly meaningful to family members who inherit the estate.

B. Current Sources of Federal Tax Revenues (before formulating a new plan, we need to know and understand the current plan)

1. Individual Income Taxes – 50% of the total federal revenues. Consists of:

Salary and Wages.

Business Partnership Income.

Capital Gains Income.

Interest and Dividends.

IRA/401K Distributions (recommend eliminating).

Pension Income.

Annuity Income.

Social Security Benefits (recommend eliminating).

Rent and royalty income.

Important Note – 2020 total personal income for the US was $19.7 trillion dollars.

2. Payroll Taxes – 36% of the total federal revenues. Consists of:

Social Security

Medicare

Unemployment Insurance

3. Corporate Income Taxes - 7% of total federal revenues. Consists of Profits.

Important Note – 2020 total corporate profits was $2.3 trillion dollars (compares to $19.7 trillion dollars for total personal income).

4. Estate taxes - .5% of total Federal revenues.

5. Other – 6.5% of total federal revenues. Consists of:

Regulatory fees.

Custom Duties.

Excise taxes.

Gift taxes (recommend eliminating)

C. Federal Spending:

1. What is the level of federal spending that taxes must support?

We need to know that before devising any new tax plan. Answer – Current Federal spending is $3.9 Trillion dollars.

2. How can we reduce Federal spending?

The huge hidden spending “hole” that none of us see and are therefore unable to evaluate are Federal subsidies. Federal subsides are hidden in many federal departmental budgets to hide their totals even though there is a Catalog of Domestic affairs to apply for subsidies that does not group by category or total the amount spent. There are at least 2,300 Federal subsidies and in some years that total has grown by more than 100 new subsidies. It has been estimated that federal subsides exceed one trillion dollars a year, but no one really knows. What we do know is that every subsidy is a “slice of Communism” - the most failed economic system in human history. All subsidies need to be eliminated. Until eliminated, list all subsidies within each category and give dollar spending totals for each subsidy, category, and the grand total of all subsidies combined in the Catalog of Domestic Affairs website and make it available online to everyone. Also, if no spending budget is passed, reduce all budgets to 95% of last year's spending to motivate politicians to compromise and pass a reasonable budget.

Ron Puma's Federal Taxation and Revenue Plan

A. Income Taxes:

1. All taxes on IRA and 401K deposits and distributions are eliminated.

2. All taxes on Social Security Benefits are eliminated.

3. All taxes on Estate inheritances are eliminated.

Individual Income taxes are assessed by individual only (no combined marital income tax). Government keeps track of the following rules and tells employers when a change in taxation rates are needed. Government also automatically refunds individuals when too many taxes have been taken out so that there is no need to fill out forms:

4. The first $25,000 of earned salary and wages (not including above exemptions) is taxed at a nominal 1% so that everyone has an interest in keeping government spending down. No other exemptions are allowed. The $25,000 exemption and the below taxable ranges are adjusted annually for inflation.

a. From $25,001 to $150,000, the tax is 10%. (Third tier)

b. From $150,001 to $300,000, the tax is 15%. (Second tier)

c. Above $300,000, the tax is 20%. (First tier).

Important Note – This plan plus the following plans will be evaluated annually to determine if the tax rates need adjustment up or down depending on how well they do or do not cover federal spending. If adjustments are needed, use the framework given above, with added percentage tax rates if needed, first given to the top tier income bracket, but not to exceed 35%, second tier if needed, but not to exceed 25%, and first tier if needed but not to exceed 15%. If more is needed, then cut spending.

B. Corporate Income Taxes:

Exactly the same as the individual income tax plan except taxes are based on profits not revenues or income.

C. Capital Gains Taxes:

20% of Profits minus losses. Paid automatically by banks and brokerage houses. IRA and 401K capital gains are not taxed.

D. Payroll taxes:

1. On Social Security:

Pension part only – everyone pays the same flat rate up to an amount, calculated by actuaries, so as not to exceed paying more than anticipated future benefits. Probably in the neighborhood of 4% to a cap of about $150,000. Matched by Employers. As is the case today. Must cover SS benefit expenses.

Welfare Part (Disability and widows with children)

Actuary determined percentage to cover expenses with no cap on income taxed. Probably in the neighborhood of 2%. As is the case today, matched by employers.

2. Medicare:

1.5% matched by employers. Adjusted by actuaries as needed. Similar as today.

3. Federal Unemployment Insurance:

1% paid by employers only. Each state has their own unemployment tax plan

E. Other Taxes:

Keep current regulatory fees, custom duties, and excise taxes. Eliminate gift taxes.

F. Revenues without Taxation:

1. Retirement Security:

In the Federal General Fund, that is outside and not related to the Federal Social Security Fund, invest $10,000 for each newborn American citizen into a new retirement fund to supplement Social Security benefits in the future. It is well known that up to 40% of retired Americans live only or mostly on social security benefits and have no supplemental retirement savings. It would be a great idea if for each American born citizen, we deposit $10,000 when they are born into an investment account which buys only ETF indexes (S&P 500- SPY, Nasdaq 100 - QQQ, S& P 400 mid -size companies - MDY, S&P 600 small size companies - SLY) and leave them there (never trading them) until age 65. After that, (when likely it would have grown to over 5 million dollars based on 10 to 11% long term stock market growth) they receive 4% a year (about $200,000 a year to start which should be divided by 12 and paid monthly) until they die. Likely the amount paid each year as benefits will grow in size most years given the 10-11% long term growth of the stock market. The annual cost would be roughly 30 to 40 billion dollars initially or only about 1% of the total Federal budget. Over time, the left over amount when people die must be utilized to fund new future newborns, thus becoming self sustaining over time. Increase the initial $10,000 by the inflation rate each year. Even a hard working poor American with no savings would be well off at retirement. To pacify those afraid of stock markets, put the money in a special US treasury bond with a typical long term interest rate for these securities, so that the higher of the two at retirement age is used to pay out these funds (will always be the stock market). Make it illegal for the Treasury or government to borrow or transfer this money out of these bonds to spend elsewhere.

2. Federal Budget Security:

In a similar manner, take 1% of revenues each year annually into a similar, locked US Treasury bond to invest in the ETF stock market indexes for 50 years. By that time, if past investment growth is realized, those annual investments would have doubled in value 7 times. For example, if we started with the year 2025 and 1% of the federal budget equaled 40 billion dollars, then the amount available for expenses and debt reduction in 2075 would be over 5 trillion dollars!! Similarly, the 2026 investment would yield about the same in 2076, and so on forever. We could eventually eliminate the need for any taxes through this plan.

Outlaw Ranked Choice Voting

 Some states have changed election rules so that voters must “rank” every candidate for each office up for election, from first choice to last choice. Each “rank” (1,2, 3 etc.) is assigned a “point” score and the candidate with the most “points” wins the election whether or not that candidate won the most number one rank votes. This complex voting procedure is pure stupidity, would require much more time to select candidates when in the voting booth for each voter thus forcing people to stand in line to vote much longer, and needs to be nationally outlawed for every local, state, and national election.

