We are so much better off than our Ancestors

 The overwhelming majority of our ancestors lived without:

1. Clean water, nor running water in their homes.

2. Sewer or septic systems (people in cities went to the bathroom in a bowl and threw the contents in the streets). Rural areas may have had out houses.

3. Cars, buses, trains, planes.

4. Electricity.

5. Automated heating systems.

6. Air Conditioning.

7. Phones.

8. Washing machines.

9. Good, knowledgeable medical care. Standard doctor practice for the very sick - deliberately bleed you to get out the "bad blood", thus often causing your death.

10. Television, computers, internet, credit cards.

11. Garbage Collection.

12. Soap which was not invented until the 1800s (used animal fat and oils as soap; used perfume to over power the smell of dirty bodies.).

Pretty much explains why until 1900, the average human lifespan was 45 years compared to about 80 years today.

In other words, the poor people in America today are infinitely better off than even the wealthy people who lived 200 years or more ago.

Voter Fraud Cheating Rights Bill

 Hey Joe Biden - Wake up!! The right to vote is already protected and is a non-issue. What you and Democrats are trying to do is pass laws that vastly increase the ability for voter fraud without being able to detect it. The current very cunningly but fraudulently named Voting Rights legislation will ultimately destroy our democracy if passed. Here are its horrible major points:

1. Stops states from requiring voter ID to vote (so how do you know the person voting has the right to vote?). Note 80% of Americans approve and want voter ID as a requirement to vote including the majority of Blacks and registered Democrats.

2. Stop states from purging voter rolls. Given the fact that over 40 million Americans move each year and over 3 million Americans die each year, there is a very obvious need to purge voter rolls to keep them accurate.

3. Protect and allow "voter harvesting". This is where one person collects voter ballots from dozens and even hundreds of people in their community and turns them in to be counted. Often they go to nursing homes where many patients are not physically and mentally competent to know what's going on.

4. It allows and encourages mail in voting. Every nation on Earth either forbids or heavily restricts mail in voting because it is very prone to fraud.

My Christmas Wish List

 

My Christmas Wish List

1. Excellent health for everyone on Earth.

2. Peace, freedom, and prosperity for everyone on Earth.

3. One day each year, please send back our loved, deceased family members to visit with us.

Why is it so Difficult For Retailers to be in Stock 100% of the Time

 My career spanning almost 40 years was to manage catalog inventory for a major Retail company selling apparel, shoes, home furnishings, toys, and sporting goods. The major principles learned in catalog inventory management also apply to stores and online sales, though store and online businesses have greater flexibility than a catalog in terms of reacting to sales increases and decreases from pre-season item estimates as they can instantly lower prices on poor selling items to boost sales and also replace out of stock items with other items so that the customers don't see the out of stock items. You can't do that with a printed catalog page within catalogs at customer homes.

What applies to all forms of retailing is that the total average sales of any item when measured to the total customer base that sees that item is statistically insignificant (roughly about .0001 of the customer base so that the “typical” average item sales of a customer base of 10 million customers is about 100 units sold). “Average” is calculated from the total number of items sold and there will be many items that sell significantly more than average plus many items that sell significantly less than average. If all items sold at the average number, there would be no problem forecasting and stocking the item, but that is not the case.

Keep in mind that many items come in multiple sizes and/or colors. It is at the size color level that stock levels need to be accurate (called the sock keeping unit or “sku” level for short) and sku level sales are much, much less than their item level sales. Furthermore, the sku level inventory needs to be broken out by geographical locations of multiple stores and distribution centers/warehouses. There can be significant sales differences and sales rate differences among items and skus in different geographical locations.

Due to the statistical insignificance of item and sku sales, the forecast accuracy of a pre-season item forecast is dismal. Only about 15% are accurate to plus or minus 10%. Therefore, 85% of all pre-season item forecasts are inaccurate! Given the fact that once sales start trickling in for an item, since those sales are far less than it's seasonal estimate, the statistical accuracy of those forecasts is often horrible.

There is no way that a Retailer can or would stock 100% of the pre-season estimate for all items before the selling season begins for multiple reasons. If a retailer did that, about half the items would be over bought resulting in very high markdowns to get rid of the inventory , thus hurting profits. Keep in mind that without profits, a retailer would go out of business. Also, the inventory space requirements needed to do that would be astronomically high and expensive, hurting profits plus resulting in higher prices in order to afford to do that. Therefore, “turnover” (the multiple usage of a fixed space to store an item repeatedly through multiple seasonal purchases) is extremely important for all retailers if a profit is to be achieved.

