An Open Letter to the Wealthiest Few in America
Now, I’m not going to waste my time writing to po-dunk little old '5 million dollars in assets' rich folk… This letter is to the powerful rich; the multi-tens and multi-hundreds of millions of dollars in net worth players in this game we call life in America. The movers and shakers… but, the rest of y’all can read it too.
Rich dudes… Question for ya… What the fuck do you need that much money for?
Not that you didn’t produce or acquire your wealth honestly and legally. I’m sure for many of you it's a winners legacy, passed down and entrusted to you from a successful ancestral player. I’m sure others figured out the game for themselves, building their own family legacy. It is foolish to think that politically controlling amounts of wealth haven’t been ebbing and flowing in and out of various hands around here ever since Christopher Columbus went running home shouting, “Dudes! You’re never gonna guess what I’ve found!”. Those of you who have the eb flowing your way right now know who you are. You have controlling interest in a corporation that controls any part of a typical day in the life of an American Lobbyist.
Actually, my hat is off to you guys; touché and nicely done… Seriously, if I’m honest, I have to admit that I’m just a little jealous sometimes. Still, I’ve got to know. For curiosity sake if nothing else… Why do you feel the need to control so large a collection of assets? Even in today’s economy, I am so positive that, if I were to receive $1 million, net of taxes, I could invest that cash in a way that it would keep me, my kids, and their kids working, educated, self sufficient and living at least as well as I did when gas was $1.50, that I will bet anyone $1 million, net of taxes, that I can do it.
Just 1 little measly old million… And oh how it would seriously improve my lifestyle! I’ve never come close to 100 grand, let alone a million… not that I have it bad… I know I have it good compared to many… I’m working… I’m healthy. I’ve been to the third world… I believe it when they say that I am ranked among the richest 10% of people on the planet today. I’ve got digital TV and Internet service… I have a new hardwood floor and a sore back… I’m cool.
But, that is not necessarily the point here.
How do we know when some one wins at this game of life called Western Civilization that the Greeks and Romans so long ago set in motion for us to play? If we're going to play a game with a single play skill of 'acquire assets', and it's only rule for play is that you can’t take it with you when you die, shouldn’t we set a goal or something? Not a truly outrageous goal like a billion dollars in assets, one that would be attainable, but worthy of a winner’s crown in this game. How about that cool million that would have my family set for three generations, maybe more? I wonder how many Americans are already winners? I wonder if it’s true that 85% of Americans are among the wealthiest 90% of the people on this planet?
Which brings me to the real point of this letter.
When I was little, that 85% was 95%, if you believe the teacher I heard it from.
Dudes, the political contraption you guys have been working on since World War II is killing us with its mercenary lobbyists. I have to tell you, it looks like it has jumped out of your control and taken on a life of it’s own. Can you please stop feeding it so much money?
I know we live in a competitive world and a viable enterprise needs to be concerned about making payroll and profits, and I know that controlling the environment you do business in is an awesome way to control costs and maximize sales and profits, but come on y’all! Some of the bullshit going on in Washington has GOT to be embarrassing to you!
For example, let’s take just one of the corporate participants in the very lucrative ‘Do Your Yearly Club Dues Paperwork For You’ industry. In just one three month period this year, that corporate player gave $272,000 to Professional Tax Lobbyists. By my account, Professional Tax Lobbyists are a bunch of boys and girls who know everyone who works in the tax departments in government because they used to work there before getting their big salary lobby job.
Do you reckon that they earn their sizable salaries and bonuses by contributing handsomely, with their employers money, to the re-election campaigns of various elected officials and throwing parties for all their old co-workers and their bosses to try and convince Congress to simplify our yearly ‘Dues to This Club’ paperwork?
I can see it now… Over fancy drinks with little umbrellas, at a bar only slightly seedy - located somewhere in our nations capital; the velvety voice of a lobbyist begins to weave the magic of his latest pitch… “Come on, Congresswoman Donkey-Elephant, the paper work that people have to fill out to reconcile their American Club dues accounts every year needs to be made easier, so more people can do their own. You know our employers’ goal was only to help people out while you pulled your heads out of your asses and came up with a way to collect taxes on the retail or whole sale level instead of the consumer level so citizens wouldn’t have to do yearly paper work at all. We are so embarrassed here making so much money while doing nothing productive. Make it stop already! We’ll give your re-election campaign $50 if you can just find some way to make it a little easier for the American Working Stiffs to do the yearly paperwork.”
