Perfectly stated! While my bonuses were not in the same category as these elites, I requested that my production bonus be split with my workers. I took half and the rest was distributed to the crew. The rest of upper management though t I was some kind of nut. It's funny how that crew consistently broke all kinds of production records. My fellow managers still didn't get it. Try treating your people with some acknowledgement for your accomplishments which are in reality their accomplishments. Demand perfection but don't forget to reward it. It was bad enough to be paying substandard wages to University grads who out of desperation took labour jobs but that was what the job paid as it was the bottom of the ladder. Several of these young men climbed the ladder into management and it was through their own hard work. I also made it a practice to go out and do all of the same jobs that they did. How else do you understand and improve their conditions. Sadly, when we were bought out by a multinational it all came to an end. I quit in protest and disgust. I have no regrets over that decision.
Scott: $15,000 in a gift is TAX FREE! No SS or Medicare taxes on the money. No income taxes on the money. If the average take home pay of the concrete workers was $20k, it would almost double their take home pay. And take home pay is the only pay that matters.
Multiply $15k per year over thirty years and the worker gets almost half a million bucks TAX FREE and during the time when the workers need the money raising a family.
The concrete company executive who gave out the lump sum payment on his death bed was stupid IMO.
I didn't realize it was 15K, I thought it was 10k, but I still don't know how inheritance taxes work exactly, but I found the story and it looks like he set up a foundation to help people. It was an asphalt company not concrete.
I'm pretty sure his attorney helped him with the tax problem, so they probably came out all right.
Scott: PS: I read the link you gave above. As usual, the reporters don't give the tax details. "He paid the taxes." doesn't tell us much.
The owner of the asphalt paving company could have given all of his employees stock in the company. Then when the company was sold each employee would get money for his stock from the buyer or keep the stock in the new company.
The owner of the asphalt company wanted to own his company outright and then sold it for almost 1/2 billion dollars, felt guilty (IMO), and then paid out cash to employees and they took a big tax hit from the IRS.
I don't think any of this is fair. Abolish the income tax and the IRS.
Scott: Currently it is $15k max for the gift to be tax free. The limit is tied to inflation I think. Inheritance taxes should be abolished. It is double taxation and they are very complicated causing all kinds of mischief like foundations that pay NO taxes. The very wealthy manipulate inheritance taxes to protect themselves while ranchers, farmers, and small business owners cannot pass on their assets to their children.
Scott: A million dollar lump sum payment would be taxed heavily by the IRS and local state tax boards. They would take 40% of the money, maybe more. The owner of the concrete company should have done stock options or yearly gifts under the IRS gift tax limit. I think the gift limit (before it is taxed) is about $15k now.
Isn't there a cap on how much gifting the gifter can do in total, before *they* owe gift tax, even if the recipients do not?
I feel like I remember seeing something about that, as my in-laws gifted us a few grand to put towards some home improvements, and I was researching if we'd owe anything on it.
Steve: Not that I'm aware of. The tax limit is strictly on the recipients of the gift. e.g. A parent can give $15k to both his child and the child's spouse for a total of $30k per year.
Scott: I'm not pissed off at him. It would have been more efficient for tax purposes and other reasons, to give the employees tax free gifts of $10k/year.
I think you have hit upon the perfect arrangement between "labor" and "capital". Yes, seeing your inferiors as human beings does go a long way. I was the same way at the Steak House. If somebody wanted to leave early because of a date or whatever, I would try to accomodate them. And this led to a boost in camraderie and people actually liked to work there.
Isn't it funny how much respect you get when you're willing to show respect.. When my wife and I go to a restaurant when we go into town we always as the waitresses how their day is going. You would be surprised how many have told us that this is the only time that anyone ever asked them. Our society has become increasingly rude when they can't greet someone with "Hi, how are you doing? How much of the ignorance could be overcome if we just tried being kind to one another. Maybe I'm too optimistic.
Peter Sawchuck: I always ask the waiter or waitress how they are doing. And I listen to their replies. I've never regretted it. I like listening to real life stories. It makes me feel less alone.
Carlin joke when asked how one is going? well, my breath is a bit foul today, the arthritis in my elbows is mucking up, I cannot seem to get rid of this rash on my back , and my boyfriend refuses to wear a condom despite his having an affair with my stepmother's niece, but apart from that fine, how are you, and what would you like?" or somesuch.
I think my outlook was developed by having to work my way up from the bottom. I always tried to lead by example. I would routinely go out on the job and perform the most menial jobs including scrubbing washrooms and doing the back breaking labour. I would also routinely appoint my people to oversee a job in which they would be the boss and I would be just another labourer. This reinforced in everyone's mind what the other person's job really entailed. (Besides which I have always really enjoyed hard physical labour). Many of these young people went on to become managers in the Industry so it was a win for everybody. The company profited by producing management within their own ranks rather than outsourcing. I profited by my people excelling in competence and they profited by climbing the ladder. Twenty years removed from the industry I am still in touch with several of these youngsters (who are now in their fifties) who are still being successful even though I now live in relative isolation in Northern Canada.
Thank you Don. I'd like to point out that the credit should go to my two former bosses and mentors at this company. They spent a lot of time developing my expertise and self worth. I look up to them to this day. While one has unfortunately passed away the other is still going strong. He is now in his eighties and still going strong. When I spoke to him before Christmas he had just come back from a ski trip. I hope I am till that active if I get to live that long.
I would be an old bag lady living under a bridge right now had it not been for my legs and youth that attracted my husband to me, the man I chose to be my husband, who I knew had wealth. He is deceased now, but when I met him I honestly did not love him or really cared for him, I only wanted the security that came in exchange for the times he made sex to me. I had a change of heart after we had a couple kids, I honestly loved him, it took about seven years for me to fall in love with him. He was good to me and wasn't a pervert. He was a good man for over forty years. My kids were definitely born on third base, and I often remind them when they try and insinuate otherwise. My poor parents died penniless when I was a young lady. They had nothing as they were farm laborers. This story reminds me to give more away to those around me who don't have, I am not going to take any of it with me, and my kids definitely don't need that much, they have more now than I ever had at their age. Thanks to my husband I guess we were and are better off than most people, but I never forgot where I came from.
What refreshing honesty, Kate, and I'm glad it turned into love. Female attractiveness has always been one of the few roads to upward mobility. I'd always heard that my father's cousin had married Rutherford B. Hayes III. His family was dirt poor, so it seemed impossible that their paths would have crossed with the family of a former president of the United States. I located a photo of her, and not surprisingly she was very good-looking. Of course, we never met that side of the family. Only read about them on the society pages. Thanks for sharing!
That is courageous of you to be so honest, Kate. Why did your parents die penniless? Could you not have helped them? I'm not trying to be critical, I'm truly curious.
They died when I was 20, I met my husband at 23. I was working as a janitor in a Greyhound bus station. My parents left me nothing when they passed, they had me at a really old age.
You are a very rare and special woman. But Lady Poverty is a Good Woman, and we will especially find that out when we go before the Supreme Court in eternity.
You are darn tutin' you are not taking anything with you but your vices and virtues.
WW: My Dad had a poster in the garage: "Poverty Sucks". The poster shows an Englishman in full tweed attire with drink in hand and his foot on the running board of a Rolls Royce.
Lady Poverty was no friend to me although she did make me lose weight.
Lady Poverty probably added about 5 years to your life. At any rate, there is a difference between poverty and being absolutely destitute. I have, thank God, always been able to provide for the day, even when I had no idea where my next meal was coming from.
WW: Lady Poverty isn't too bad in the USA but down in the Amazon she's a killer. I've lived on Top Ramen and tea for a year. It was good for the soul and body but I wouldn't want to do it all my life.
You refer to it as crony-capitalism but you have been living under communism your whole life and don't know anything different. That tells me you are still confused.
Google the Communist Manifesto. Get past all the BS that is there just to confound and confuse you. Learn the 10 planks of communism which are all in effect here in the USA.
When you understand them you will see that they are all implemented by government. Communism would not exist without government and government (what we think of as government) would not exist.
Government is a Satanic religion run by the Synagogue of Satan. Their goal is world control. How do you achieve world control? You use government, govern equals control, mente equals mind; mind control.
Now look at the main Masonic symbol of the dividers, G, and the framing square. Dividers for divide and conquer, framing square to frame your opponents, and a G for Government to accomplish your objectives. Realize that Masons set up 'our government'. Freemasonry has been described as Judaism for Christians. Do you now understand who the enemy is?
I'm well aware that we've already established many of the planks of the Communist manifesto in this country, Anticriminals. As I've noted many times, American taxpayers finance a socialist cradle to grave state. But we get none of the services that countries like France, for instance, get in return. We have the worst of both worlds. Paying for socialism/communism, but getting bare bones, libertarian "services" in return. I'm also aware of all the masonic symbolism everywhere. I've seen enough photos dating back to the Civil War era, with all those influential figures stuffing their hand inside their coats. Thanks.
Not just "many", but all are in effect. Communism is government as government is communism. I stopped being a "taxpayer" in 1979. It is not defined in law as you think. You must study Title 26 US Code until you understand it. What an amazing work of fraud and deceit it is. Within that code is proof that they are not our government. Within that code is proof that they are waging war against us.
But common sense should tell you the same just by understanding that their Federal Reserve Note is nothing more than legalized counterfeit. They get everything for nothing. They rob you again with all their taxes. Taxes are nothing more than legalized extortion.
If you are not screaming at the top of your lungs that they are waging war against us then you still don't understand communism. It is war by deception! They cannot be our government!
I agree, Anticriminals. But for most people- certainly the ones I'm writing about in this article, they have no choice, thanks to FDR's "temporary" measure of withholding taxes via payroll. You must have been self-employed. Thanks.
For years I thought I was self-employed then I studied Title 26 US Code until I understood it.
Self-employed was defined as being a partner in a partnership with the federal government. It also meant that I had to make a profit by being that partner and that I would have to receive revenues from the government itself, less expenses, in order to have income, profits, or gains, synonymous terms.
With my knowledge I now understand the concept that what we do in the private sector is supposed to be private, as in none of their business.
I urge everyone to study that code until they understand that it does not apply to the private sector. Federal forms are for those that work for the federal government.