When I and most people vote in a election, whether a primary election or final election, we have no “second” choices, no “third” choices, no “fourth” choices, etc.. We only have a first choice and don't want the other candidates to win. By forcing us to assign ranks to the people we don't want elected may result in a person we don't want elected winning the election despite the fact that the winning candidate was not the first choice of most voters. This could result in a voting strategy to rank the most competitive candidate, to the person each person really wants to win, last. Consequently, ranked choice voting could result in a candidate that nobody or relatively few people wanted to win actually winning the election. This is totally insane and should never be allowed in a democracy.

Get rid of foreign language requirements in high school and college

 There are literally hundreds of languages spoken on Earth. Why is it mandatory to take a foreign language in high school and college in order to graduate? It should be optional. I've vacationed extensively for decades both within and outside the U.S. (been to 25 different countries) and not once was it necessary for me to know and use a foreign language. The extreme time and effort needed to learn how to speak a foreign language could be better utilized on other subjects that should be taught instead such as how to manage your finances and investments, especially the magic of youth and compounding, when you enter the workforce - a subject matter that would benefit most of us immensely in attaining financial independence and wealth - a true major life purpose of education.

One Person - 70+ million deaths

The assassination of an Austrian prince and his wife by a 19 year old Serbian triggered World War 1. The defeat of Germany in World War 1 and the harsh reparations imposed in the peace treaty on Germany motivated Adolph Hitler to seek power and revenge, triggering World War 2 twenty one years later. The death toll from both wars was at least 70 million people killed, and probably millions more. Think about it. The actions of one 19 year old to kill two people led to the deaths of over 70 million people. Doesn't say much for the intelligence of the human race.

A Proposed Alternative to Home Bankruptcy

 

You own a house with a mortgage when you lose your job or have a medical event or spousal death or something else major and cannot pay the mortgage. You either hope you can get a new job or sell the house in time to avoid foreclosure, but neither happens. The bank forecloses on the house, has the sheriff kick you out of the house, and sells the house. If the bank sells it for more than the amount due on the mortgage, the bank keeps all the extra profit. The homeowner loses all his/her equity in the house which could be tens of thousands of dollars or even hundreds of thousands of dollars. Plus the homeowner has the sting of bankruptcy on his/her credit rating.

There is a better way. Instead of the above scenario, make it the law that the bank will work with the homeowner in a contracted manner to sell the house while the homeowner still lives in the house, with the bank receiving back the mortgage outstanding balance plus a fair amount of bank interest and fees involved in the process once the sale of the house is concluded. The homeowner receives any equity left over after the bank reimbursement from the sale of the house, plus gets no foreclosure damage to his/her credit rating. It's a win/win result. Great Britain actually does it this way. America should do it too.

Needed Welfare Reform

Needed Law - Unmarried Fathers must support their out of wedlock children.

No Welfare for Unmarried Mothers unless they identify their children's fathers.

Needed Constitutional Amendments

 Needed Constitutional Amendments

Present and pass each one of these Constitutional Amendments individually. Do not group together as one Amendment where dislike of one amendment could keep the others from passing.

1. English is the only Official language of the United States of America. No person can become a naturalized citizen without proficiency in the English language. No government documents including voting ballots can be printed in a language that isn't the English language.

2. Any person who came of comes to this nation illegally or who stays beyond their approved stay in America without permission, exceptions for medical emergencies, will be fingerprinted and DNA taken, immediately deported without trial along with their minor children if any no matter what their citizenship, and their adult children if also here illegally, and then never permitted back in the US for any reason.

3. Mail in ballots will not be allowed for anyone except military personnel and Ambassador staff working in overseas US embassies.

4. No one is allowed to collect voting ballots for other people and turn them in.

5. Anyone convicted of intentional voter fraud will be executed. No exceptions.

6. Computers and the Internet will not be allowed to be utilized to record or count votes or communicate vote counts.

7. Voter, photo ID issued by state or Federal government is required to vote. All driver's licenses will indicate whether the driver is a citizen or legal resident. Anyone else is not eligible for driver's licenses or passports.

8. No person in this country illegally may receive government welfare nor government benefits of any type, nor work at a job, nor rent or buy an apartment or house, nor attend public school.

9. The U.S. will no longer accept refugees. Those who wish to emigrate to this country must follow the same procedure as everyone else and start their request at a US Embassy, while staying in their own country until permission is granted to emigrate.

10. Those guilty of smuggling illegal aliens or drugs into this country, or engaging in slavery or sex trafficking will be executed. No exceptions.

11. All political parties with more than 10% of the primary vote total will be allowed to submit their winning candidate in the actual election. No political party will be allowed to submit two or more candidates in the actual election for any given political seat.

12. No discrimination based on race, color, or ethnicity is allowed for any reason. That includes the banning of reverse discrimination policies such as Affirmative Action and Diversity programs. No teachings claiming that America is a racist nation will be allowed in our schools and businesses. No teachings that Whites are privileged or inherently racist will be allowed either.

13. The Federal government must submit balanced budgets each year and not spend more that it receives in tax revenues. To assist in this goal, all Federal subsidies are eliminated and none will be allowed in the future. Also, if Congress and the President cannot agree on a budget for the new fiscal year, then the government will use last year's budget, minus 10% except for Defense and Social Security which will be set at 100% of last year's budget. In addition, all Congressman, Senators, and the President will receive no pay until a budget is passed and they will not get back pay for lost wages once a budget is passed. until a budget is passed. There will be no closing of the Federal government due to a lack of a budget.

14. Government employees will not receive pensions, including Congressmen, Senators, and the President. Instead they will have the opportunity to open 401Ks and the government will contribute 5% of their salaries each year to the 401K. All existing workers at the time this Amendment passes will receive a pension buyout into their 401K equivalent to the terms utilized in private industry. Retired employees are not impacted and will continue to receive their pensions.

15. No overtime pay for government employees who are at a management or professional level equivalent to what defines those same/similar job descriptions in private industry. At those levels, just as in private industry, overtime without pay is an expected part of a management or profession job.

16. Healthy welfare recipients must work in order to receive government benefits. If needed, the government will give them a menial job at no pay. If they want pay, then find a non-government job or a legitimate existing government job not intended for welfare beneficiaries.

17. Schools may not promote students to the next grade that have failed the course material. They may help them pass through after school detention programs to work on their school assignments and/or studying, and summer school classes. If a student fails to be promoted to any grade (whether the same or a different grade) for the second time, the family will be referred to family court to determine if there is a home environment problem that needs to be addressed. Students must be 18 or older to drop out of school if they still haven't graduated high school.

18. Given that the Economy is consistently the number one political issue in Presidential elections and that many adults need and/or want to learn how to budget and how to save and invest, public schools will require such subjects to be taught in schools in order to prepare them for their future life as self supporting adults.

