America, Land of the Slave?

“Time is Money.” – Benjamin Franklin

I have a corollary to wise old Ben’s proverb that I wish to share with you today, and it is this:

“Time is Money, and Debt is Slavery.

My friends, time is what we are stealing from our children, our grandchildren, and our unborn with our mountains of National Debt – they lose their time in this world as we enslave them in debtWe are stealing their freedom, that is the truth.  Our children will not be born free in what was once called the “Land of the Free” – they will be born with an obligation of debt and interest, the largest the world has ever seen, more than the rest of the world combined… yes, our children will be born as indentured servants, and I find that unconscionable.

“Labor to keep alive in your breast that little spark of celestial fire, called conscience.”George Washington

It is why I started this blog, this vain mission of hopelessness, to do otherwise would be to walk blindly into the slavery that awaits us.  I felt I owe my grandparents, and my one day grandchildren, something better.  So here I am, exercising my right to speak, in hopes that somehow, in some way, we can come together to take our country back.

“If the freedom of speech is taken away then dumb and silent we may be led, like sheep to the slaughter.”George Washington

There is a word for what I felt last week on the 4th of July – as I reflected on our great country, as I remembered what our forefathers fought for, as I thought about what Independence Day means… and the word for what I felt is Shame.  Has our national debt caused you to feel it yet?  Have you begun to believe that we owe our forefathers a profound apology and our children a complete change of course?  I have.  I do.  And then I think, so what are we waiting for?

“I do not look upon these United States as a finished product. We are still in the making.”Franklin D. Roosevelt

I feel like our forefathers are in the afterlife now, watching our story unfold, seeing what we are doing with the baton they fought so hard to be able to hand us… and they are shouting “NO, Booo!  You know better!  Don’t do this to Us!  This is worse than reality TV for crying out loud!  What in the hell is wrong with you people?!”  I see them throwing their drinks and popcorn at the screen, wondering if there is any way they can get their money back – get their time back.  Time is Money… and debt, debt is slavery.

“America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves.”Abraham Lincoln

So true, so right you are Abe.  I watched the movie “Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Slayer” the other night.  I don’t know if it is going to win any awards, but it’s theme resonates with me in our time.  Abe Lincoln, honest Abe, a good man… a man who sees the bankers, the politicians, the slave owners for what they are – comfortable men feeding off of the blood, sweat, and tears of others for their well being – Vampires.  And then he sets off to destroy the Vampires of his day, to attempt to restore our great nation to the ideal that inspired it, to champion liberty for all even though government officials, business owners, and many of his fellow citizens despise the notion.

“I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much liberty than those attending too small a degree of it.” – Thomas Jefferson

As I look at America today, I see the parallels to Lincoln’s day – the chains of slavery are not as overt today, but they are there just the same, shackling our children to years and years of servitude. Our slaves these days are not defined by color, but by age – the younger you are, the longer you have to live under this mountain of debt.  And sadly, regretfully, shamefully, I see the Vampires abounding in our day.  Whether red or blue, artery or vein, they suck the life out of us so long as we let them.  First we enslaved ourselves under mountains of credit card, mortgage, and student loan debt… and after we were in debt up to our eyeballs, they went to work on our children.  And, as I see it, so long as we continue to vote red or blue, they got us right where they want us…

“All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to remain silent.”
Thomas Jefferson

I can’t speak for you, but I am one good man who is wise to the game of debt, the game of slavery – so I choose a different course, I choose to be Independent, and I reject the notion that red or blue are the only colors I can choose.  My friend, I have been bled white.  I reject the notion that an onerous government and welfare society, or a jaded tax code favoring the wealthy and a lack of regulation on our financial industry are my only two choices in this life.  I submit that we should not tax the hard working to pay for expanding federal government aid programs for our unemployed, elderly, and “less fortunate,” leave that to the states.  Nor should we embrace policy allowing our wealthy corporations and bankers to be “free” to destroy us.  Federal regulation is needed to set the environment, federal programs are not.  Further, I submit that our government officials should not have a defined benefit retirement and healthcare program that our children pay for, for as long as they shall live – they should have a 401k style retirement program where they scrimp and save to pay for themselves just like the rest of us.  I submit that the upper class should be taxed to pay for our limited government – after all, they reap the largest benefits.

I reject the notion that a fair tax system is achieved by taxing the dividends and stock capital gains of our wealthy at a lower tax rate than our working.  I believe the middle and lower classes are owed nothing more than a teacher, a doctor, and the opportunity to work.  I submit that taxing any American and simply giving his money, his time, as a paycheck to another is an affront to freedom, liberty, and justice.  I believe a man must choose to give his time, his charity, his efforts to the benefit of another.  Federal taxes should go to improving the community at large via projects farmed out to the private sector, not to giving paychecks to those requiring charity.