Most Form W-2s and Form 1099s are false information returns filed by corporations using accountants trained by the IRS, a major, major conflict of interest. Even the US Supreme Court has stated that He who relies on the IRS' interpretation of the law does so at their own peril. It is WAR BY DECEPTION!
Now imagine a criminal conspiracy too big to imagine as J. Edgar Hoover tried to tell you about.
If you're not self-employed, how do you not have your taxes automatically withheld from your paycheck? Millions would like to know how to do that. Thanks.
I am self-employed in a sense, but not by the governments' legal definition. That's why it is so important to read and understand the tax code. I also used to believe that I was a US citizen, but then I learned the legal definition was limited to those born or naturalized on federal properties or possessions.
I learned to work for private individuals. I don't work for corporations unless they pay up front.
No taxes are withheld. If they insist I pay taxes I don't work for them again. If they still insist I will ask for their accountants' name. That is who I will sue for filing a false information return. I gladly offer to show him where he is in error.
Also, if people would learn how to understand the tax code, labor (your compensation for labor/ services rendered) is not taxed at all under the tax code. Your paycheck represents compensation for a loss of your time and energies. It is an equal trade. Again it is none of the governments' business. Corporations are filing false information returns falsely reporting your compensation as taxable income and violating your right to privacy and subjecting you to extortion aka taxes.
Labor is not taxed and can actually be written off. Where it asks for "wages" I would write zero and attach an affidavit as to why using the tax code in your defense. The tax code is on your side if you know how to decipher the code. Yes, it is written in code. A very specific code. You just need the key to the code to unlock it.
It's always been a rigged game in America, but its gotten way worse in the last 40 years. I too, knew someone who was a cashier at Safeway...in 1979, my best friend's boyfriend (he was the first person I knew to have the latest expensive consumer toy of the day - a VCR). That year the Safeway company banquet happened to fall on my birthday, so he invited both of us as his guests. The fact that employees could invite guests, shows how generous Safeway was back then. What struck me about the banquet was how egalitarian it was...cashiers and management all dining together. I'm sure that all passed away before the nineties began.
I started reading obituaries carefully in 1993. As an astrologer, I hoped it would give me clues about what was going on for people up above, when they died (it helped a lot). However, I got another lesson I was not expecting...how there was basically no class movement in American lives. Folks who were going to expensive private schools and living in high class neighborhoods as a child, were having their wakes at the country club...and the opposite for everyone else.
Donald, I'm a bit surprised that you no-longer know anyone in the massive bottom layer. Every honest study that has ever been done, shows that the single biggest factor in a country with a thriving middle-class, is strict limits to immigration. I've only ever known working class folks, and I can tell you who used to do the landscaping and construction jobs ...boys just out of highschool who weren't (or were waiting) to go to college. I have a lot of immigrant friends, and they are finally getting a slap in the face about the non-existent "American dream"...as they struggle to pay their rent, and have to walk through homeless camps on their way to the store where they can barely afford groceries. As America 2.0 is being deliberately taken down...the blinders are coming off for the starry-eyed migrants who have been here a while. Meanwhile, for the starry-eyed dupes in every poor country, staring at their smart phones all day...the non-existent American dream is on steroids.
I shouldn't have said I don't know anyone in the bottom 50% of Americans, Kris. My mistake. I know several younger people who make less than $30,000, but at least some of them have a family safety net. I don't think they're quite in the same category. I've heard from people who have been homeless for brief periods, but I don't know any long-term homeless people. You make some great points here, as always. And yes, those employer picnics and Christmas parties were often wonderful. Employees could bring their family members. I think that's pretty rare nowadays. Thanks!
"Immigration is unquestionably the main reason for the drop in real blue-collar wages, and the virtual elimination of meaningful benefits."
Sorry Don, but you are terribly off the mark here. But first, let us look at what built "America 1.0"- The Post WW2 Crony Capitalism Boom.
Can you say "Military Industrial Complex"?
Once upon a time, about the year, say 1945, vast stretches of the world lay completely in ruins. Germany, France, England, Italy, and Japan, in particular, had been economic powers who combined accounted for 72% of the global economic output in 1938, and had been essentially bombed back into the stone age. Meanwhile, the United States, untouched by the war, had expanded industry by a whopping 500%. After the war, Jane Doe went back to the kitchen, and the returning doughboys filled the assembly lines. And instead of building bombers they built commercial planes, and instead of building tanks they built cars that were shipped to every corner of the globe. It would take years for Toyota and Mercedes and Fiat to make a comeback. Some companies, like Rolls-Royce, never really did. Detroit in particular made immense profits, and I will pick on Detroit in particular to point to the reasons for the decline.
The fact that the United States now had the Global Reserve Currency, which replaced the Pound Sterling and the Turkish Bezant, did not hurt either. The United States inherited the empires of both British Petroleum in the Middle East and Dutch Royal Shell in the Far East, and got to profit by rebuilding both Europe and Japan.
In effect, the world was paying tribute to the American Empire, which, like Rome of old, developed a subsidiary economy off of that wealth- the service sector.
All of this started to fold up and collapse like a house of cards in the late 1950's early 1960's, as Europe and Japan began to compete in the global export market, especially in the areas of durable goods. And the fact that the quality of American labor declined precipitously in the 1960's, thanks to bloated pay, corrupt management, and plain incompetence, did not help either. Nor, of course, did the overall decline of morals- particularly those pertaining to Holy Matrimony, help either.
All of that being said, America would get another proverbial shot in the arm with the dawn of OPEC and the Petrodollar, a rigged system which forced nations to buy oil and the ubiquitous plastic goods in dollars and so ensure the prosperity of the "American Securities Market" for two generations to come.
But beginning in the 1970's, American industry would be gutted like a fat pig. A combination of tax hikes, government regulations, and bloating "health care" costs did the trick, and by the late 1970's a MASSIVE exodus of manufacturing to overseas facilities was taking place, first to Japan, Korea, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Formosa- also known as Taiwan- and then to mainland China, thanks to Henry Kissenger.
America underwent the transformation from an "industrial" to a "service" economy. (Notice, of course, that agriculture never recovered its dominant role in the American economy it had had previous to World War I. "Farm subsidies" and "Health regulations" took care of that. Matt Walsh, like all controlled shills, never talks about restoring the "free market" of the family farm.) But those "service jobs" did not pay as well, because the "service economy" had to deal with bloated bureaucracy at all levels.
And so, all during the '80's, the medical racket, the legal racket, and the insurance rackets bloated to incredible levels. Subsidiaries of these were the Hospitality Racket and the Travel Racket. And concurrently, gov't at all levels bloated too.
Gov't subsidies and ballooning debt led to the ongoing party that was the '90's, which continued until that fateful day in September 2008, when the punchbowl went dry and many Americans had an epiphany.
But, apparently, not enough of an epiphany, as 2020 proved.
Lastly, may this Wolf humbly point out that some of those "immigrants" that are likely to do mayhem when it all hits the fan- which could be any day now- are those who lost much when we were delivering Democracy and Freedom to Iraq, Syria, Libya, Somalia, Lebanon, Afghanistan, Turkistan, and, more lately, Ukraine and Crimea.
Mondays are Hell.
Our Lady of Fatima, pray for us. You are our only hope!
Good points, WW. But with that postwar economy that was unlike any seen before or since in America, virtually every job paid enough for the worker to live independently, and almost all paid enough to buy a house, own a car, and have as many children as you desired. It's no coincidence that this booming economy came during a period when there was a moratorium any all immigration, including legal. When you flood the market with desperate people who will work for less than your lowest paid employees have been working for, you create the situation we find today. With employers acting as if they're doing you a favor by giving you a position that won't pay you enough to even rent an apartment, and often not enough to even buy a car to transport you to it. After all, they're magical "job creators." If the millions of illegals were deported, the job market would have to adjust, and you'd see a rise in salaries. Thanks.
Bingo! Up here in Communist Canada Trudeau is spending millions to shelter immigrants and next to nothing to help our own. I believe it is all by design. He has destroyed our standard of living and is destroying our morals and way of life at break neck speed. So many people living on the streets and in homeless encampments with no hope what so ever. These WEF goons have to go. They represent the evil of Klaus Shwab and Juval Harari not the good people of this country. The Axis troops called our soldiers the " Ladies from Hell" in reference the the kilts some of our battle groups sported. I guess the next war the opposition will be expected to die laughing at the sight of our transgender troops flitting across the fields in true cross dressing style. Even the new immigrants are seeing the writing on the wall and those who can still afford to are baling out in droves. It's absolutely sickening.
Paul Erlich made the same argument as regards children. "Look at all those children people are having. The next generation will have to find four jobs for every job now..."
Those millions of illegals have to eat and need shelter too, just like you and me.
Instead of deporting the illegals, how about we deport all the deadbeats, both illegals and US Citizens, to Alaska. They can feed the Polar Bears while the rest of us make America great again.
I think you've mapped out the transitions exceptionally well. You certainly are correct in pointing out the impact of those transitions over the preceding decades.
I might still defend Don's argument from a practical standpoint though. I have worked as a blue collar worker all of my life. I witnessed the changes that NAFTA created for the American worker in 1994. Before that time, I remember a difference in the hiring practices and that there were still decent benefits to be had. For example, you actually might get a cost of living increase each year and there was separate sick and vacation pay, which would later be combined as Paid Time Off.
The negative, from a business standpoint, is that almost anybody was hired and trained, but it was difficult to retain many of those workers. I think there was a concerted effort to solve this specific problem.
I don't know much about Human Resources as it is taught in school, but it appears the tables were flipped around this time (1994); companies focused on competition by making hiring practices much more selective; you had to have "experience" to get your foot in the door or know somebody to reference your work ethic and trustworthiness. Nothing really wrong with some some of that, but there is an oddity when any language around being entry level disappears. How do you gain experience, when practices become so selective? Isn't that counter-intuitive? Isn't there a missing bit of rationality?
On a larger scale, companies were able to take their business overseas without any real friction. This taking business out of the US was truly a variation of what Immigration does.