19 Social Security consists of one pension program and two welfare programs (disability and welfare for children of parents where one parent has died). It is and always has been a pay as you go system despite being falsely categorized as an investment system. The pension program should match SS tax levels to SS benefit levels. The two SS welfare programs need to be moved to the General budget side where welfare programs belong and where a progressive tax rate exists to support them.

20. All US born citizens will have $10,000 invested for them in a special government bond with the same interest rate as regular government bonds that the Treasury department cannot take over. Instead the money will be invested in stock market indexes and given out annually at a 4% level when they reach 65 for whatever is higher – the interest rate dollar total or the stock market dollar total. That should help those who worked hard all their lives at relatively low pay as well as those who have average or better than average pay have a better retirement without excessive costs to the government. If any money is left upon death, it is reinvested by the government into this program so that it becomes partially or wholly self supporting in the future.

21. On civil lawsuits, loser pays all expenses including opponent's attorney fees.

22. Governments at all levels are banned from regulating wages.

23. Social Security benefits may not be taxed, nor counted as income on income tax forms.

24. All deposits and withdrawals from IRAs and 401Ks are tax free.

25. Inheritances may not be taxed. That would be double taxation as the assets inherited were bought from income that was previously taxed.

Proof that Voter ID Is Not A Problem

 Proof that Voter ID Is Not A Problem

Given that you need ID to do any of the following, voter ID requirements are not a problem and indeed a necessity to prevent voter fraud:

1. Apply for and collect government welfare.

2. Apply for and collect food stamps.

3. Obtain a social security card.

4. Collect social security benefits.

5. Collect Medicaid benefits.

6. Get a Medicare card and collect Medicare benefits.

7. Get married.

8. See a doctor or dentist or hospital.

9. Get a prescription filled; buy certain over the counter cold medicines.

10. Get a driver's license.

11. Get car, health, or life insurance.

12. Rent an apartment or house.

13. Buy a house or condo.

14. Buy alcohol or cigarettes

15. Buy a car, register a car, get a car inspected.

16. Rent a car.

17. Open a bank account, IRA, and brokerage account.

18. Apply for a credit or debit card.

19. Apply for a job.

20. Apply for unemployment benefits.

21. Apply for a mortgage, car loan, or any loan.

22. Get on an airplane.

23. Rent a hotel room.

24. Purchase a gun.

25. Adopt a pet.

26. Apply for a fishing or hunting license.

27. Buy a cell phone and get phone service.

28. Visit a casino.

29. Apply for utilities service for your apartment or home.

30. Join the military.

31. Register a child at school.

32. Rent a mature video.

33. Register for the military Draft (required within 30 days of turning 18).

34. Get internet service for your computer.

35. Legally hold a rally or protest.

36. Blood Donations.

Poverty Statistics

 

Poverty Statistics

50% of single parent households are poor compared to only 10% of two parent households. So never have children unless you are married.

More than one third of recent high school dropouts aged 25 to 34 live in poverty versus 16.7% for high school graduates versus 4.4% for college graduates.

In the U.S., high school dropouts commit about 75% of crimes. Every year, over 1.2 million students drop out of high school in the United States alone. On average, a high school dropout will earn $200,000 less than a high school graduate over his lifetime. And almost a million dollars less than a college graduate.

High School Drop out rates by race:

Blacks 29%

Hispancis 28%

Whites 14%

Asian 10%

Make sure that your older children are aware of these facts before they might fall into these poverty traps.

Tax History Lesson # 2

 

TAX HISTORY LESSON # 2

Lower Taxes

=

More Income After Taxes Available to Spend

=

More Spending by People and Corporations

=

More Goods and Services Purchased

=

More Need for Workers to Produce those Goods and Services

=

New Hiring

=

Lower Unemployment

=

More People Working

=

More People Paying Taxes

=

Increased Tax Revenues

Tax History Lesson # 1

 

TAX HISTORY LESSON

Higher Taxes

=

Less Income After Taxes Available to Spend

=

Less Spending by People and Corporations

=

Less Goods and Services Purchased

=

Less Need for Workers to Produce those Goods and Services

=

Layoffs

=

Higher Unemployment

=

Less People Working

=

Less People Paying Taxes

=

Reduced Tax Revenues

The Number 1 Reason Why Blacks Are Poorer Than Whites

 

The Number 1 Reason Why Blacks Are Poorer Than Whites

50% of Single Parent Households Live in Poverty

Versus

Only 10% of Married Households with Children

Easy to Understand Why

2 Potential Income Earners and Child Caretakers Versus 1

3 out of 4 White Babies are Born to Married Households

Versus

3 out of 4 Black Babies are Born to Single Parent Households

No New Laws Nor Legislation Are Needed

Blacks Can Fix This Themselves and Nobody Can Stop Them

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. Keep in mind that farmers can only grow 1, sometimes 2 vegetable crops per year for human consumption. Whereas the food for grazing animals, grass, once eaten has regrown itself in a week, resulting in dozens of crops per year and it is grass with its dozens of crops per year that is ultimately the “crop” feeding meat eaters when they eat grazing animals. Think about it. What would happen if overnight, the entire world would turned 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, but if released predators would thrive until all of them are gone) 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 as the amount of vegetables needed to replace meat would be around 5 or more times the average vegetable consumption today. Prairies and forests would then need to be converted to farming 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. Or if they won't eat fish, then even more lands need to be converted to farming. Eventually, food sources and water sources to irrigate and grow crops 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, making most animals extinct, than they save – the direct opposite of their intentions.

The Number One Reason for the Disparity between Black and White Household Income Levels

 Economics is my college major and a topic that I still like to think about and especially include in my political discussions. My approach is to take facts and logically analyze them to conclusions in order to prove my point. I expect those that respond to me to do the same or I notify them that I accept their obvious concession of defeat if they don't take that approach. Let's get started on the issue of disparity between Black and White household income levels and its main cause. Who knows the percentage of married households with children that live in poverty? Answer 10%. Now, what is the percentage of single parent households with children that live in poverty? Answer, an astronomical 50% or five times greater than married households with children!! Easy to understand - two potential income earners and two potential baby sitters have a lot more potential for earning income than a single income earner and babysitter. In politics, we often hear about the discrepancy in income between Whites and Blacks. What we don't hear is the critically important fact that 3 out of 4 Black children are born to SINGLE parent households while 3 out of 4 White children are born to MARRIED parents households. This stark difference between Blacks and Whites accounts for the majority of the income difference between Black and White households. Also the children of single parent households, on average, have much lower educational achievements and much higher criminal activity. Fathers in the household are very meaningful to a child's development, especially boys. Most single parent households don't have fathers. Government can never fix this free choice of citizens to have children without being married (yes, some single parent households were the result of death or divorce, but the majority of new births into single parent households were the result of personal choices made). If Blacks want to achieve the financial success of Whites, then they need to reverse course and not have children until they are married (go back to 1964 before the massive Great Society Welfare programs were introduced and 3 out of 4 Black births were to married parent households - Welfare has destroyed what had been the strong Black family married parents unit). Otherwise, stop your complaining about your low income situation. It's your own fault!! Both political parties need to incorporate this knowledge into their thinking and their legislation activities.

