IPFS Powell Gammill

Fascist Nation

More About: Economy - Economics USA

Universal Service? Tell Them You Already Gave at the Office.

Quite a few politicians on both sides of the isle -- like there is a difference -- are calling for a universal service (a compulsory 2 to 3 years for now of ultralow wage government service) by our country's young people.  Universal service being a euphemism for "the draft," conscription, bondage, servitude ... "we're the government, and we own your life to do with as we please." 
Well I am here to tell you, that you already give generously, and quite involuntarily your life in the service of government  each and every day you work or spend money.  You already participate in universal service.  So does (did) your parents, grandparents and maybe even your great-grandparents.

You work.  You produce goods and/ or services.  Your labor is converted into cash.  Cash is convenient because it can be readily transferred and converted freely back into an unlimited variety of products or services that you exchange. Very nice.

But cash can be very convenient for government too. Government confiscates (robs) a percentage of these dollars you earn, and concomitantly they steal the equivalent amount of labor you performed to earn those dollars.  They have already conscripted your service.  You must work more to make up the difference.  How much more?

Federal income taxes typically grabs about 25% of your income.  Your state, and even municipalities may suck up a further percentage at the level of income, usually over 10%.  This forces you to work longer.  This tempts you to hide income -- facing severe penalties.  This discourages you from working, as the compensation you receive for your labor becomes increasingly inadequate (in your opinion -- which since you are exchanging YOUR labor, is the only opinion that counts).  Further many other taxes are added onto your earnings, including the visit from Mr. FICA (half of which is paid by your employer, but really is just more deducted from you only hidden from your view), mandated government programs such as unemployment insurance, employee compensation, etc.  It adds up fast.

But that is just the beginning.  In most places you are taxed at the point of the cash-product exchange.  State and local sales tax.  Sometimes federal taxes are added, like at the pump.  Numerous excise taxes are applied to products and services, often "temporary" taxes put in place during "wars" that never seem to go away, and indeed have existed since the Spanish-American War!

But that is not all.  Any product you are buying has been taxed at all points from raw materials production and import to assembly to packaging to transportation multiple times, to arriving at the vendor from who you make your purchase .  Those taxes, every last penny, are transferred onto YOU -- the final consumer.  So the goods you buy cost  A LOT MORE than the vendor would like to sell them to you for.  The only time you do not pay is when an "Out of Business" sign is hung on the door of a company involved in the process of getting goods or services to you.  This is another way of say, corporations (and businesses) DO NOT pay taxes, no matter how high the government gladly taxes them to make you happy.  ALL costs must be passed on to the ultimate consumer or you are out of business.  Suckers!

Easily the total of all the above exceeds 50% taxation levels.  As many have noted in two income families, one spouse works to feed the family while the other labors to feed the insatiable, ever ravenous maw of government .

But this does not include the costs added onto the products or services you purchase by regulatory demands upon both you and especially the manufacturer (usually including many hidden multiple manufacturers and importers), shipper and vendor of the product you acquired.  They have to keep up with employee payroll, taxation costs, pollution controls, mandated health benefits , "safe" workplace conditions, lawsuits, union protections encoded into law,  community shakedown extortions, on and on.  All that compliance adds up in compliance, legal advice, and fines.  All of this cost gets passed on to you at the point of purchase.  ALL of it.

What that says is a couple of things:  Right now very conservatively, half of everything you earn, half of your labor is diverted without your permission to government.  Half slave.  But it is clearly worse.  The additional hidden compliance costs probably land somewhere between the 70 to 90 percent mark on how much of your labor is confiscated.  That amounts to somewhere between two-thirds to 9 out of every 10 hours on your paycheck go to government.  Slave.

But it gets worse {kudos to Peter who reminded me}.  When the founding fathers created this government, they forbade it the power to "print money.  They could "coin" it, but NOT print it.  Why were they so specific?  They were quite clear.  Based upon historical precedence at the time they knew that NO country survived for long after it started printing "money" on worthless paper.  Coinage, ensured value.  Coins were made of real metal: gold, silver, nickel, copper ... material that had desirable qualities and could be traded to others for its value.  Paper on the other hand was of limited value, because it was so plentiful.  But governments always tried to cheat the populace by shaving  the weight off of coins yet for example,  demanding the shorted coins be accepted at a full ounce value, or worse, printing money and demanding they be accepted as the equivalence of the full value coin.  This was inflation.  This was robbery.  Printing money is a heck of a lot cheaper than coining it, since paper is cheaper than metal, and printing is faster than stikeing coins.  [By the way the courts disagree with me on this giving government the power to do as it pleases.] 

So the Constitution forbade the government from printing money, only coining it (remember the 10th Amendment). This was why the Federal Reserve, a "private" organization was created in 1913.  To print money, "federal reserve notes," which in turn was sold to the U.S. Treasury (in exchange for gold).  Over time, the gold and silver backing (Gold and Silver certificates) disappeared, the ownership of gold was banned and great amounts of wealth were confiscated, and the money became worth, "the full faith and credit of the United States.  Such wonderful assurances. 

In other words, our money is backed by nothing.  And there is a 2 to 3% annual rate of inflation built into the currency, so every year any dollars you save are worth 2 to 3% less.  Every year. [Don't take my word for it.  Go to the Federal Reserves own Consumer Price Index site.] During times when the perceived inflation rate is low, the interest rates are low and there is zero reason for any intelligent person to save dollars.  Every year, the government (or those who control the government)  through the federal reserve, robs you of 2 to 3% of your income on average. 

Worse, the credit part really comes into play.  Your elected oaficials have sold you to the foreign investors.  Borrowing: Someone is buying all those interest bearing bonds (Which pay out in inflation adjusted dollars by the way -- so government cannot print their way out of this debt the way government can print its way out of debt to you.) The indebtedness of this nation exceeds over $50 trillion dollars (US Comptroller General).  (2) Even the printing of money is no longer a item that slows down the government.  They can create vast amounts of currency out of thin air, or electrons if you prefer, simply by creating electronic currency.  This has already happened.  You don't think when all of these home and business loans were being created during the nineties and early part of this century that "real" money was exchanging hands do you?  No.  A loaned amount was created out of thin air on a computer.  That amount was transferred between accounts as lending institutions loaned you money to buy a house.  And the massive unpapered money expanded just that much more -- instantaneously, with little cost to the government. [For a dissenting opinion.]

But even 90% of your labor confiscated is not good enough for government.  They now want the power to compel labor.  You will work on this or that government project for 2 to 3 years, or 5 years or ten ... when will your obligation to the nation cease?  When you are of no further use to those who run government, except perhaps as Soylent Green.  Slave. 

By the way, you don't think universal conscription -- I mean service -- is a response to when the foreigners decide to stop buying our debt, do you?  Suckers!  Enough of this.  Get back to work.
JonesPlantation