I'd argue that immigration is an offshoot of this competition model. Poorer people can come here, work for slave wages (slave wages in the context of our cost of living standards), send the money back home and live like royalty whenever they choose to leave. Sure, Americans have benefitted from the suppression of the economies in other regions of the world; We might benefit from this disparity while we vacation in a far off destination ... that is, if we can afford to go anywhere.
Our currency has been worth the most (you pointed that out well in what you wrote). But our disadvantage, is that we have no equivalent place or practice to reap the kind of reward an immigrant would have coming here. You could say that the American economy is the ceiling for that American blue collar worker while immigration has allowed people in those poorer countries, in subtler ways, a better life than us.
Great points, Joel. Almost everyone used to learn on the job. Now they ask for "experience" in almost any job. How exactly are you supposed to start your working career with "experience?" Thanks!
Yes, good help has always been hard to get. Integrity is not something you get off a shelf or from the back of a truck. It is instilled in a Christian home and is the foundation of any society. Without it all else is doomed to fail.
That was exactly what U.S. Grant said, when his wife was caught still having a slave AFTER the Civil War, WW. "Good help is hard to find." Yes, it is. Especially if you don't pay them. Thanks.
Around 1994, when NAFTA stuck the final nails in the coffin of the US manufacturing economy, we also saw the rise in the "temporary help" market. Kelly Girl, Personnel Pool, and Manpower were just three of the better known ones. What companies started to do was have temps in the lowest rungs of entry level and then invite the harder working ones- illegal or not- to more permanent positions with the possibility of working in the ranks. Concurrently, they gave their bloated personnel departments the heave-ho.
When I worked the temporary jobs, I got multiple job offers at a bagel plant, an auto plant, and a concrete plant. The auto plant would have been especially lucrative. But I was not interested because I was locating out west...
WW: I would only add that when President Nixon interrupted the Bonanza Western TV show on Sunday night, August 15th, 1971 to announce that dollars would no longer be redeemed in gold from Ft. Knox. The French (DeGaulle) had sent a French battleship to NYC to redeem American paper dollars held by France for gold from the USA.
Look at a graph of American wages and inflation after 1971. Inflation goes up quickly. American wages stay flat and have ever since August of 1971.
I was an "entrepreneur" for many years and finally folded it all because my clients increasingly thought as the years passed that trying to force me into accepting an assignment for very little money was "good business". All under the threat they could hire someone who knew nothing about the work involved for much less. This not only denigrated the skills it took to do the job well, skills I had accumulated over many year of experience, but also forced me to either accept the low ball payment that I couldn't live on or cheat and give the client an inferior product for the low pay.
It simply wasn't worth it. So when young people say they don't see a future in any of this, I agree because there isn't one.
Also, I want to be clear about the "open borders". I lived in Texas for many years. There has always been an "open border" that no one spoke of. The entire state of Texas was built by impoverished illegals who will live in conditions no animal would tolerate just to make a little money to send back to Mexico. Walk in ANY restaurant in Texas and you will find illegal workers everywhere. There are multitudes of other industries that always employ illegals. It's a way of life in Texas. Texas has built itself on the backs of impoverished illegals. What's happening now is a psyop and Gov. Abbott is a playa. Beware. Don't drink the Kool-Aid.
I'm afraid it's beyond hope at this point. The patient is stage four terminal, or has probably already
died and been resurrected like Frankenstein's monster. I mean it must be that over half of the entire
economy is built on artificial demand. Take the Covid whackzinnes for instance, they must have produced 20 billion doses of that toxic substance when in fact zero doses was needed, not to mention the ventilators, the test kits, the ridiculous masks, the antibiotic hand sanitizers, and the list goes on...
Then we could look at the ridiculous net zero policies. You can't give away a used EV because it costs more to change out the batteries or dispose of it than it's worth. Whole counties are being converted to wind and solar farms, likewise, out to sea, monstrous windmills are erected the size of which is unimaginable with the hopes of catching some wind,, not too much though or the utility gets paid for
turning them OFF, and Siemens just made us aware that those turbines are kind of well obsolescent, and the bigger they are and the more remote (like out to sea) the more difficult it is to replace them.
Well, who could have seen THAT coming!?
And even worse is the artificial demand of the wars, and like Don mentioned the not-so-intelligent intelligence agencies, my God talk about raping and pillaging, Attila the Hun would be astounded.
It's all artificial economics. This kind of thing competes with the organic economy. Just one more example, NASA needed 37,000 truckloads of sand just to build a berm along Cape Kennedy to help
prevent flooding events. I'm pretty sure that if you lived in Orlando the cost of getting a load of sand probably went up while they were hauling it all out to sea.
So, then the problem arises that since all these artificial jobs have been created, the elimination of any of them creates a bust cycle in the local economies. Try to close a base, or stop an arms program, or stop selling weapons, or selling drugs, and the local economy is like a fish out of water.
Karl Marx ripped of his 10 planks of the communist manifesto from Moses Hess, a rabbi like himself though of the preceding generation. These planks have been embedded into the fabric of American society and canonized in American law since the early part of the 20th century. Capitalism is the mother bitch that spawned communism, and both of those abominations are the antithesis of National Socialism. To attain great wealth, and I mean billionaire status, one must be connected to the Controller's network via bloodlines and/or secret society affiliation. No one through hard work "earns" billions of dollars. That's like saying, with hard training, you can pole vault across the Grand Canyon. Those with the family ties always wind up at the apex of their category, be it entertainment (which includes politics), high finance/banking, the legal industry, or military, military Intell, or so-called "law enforcement." Simply put, it's all fixed and rigged, a great game in which we proles are ruthlessly excluded from. Thanks, but I wouldn't join your club even on invitation. When the dust finally settles, it just ain't worth it. Thanks for a great piece, Don.
Brilliant points, Hereticdrummer. I love the pole vault analogy. I discussed this question of worth in my book. None of the world's richest people seem to have contributed anything of substance to society, unless you count Bill Gates' personal computer, when he stole the technology from Steve Jobs, who stole it from IBM. It's like crediting a really gorgeous woman with "building" her beauty. Thanks!
Thank you, Don. All of the Silicon Valley hi-tech monster entities are the creation of DARPA, rolled out in accordance with a military Intel timetable. Freaks like Gates, Jobs, Musk, Zuckerberg, ad nauseum, are just front puppets. Because these super rich slime contribute nothing to society's productivity, they must be propped up by a slave system at the base of the socio-economic pyramid. That is why the plantation complex of the antebellum South was supplanted by the prison industries, wherein convicts work and manufacture things at chattel wages for pennies on the dollar. Concomitantly, why the U.S. has per capita the highest incarceration rates in recorded history. The, "Indispensable Nation." Be well, Brother.
I taken comfort in the fact that 97% of Australian adults got fully jabbed. (if you can believe the official stats)... that includes all manner of clever and rich people.
Communism and National Socialism are actually very similar. The main difference is that the National Socialist gives his allegiance to the National Entity while the Communist gives his allegiance to a mythical "workers paradise". But in each case, the State is God, bequeathing everything to the Sheeple and having the power to take it all away.
The "Workers Paradise", of course, has many flavors. Pius XII had his version. Huey Long had his. And David Rockerfeller had his.
Many want to give peace a chance.
I would also like to give the unregulated family farm a chance.
National Socialism and Communism are opposites are evinced by the historical fact that the bastion of capitalism, the U.S., locked bloody arms with the bastion of communism, the USSR, to smash the one system for Aryans that can obliterate and throw off the yoke of both of these demonic, kosher abominations. There was total freedom of religion in NS Germany so long as your faith did not rescind or interfere with your loyalty to your folk and nation and in truth, that is the foremost way to honor God. Check out, "The Holy Reich ... " by Richard Steigmann. Countless, fervent National Socialists were also practicing Christians.
National Socialism and Communism were both financed by the same boys that run the Federal Reserve, the Bank of London, the Bank of International Settlements, and the Hong-Kong/Singapore British Commercial Bank.
That is easily proven B.S. That stems from the falsifications of Anthony Sutton's eminently forgettable, "Wall Street and the Rise of Hitler". Incredibly within his book, he concedes there is no verifiable proof that Wall Street and the big banks financed Hitler. He just shows some standard trade and business transactions between Germany and some other nations. The NS movement was grass roots and financed by the German people. Wall Street and the big financial monsters not only bankrolled bolshevik communism, but in fact created it. Not to belabor the point but communism, like its' mother bitch capitalism, are both the antithesis of National Socialism and everything it stands for.
Back in the 80's it was possible to learn on the job and work your way up without a college degree, which is what I and most of my friends did. I did attend community college on a pell grant without finishing. Young people today do not have the same opportunities my generation had. I really feel for them.
My heart goes out to people like you, Smoke. Like others I know, you clearly have a lot to offer the world. I just wish this magical marketplace would give you an opportunity. Thanks.
Join the club. I am a Boomer and I lived with my parents for a large portion of my life too. Now, I always did have money, and contributed to the wealth of the household, but why go out and rent an apartment and have bills and pay all those taxes when I can live with my parents, enjoy ma's cooking, and live largely worry free. And for their part, my parents never realized all the joys of being "empty nesters" until the day they died.
I lived at home with my mother and brother until I got married at 29, WW. I was able to save enough to buy the little townhouse by the railroad tracks, which we were later able to turn into the single-family home we presently enjoy. Thanks.
Appreciate you sharing your life experience there, Wolf. Living here in Oregon, there's no chance I could earn enough to afford my own place, what with my lack of skills and college credentials as well. I agree with you that there are benefits to living with your parents - at least some semblance of family is maintained, although my parents are unfortunately totally brainwashed by the system. I pray against all likelihood that they wake up at least partially at some point...
I moved to California in the early 80s with a few hundred bucks, no car, no nothing.
I moved in with two other guys, one was a friend. We were one mile from the beach in Huntington Beach. Three guys in a two bedroom apartment. I slept on the couch for over a year. Since I had no car I took a job at a nursing home up the street. It was a very valuable experience. I even met my wife there, still together after almost 40 years. The wages were so low you wouldn't believe it, but I worked double shifts, made my share of the rent, and eventually bought a 240Z Datsun from a guy in prison on 100 dollar payments. Eventually the roommates moved out and I had three days to find an new apartment, but my car broke down and I had to learn how to replace the head gasket in order to even drive, and I had no place to go, so I looked in the newspaper and found a guy looking for a roommate. I somehow got the car running and moved in there for a year. Oh, and before I got the car the apt. manager gave me an abandoned bicycle, so I at least could ride to the beach whenever I wanted. I got robbed one time after cashing a check. A young lady with a baby said she needed to use my phone, but while she distracted me with the baby she was going through my wallet. I guess she knew it was Friday and I would have money in my wallet. That was two weeks worth of money. Anyway it was a long slow slog uphill. There were a lot of good times and bad times...