Maybe on Saturday Night Live…
Look, I don’t know how you got your money and I don’t care. Most of the powerful wealth in America can probably be traced back to wealthy European families becoming wealthy American families by investing in business opportunities in the New World. Of course, we all know what a fair shake for everybody playing the game of life on this rock back in that glory filled chapter of “The Life and Times of Western Civilization” turned out to be like. But that is another story. Let’s just call it ‘The Past’ for purposes of this thread. In this letter, the past doesn’t count.
Look, all I am asking for is a fair shake. I’m not like you guys, but that doesn’t mean I don’t appreciate the opportunities this country affords to a substantial portion of its more ambitious citizenry. I love being lazy in this country. I’m smart enough to earn what I need, healthy enough to be self-sufficient, and I can travel. For me, I like to keep things about as simple as I can while maintaining my opinion of a comfortable life. Right now, the paperwork is killing me! I don’t even want imagine the crap those poor ambitious bastards have to endure to juggle the paperwork for all the toys it takes to keep them happy.
Required yearly forms to fill out; so complicated that a whatever-billion dollar a year industry gets built by helping citizens to pay their taxes? Is any one else afraid of how stupid we must appear from space? No wonder visitors never admit to being here! And we’re supposed to be the most advanced culture on this wet rock!
To the main point… I can appreciate the success of this political machine that you, the wealthiest few, have built for yourselves since World War II. Purchasing and maintaining both the DNC and the RNC was a stroke of pure genius. Gold star and a cookie for the fellow who planned that one!
Dudes, if the goal of big business in owning the electoral process here was to kill productivity while consolidating more and more assets into the hands of fewer and fewer families, Bush Cheney and their lobbyist-trained lapdog Democratic Congress is a crowning achievement. Mission accomplished! It’s a beautiful machine, quite productive, albeit complicated. The DC Gravy Train you all have built for your latest lackey, George Junior to wag around the track all day is impressive. My hat is off to you guys; touché and nicely done… Seriously, if I’m honest, I have to admit that I’m a little jealous sometimes. The problem is that your very successful business experiment has grown into a self-perpetuating, bureaucratic nightmare, which will continue to haunt us as long as you keep feeding it money. Surely you guys can see that it’s broken. Don’t you see the unfairness; which quite frankly, sucks?
I know part of the problem: not all of the lobbyists are controlled by just one checkbook or a close few. All of big business corporations and rich dudes got one in their garage.
Lobbyist on the payroll… It’s the latest in functional fashion statements!
The problem is that they’re in conflict with each other’s agendas. The failure of this purchased political system is that too many people purchased shares in it. While size still matters, none of the players has a Kings Tool in their asset collection. This system will never make a king. Damn the American System!
I would like to believe that Obama is a wrench in your monkey-works. That he’s a spunky young player in the game of life; intelligent and cunning. A young leader who usurped the powers that be, wiggling his way past the Political Party watch dogs on his education, his skills and the voices of the primary voters. Snatching the nomination away from the patsy de-jour of this political season that you were grooming to be on your oh so controllable payroll. (Sorry Hillary. You got stones girl, that’s for sure, but you and Bill played footsy with the PAC’s and lobbyists long enough that I still don’t trust you. I am hoping that Obama has brought you back from the Dark Side, as the convention implies, but I don’t trust you two just yet.)
If Obama is on the level, not on your take and wins this election, I just know that y’all aren’t going to give up a gravy train like the one you’ve built for yourself in DC with out a fight. Would it hurt that much to give a little? I don’t want a handout; just fair rules, easy paperwork and access to my government. Is that too much to ask?
I‘m nobody, but I’m not stupid. If you get down here on the level I live on, you will see that the natives are restless. I can’t see another 8 years of government, given a face by either party, and run by your lobbyists and PAC’s going by with out someone getting hurt.
Do we have to go through another revolution on this world? They’re so messy and hard on the infrastructure. It takes so long to rebuild lives worth living. Do we have to go through that again?
Can we at least get rid of the ‘mercenary lobbyist’ psudo-branch of the government and work out a fair tax code that most people can understand without having to hire a specialist?
Come on! It’s the least you can do, considering how much of the wealth running this country came directly from our European ancestors conquest of this planet and the sweat of those they conquered. Imagine what we can do if we actually start working together.