If the item being sold is imported, the retailer may have little choice but to buy 100% or close to 100% of it because many imported items have only one manufacturer production run (or at most two production runs within the same season) whereas the manufacturer of a domestic item may have several seasonal production runs enabling retailers to make multiple purchases at different times for different ship dates, thus facilitating good turnover and also increased forecasting accuracy over time for domestic items. Thus both overstock and out of stock situations are more common for imported items.

One other important factor resulting in imbalances of inventory are item “pre-packs”. A pre-pack is a manufacturer's shipping package with pre-determined units by sku. Compared to catalog and online orders to manufacturers, individual store orders are usually much smaller because an individual store's item sales are much smaller as their geographical “reach” is their own “local” area, not regional or national as would be the case with catalog and online service areas. For example with overstock on one sku and understocked on another sku for the same item would not be buying enough for the understocked sku and buying too much for the overstocked sku when ordering pre-packs. Some store chains mitigate this problem by buying to regional distribution centers and servicing their stores from them. With national catalogs and online businesses, their orders are large enough so that manufacturers allow them to buy their individual sku needs, not pre-packs.   

The best inventory management defense for a retailer is to have the people responsible for forecasting and purchasing item inventory be good “merchants”. In the beginning of the season when item sales are a tiny portion of their final seasonal sales totals, a “random” insignificant difference in sales to date can, when measured against historical rates of sales for that same time period the year before (maybe less than 5 or 10% done or especially less than 1% done) give astronomical mechanically generated forecasts that are highly unlikely. A good “merchant” considers factors beyond statistically generated historical forecasts based on few sales (that are highly likely to be very inaccurate), and tempers any item estimate revisions accordingly so that drastic mistakes are not made when it is impossible to be statistically accurate.

Bottom Line – We call it Inventory Management but in reality, it is “Risk” that is being actively managed because item and sku forecast accuracy that is needed (within the time frames of each individual manufacturer production runs) for good inventory management is pretty much an unattainable goal. That is why Retailers, no matter how much they work to keep in stock on all items and skus, will never fully achieve that goal.

Skin Color

 Observation:

Looking at golfers wearing white clothing tonight, it became very obvious that White people aren't White, more like Beige. Put your supposed white skin (for example your arm) next to a white piece of paper or a white tissue. Your skin color is not White.

It won't happen in my lifetime, but we need to get rid of "race" classifications by skin color. We all belong to one race - the human race. There are no other races. Even scientists agree that no matter what your human skin color is, we are all the same one species which is why our blood and organs are transferrable no matter what any differences in skin color are.

Some animals, for example horses, come in different skin colors. We don't divide horses into classifications by skin color. Neither should we divide humans by skin color.

Social Security Tax Benefits of Roth IRAs

 I've advocated the benefits of Roth IRAs and 401Ks over Traditional ones for years. So let me give another example in addition to the income tax examples I've given in the past from the impact of IRA value growth over decades and the difference in taxes from paying taxes the years when you contribute (Roth IRA) and paying taxes the years when you withdraw (Traditional IRA). While working, my income later in my career became too "high" by stupid government rules for qualifying to take out a Roth IRA and I had to use Traditional IRAs instead, plus my company 401K was only offered as a Traditional 401K and the 50% company match was too much not to take it. Now that I have finished converting all of my Traditional IRAs including my Traditional 401K which I moved to a Traditional IRA when I retired to Roth in 2021 (would have finished years ago, but I took a pension buyout in 2015 that was automatically put in a Traditional IRA that required several more years of Roth Conversions that delayed this), I will reap more benefits starting in 2022 - NO MORE FEDERAL INCOME TAXES FOR THE REST OF OUR LIVES!!! Social Security benefits will be our only income (Roth IRA withdrawals are not counted as income and therefore not taxed) and without other income such as government required minimum distributions from Traditional IRAs, those benefits will not meet the SS threshold to be taxable (SS formula = half of our SS benefit plus other taxable income will be less than the $32,000 SS formula threshold to be taxable so that our taxable SS income will be zero even though it is over $50,000 gross combined total income). That will send all of my taxable income (about $1,000 in non-IRA dividends/interest) to a large negative (due to the large standard deduction - thank you Donald Trump) that will insure that I never pay Federal income taxes again.

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.