Thank you Scott. I found your story really inspiring - I'm very glad things eventually worked out for you. It is amazing how life throws these events at us and we can either crumble or face the challenges head on. I appreciate you sharing your experiences. I hope all is good with you these days.
Smoke and Kris: Us Puget Sound folk always called people from Oregon "Or-a-gonads" or if feeling lively "Or-a-gonadians". I'm not sure people still know what a gonad is.
Smoke and I must be neighbors, we use the same library. Together we pressured the staff to stock Donald's book MASKING THE TRUTh...and I believe Smoke got them to purchase another one of Donald's books.
Maybe you could join forces and banish all the fags from Drag Queen Story Hour. Then again you would probably get smeared by the School Board. It was a thought.
Yeah, I had brainwashed parents too. It was only two days before she died that my mother said "Michael, you were right about everything." My Father finally saw the light too before he died.
It's a true blessing that you were able to experience that with your parents before they each passed. I pray that my parents will wake up at least to some extent before it's too late as well.
Actually, yes. I started doing my own laundry in about the eight grade, when my mother had a massive laundry crisis because she got tired of washing all my brothers' clothes after they started changing 3 times a day- school uniform to baseball outfit to pajamas, with sometimes a recreation outfit in between. As for me, I basically kept the same clothes all week. I never wore pajamas once I got the paper route- just went right from bed to the circuit, then into the school uniform outer wear during the school year. In summer, I wore the same clothes for five days straight. My brothers were a different story. I did about one load every two weeks. They did a load every two days.
WW: You and I share a similar sentiments about laundry. I do change my underwear often though. I also had a morning paper route but slept in pajamas. I grew to like the predawn quiet and solitude on my paper route in Lincoln, Nebraska. While people slept I was out riding my three-speed Raleigh. The stars were so bright in the winter. I think of those days often.
I used to walk my paper route- too many places would require me to get off my bike, and often it was faster cutting through back yards and over fences. And yes, I remember the stars. When the moon was not out, Venus would cast shadows across the snow. I also remember all my encounters with dogs. The Assistant Editor to the paper, cannot recall his name, had two large collies. Having been indoctrinated by Lassie, I thought they were friendly. To this day, "Lassie" is the only dog to have ever really sunk her teeth into me. I also remember one customer in the cul de sac that had the biggest, dumbest dog you could ever imagine. They kept him in the garage with the door open about 4 inches. He would stick his snout under the door, I would tap his nose, and he would have a fit. This continued for six months until, the very last day I had the route, somebody yelled out the window "Stop teasing the dog!"
I used to love the sunrises in winter too. So beautiful. The vivid purples and reds, the greens very early. The chemtrails have really ruined winter sunrises.
WW: The sunrises in winter were beautiful. I never had trouble with dogs as I stayed on my Raleigh three-speed and threw the papers on the porches. I did fall asleep one early morning on my bike. The bike hit the rear of a parked car. I flew over the handle bars and woke up in the snow. I got back on the bike and finished my route.
On one cold early morning, I rode up to one house and saw the car in the driveway bouncing about with steamed windows. I gazed inside and saw an 8th grade girl at my school doing an act with a man I wasn't familiar with. I never said a word and the girl always gave me a nice tip when I came to collect for the paper.
“…Donald Trump wasn’t alone in being born on third base, and thinking he’d hit a home run. One could argue that nearly all the most successful people in the world were born on third base, or at least second base.”
This reminds me of the not-so-great baseball player, Bob Uecker, who only played 6 years in the majors with a lifetime batting average of just .200. He is far better known for his broadcasting career, as well as his acting career (Mr. Belvedere and Major League). He was a catcher, known for arguing calls by the home plate umpire. Always self-deprecating, Bob tells the story of him being interviewed by a sports journalist and asked a hypothetical question: “You’re on third base and you decide to steal home. You slide into home plate and the umpire calls you SAFE. Are you going to argue the call?” Bob’s reply, “how’d I get on third?”
That’s the question none of those privileged people ask. I don’t think I would have even gotten to first base if I didn’t get hit by a pitch.
I always liked Bob Uecker's self-deprecating sense-of-humor, but I never heard that anecdote before. I literally guffawed-out-loud. And I need to share it with my Brother tomorrow. Thank you! Funniest thing I encountered this entire day.
DJ: My parents generation did get rewarded in a meritocracy. Perhaps this was just a Midwestern phenomena.
My parents came from nothing in Minneapolis. When I was born in 1952, my parents lived in a converted garage with a leaky roof and a defective oil heater. They lived on tuna fish and popcorn.
But they both worked hard. My parents also took risks. My Dad was on the road as a salesman half of the year. Mom raised us kids on her own. They moved often as Dad moved his way up the corporate ladder. Sales performance can't be hidden by the bosses. Bonuses based upon sales are paid or else the salesman moves to another company.
My parents moved from Minneapolis to Lacrosse to Green Bay to Milwaukee to Cleveland to Lincoln to Mendham, NJ to Kansas City. They became experts at moving. Us kids went to so many different schools that we've lost count of them.
The final job in KC was the riskiest one of all. The company stock was worth $1/share. My Dad, as Chief Operating Officer, was tasked with turning the company around. The job hurt his health. He gained weight and became pale as he labored long hours cleaning up the product line and the books of the company. He found good products to sell and good salesman. He had five other executives in the company who all worked together from production to sales to personnel to product development to finance. They called themselves "The Six-Pack".
And they did it! The stock price went up. It was the most successful company in the USA in the 1980s. The owner of the company became a billionaire. He owned the KC Royals baseball team. The owner was also willing to share the wealth with the associates. They all received stock in the company as part of their pay. If they held onto the stock, even the janitors became millionaires.
The company was efficient. People who didn't do the work were fired. In the company 1,000 associates created $1 billion in sales. The company that eventually bought up my Dad's company had 3,000 employees for $1 billion in sales.
DJ may well be right that this path to success is no longer available in the USA. But it was once.
That's a great story, Timmy, and I have known of several others like it. Yes, it was possible to rise up the ladder back then, and hard work definitely did make a difference. I don't know when it changed exactly, but immigration and our disastrous trade policies certainly were important reasons. But my book shows just how rare it has been for the past fifty years or so. Thanks.
A real money system to replace the global money cabal is in need for sure. The United States is designed to be self sufficient and we really don't need foreign trade survive...prosper yes, survive no. The whole world is aware of the Zionist control system and to make a lasting change that whole house needs to be destroyed. Preferably before they destroy us.
I remember back in 1974 when I started my first full-time job, I didn't have any particular set of skills, being fresh out of high school. My neighbor lady had a friend who worked for a large corporation and an interview was setup and it went from there. Back then, you could get into a company via a recommendation. I worked my way up, somewhat, in the company. If you showed a willingness to do the job, learn new skills, and were reliable, you were a keeper. Of course, being on the lower end of the employment spectrum, raises were a pittance. One had to bow down and kiss the arse of the royal boss for chicken droppings. I witnessed in the early 80s how the company sold million dollar equipment to China and I asked the sales guys, "How can China afford those big expensive mining shovels? They're a 3rd world country!" Their faces turned red and they didn't answer me. Back then, we had good insurance coverage. The shop people had a Union and I remember a couple of times when they went on strike. That company ended up being sold a few times over now because one President totally mismanaged the family run business. Basically bilking the company but of course, never ended up in prison. The rich never do. Back before I was hired, the original owner used to walk thru the shop and say hello to ALL the workers. You do not get that kind of treatment any longer. Not unless you're very small. Companies want you to have a degree just to sharpen pencils. And the BS about being "over qualified". Who cares, as long as a person has the willingness to do the job and will agree to the terms of pay. Well, the young can find jobs at Amazon, but I guarantee they'll work you to death and if you make a couple of mistakes, you're back out on the streets.
Received your "Survival of the Richest" book today, so I'll have to let you know my thoughts once I finish reading it. Your book has excellent reviews on Amazon.
truthwinsalways: When the help runs out of the mansion and takes the silverware on the way out, that's when the elites will know that they are on the way out.
Perfectly stated! While my bonuses were not in the same category as these elites, I requested that my production bonus be split with my workers. I took half and the rest was distributed to the crew. The rest of upper management though t I was some kind of nut. It's funny how that crew consistently broke all kinds of production records. My fellow managers still didn't get it. Try treating your people with some acknowledgement for your accomplishments which are in reality their accomplishments. Demand perfection but don't forget to reward it. It was bad enough to be paying substandard wages to University grads who out of desperation took labour jobs but that was what the job paid as it was the bottom of the ladder. Several of these young men climbed the ladder into management and it was through their own hard work. I also made it a practice to go out and do all of the same jobs that they did. How else do you understand and improve their conditions. Sadly, when we were bought out by a multinational it all came to an end. I quit in protest and disgust. I have no regrets over that decision.
You remind me of the guy in Michigan who owned a very successful concrete business.
When he died he left his fortune to be distributed among his employees whom he must have loved and respected for their hard work and dedication.
todays model employer is one who did not coerce his workers to get the poison jabs. living is the beginning of any retirement plan.
That's great to hear, Scott. Thanks!
Scott: The concrete guy in Michigan should have distributed the money to the employees while he was alive.
Seriously?
The guy leaves you a million bucks and you would be pissed off at him.
Oookay.
Scott: $15,000 in a gift is TAX FREE! No SS or Medicare taxes on the money. No income taxes on the money. If the average take home pay of the concrete workers was $20k, it would almost double their take home pay. And take home pay is the only pay that matters.
Multiply $15k per year over thirty years and the worker gets almost half a million bucks TAX FREE and during the time when the workers need the money raising a family.
The concrete company executive who gave out the lump sum payment on his death bed was stupid IMO.