-Joe
Now, I’m not going to waste my time writing to po-dunk little old '5 million dollars in assets' rich folk… This letter is to the powerful rich; the multi-tens and multi-hundreds of millions of dollars in net worth players in this game we call life in America. The movers and shakers… but, the rest of y’all can read it too.
Rich dudes… Question for ya… What the fuck do you need that much money for?
Not that you didn’t produce or acquire your wealth honestly and legally. I’m sure for many of you it's a winners legacy, passed down and entrusted to you from a successful ancestral player. I’m sure others figured out the game for themselves, building their own family legacy. It is foolish to think that politically controlling amounts of wealth haven’t been ebbing and flowing in and out of various hands around here ever since Christopher Columbus went running home shouting, “Dudes! You’re never gonna guess what I’ve found!”. Those of you who have the eb flowing your way right now know who you are. You have controlling interest in a corporation that controls any part of a typical day in the life of an American Lobbyist.
Actually, my hat is off to you guys; touché and nicely done… Seriously, if I’m honest, I have to admit that I’m just a little jealous sometimes. Still, I’ve got to know. For curiosity sake if nothing else… Why do you feel the need to control so large a collection of assets? Even in today’s economy, I am so positive that, if I were to receive $1 million, net of taxes, I could invest that cash in a way that it would keep me, my kids, and their kids working, educated, self sufficient and living at least as well as I did when gas was $1.50, that I will bet anyone $1 million, net of taxes, that I can do it.
Just 1 little measly old million… And oh how it would seriously improve my lifestyle! I’ve never come close to 100 grand, let alone a million… not that I have it bad… I know I have it good compared to many… I’m working… I’m healthy. I’ve been to the third world… I believe it when they say that I am ranked among the richest 10% of people on the planet today. I’ve got digital TV and Internet service… I have a new hardwood floor and a sore back… I’m cool.
But, that is not necessarily the point here.
How do we know when some one wins at this game of life called Western Civilization that the Greeks and Romans so long ago set in motion for us to play? If we're going to play a game with a single play skill of 'acquire assets', and it's only rule for play is that you can’t take it with you when you die, shouldn’t we set a goal or something? Not a truly outrageous goal like a billion dollars in assets, one that would be attainable, but worthy of a winner’s crown in this game. How about that cool million that would have my family set for three generations, maybe more? I wonder how many Americans are already winners? I wonder if it’s true that 85% of Americans are among the wealthiest 90% of the people on this planet?
Which brings me to the real point of this letter.
When I was little, that 85% was 95%, if you believe the teacher I heard it from.
Dudes, the political contraption you guys have been working on since World War II is killing us with its mercenary lobbyists. I have to tell you, it looks like it has jumped out of your control and taken on a life of it’s own. Can you please stop feeding it so much money?
I know we live in a competitive world and a viable enterprise needs to be concerned about making payroll and profits, and I know that controlling the environment you do business in is an awesome way to control costs and maximize sales and profits, but come on y’all! Some of the bullshit going on in Washington has GOT to be embarrassing to you!
For example, let’s take just one of the corporate participants in the very lucrative ‘Do Your Yearly Club Dues Paperwork For You’ industry. In just one three month period this year, that corporate player gave $272,000 to Professional Tax Lobbyists. By my account, Professional Tax Lobbyists are a bunch of boys and girls who know everyone who works in the tax departments in government because they used to work there before getting their big salary lobby job.
Do you reckon that they earn their sizable salaries and bonuses by contributing handsomely, with their employers money, to the re-election campaigns of various elected officials and throwing parties for all their old co-workers and their bosses to try and convince Congress to simplify our yearly ‘Dues to This Club’ paperwork?
I can see it now… Over fancy drinks with little umbrellas, at a bar only slightly seedy - located somewhere in our nations capital; the velvety voice of a lobbyist begins to weave the magic of his latest pitch… “Come on, Congresswoman Donkey-Elephant, the paper work that people have to fill out to reconcile their American Club dues accounts every year needs to be made easier, so more people can do their own. You know our employers’ goal was only to help people out while you pulled your heads out of your asses and came up with a way to collect taxes on the retail or whole sale level instead of the consumer level so citizens wouldn’t have to do yearly paper work at all. We are so embarrassed here making so much money while doing nothing productive. Make it stop already! We’ll give your re-election campaign $50 if you can just find some way to make it a little easier for the American Working Stiffs to do the yearly paperwork.”
