Tax Time and Regrets

Well, I am one of the "late filers" notorious in the American tax system. Yes, yes, I procrastinate until the very last minute of April 15th, which is really pointless since I always get a refund. I can file anytime in the next 3 years and the IRS wouldn't care.

However, this year, I'm thinking about America's place in the world economy and how our government spends our money. Now, I have a pretty simple view of economics which has been criticized as "too simplistic" by one of my friends. However, everything that friend has said reinforced to me that my "simplistic" notions are correct and all the other smoke and mirrors that Wall Street and the Fed throw around are just so much Vegas bling-bling.

Economics at any level is really very simple once you strip things down to the base level: if you take some raw materials, modify them, and then sell them for more than you invested in the process, you bring money in. If you buy only finished products, your money flows out. Ergo, the key to financial success in any venture, personal or business, is to produce more value than you buy. Pretty friggin' basic.

Frankly, from where I sit, a service based economy is a great way for a country to become mediocre and irrelevant. For a country's economy to really grow, it has to produce value. The USA simply doesn't do much of that anymore because the Feds, under the direction of the Corp Cronies in D.C., have removed all the roadblocks that kept the Corps from trafficking in international slave labor.

Remember my comments about balance? Here's a prime example. The fox may not actually have a key to the henhouse, but his lobbyist has convinced the farmer's son to open the door by stuffing wads of cash in his overalls.

Frankly, a company that has its headquarters in the USA is not necessarily US based. If a company imports most of its products from overseas, then that company is a foreign company as far as I'm concerned. They're not providing jobs to US citizens. Instead, they're pumping money out of the economy to foreign countries and into the Corp elite's pockets. As far as I'm concerned, we would be better off shutting the borders and turning back all those container ships from China.

What set this off? Well, some incredible geniuses were on NPR talking about the trade deficit yesterday. And what they were saying basically added up to "we get about ten more years before we're broke as a nation". Ta freaking da, you ivy league idiots. Any kid with a lemonade stand could've told you that, you pendantic pinheads. We've allowed our manufacturing base to implode as we "sub-contracted" all the manufacturing and engineering overseas (as well as increasing the immigration quotas for "Foreign Educated Engineers"). If we're not adding value to anything, how in the hell do you think we're going to make any money? Selling know-how that the world already has or has already surpassed? Oh, I know, we'll sell our financial know how. You know, the same know how that's ruined life for the American middle class? I'm sure the world financial market can't wait for that kind of leadership.

What really blows my mind are these idiots who are surprised that, although our employment rate is roughly 95%, people are earning less and thus generating less tax revenue. Duh. You sent all the jobs that made the American middle class viable overseas, you incredible weasels. All that's left is landscaping, fast food, and cleaning hotel rooms, and you're importing MEXICANS to do that!

The idiocy moves me to profanity.

So, forgive me if I'm not overjoyed to be doing taxes right now. I'd like to know that my tax money would be used to buy six foot section of road repair, or maybe some textbooks for an inner city school. My taxes might even stretch so far as to buy lunch for a day care center that helps out working mothers or a set of ceramic armor inserts for a soldier in Iraq.

Somehow, though, I expect Congress to fritter it away somehow, leaving us all poorer after the fact.

D