To say that any people are not fit for freedom, is to make poverty their choice, and to say they had rather be loaded with taxes than not.” – Thomas Paine

The middle class and the unborn American, they are the slaves of our day.  The hard working honest among us seem to stand little chance, or we don’t care about our children, I’m not sure which.  Our non-working file with the blue government to tax the working man to pay for their livelihood, and our blue government applauds and champions their cause.  Meanwhile, our wealthy make shady financial deals to inflate the cost of living, fleecing the working man of his hard earned money – MF Global, Bernie Madoff, and the 2008 financial collapse to name but a few.  The blue and red together not only making us powerless to stop them, but worse, insuring their dealings with our children’s yet-to-be-earned incomes.  And a hard working honest man who refuses to give his wages to the bankers, he is fleeced by the government through targeted inflation – the paper he is paid with made more and more worthless with each passing hour.

“These capitalists generally act harmoniously and in concert, to fleece the people.”Abraham Lincoln

I’m with Mr. Lincoln.  Abe knew that most of the men in government were not seeking to combat slavery, only to provide a different avenue toward attaining it.  He heard our founders, and he knew that liberty, freedom, independence, a timeless Constitution – they are the only shield against those who wish to enslave us.

“Mankind, when left to themselves, are unfit for their own government.”George Washington

I see the Vampires in our government, passing Banking and Pension Guarantee legislation to “insure” our bank accounts and retirements are given to us.  It sounds good until we peel back the onion, and see that the bankers and monied corporations keep our deposits, and our “guaranteed” wages are simply another government claim of debt on our children and grandchildren.  What a sham.  Thanks but no thanks government – how about you prevent the capitalists from fleecing me, instead of guaranteeing me that my children will pay for it?  I’m sorry Thomas, it appears the banking institutions have won.

“I hope we shall crush in its birth the aristocracy of our monied corporations which dare already to challenge our government to a trial by strength, and bid defiance to the laws of our country.”Thomas Jefferson
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I see how our government fleeced the Social Security Trust Fund of everything, of all those hard earned wages – all that time, and instead filled it with IOU’s that force us to look to our own children to pay for our retirements.  I watch them as they lower capital gains and dividend tax rates on our business owners, our stock holders, our wealthiest.  I see how they shift the tax burden of what is supposed to be a limited federal government to the middle class – the one part of society who has little use for it, and how they try to eliminate inheritance tax by calling it a “death tax.”  My eyes are open to the fact that our highest income tax bracket and rates are approaching the lowest since we passed the 16th Amendment, even while our debt surpasses all historical levels.  I see our government celebrate as they enlarge federal “aid” programs to include more and more Americans at the expense of others, deciding that a government program is better than a local charity – statistics proving otherwise be damned.  I notice as they discuss a Balanced Budget Amendment to pacify the masses, but never manage to actually pass it, each year borrowing more and more on the heads of our grandchildren and unborn.  I understand that fighting pretend and ill-advised wars only bankrupts our great nation to creditors – our “War on Drugs,” “War on Poverty,” and “War on Terror” to name a few, but see us embark upon them just the same.

“Don’t forget what I discovered that over ninety percent of all national deficits from 1921 to 1939 were caused by payments for past, present, and future wars.”Franklin D. Roosevelt

I hear you FDR, but am I powerless?  Are We powerless?

“Let us never forget that government is ourselves and not an alien power over us. The ultimate rulers of our democracy are not a President and senators and congressmen and government officials, but the voters of this country.”Franklin D. Roosevelt

Well Sir, I am trying.  But I believe we are becoming a country of Vampires – each one of us trying to get blood from our neighbor best we can and then, when they are bled dry, from their unborn via national debt.  And just as folks in Lincoln’s time thought that slavery was necessary – just as their vision was blinded by the fact that their life would become more onerous without enslaving another, so too are we blinded today by our desires to live beyond our means.  We feel that we are “owed” something from those who have succeeded, from those who managed to scrimp and save, from those who decided to employ us, or from a government we decided to serve – and so we tax our great grandchildren to get our due.  Rather than do what we know is right, rather than pass a Balanced Budget Amendment to ensure our children are not slaves to our desires, rather than forego the notion that we are owed anything at all… we lie to ourselves to keep what we have, and we tell each other that it’s Ok to borrow more money on our children’s heads – to keep them as slaves to us for just a while longer.

“Blessed are the young for they shall inherit the national debt.”Herbert Hoover

It’s not a rosy message on the 4th of July I know, but it is the truth just the same – Shame on Us America.  John McCain called it “generational theft,” I call it enslaving our grandchildren, you call it what you will.  But please America, stop pretending you don’t understand the facts.  Take a look at our national debt, a real look, and then ask yourself – my fellow Americans, my fellow good men and women who have been chartered to helm this great experiment called America, it’s time for Us to take a look in the mirror and see if We have a reflection.  It’s time to ask our self, am I good with being a Vampire?  I for one, am not.  I am ready for change that my children can believe in… are you?

“It is incumbent on every generation to pay its own debts as it goes. A principle which if acted on would save one-half the wars of the world.”Thomas Jefferson
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Yours in Faith for a better America and a better World.