I didn't realize it was 15K, I thought it was 10k, but I still don't know how inheritance taxes work exactly, but I found the story and it looks like he set up a foundation to help people. It was an asphalt company not concrete.
I'm pretty sure his attorney helped him with the tax problem, so they probably came out all right.
https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/ceo-gives-workers-128m/
Scott: PS: I read the link you gave above. As usual, the reporters don't give the tax details. "He paid the taxes." doesn't tell us much.
The owner of the asphalt paving company could have given all of his employees stock in the company. Then when the company was sold each employee would get money for his stock from the buyer or keep the stock in the new company.
The owner of the asphalt company wanted to own his company outright and then sold it for almost 1/2 billion dollars, felt guilty (IMO), and then paid out cash to employees and they took a big tax hit from the IRS.
I don't think any of this is fair. Abolish the income tax and the IRS.
Scott: Currently it is $15k max for the gift to be tax free. The limit is tied to inflation I think. Inheritance taxes should be abolished. It is double taxation and they are very complicated causing all kinds of mischief like foundations that pay NO taxes. The very wealthy manipulate inheritance taxes to protect themselves while ranchers, farmers, and small business owners cannot pass on their assets to their children.
Scott: A million dollar lump sum payment would be taxed heavily by the IRS and local state tax boards. They would take 40% of the money, maybe more. The owner of the concrete company should have done stock options or yearly gifts under the IRS gift tax limit. I think the gift limit (before it is taxed) is about $15k now.
Isn't there a cap on how much gifting the gifter can do in total, before *they* owe gift tax, even if the recipients do not?
I feel like I remember seeing something about that, as my in-laws gifted us a few grand to put towards some home improvements, and I was researching if we'd owe anything on it.
Steve: Not that I'm aware of. The tax limit is strictly on the recipients of the gift. e.g. A parent can give $15k to both his child and the child's spouse for a total of $30k per year.
Scott: I'm not pissed off at him. It would have been more efficient for tax purposes and other reasons, to give the employees tax free gifts of $10k/year.
I think you have hit upon the perfect arrangement between "labor" and "capital". Yes, seeing your inferiors as human beings does go a long way. I was the same way at the Steak House. If somebody wanted to leave early because of a date or whatever, I would try to accomodate them. And this led to a boost in camraderie and people actually liked to work there.
Isn't it funny how much respect you get when you're willing to show respect.. When my wife and I go to a restaurant when we go into town we always as the waitresses how their day is going. You would be surprised how many have told us that this is the only time that anyone ever asked them. Our society has become increasingly rude when they can't greet someone with "Hi, how are you doing? How much of the ignorance could be overcome if we just tried being kind to one another. Maybe I'm too optimistic.
Peter Sawchuck: I always ask the waiter or waitress how they are doing. And I listen to their replies. I've never regretted it. I like listening to real life stories. It makes me feel less alone.
Carlin joke when asked how one is going? well, my breath is a bit foul today, the arthritis in my elbows is mucking up, I cannot seem to get rid of this rash on my back , and my boyfriend refuses to wear a condom despite his having an affair with my stepmother's niece, but apart from that fine, how are you, and what would you like?" or somesuch.
You are correct. Chivalry is dead. We live in the age of Shivalry.
Peter, that is such an inspiring thing to hear. If only there were more like you in positions of management. Thanks!
I think my outlook was developed by having to work my way up from the bottom. I always tried to lead by example. I would routinely go out on the job and perform the most menial jobs including scrubbing washrooms and doing the back breaking labour. I would also routinely appoint my people to oversee a job in which they would be the boss and I would be just another labourer. This reinforced in everyone's mind what the other person's job really entailed. (Besides which I have always really enjoyed hard physical labour). Many of these young people went on to become managers in the Industry so it was a win for everybody. The company profited by producing management within their own ranks rather than outsourcing. I profited by my people excelling in competence and they profited by climbing the ladder. Twenty years removed from the industry I am still in touch with several of these youngsters (who are now in their fifties) who are still being successful even though I now live in relative isolation in Northern Canada.
I wish I'd had bosses like you, Peter. Thanks!
Thank you Don. I'd like to point out that the credit should go to my two former bosses and mentors at this company. They spent a lot of time developing my expertise and self worth. I look up to them to this day. While one has unfortunately passed away the other is still going strong. He is now in his eighties and still going strong. When I spoke to him before Christmas he had just come back from a ski trip. I hope I am till that active if I get to live that long.
I would be an old bag lady living under a bridge right now had it not been for my legs and youth that attracted my husband to me, the man I chose to be my husband, who I knew had wealth. He is deceased now, but when I met him I honestly did not love him or really cared for him, I only wanted the security that came in exchange for the times he made sex to me. I had a change of heart after we had a couple kids, I honestly loved him, it took about seven years for me to fall in love with him. He was good to me and wasn't a pervert. He was a good man for over forty years. My kids were definitely born on third base, and I often remind them when they try and insinuate otherwise. My poor parents died penniless when I was a young lady. They had nothing as they were farm laborers. This story reminds me to give more away to those around me who don't have, I am not going to take any of it with me, and my kids definitely don't need that much, they have more now than I ever had at their age. Thanks to my husband I guess we were and are better off than most people, but I never forgot where I came from.
What refreshing honesty, Kate, and I'm glad it turned into love. Female attractiveness has always been one of the few roads to upward mobility. I'd always heard that my father's cousin had married Rutherford B. Hayes III. His family was dirt poor, so it seemed impossible that their paths would have crossed with the family of a former president of the United States. I located a photo of her, and not surprisingly she was very good-looking. Of course, we never met that side of the family. Only read about them on the society pages. Thanks for sharing!
That is courageous of you to be so honest, Kate. Why did your parents die penniless? Could you not have helped them? I'm not trying to be critical, I'm truly curious.
They died when I was 20, I met my husband at 23. I was working as a janitor in a Greyhound bus station. My parents left me nothing when they passed, they had me at a really old age.
You are a very rare and special woman. But Lady Poverty is a Good Woman, and we will especially find that out when we go before the Supreme Court in eternity.
You are darn tutin' you are not taking anything with you but your vices and virtues.
May Our Lady of Fatima help see you through.
WW: My Dad had a poster in the garage: "Poverty Sucks". The poster shows an Englishman in full tweed attire with drink in hand and his foot on the running board of a Rolls Royce.
Lady Poverty was no friend to me although she did make me lose weight.
Lady Poverty probably added about 5 years to your life. At any rate, there is a difference between poverty and being absolutely destitute. I have, thank God, always been able to provide for the day, even when I had no idea where my next meal was coming from.
WW: Lady Poverty isn't too bad in the USA but down in the Amazon she's a killer. I've lived on Top Ramen and tea for a year. It was good for the soul and body but I wouldn't want to do it all my life.
You refer to it as crony-capitalism but you have been living under communism your whole life and don't know anything different. That tells me you are still confused.
Google the Communist Manifesto. Get past all the BS that is there just to confound and confuse you. Learn the 10 planks of communism which are all in effect here in the USA.
When you understand them you will see that they are all implemented by government. Communism would not exist without government and government (what we think of as government) would not exist.
Government is a Satanic religion run by the Synagogue of Satan. Their goal is world control. How do you achieve world control? You use government, govern equals control, mente equals mind; mind control.
Now look at the main Masonic symbol of the dividers, G, and the framing square. Dividers for divide and conquer, framing square to frame your opponents, and a G for Government to accomplish your objectives. Realize that Masons set up 'our government'. Freemasonry has been described as Judaism for Christians. Do you now understand who the enemy is?
I'm well aware that we've already established many of the planks of the Communist manifesto in this country, Anticriminals. As I've noted many times, American taxpayers finance a socialist cradle to grave state. But we get none of the services that countries like France, for instance, get in return. We have the worst of both worlds. Paying for socialism/communism, but getting bare bones, libertarian "services" in return. I'm also aware of all the masonic symbolism everywhere. I've seen enough photos dating back to the Civil War era, with all those influential figures stuffing their hand inside their coats. Thanks.
Not just "many", but all are in effect. Communism is government as government is communism. I stopped being a "taxpayer" in 1979. It is not defined in law as you think. You must study Title 26 US Code until you understand it. What an amazing work of fraud and deceit it is. Within that code is proof that they are not our government. Within that code is proof that they are waging war against us.
But common sense should tell you the same just by understanding that their Federal Reserve Note is nothing more than legalized counterfeit. They get everything for nothing. They rob you again with all their taxes. Taxes are nothing more than legalized extortion.
If you are not screaming at the top of your lungs that they are waging war against us then you still don't understand communism. It is war by deception! They cannot be our government!
I agree, Anticriminals. But for most people- certainly the ones I'm writing about in this article, they have no choice, thanks to FDR's "temporary" measure of withholding taxes via payroll. You must have been self-employed. Thanks.
For years I thought I was self-employed then I studied Title 26 US Code until I understood it.
Self-employed was defined as being a partner in a partnership with the federal government. It also meant that I had to make a profit by being that partner and that I would have to receive revenues from the government itself, less expenses, in order to have income, profits, or gains, synonymous terms.
With my knowledge I now understand the concept that what we do in the private sector is supposed to be private, as in none of their business.
I urge everyone to study that code until they understand that it does not apply to the private sector. Federal forms are for those that work for the federal government.
Most Form W-2s and Form 1099s are false information returns filed by corporations using accountants trained by the IRS, a major, major conflict of interest. Even the US Supreme Court has stated that He who relies on the IRS' interpretation of the law does so at their own peril. It is WAR BY DECEPTION!
Now imagine a criminal conspiracy too big to imagine as J. Edgar Hoover tried to tell you about.
If you're not self-employed, how do you not have your taxes automatically withheld from your paycheck? Millions would like to know how to do that. Thanks.
I am self-employed in a sense, but not by the governments' legal definition. That's why it is so important to read and understand the tax code. I also used to believe that I was a US citizen, but then I learned the legal definition was limited to those born or naturalized on federal properties or possessions.
I learned to work for private individuals. I don't work for corporations unless they pay up front.
No taxes are withheld. If they insist I pay taxes I don't work for them again. If they still insist I will ask for their accountants' name. That is who I will sue for filing a false information return. I gladly offer to show him where he is in error.