Election Fraud and How to Minimize It Through New Constitutional Amendments

 There is always some level of voter fraud in each election. Some say it is very small and insignificant; some say it is significant. Without voter ID required to vote in all states, plus other issues, it is currently impossible to measure voter fraud accurately. That must change to insure election integrity in the future. 

To accomplish that, pass each of these new Constitutional Amendments separately (because packaging them all together in one Amendment makes it harder to pass due to potentially one change with less support):

Each ballot has a unique national bar code to make it easier to check for duplicate vote counts of the same ballot, with such checks being a national requirement.

All paper ballots, no computers. Paper ballots must be counted by non-computer machines that read and record the unique bar codes of each ballot, giving a count and a printout of each ballot cast. After each 1,000 local votes counted or when finished if less than 1,000 ballots, then 10 paper ballots must be retrieved manually and randomly by each poll watcher and checked against the machine results. If even one discrepancy occurs, those votes must be recounted manually in front of the poll watchers.

All voter registration cards will be required to have a unique, national identification number and must be shown at the time of the vote.

Voter government photo ID required to vote that must be checked against the unique voter ID card by election officials.

National check, using the unique voter ballots and the unique voter registration cards of all states and territories to make sure that no voter votes more than once. No state certifications of the vote are allowable without this check at all local levels.

All local voter rolls must be continuously verified to eliminate voters who have moved, or have died. Use state driver's licenses and Social Security death notices to help make this accurate.

No mail in ballots allowed except in the case of military personnel. Wherever mail in ballots are allowed they must be postmarked at least 14 days prior to election day, Otherwise, they will not be counted.

A representative from each major political party must witness the vote and the vote count at each local election place. If for any reason, that doesn't occur for the entire time of the vote and the vote count, then all votes will be impounded and recounted in front of a panel of at least three judges, who when over, must unanimously approve the vote.

Anyone found guilty of intentional voter fraud whether by a voter or vote counter will be executed – No exceptions.

When Are We Going To Stop Taxing Social Security Benefits

 

When are we going to stop taxing Social Security benefits?

The federal government can tax your Social Security benefits if your combined income – your annual adjusted gross income (AGI), any nontaxable interest, and half of your Social Security benefits – exceeds $25,000 for an individual or $34,000 for a married couple. Some states tax Social Security benefits as well, though each has its own formula to determine the level of taxation.

Those are ridiculously low thresholds to be taxing SS benefits. They have been in effect for decades (since 1984) and have never been indexed to inflation so that now they tax the SS benefits of the poor and the middle class, when their original intention was to tax only the wealthy.

More ridiculous, your SS benefits, are subject to tax rates that can reach as high as 50%!!!!!! The highest Federal income tax rate for wealthy Americans including millionaires and billionaires is only 37%!!!! When Social Security was initiated in the 1930s, SS benefits were supposed to be tax free. We need to return to that intent.

Outlaw All Government Pensions

 Obviously, governments cannot be trusted to manage pension plans, especially when government employees can outrageously inflate their own pension through overtime pay in the last year before retirement (many government pensions are based on just the income earned in the last year of employment including overtime, instead of the average of the best 5 consecutive years out of the last 10 years as corporations who still offer pensions normally do). Time to outlaw government pensions and put that money invested to support pensions in "special"  401K plans, using a percentage (6 to 10%) of worker's salary invested each paycheck, paid by the state and also the Federal government, not the government employee. To that, the government employee can also add to his own "personal" 401K each paycheck, held separately from the "special" 401K described previously . At retirement, the special 401K becomes the "pension" with the state invested part taken out at 4% a year, divided into 12 monthly payments (which should make this pension self sustaining with inflationary increases occurring over time as investments should grow more than 4% a year long term based on stock market history). The employee part can be utilized however the state retired employee wants. In addition, there would also be Social Security payments each month as the worker must contribute to it while working as non-government employees do. No exemptions out of Social Security  for these workers. Problem solved. No more ridiculously generous early retirement pensions and no more 100% pensions based on overtime pay in the last year when the intention was for a 50% pension. Any needed reductions in pensions for current retirees would come out of the overtime cheaters first who inflated their pensions their last year of work to get them back to a 50% pension as originally planned by the state.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2020/12/11/every-states-pension-crisis-ranked/115099952/

Stock Market Pull Backs – Did You Really Take a Loss

 The stock market, the greatest generator of long term wealth, never gets there in a straight upward line. It is always a series of constant daily, weekly, monthly, annual ups and downs, sometimes small; sometimes quite large. 20-30% pullbacks (normally over weeks or months) are not unusual and sometimes 50% pullbacks occur but they are rare and normally occur during deep Recessions. When any of them occur, did you lose money?

Answer - it depends. Most people compare their highest stock portfolio valuation to what the stocks are worth after a downturn and consequently think that they have lost money. That's not necessarily true. For example, let's take the worst case scenario – a 50% decline in the stock market for a portfolio that was worth $100,000 at its height, but is now worth $50,000.

Scenario 1 – You invested the entire $100,000 at the peak of the stock market and now it is worth $50,000. Yes, if you cash it out, you definitely lost $50,000. However, if you leave it there for decades, and the stock market follows its historical precedents, then you likely will recover that $50,000 in 7 years or less, and go on to double and redouble that initial $100,000 investment.

Scenario 2 – You have been investing regularly for years and have actually spent $30,000 purchasing your current investments over time. Therefore, when your appreciated value of $100,000 at its peak high, drops down to $50,000, you would be wrong to say that you suffered a 50% loss. In actuality, you have a $20,000 gain over your $30,000 cumulative investments totals for a percentage gain of 67%. Again, if you do not sell it and just hold onto it for decades to come, you will likely again reach $100,000 and then double and re-double that amount over decades.

In order not to be forced to sell during a downturn of the stock market, the money that you have invested should not be money that you are going to need a short time later (whether that be a few months later or a few years later). Keep that money apart from your stock market investments and instead in a safe short term, liquid investment such as money market or short term CDs “laddered” to keep each CD reaching its term limits on a regular cyclical basis while the others are still not at maturity. For example, 6 one year CDs with one CD reaching maturity every two months. Gains will be tiny but safe.

Scenario 2 above is the best method of investing – in frequent small increments over a long period of time. That way when stock markets are high, the same amount of money invested then buys less shares at high prices and when the stock market is low, the same amount of money invested then buys more shares at low prices. Most people find it easiest to determine what percentage share of income they want or can afford to invest and automatically buy that same percentage each month.