Maybe on Saturday Night Live…
Look, I don’t know how you got your money and I don’t care. Most of the powerful wealth in America can probably be traced back to wealthy European families becoming wealthy American families by investing in business opportunities in the New World. Of course, we all know what a fair shake for everybody playing the game of life on this rock back in that glory filled chapter of “The Life and Times of Western Civilization” turned out to be like. But that is another story. Let’s just call it ‘The Past’ for purposes of this thread. In this letter, the past doesn’t count.
Look, all I am asking for is a fair shake. I’m not like you guys, but that doesn’t mean I don’t appreciate the opportunities this country affords to a substantial portion of its more ambitious citizenry. I love being lazy in this country. I’m smart enough to earn what I need, healthy enough to be self-sufficient, and I can travel. For me, I like to keep things about as simple as I can while maintaining my opinion of a comfortable life. Right now, the paperwork is killing me! I don’t even want imagine the crap those poor ambitious bastards have to endure to juggle the paperwork for all the toys it takes to keep them happy.
Required yearly forms to fill out; so complicated that a whatever-billion dollar a year industry gets built by helping citizens to pay their taxes? Is any one else afraid of how stupid we must appear from space? No wonder visitors never admit to being here! And we’re supposed to be the most advanced culture on this wet rock!
To the main point… I can appreciate the success of this political machine that you, the wealthiest few, have built for yourselves since World War II. Purchasing and maintaining both the DNC and the RNC was a stroke of pure genius. Gold star and a cookie for the fellow who planned that one!
Dudes, if the goal of big business in owning the electoral process here was to kill productivity while consolidating more and more assets into the hands of fewer and fewer families, Bush Cheney and their lobbyist-trained lapdog Democratic Congress is a crowning achievement. Mission accomplished! It’s a beautiful machine, quite productive, albeit complicated. The DC Gravy Train you all have built for your latest lackey, George Junior to wag around the track all day is impressive. My hat is off to you guys; touché and nicely done… Seriously, if I’m honest, I have to admit that I’m a little jealous sometimes. The problem is that your very successful business experiment has grown into a self-perpetuating, bureaucratic nightmare, which will continue to haunt us as long as you keep feeding it money. Surely you guys can see that it’s broken. Don’t you see the unfairness; which quite frankly, sucks?
I know part of the problem: not all of the lobbyists are controlled by just one checkbook or a close few. All of big business corporations and rich dudes got one in their garage.
Lobbyist on the payroll… It’s the latest in functional fashion statements!
The problem is that they’re in conflict with each other’s agendas. The failure of this purchased political system is that too many people purchased shares in it. While size still matters, none of the players has a Kings Tool in their asset collection. This system will never make a king. Damn the American System!
I would like to believe that Obama is a wrench in your monkey-works. That he’s a spunky young player in the game of life; intelligent and cunning. A young leader who usurped the powers that be, wiggling his way past the Political Party watch dogs on his education, his skills and the voices of the primary voters. Snatching the nomination away from the patsy de-jour of this political season that you were grooming to be on your oh so controllable payroll. (Sorry Hillary. You got stones girl, that’s for sure, but you and Bill played footsy with the PAC’s and lobbyists long enough that I still don’t trust you. I am hoping that Obama has brought you back from the Dark Side, as the convention implies, but I don’t trust you two just yet.)
If Obama is on the level, not on your take and wins this election, I just know that y’all aren’t going to give up a gravy train like the one you’ve built for yourself in DC with out a fight. Would it hurt that much to give a little? I don’t want a handout; just fair rules, easy paperwork and access to my government. Is that too much to ask?
I‘m nobody, but I’m not stupid. If you get down here on the level I live on, you will see that the natives are restless. I can’t see another 8 years of government, given a face by either party, and run by your lobbyists and PAC’s going by with out someone getting hurt.
Do we have to go through another revolution on this world? They’re so messy and hard on the infrastructure. It takes so long to rebuild lives worth living. Do we have to go through that again?
Can we at least get rid of the ‘mercenary lobbyist’ psudo-branch of the government and work out a fair tax code that most people can understand without having to hire a specialist?
Come on! It’s the least you can do, considering how much of the wealth running this country came directly from our European ancestors conquest of this planet and the sweat of those they conquered. Imagine what we can do if we actually start working together.
-Joe
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................... /yawn