Also, if people would learn how to understand the tax code, labor (your compensation for labor/ services rendered) is not taxed at all under the tax code. Your paycheck represents compensation for a loss of your time and energies. It is an equal trade. Again it is none of the governments' business. Corporations are filing false information returns falsely reporting your compensation as taxable income and violating your right to privacy and subjecting you to extortion aka taxes.
Labor is not taxed and can actually be written off. Where it asks for "wages" I would write zero and attach an affidavit as to why using the tax code in your defense. The tax code is on your side if you know how to decipher the code. Yes, it is written in code. A very specific code. You just need the key to the code to unlock it.
The Freemasons are mostly useful idiots. If you want to see the top of the Pyramid, read the Gospel of St John.
Lackeys for the jews, and practicing Caballa Lite. no positive mention of Jesus since ~1700.
It's always been a rigged game in America, but its gotten way worse in the last 40 years. I too, knew someone who was a cashier at Safeway...in 1979, my best friend's boyfriend (he was the first person I knew to have the latest expensive consumer toy of the day - a VCR). That year the Safeway company banquet happened to fall on my birthday, so he invited both of us as his guests. The fact that employees could invite guests, shows how generous Safeway was back then. What struck me about the banquet was how egalitarian it was...cashiers and management all dining together. I'm sure that all passed away before the nineties began.
I started reading obituaries carefully in 1993. As an astrologer, I hoped it would give me clues about what was going on for people up above, when they died (it helped a lot). However, I got another lesson I was not expecting...how there was basically no class movement in American lives. Folks who were going to expensive private schools and living in high class neighborhoods as a child, were having their wakes at the country club...and the opposite for everyone else.
Donald, I'm a bit surprised that you no-longer know anyone in the massive bottom layer. Every honest study that has ever been done, shows that the single biggest factor in a country with a thriving middle-class, is strict limits to immigration. I've only ever known working class folks, and I can tell you who used to do the landscaping and construction jobs ...boys just out of highschool who weren't (or were waiting) to go to college. I have a lot of immigrant friends, and they are finally getting a slap in the face about the non-existent "American dream"...as they struggle to pay their rent, and have to walk through homeless camps on their way to the store where they can barely afford groceries. As America 2.0 is being deliberately taken down...the blinders are coming off for the starry-eyed migrants who have been here a while. Meanwhile, for the starry-eyed dupes in every poor country, staring at their smart phones all day...the non-existent American dream is on steroids.
I shouldn't have said I don't know anyone in the bottom 50% of Americans, Kris. My mistake. I know several younger people who make less than $30,000, but at least some of them have a family safety net. I don't think they're quite in the same category. I've heard from people who have been homeless for brief periods, but I don't know any long-term homeless people. You make some great points here, as always. And yes, those employer picnics and Christmas parties were often wonderful. Employees could bring their family members. I think that's pretty rare nowadays. Thanks!
Meanwhile, it is all fake and Ghey.
You nailed it. The internet is 100% fantasy.
"Immigration is unquestionably the main reason for the drop in real blue-collar wages, and the virtual elimination of meaningful benefits."
Sorry Don, but you are terribly off the mark here. But first, let us look at what built "America 1.0"- The Post WW2 Crony Capitalism Boom.
Can you say "Military Industrial Complex"?
Once upon a time, about the year, say 1945, vast stretches of the world lay completely in ruins. Germany, France, England, Italy, and Japan, in particular, had been economic powers who combined accounted for 72% of the global economic output in 1938, and had been essentially bombed back into the stone age. Meanwhile, the United States, untouched by the war, had expanded industry by a whopping 500%. After the war, Jane Doe went back to the kitchen, and the returning doughboys filled the assembly lines. And instead of building bombers they built commercial planes, and instead of building tanks they built cars that were shipped to every corner of the globe. It would take years for Toyota and Mercedes and Fiat to make a comeback. Some companies, like Rolls-Royce, never really did. Detroit in particular made immense profits, and I will pick on Detroit in particular to point to the reasons for the decline.
The fact that the United States now had the Global Reserve Currency, which replaced the Pound Sterling and the Turkish Bezant, did not hurt either. The United States inherited the empires of both British Petroleum in the Middle East and Dutch Royal Shell in the Far East, and got to profit by rebuilding both Europe and Japan.
In effect, the world was paying tribute to the American Empire, which, like Rome of old, developed a subsidiary economy off of that wealth- the service sector.
All of this started to fold up and collapse like a house of cards in the late 1950's early 1960's, as Europe and Japan began to compete in the global export market, especially in the areas of durable goods. And the fact that the quality of American labor declined precipitously in the 1960's, thanks to bloated pay, corrupt management, and plain incompetence, did not help either. Nor, of course, did the overall decline of morals- particularly those pertaining to Holy Matrimony, help either.
All of that being said, America would get another proverbial shot in the arm with the dawn of OPEC and the Petrodollar, a rigged system which forced nations to buy oil and the ubiquitous plastic goods in dollars and so ensure the prosperity of the "American Securities Market" for two generations to come.
But beginning in the 1970's, American industry would be gutted like a fat pig. A combination of tax hikes, government regulations, and bloating "health care" costs did the trick, and by the late 1970's a MASSIVE exodus of manufacturing to overseas facilities was taking place, first to Japan, Korea, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Formosa- also known as Taiwan- and then to mainland China, thanks to Henry Kissenger.
America underwent the transformation from an "industrial" to a "service" economy. (Notice, of course, that agriculture never recovered its dominant role in the American economy it had had previous to World War I. "Farm subsidies" and "Health regulations" took care of that. Matt Walsh, like all controlled shills, never talks about restoring the "free market" of the family farm.) But those "service jobs" did not pay as well, because the "service economy" had to deal with bloated bureaucracy at all levels.
And so, all during the '80's, the medical racket, the legal racket, and the insurance rackets bloated to incredible levels. Subsidiaries of these were the Hospitality Racket and the Travel Racket. And concurrently, gov't at all levels bloated too.
Gov't subsidies and ballooning debt led to the ongoing party that was the '90's, which continued until that fateful day in September 2008, when the punchbowl went dry and many Americans had an epiphany.
But, apparently, not enough of an epiphany, as 2020 proved.
Lastly, may this Wolf humbly point out that some of those "immigrants" that are likely to do mayhem when it all hits the fan- which could be any day now- are those who lost much when we were delivering Democracy and Freedom to Iraq, Syria, Libya, Somalia, Lebanon, Afghanistan, Turkistan, and, more lately, Ukraine and Crimea.
Mondays are Hell.
Our Lady of Fatima, pray for us. You are our only hope!
Good points, WW. But with that postwar economy that was unlike any seen before or since in America, virtually every job paid enough for the worker to live independently, and almost all paid enough to buy a house, own a car, and have as many children as you desired. It's no coincidence that this booming economy came during a period when there was a moratorium any all immigration, including legal. When you flood the market with desperate people who will work for less than your lowest paid employees have been working for, you create the situation we find today. With employers acting as if they're doing you a favor by giving you a position that won't pay you enough to even rent an apartment, and often not enough to even buy a car to transport you to it. After all, they're magical "job creators." If the millions of illegals were deported, the job market would have to adjust, and you'd see a rise in salaries. Thanks.
Bingo! Up here in Communist Canada Trudeau is spending millions to shelter immigrants and next to nothing to help our own. I believe it is all by design. He has destroyed our standard of living and is destroying our morals and way of life at break neck speed. So many people living on the streets and in homeless encampments with no hope what so ever. These WEF goons have to go. They represent the evil of Klaus Shwab and Juval Harari not the good people of this country. The Axis troops called our soldiers the " Ladies from Hell" in reference the the kilts some of our battle groups sported. I guess the next war the opposition will be expected to die laughing at the sight of our transgender troops flitting across the fields in true cross dressing style. Even the new immigrants are seeing the writing on the wall and those who can still afford to are baling out in droves. It's absolutely sickening.
Paul Erlich made the same argument as regards children. "Look at all those children people are having. The next generation will have to find four jobs for every job now..."
Those millions of illegals have to eat and need shelter too, just like you and me.
Instead of deporting the illegals, how about we deport all the deadbeats, both illegals and US Citizens, to Alaska. They can feed the Polar Bears while the rest of us make America great again.
I think you've mapped out the transitions exceptionally well. You certainly are correct in pointing out the impact of those transitions over the preceding decades.
I might still defend Don's argument from a practical standpoint though. I have worked as a blue collar worker all of my life. I witnessed the changes that NAFTA created for the American worker in 1994. Before that time, I remember a difference in the hiring practices and that there were still decent benefits to be had. For example, you actually might get a cost of living increase each year and there was separate sick and vacation pay, which would later be combined as Paid Time Off.
The negative, from a business standpoint, is that almost anybody was hired and trained, but it was difficult to retain many of those workers. I think there was a concerted effort to solve this specific problem.
I don't know much about Human Resources as it is taught in school, but it appears the tables were flipped around this time (1994); companies focused on competition by making hiring practices much more selective; you had to have "experience" to get your foot in the door or know somebody to reference your work ethic and trustworthiness. Nothing really wrong with some some of that, but there is an oddity when any language around being entry level disappears. How do you gain experience, when practices become so selective? Isn't that counter-intuitive? Isn't there a missing bit of rationality?
On a larger scale, companies were able to take their business overseas without any real friction. This taking business out of the US was truly a variation of what Immigration does.
I'd argue that immigration is an offshoot of this competition model. Poorer people can come here, work for slave wages (slave wages in the context of our cost of living standards), send the money back home and live like royalty whenever they choose to leave. Sure, Americans have benefitted from the suppression of the economies in other regions of the world; We might benefit from this disparity while we vacation in a far off destination ... that is, if we can afford to go anywhere.
Our currency has been worth the most (you pointed that out well in what you wrote). But our disadvantage, is that we have no equivalent place or practice to reap the kind of reward an immigrant would have coming here. You could say that the American economy is the ceiling for that American blue collar worker while immigration has allowed people in those poorer countries, in subtler ways, a better life than us.