What should you do if you want to use Scenario 2, but haven't in the past and now have a large amount of money available to invest? There is no perfect answer here:

If the stock market has recently crashed very substantially and hasn't yet started to recover, investing the whole amount of money available has the best chance of paying big dividends relatively soon (7 years or less).

If the market is at or close to an all time high and has been increasing nicely for 7 or more years, the stock market is at higher risk for a serious pullback. Investing the whole amount of available savings carries more risk. However, markets in the past that have reached an all time high sometimes experience hundred more all time highs over a number of years before any serious pullbacks begin. No one knows the short term future.

One possible play would be to start your investment program by investing each month your normal percentage of income that you would like/hope/can afford to permanently do in the future. To that monthly investment, also invest some of the already accumulated savings each month for say the next five years or more. So $100,000 saved would add another $1,666 invested each of the next 60 months (5 years). $60,000 saved would work out to $1,000 added investment per month. This won't make you the most gains possible, but it should earn you considerably more than not investing it at all, while also guarding against potential stock market crash short term catastrophic loss in value if the whole amount is invested in one shot.

Productivity is the Key to Jobs, Raises, Promotions, and Wealth

 Productivity is the measurement of the change (up, down, or even) of the total goods and services produced at any level (nation, industry, company, person) divided by the number of workers at that level. The more productivity grows faster than price inflation, the more real wealth is produced. It is the growth in productivity that produces the wealth that enables companies and their employees to prosper. It is responsible for job growth, the ability to give larger raises, the need for more workers and more managers to lead those workers (thus more promotional opportunities), and consequently more wealth growth.

Workers seem to think that is the managers and owners that determine their wages and promotions. In actuality it is a company's customers that ultimately hire and fire workers and hand out the raises and promotions. Managers and owners merely allocate the will of the customers (or lack of them). So managers try to hire and promote the most productive workers that they can find and fire the unproductive workers. This productivity “process” produces the most wealth for a company, a nation, and its citizens. Capitalism is the ultimate producer of productivity and wealth and is the most successful economic system in human history, the only one to raise billions of people out of poverty. Socialism has no such incentive and is the reason why it is the most failed economic system in human history, leaving all of its victims desperately poor and therefore miserable.

Socialism – Why It Always Fails

 

Two Reasons – Waste and Lack of Innovation.

Socialism is defined as government running a nation's economy. Socialism is the most failed economic system in human history and has left all of its victims poor and miserable, and many often dead from starvation.

On the other hand, Capitalism is the most successful economic system in human history and the only economic system to lift billions of people out of poverty.

For a company to succeed under Capitalism, it must provide the products and services with the quality and price that consumers are willing to pay without producing significantly more than what the free market is willing to purchase. The better it does this, the more profit it makes, which is the “reward” and “incentive” for being in business in the first place. If a company doesn't provide what people want to buy or produces much more than people are willing to buy, it has wasted the physical and human resources responsible for its products and services causing the company to lose money or profits to substantially shrink. When a company has produced an overstock of products that people are willing to purchase at the original price, Capitalistic companies monitor this and cut back on future production and/or are willing to cut prices to increase demand for their products so that they at least get something for their over production instead of nothing plus having to pay to store the unsaleable overstock, further adding to over production costs and therefore losses.

Socialist nations have none of these incentives and simply set socialist company sell prices and production “goals” to meet, whether or not those goals meet demand or are much more than demand, or are the price and quality that meet consumer wants and needs. Normally, they do not cut prices, nor reduce production quotas when their product sales are weak because governments have no incentive to do so. Nor do they increase production when product demand exceeds production goals, thus losing a profitable opportunity. Governments do not go out of business in these wasteful situations as do capitalistic companies.

Also, unlike capitalistic companies, Socialist government companies have no incentive to innovate. Unlike capitalist companies, there is no “reward” for doing so in a socialist nation, thus no incentive. That explains why the world's major innovative and wealthy companies originated right here in the United States – Microsoft, Apple, Amazon, Walmart, Home Depot, Google, Facebook, Tesla, Intel, etc.. Also explains why older, formerly successful companies that rest of their former laurels and do not compete aggressively and/or innovate shrink or go out of business – Sears, K-Mart, JCPenney, TWA, Pan Am, Grant's, A&P, Montgomery Wards, Radio Shack, Blockbusters, WoolWorths, etc..

Consequently, the people of Socialist governments, the victims of government waste, inefficiency, and lack of innovation, have much less wanted and needed products and services, and therefore much less wealth than the people of Capitalistic nations.

Restoring Confidence in Voting Results

 

The number one issue in my mind concerning the 2020 election is how do we amend the voting process in a way that permanently instills certainty and confidence that future vote counts will be accurate everywhere. The starting point must be developing and enforcing national standards that every state must follow. Here are my ideas.

1. Have a full proof system of keeping the list of registered voters accurate and up to date. This would involve updating the rolls of registered voters with every relocation and death event. Landlords, banks, real estate brokers, and funeral parlors would have to report moves (with one common form signed by the relocating adults involved, each indicating whether or not they are a registered voter) and deaths (signed by the funeral parlor director and a witness, preferably a family member) to a common national register and that register would be the ones that all states and territories utilize. In addition, this register would be checked and action taken if the same person voted in two or more locations.

2. Registered voters would be allowed to request mail in ballots for valid reasons such as poor health or vacation during elections. States would not be allowed to send mail in ballots to people who did not request them. All mail in ballots must be postmarked 10 days before the election date to insure that all are received by the election date. If there is a pandemic, then offer open tent locations to vote in person safely for those who want a safer way to vote.

3. All ballots whether mail in or not must be signed by the registered voter and the signature checked by the vote counters.

4. All voter polling places must require voters to show a government photo ID in order to vote.

5. All voter polling places must require election observers from each major party plus film the entire process from voting to counting at all times and provide that film to national authorities.

6. Forbid non-paper electronic voting machines. Too easy to program fraud and very hard to check. Use paper ballots. You can use machines to scan and count the paper ballots, but those machines must keep a record of each voter and who they voted for. After the machine has counted them, then a second check will be done, looking at randomly selected ballots (at least 10 per thousand ballots) and comparing each paper ballot to what the machine recorded for that same paper ballot to see if they agree. If even one error is found, then all the ballots must be recounted by hand. To avoid massive recounts, after every 1,000 votes, check the machine for errors. That way recounts are limited to 1,000 vote samples instead of possibly tens of thousands of votes.

7. There is no effective difference between an invasive army trying to replace the legally elected government of the United States and trying to do the same thing through intentional voter fraud. We would defend ourselves and shoot to kill an invasive army. We must treat voter fraud the same way. Anyone found guilty of intentional voter fraud would be executed – No Exceptions.

Credit Card Impact of Making Only Minimum Payments

Credit Card interest rates are generally around 20%, give or take a few percentage points. Let's take an example where the credit card interest rate is 18%, you spent $1,000 for the month (food, clothes, gas, etc.) on that credit card, and only make minimum payments for the next several years. How much did you really spend?

No matter what the interest rate is, the magic number to remember is “72”. Dividing the interest rate into 72 gives you the number of years it takes for your actual interest costs to double. 72 divided by the 18% interest rate is 4. So if you make only minimum payments (which generally are interest only payments) on your credit card, your actual costs increase on the amount charged (an increase of $1,000 in this example) every 4 years.

So after 4 years, that original $1,000 monthly credit card bill costs you minimally $2,000 ($1,000 in interest paid plus $1,000 in principal still owed). To keep it at $2,000 and not go higher, you would need to pay off that $1,000 principal in full immediately after the four years are up. If instead you keep making just minimum card payments, that $1,000 monthly purchase will continue to increase $1,000 in actual interest paid every 4 years, plus you still owe the $1,000 principal, thus costing you $3,000 in 8 years ($2,000 interest paid plus $1,000 principal owed), and $4,000 in 12 years ($3,000 interest paid plus $1,000 in principal owed).

If your credit card interest rate is 24%, then the numbers in the previous example would be the same, except that the timing would be every 3 years (72 divided by 24 equals 3). So your actual costs for that $1,000 monthly charge would be $2,000 after 3 years, $3,000 after 6 years, and $4,000 after 9 years.

Plus if you keep making more monthly credit card charges each month and still keep paying only the minimum charge, your actual costs will continue to zoom up in the same manner for those new credit card charges too. 

Judges – Don't Allow Them to Steal Your Freedom

 

In America, both our Constitution and our laws by which we are governed were passed by legislatures at either city, state, or Federal levels and signed into law by mayors, governors, or Presidents, all of whom we elected to serve our will. In essence, we the people are in charge of our government.

Judges are mostly non-elected officials whose sole duty is to enforce the Constitution and laws as written. To do otherwise, with the exception of laws that violate the Constitution, is to take our freedom away to govern ourselves. No sane person should ever tolerate that. Yet, we have so called “liberal” judges who take it upon themselves to reject the clearly written intent of our laws and Constitution and instead of enforcing them, they instead “interpret” them to fit their own personal political ideology. By doing so, they've taken away our freedom to govern ourselves. No matter what our political party allegiance, all of us should be adamantly against judges who make their own laws instead of enforcing our laws as written. Vote out of office those politicians who support appointing liberal judges to do the job that politicians we have elected are supposed to do.

End Social Media Censorship

 Facebook, Twitter, and other Social Media have taken it upon themselves to "censor" posts that they don't believe are true. It doesn't matter who you are, including the President. Who made these social media the "experts" on facts and science? "Science" is mostly the evolution of theories with non-universal agreements among scientists. There is no such thing as "settled science" which is a term so often quoted by liberals to promote their biased viewpoints. Theories can and do change as learning never stops in science. For example, it has been theory that nothing can travel faster than the speed of light for decades. That is no longer true. Man-Made Climate change - a favorite censorship topic for social media - does NOT have universal scientific agreement, not even close. In a "free" country, we need to pass laws banning censorship by social media, which are mostly mouth pieces for liberal causes and ideas.

California – Imposing a Liberal Dictatorship

 In California, political parties are NOT allowed to select their own candidates through primaries and run their party winner in the General election. Instead, the top two primary vote getters for all political parties combined, no matter what their political party, are the only ones allowed to run in the General election, including candidates for Governor, Senate, and Congress (but not yet President). In a heavily Democratic State, this pretty much guarantees that only Democrats can run in the General election. So instead of a Democratic candidate and a Republican candidate and any other political party candidate running against each other in the General election, it is almost always two Democrats running against each other in the General election with no other political party candidates on the ballot. How this is legal and not yet challenged and over turned by the Supreme Court is incomprehensible. It teaches all of us to be very scared of liberals because their goal is to impose a liberal dictatorship by any means possible on the rest of us.

America – Thank God that We are NOT a Democracy

 Most Americans think of our nation as a Democracy. Not True. We are a “Republic”. Be very grateful that our very wise Founding Fathers feared a true Democracy where a mere 51% of the population could restrict the freedoms of the other 49%. For example, in a true Democracy, a simple majority of 51% could declare a national religion that everyone must belong to under penalty of death. 51% could eliminate the right of women to vote or even go to school. 51% could enforce stringent dress codes for everyone. 51% could take away freedom of speech and freedom of the press.

In America's Republic, we have very important rights guaranteed in our Constitution that a simple majority cannot take away. We can change, delete, or add to our Constitution, but NOT with a simple majority. Just to propose a Constitutional Amendment requires either two thirds of Congress or two thirds of States to propose it. Next, to become law, three fourths of State Legislatures must ratify it. A very daunting process that makes it very difficult to pass “bad” Constitutional Amendments, thus preserving our Constitutionally guaranteed freedoms. Important – not an impossible process, as 27 Amendments to the Constitution have been passed such as Amendments giving Blacks and later women the right to vote.

While most nations, including strict Democratic nations, at the Federal level have a single legislative body to pass laws, America is extremely fortunate and indebted to its Founding Fathers to have two legislative bodies – the House of Representatives where the most populous States are represented in relation to their population versus small States, and the Senate, where every state has an equal vote (two Senators each). Also in the Senate, filibusters can result in the need to have 60% of the Senate agree to pass legislation or approve Federal nominees. Even then, the President can “veto” the legislation, effectively stopping it from becoming law unless two thirds of Congress overrides the Presidential veto. The Founding Fathers wanted the political parties to work together and if necessary to compromise in order to pass legislation in a manner that prevents bad legislation from being passed into law. Absolute Genius!!

In the same manner, our wise Founding Fathers invented the Electoral College to elect Presidents so that an overwhelming majority from large population States could not impose their will on the smaller States. The intent was for any President to be elected, he/she would have the need to campaign and listen to the voices of all States. Otherwise, Presidential candidates might totally ignore smaller states and only cater to and campaign in large states. Again, Absolute Genius!! We just saw how well that worked in the 2016 Presidential election. A huge majority in California for the Democratic candidate gave that candidate a multi-million vote national majority. Without California, smaller State majorities gave the Republican candidate more than a million vote majority of the other 49 States and the Electoral College to win. Worked as planned!!

Retirement – How to Really Help Americans

 If you really want to help Americans save for retirement, then make all 401Ks and IRAS tax free when we make deposits and also tax free when we make withdrawals, plus stop taxing Social Security benefits. Also, it would be a great idea if for each American born citizen, we deposit $10,000 when they are born into an investment account which buys only ETF indexes (S&P 500- SPY, Nasdaq 100 - QQQ, S& P 400 mid -size companies - MDY, S&P 600 small size companies - SLY) and leave them there (never trading them) until age 65. After that, (when likely it would have grown to over 5 million dollars based on 10 to 11% long term stock market growth) they receive 4% a year (about $200,000 a year to start which should be divided by 12 and paid monthly) until they die. Likely the amount paid each year as benefits will grow in size most years given the 10-11% long term growth of the stock market. The annual cost would be roughly 30 to 40 billion dollars initially or only about 1% of the total Federal budget. Over time, the left over amount when people die must be utilized to fund new future newborn, thus becoming self sustaining over time. Increase the initial $10,000 by the inflation rate each year. Even a hard working poor American with no savings would be well off at retirement.