Great points, Joel. Almost everyone used to learn on the job. Now they ask for "experience" in almost any job. How exactly are you supposed to start your working career with "experience?" Thanks!
Yes, good help has always been hard to get. Integrity is not something you get off a shelf or from the back of a truck. It is instilled in a Christian home and is the foundation of any society. Without it all else is doomed to fail.
That was exactly what U.S. Grant said, when his wife was caught still having a slave AFTER the Civil War, WW. "Good help is hard to find." Yes, it is. Especially if you don't pay them. Thanks.
Around 1994, when NAFTA stuck the final nails in the coffin of the US manufacturing economy, we also saw the rise in the "temporary help" market. Kelly Girl, Personnel Pool, and Manpower were just three of the better known ones. What companies started to do was have temps in the lowest rungs of entry level and then invite the harder working ones- illegal or not- to more permanent positions with the possibility of working in the ranks. Concurrently, they gave their bloated personnel departments the heave-ho.
When I worked the temporary jobs, I got multiple job offers at a bagel plant, an auto plant, and a concrete plant. The auto plant would have been especially lucrative. But I was not interested because I was locating out west...
WW: I would only add that when President Nixon interrupted the Bonanza Western TV show on Sunday night, August 15th, 1971 to announce that dollars would no longer be redeemed in gold from Ft. Knox. The French (DeGaulle) had sent a French battleship to NYC to redeem American paper dollars held by France for gold from the USA.
Look at a graph of American wages and inflation after 1971. Inflation goes up quickly. American wages stay flat and have ever since August of 1971.
You mean a French battleship actually crossed the ocean without sinking?
WW: LOL! I'm sure the French ship needed a full overhaul when it returned to France.
Excellent article. Thank you.
I was an "entrepreneur" for many years and finally folded it all because my clients increasingly thought as the years passed that trying to force me into accepting an assignment for very little money was "good business". All under the threat they could hire someone who knew nothing about the work involved for much less. This not only denigrated the skills it took to do the job well, skills I had accumulated over many year of experience, but also forced me to either accept the low ball payment that I couldn't live on or cheat and give the client an inferior product for the low pay.
It simply wasn't worth it. So when young people say they don't see a future in any of this, I agree because there isn't one.
Also, I want to be clear about the "open borders". I lived in Texas for many years. There has always been an "open border" that no one spoke of. The entire state of Texas was built by impoverished illegals who will live in conditions no animal would tolerate just to make a little money to send back to Mexico. Walk in ANY restaurant in Texas and you will find illegal workers everywhere. There are multitudes of other industries that always employ illegals. It's a way of life in Texas. Texas has built itself on the backs of impoverished illegals. What's happening now is a psyop and Gov. Abbott is a playa. Beware. Don't drink the Kool-Aid.
Great comment, Pirate. Thanks for sharing your experiences!
I'm afraid it's beyond hope at this point. The patient is stage four terminal, or has probably already
died and been resurrected like Frankenstein's monster. I mean it must be that over half of the entire
economy is built on artificial demand. Take the Covid whackzinnes for instance, they must have produced 20 billion doses of that toxic substance when in fact zero doses was needed, not to mention the ventilators, the test kits, the ridiculous masks, the antibiotic hand sanitizers, and the list goes on...
Then we could look at the ridiculous net zero policies. You can't give away a used EV because it costs more to change out the batteries or dispose of it than it's worth. Whole counties are being converted to wind and solar farms, likewise, out to sea, monstrous windmills are erected the size of which is unimaginable with the hopes of catching some wind,, not too much though or the utility gets paid for
turning them OFF, and Siemens just made us aware that those turbines are kind of well obsolescent, and the bigger they are and the more remote (like out to sea) the more difficult it is to replace them.
Well, who could have seen THAT coming!?
And even worse is the artificial demand of the wars, and like Don mentioned the not-so-intelligent intelligence agencies, my God talk about raping and pillaging, Attila the Hun would be astounded.
It's all artificial economics. This kind of thing competes with the organic economy. Just one more example, NASA needed 37,000 truckloads of sand just to build a berm along Cape Kennedy to help
prevent flooding events. I'm pretty sure that if you lived in Orlando the cost of getting a load of sand probably went up while they were hauling it all out to sea.
So, then the problem arises that since all these artificial jobs have been created, the elimination of any of them creates a bust cycle in the local economies. Try to close a base, or stop an arms program, or stop selling weapons, or selling drugs, and the local economy is like a fish out of water.
The monster IS ALIVE!
I like the idea of America being a demonic form of impure life like Frankenstein, Scott. Certainly many of our people are now akin to zombies. Thanks!
Yes, humanly speaking, it has been beyond hope since the Reagan administration.
Karl Marx ripped of his 10 planks of the communist manifesto from Moses Hess, a rabbi like himself though of the preceding generation. These planks have been embedded into the fabric of American society and canonized in American law since the early part of the 20th century. Capitalism is the mother bitch that spawned communism, and both of those abominations are the antithesis of National Socialism. To attain great wealth, and I mean billionaire status, one must be connected to the Controller's network via bloodlines and/or secret society affiliation. No one through hard work "earns" billions of dollars. That's like saying, with hard training, you can pole vault across the Grand Canyon. Those with the family ties always wind up at the apex of their category, be it entertainment (which includes politics), high finance/banking, the legal industry, or military, military Intell, or so-called "law enforcement." Simply put, it's all fixed and rigged, a great game in which we proles are ruthlessly excluded from. Thanks, but I wouldn't join your club even on invitation. When the dust finally settles, it just ain't worth it. Thanks for a great piece, Don.
Brilliant points, Hereticdrummer. I love the pole vault analogy. I discussed this question of worth in my book. None of the world's richest people seem to have contributed anything of substance to society, unless you count Bill Gates' personal computer, when he stole the technology from Steve Jobs, who stole it from IBM. It's like crediting a really gorgeous woman with "building" her beauty. Thanks!
Thank you, Don. All of the Silicon Valley hi-tech monster entities are the creation of DARPA, rolled out in accordance with a military Intel timetable. Freaks like Gates, Jobs, Musk, Zuckerberg, ad nauseum, are just front puppets. Because these super rich slime contribute nothing to society's productivity, they must be propped up by a slave system at the base of the socio-economic pyramid. That is why the plantation complex of the antebellum South was supplanted by the prison industries, wherein convicts work and manufacture things at chattel wages for pennies on the dollar. Concomitantly, why the U.S. has per capita the highest incarceration rates in recorded history. The, "Indispensable Nation." Be well, Brother.
I taken comfort in the fact that 97% of Australian adults got fully jabbed. (if you can believe the official stats)... that includes all manner of clever and rich people.
Communism and National Socialism are actually very similar. The main difference is that the National Socialist gives his allegiance to the National Entity while the Communist gives his allegiance to a mythical "workers paradise". But in each case, the State is God, bequeathing everything to the Sheeple and having the power to take it all away.
The "Workers Paradise", of course, has many flavors. Pius XII had his version. Huey Long had his. And David Rockerfeller had his.
Many want to give peace a chance.
I would also like to give the unregulated family farm a chance.
National Socialism and Communism are opposites are evinced by the historical fact that the bastion of capitalism, the U.S., locked bloody arms with the bastion of communism, the USSR, to smash the one system for Aryans that can obliterate and throw off the yoke of both of these demonic, kosher abominations. There was total freedom of religion in NS Germany so long as your faith did not rescind or interfere with your loyalty to your folk and nation and in truth, that is the foremost way to honor God. Check out, "The Holy Reich ... " by Richard Steigmann. Countless, fervent National Socialists were also practicing Christians.
National Socialism and Communism were both financed by the same boys that run the Federal Reserve, the Bank of London, the Bank of International Settlements, and the Hong-Kong/Singapore British Commercial Bank.
That is easily proven B.S. That stems from the falsifications of Anthony Sutton's eminently forgettable, "Wall Street and the Rise of Hitler". Incredibly within his book, he concedes there is no verifiable proof that Wall Street and the big banks financed Hitler. He just shows some standard trade and business transactions between Germany and some other nations. The NS movement was grass roots and financed by the German people. Wall Street and the big financial monsters not only bankrolled bolshevik communism, but in fact created it. Not to belabor the point but communism, like its' mother bitch capitalism, are both the antithesis of National Socialism and everything it stands for.
Back in the 80's it was possible to learn on the job and work your way up without a college degree, which is what I and most of my friends did. I did attend community college on a pell grant without finishing. Young people today do not have the same opportunities my generation had. I really feel for them.
It's great to hear from a fellow community college dropout, Annette. You are exactly right. Thanks!
Yes, back in the '80's you might actually learn something in College. Today, forget it.
As a millenial with no money who also lives with their parents, I thank you for writing this valuable piece Don.
My heart goes out to people like you, Smoke. Like others I know, you clearly have a lot to offer the world. I just wish this magical marketplace would give you an opportunity. Thanks.
Thank you Don. Really appreciate your writing giving a voice to the unheard.
Join the club. I am a Boomer and I lived with my parents for a large portion of my life too. Now, I always did have money, and contributed to the wealth of the household, but why go out and rent an apartment and have bills and pay all those taxes when I can live with my parents, enjoy ma's cooking, and live largely worry free. And for their part, my parents never realized all the joys of being "empty nesters" until the day they died.
I lived at home with my mother and brother until I got married at 29, WW. I was able to save enough to buy the little townhouse by the railroad tracks, which we were later able to turn into the single-family home we presently enjoy. Thanks.
Appreciate you sharing your life experience there, Wolf. Living here in Oregon, there's no chance I could earn enough to afford my own place, what with my lack of skills and college credentials as well. I agree with you that there are benefits to living with your parents - at least some semblance of family is maintained, although my parents are unfortunately totally brainwashed by the system. I pray against all likelihood that they wake up at least partially at some point...
Don't ever give up, SS.
I moved to California in the early 80s with a few hundred bucks, no car, no nothing.