How To Pass Annual Federal Budgets

 

Congress almost never approves a budget each year because it only takes 40 Senators out of 100 to stop it. The Democrats, despite trillion dollar deficits, always want more spending except for military spending because they want to use needed military funds to add to social programs. So Democrats never approve of budgets with spending cuts in them and Republicans never approve of budgets with giant spending increases that Democrats like to pass. The end result is a series of temporary "continuing spending resolutions" each year that must be approved by Congress. Democrats love these because it takes last year's spending and automatically adds more to it. Never any cuts to spending that way; always increases to spending. Republicans can technically fight for spending cuts for these continuing spending resolutions but Democrats won't give it to them. The only option is to shut the government down by not passing spending resolutions to put pressure on Democrats to compromise. However, the fake news media always falsely blames Republicans for government shut downs, making it political suicide and the Democrats know this. We need a new method - a Constitutional Amendment that forces government to pass an annual budget or else the budget is automatically cut by 10% from last year except for Social Security which goes up by the inflation rate. No temporary continuing spending resolutions allowed. Only then will both parties be equally motivated to compromise.

Social Justice Protests Are Deeply Flawed and Consequently Won't Work

 

So called social justice protests occurring across the nation based on an infinitely tiny fraction of perceived unjustified killings or injuries of a handful of Black people by police are understandably having the opposite effect of what is intended. The reasons are clear and simple:

1. Every single one of the incidents protested were caused by one or more of the following criminal acts by the perceived “victims” - disobeying police orders, resisting arrest, struggling or fighting with police, threatening police, shooting at police, and fleeing police. If you do any of those things instead of quietly cooperating with police and you are injured or killed by police, then that injury or death is on you, not the police. None of these people who were injured or killed by police would have been harmed if only they had peacefully cooperated with police. Therefore, many of us have zero empathy for those who got hurt or killed by police because they willfully did not cooperate peacefully with police. If you are innocent, you will get your day in court to prove it.

2. There are roughly 800,000 police in 18,000 police departments making roughly 13 million arrests per year, often in very dangerous situations. The very fact that only a handful of arrests result in questionable deaths speaks volumes of how extraordinary well police do their very stressful and dangerous jobs. Note that a cop is 25 times more likely to die in the line of duty than a Black person is likely to be killed by a cop. 25 times!!!!

3. In the rare cases where a police shooting or killing of a Black or any person results in the cop's arrest and charges of assault and/or murder are filed, then it is time to stop protesting that incident and let the justice system run its course which is a trial by a jury of his/her peers, not a trial by mob protest. You would want it no other way for yourself should you someday be charged with a crime. If you don't want to lose that right for yourself, then you must also preserve it for police.

4. Social justice protests have all been continuously violent for months with innocent people getting injured or killed by protesters, cars and buildings being vandalized or burned and destroyed, and often looting taking place. Many people who may have initially supported the social justice cause being promoted across the country have lost patience, live in fear of the violence either in their own neighborhood or potentially reaching their neighborhood some day, and understandably no longer support your cause.

Racial Income Inequality is Self-Inflicted

 

It is a statistical fact that only 10% of married households with children live in poverty. The poverty rate of single households with children is roughly 50%!! Back in the 1960s, prior to the start of the Democratic “Great Society” welfare programs that within 10 years increased welfare by a factor of 20, 3 out of 4 black babies were born to married parents. Today, just the opposite, 3 out of 4 Black babies (and 1 out of 4 White babies) are born to single parent households – the engine of poverty!! The most basic reason for income disparity is that Black educational achievements are the lowest of any race. In relation to total population, Blacks drop out of high school in far greater numbers relative to race population than any other race. Blacks enter and graduate college at the lowest rates relative to race. In many big cities where Black populations are statistically higher compared to Whites than the Black national population, the average spent per year per public school student is about $20,000 each, double that of the national average!! So we are spending the money to educate Blacks. Finally, Blacks commit crimes at 8 times the national average. Jail is not a good place to earn income. These are the issues (Single parent households by design, Education, and Crime) that Blacks need to fix and only they can do that. Otherwise 50 years from now nothing will have changed

How to Stop Illegal Voting

 

If another nation or organization tried to overthrow the legitimate government of the United States by military force, all of us would fight back and kill those that tried to take away our freedom to govern ourselves. However, that is not the only way a legitimate government can be overthrown. For example, enough illegal votes from either non-citizens voting and/or from citizens cheating and/or voting multiple times either under their own name or that of others, including dead people and nursing home residents, if large enough in number, could also overthrow the legitimate government of the US by preventing that legitimate government from being honestly elected and thus taking office.

The end result is the same as a military takeover and should be viewed and treated the same – an attempt to overthrow the legitimate government of the US. The penalty should be severe - automatic execution of those who vote illegitimately - no exceptions.

How the Democratic Party Tricked and Betrayed Black People

In 1964, when Democrats, whose history from Day 1 was to enslave and deny Blacks their rights through slavery and later through segregation, property and voter suppression, and discrimination, lost the battle to to stop the 1964 Civil Rights legislation from being passed, then Democratic President Lyndon Johnson came up with a plan to, in his words, have Blacks vote Democratic for the next 200 years. He came up with the Great Society Welfare programs vastly increasing welfare by 20 fold in the next 10 years and deliberately targeting more benefits to single women with children. The idea was to move Blacks to the unstated “Government Plantation” to keep them dependent on welfare. Half of single parent households with children live in poverty versus only 10% of married households with children. Education is the key to adult financial success. Since 1964, Black births which were 75% of Black babies born to married households then deteriorated to 75% of Black babies born to single parent households now. In addition to being poor, fatherless children perform worse in school and are more likely to commit crimes. Those two factors keep people poor and dependent on government. Democrats oppose raising educational achievements in poor urban areas through charter schools to keep Blacks uneducated as much as possible and to support public school teacher unions. The only fix for this – Vote Republican, the only party that freed the slaves and fought consistently for the rights of Black people.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g_a7dQXilCo&list=PLRgsJJy0LGRTl3axkxBC5hnqMe1miUbSK

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OURy5WFp0zk

Mail In Voting - A Recipe for Cheating

How come the liberal news media never reports on these problems, and in fact denies that there are any problems with mail in voting? Nor does the news media distinguish between the TWO TYPES OF MAIL IN VOTING - requested absentee voting by registered voters (not a problem) VERSUS mass mailing of non-requested mail in voter ballots to everyone whether they still live at those addresses (1 in 10 Americans move each year) or are even alive (huge problem that should not be allowed). Plus the practice of "ballot harvesting" where an individual collects ballots from multiple voters and turns them into the state or doesn't turn them into the state is a sure recipe for fraud. Why didn't the news media report that 6 million mail in ballots in the 2016 Presidential election were lost? Seems kind of important. See link:

https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2020/04/24/28_million_mail-in_ballots_went_missing_in_last_four_elections_143033.html?fbclid=IwAR24__Ya1CVVfTYauJxEd9y-Cc-5G8x40qTOVo-sr4EhsN7Ps00N0w65eM8

Financial Advisors – Just Say No

 I do not believe in Financial Advisors managing my money. Here's why. Most take 2% of the ENTIRE value of the assets (not just 2% of the gains or losses) in fees each year. Plus the S&P 500 index, which costs you nothing to buy and sell at most brokerage firms (ETF symbol = SPY) outperforms financial advisors 70% of the time. If 2% fees don't sound like much, think again. For example, if they had a good year and your assets went up 10%, they take 20% of your gains as fees. Likewise, in a bad year where your assets went down 10%, those fees add 20% to your losses. If your assets went up 5% for the year, that 2% takes away 40% of your gain, and if your assets only went up 2% for the year, that 2% fee takes away 100% of your gain (while a 2% loss, is doubled by that 2% fee to a 4% loss).

China – Time to Disengage Completely

China – Time to Disengage Completely

China is a dangerous, rogue nation that steals technology from companies doing business in China as a condition of doing business there, plus engages in worldwide spying to do the same, manipulates it currency to give it trade advantages, does not honor its international commitments such as the 1997 50 year one country, 2 systems treaty in Hong Kong, and international agreements about ownership of sea lanes by nations sharing those sea lanes, brutalize its people, and is striving for world dominance and control by the year 2050.

It is time for America and its NATO allies to work together in a measured step by step way to disengage from China completely (no trade, no diplomatic relations) until that nation changes its criminal behavior, adopts democracy, disbands its Communist Party, allows other political parties, and conducts free and fair elections. Economically, given that China exports far more than it imports, China would be hurt far more than the US and Europe if trade ceased with China. Don't do it at once. First fix trade imbalances with needed prescription drugs, rare Earth, needed production, and any other critical products by increasing domestic production of these valuable items. Once safely established, then give China a one year ultimatum to accomplish the goals set out. If they refuse, then cut off all trade. Also make it known to companies and other nations, that America and NATO won't allow imports of goods from their countries that were partially produced in China or containing Chinese made parts.

China is never going to change its outrageous, dangerous, and criminal activities until it pays a high enough price for its deeds. Let's start the process to influence China to free its people and behave responsibly before the situation gets any worse.

Social Security Benefits – Stop Taxing Them

If you really want to help seniors, then stop taxing Social Security benefits. SS benefits were never supposed to be taxed. Then in 1984 with overwhelming support from both Democrats and Republicans, retirement total income above $25,000 for singles and $40,000 for married couples (then considered income amounts for only the "wealthy") had their SS benefits taxed. Those income maximums were never indexed for inflation. So now, 36 years later, much of the middle class has their SS benefits taxed and more of the middle class are added to those retirees taxed each year. Minimally, those income limits should be raised to reflect the inflation of the last 36 years, and indexed to inflation each year in the future. Ideally, make it simple, and as originally promised in the 1930s, and stop taxing Social Security benefits.

Poverty – How to Avoid It

If you honestly want to avoid poverty, there are three simple, easy to follow guidelines:

1. Education - make a strong effort at school and strive to not only graduate high school, but go on to college or technical school to gain the skills that employers are looking for and pay more for those skills. America spends more per public school student per year than any other nation (about $10,000 each per year). In large cities where many of the poor live, we spend double that. Now show your appreciation and your good fortune for having such a fine education system, behave in school and put the effort in to learn. Parents - You must be involved with your children's education. Monitor their behavior in school, make sure they study and do their homework on a daily basis, and set high standards for achieving good grades. Teachers alone cannot control your children's behavior toward learning. It is a dual responsibility.

2. Marriage - never have children out of wedlock. 50% of single parent households are poor to only 10% of married households with children. Two parents working together for family and income can obviously make more money than one parent.

3. Crime - Don't commit crimes. You can't make money in jail, and when out of jail, few want to hire you due to your criminal background.

Police Killings – The Truth

Statistics on police killings that are based on “total” racial populations are irrelevant, biased statistics that are purposely designed to distort the truth. Comparisons to racial population totals count for nothing, yet these are the only ones you hear from the news media. What counts are comparisons to the “number of law breakers” by race because law breakers are the people that police deal one on one with, not with entire populations. Consistently year after year, Black crime rates are roughly 8 times the national average. 8 times!!!!!!!!!!!!! Therefore, when that fact is calculated, a White criminal is more likely to be killed by police than a Black criminal. If you truly want to stop killings by police of all races, follow these simple guidelines:

1. Don't commit crimes.

2. Follow police directives immediately and without complaint.

3. Never threaten, fight with, or attack police - remember if innocent, you will get your day in court to prove it.

4. Never run away or drive away from police.

The History of Slavery and Public Statues

Let me start with the obvious – Slavery is a totally disgusting and unacceptable crime against humanity. Slavery was embedded into America as both a colony and a nation until the Civil War ended the practice. When you see the news and protests in America about slavery and early important American leaders who owned slaves, it is easy to get the false impression that slavery was a uniquely American invention. Unfortunately, slavery has existed for thousands of years before America existed. It has existed on every continent including Africa. Some African tribes had slaves. Some African tribes sold people to the slave traders from Europe, America, and South America. That's right – Blacks in Africa had slaves and Blacks in Africa sold Black people into slavery to White slave traders. The obvious conclusion – nobody has clean hands when it comes to slavery. History cannot be changed no matter how much we protest. It should not be hidden either – Those who forget history are doomed to repeat it. We only can change the present and the future.

That said, logically, every Confederate soldier and politician was a traitor to America and they should not be honored by statues in public view. However, don't tear them down by mobs. Let all of America have a say and therefore do it legally. It will mean a lot more historically if the majority of Americans stood up and were counted in this process.

What about statues of very important leaders such as George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and Andrew Jackson who birthed our nation and preserved it through the Revolutionary War and the War of 1812 where America's existence was far from certain, but themselves owned slaves? America owes them their existence so give them their fair due. Be grateful that the Founding Fathers, when they could not after vigorous debate, convince the Southern colonies to give up slavery, gave America the means to amend the Constitution in the future. George Washington did free his slaves in his will, the only slave owning Founder (not all the Founders owned slaves) to do so. Keep their statues, they earned them, but remember both aspects of their history. As to the Lincoln statue with the slave that by some is regarded as demeaning, remember that the statue was erected and paid for by former slaves. Obviously, those former slaves saw nothing wrong with it. Respect that and leave it be.