I moved in with two other guys, one was a friend. We were one mile from the beach in Huntington Beach. Three guys in a two bedroom apartment. I slept on the couch for over a year. Since I had no car I took a job at a nursing home up the street. It was a very valuable experience. I even met my wife there, still together after almost 40 years. The wages were so low you wouldn't believe it, but I worked double shifts, made my share of the rent, and eventually bought a 240Z Datsun from a guy in prison on 100 dollar payments. Eventually the roommates moved out and I had three days to find an new apartment, but my car broke down and I had to learn how to replace the head gasket in order to even drive, and I had no place to go, so I looked in the newspaper and found a guy looking for a roommate. I somehow got the car running and moved in there for a year. Oh, and before I got the car the apt. manager gave me an abandoned bicycle, so I at least could ride to the beach whenever I wanted. I got robbed one time after cashing a check. A young lady with a baby said she needed to use my phone, but while she distracted me with the baby she was going through my wallet. I guess she knew it was Friday and I would have money in my wallet. That was two weeks worth of money. Anyway it was a long slow slog uphill. There were a lot of good times and bad times...
Thank you Scott. I found your story really inspiring - I'm very glad things eventually worked out for you. It is amazing how life throws these events at us and we can either crumble or face the challenges head on. I appreciate you sharing your experiences. I hope all is good with you these days.
Sounds like maybe you should have stayed with your parents.
Oregon is a special niche of hell, in a dying country.
Couldn't agree more, my friend.
Smoke and Kris: Us Puget Sound folk always called people from Oregon "Or-a-gonads" or if feeling lively "Or-a-gonadians". I'm not sure people still know what a gonad is.
Ha ha gonad is a great word - I use it regularly. And it's pretty apt for Oregonians too if I'm honest...nice one :)
Where do you live in Oregon? The further from I-5 the better.
Smoke and I must be neighbors, we use the same library. Together we pressured the staff to stock Donald's book MASKING THE TRUTh...and I believe Smoke got them to purchase another one of Donald's books.
Which library is this again, Kris? My shadow banned book is in very few of them, so I thank both you and Smoke for your efforts.
It's in the Brookwood branch of the Hillsboro Library.
Oh yeah Kris I just collected Don's latest book from the library yesterday actually. I presume you might be next on the list then lol
Maybe you could join forces and banish all the fags from Drag Queen Story Hour. Then again you would probably get smeared by the School Board. It was a thought.
Not far from Portland, sadly. We're pretty near I-5 and all. Is there anywhere left in the USA that's livable? Wondering about that...
Way up in the Hills of Wild, WOnderful West Virginia. Let the Country Roads take you home.
Yeah, I had brainwashed parents too. It was only two days before she died that my mother said "Michael, you were right about everything." My Father finally saw the light too before he died.
It's a true blessing that you were able to experience that with your parents before they each passed. I pray that my parents will wake up at least to some extent before it's too late as well.
Yes, I pray for my parents every day to hasten their purgatory. I will pray for yours as well.
Thank you Wolf.
WW: But did you do your own laundry?
Actually, yes. I started doing my own laundry in about the eight grade, when my mother had a massive laundry crisis because she got tired of washing all my brothers' clothes after they started changing 3 times a day- school uniform to baseball outfit to pajamas, with sometimes a recreation outfit in between. As for me, I basically kept the same clothes all week. I never wore pajamas once I got the paper route- just went right from bed to the circuit, then into the school uniform outer wear during the school year. In summer, I wore the same clothes for five days straight. My brothers were a different story. I did about one load every two weeks. They did a load every two days.
WW: You and I share a similar sentiments about laundry. I do change my underwear often though. I also had a morning paper route but slept in pajamas. I grew to like the predawn quiet and solitude on my paper route in Lincoln, Nebraska. While people slept I was out riding my three-speed Raleigh. The stars were so bright in the winter. I think of those days often.
As for your brothers, they're nuts.
I used to walk my paper route- too many places would require me to get off my bike, and often it was faster cutting through back yards and over fences. And yes, I remember the stars. When the moon was not out, Venus would cast shadows across the snow. I also remember all my encounters with dogs. The Assistant Editor to the paper, cannot recall his name, had two large collies. Having been indoctrinated by Lassie, I thought they were friendly. To this day, "Lassie" is the only dog to have ever really sunk her teeth into me. I also remember one customer in the cul de sac that had the biggest, dumbest dog you could ever imagine. They kept him in the garage with the door open about 4 inches. He would stick his snout under the door, I would tap his nose, and he would have a fit. This continued for six months until, the very last day I had the route, somebody yelled out the window "Stop teasing the dog!"
I used to love the sunrises in winter too. So beautiful. The vivid purples and reds, the greens very early. The chemtrails have really ruined winter sunrises.
WW: The sunrises in winter were beautiful. I never had trouble with dogs as I stayed on my Raleigh three-speed and threw the papers on the porches. I did fall asleep one early morning on my bike. The bike hit the rear of a parked car. I flew over the handle bars and woke up in the snow. I got back on the bike and finished my route.
On one cold early morning, I rode up to one house and saw the car in the driveway bouncing about with steamed windows. I gazed inside and saw an 8th grade girl at my school doing an act with a man I wasn't familiar with. I never said a word and the girl always gave me a nice tip when I came to collect for the paper.
Great Article!
Thanks, Mike!
“…Donald Trump wasn’t alone in being born on third base, and thinking he’d hit a home run. One could argue that nearly all the most successful people in the world were born on third base, or at least second base.”
This reminds me of the not-so-great baseball player, Bob Uecker, who only played 6 years in the majors with a lifetime batting average of just .200. He is far better known for his broadcasting career, as well as his acting career (Mr. Belvedere and Major League). He was a catcher, known for arguing calls by the home plate umpire. Always self-deprecating, Bob tells the story of him being interviewed by a sports journalist and asked a hypothetical question: “You’re on third base and you decide to steal home. You slide into home plate and the umpire calls you SAFE. Are you going to argue the call?” Bob’s reply, “how’d I get on third?”
That’s the question none of those privileged people ask. I don’t think I would have even gotten to first base if I didn’t get hit by a pitch.
Lol. Great story, Michael. Thanks!
HILARIOUS story, Michael!
I always liked Bob Uecker's self-deprecating sense-of-humor, but I never heard that anecdote before. I literally guffawed-out-loud. And I need to share it with my Brother tomorrow. Thank you! Funniest thing I encountered this entire day.
~ D-FensDogG
DJ: My parents generation did get rewarded in a meritocracy. Perhaps this was just a Midwestern phenomena.
My parents came from nothing in Minneapolis. When I was born in 1952, my parents lived in a converted garage with a leaky roof and a defective oil heater. They lived on tuna fish and popcorn.
But they both worked hard. My parents also took risks. My Dad was on the road as a salesman half of the year. Mom raised us kids on her own. They moved often as Dad moved his way up the corporate ladder. Sales performance can't be hidden by the bosses. Bonuses based upon sales are paid or else the salesman moves to another company.
My parents moved from Minneapolis to Lacrosse to Green Bay to Milwaukee to Cleveland to Lincoln to Mendham, NJ to Kansas City. They became experts at moving. Us kids went to so many different schools that we've lost count of them.
The final job in KC was the riskiest one of all. The company stock was worth $1/share. My Dad, as Chief Operating Officer, was tasked with turning the company around. The job hurt his health. He gained weight and became pale as he labored long hours cleaning up the product line and the books of the company. He found good products to sell and good salesman. He had five other executives in the company who all worked together from production to sales to personnel to product development to finance. They called themselves "The Six-Pack".
And they did it! The stock price went up. It was the most successful company in the USA in the 1980s. The owner of the company became a billionaire. He owned the KC Royals baseball team. The owner was also willing to share the wealth with the associates. They all received stock in the company as part of their pay. If they held onto the stock, even the janitors became millionaires.
The company was efficient. People who didn't do the work were fired. In the company 1,000 associates created $1 billion in sales. The company that eventually bought up my Dad's company had 3,000 employees for $1 billion in sales.
DJ may well be right that this path to success is no longer available in the USA. But it was once.
That's a great story, Timmy, and I have known of several others like it. Yes, it was possible to rise up the ladder back then, and hard work definitely did make a difference. I don't know when it changed exactly, but immigration and our disastrous trade policies certainly were important reasons. But my book shows just how rare it has been for the past fifty years or so. Thanks.
What was the name of the purchasing company?
Merrill Dow which has since been bought out by a large European pharmaceutical company.
A real money system to replace the global money cabal is in need for sure. The United States is designed to be self sufficient and we really don't need foreign trade survive...prosper yes, survive no. The whole world is aware of the Zionist control system and to make a lasting change that whole house needs to be destroyed. Preferably before they destroy us.
I remember back in 1974 when I started my first full-time job, I didn't have any particular set of skills, being fresh out of high school. My neighbor lady had a friend who worked for a large corporation and an interview was setup and it went from there. Back then, you could get into a company via a recommendation. I worked my way up, somewhat, in the company. If you showed a willingness to do the job, learn new skills, and were reliable, you were a keeper. Of course, being on the lower end of the employment spectrum, raises were a pittance. One had to bow down and kiss the arse of the royal boss for chicken droppings. I witnessed in the early 80s how the company sold million dollar equipment to China and I asked the sales guys, "How can China afford those big expensive mining shovels? They're a 3rd world country!" Their faces turned red and they didn't answer me. Back then, we had good insurance coverage. The shop people had a Union and I remember a couple of times when they went on strike. That company ended up being sold a few times over now because one President totally mismanaged the family run business. Basically bilking the company but of course, never ended up in prison. The rich never do. Back before I was hired, the original owner used to walk thru the shop and say hello to ALL the workers. You do not get that kind of treatment any longer. Not unless you're very small. Companies want you to have a degree just to sharpen pencils. And the BS about being "over qualified". Who cares, as long as a person has the willingness to do the job and will agree to the terms of pay. Well, the young can find jobs at Amazon, but I guarantee they'll work you to death and if you make a couple of mistakes, you're back out on the streets.
You have some great anecdotes, Fran. Thanks for sharing!
Received your "Survival of the Richest" book today, so I'll have to let you know my thoughts once I finish reading it. Your book has excellent reviews on Amazon.
Great! I'd be eager to hear your thoughts, Fran. Thanks!
American elites are heading for a massive social revolution.
The American Elites are headed to their own destruction. They have outlived their usefullness.
truthwinsalways: When the help runs out of the mansion and takes the silverware on the way out, that's when the elites will know that they are on the way out.