live your best dreams
Have you watched ‘The Road We’ve Traveled’ video? If not, invest seventeen minutes and do so now. Whether you’re a liberal or a conservative, you have to admire the compassion, intelligence, courage and patriotism that Barack Obama has shown the world.
There have been five Conservative, Prime Ministers of Canada, in my lifetime, but only the Harper Conservatives have managed to make me shudder. From my vantage, Canadian politics has gone off the rails and Canada is feeling less and less Canadian every month.
My explanation is that the Harper Conservatives aren’t at all like their predecessors, they are Canadian Progressive Conservatives in name only. The reality is that they’re a group of "angry old uncle," libertarians. Alberta’s longstanding, political discontent (Reform Party => Alliance => Harper Conservatives) combined with a very cleverly orchestrated manipulation of our political system has allowed them to seize power.
The Harper Conservatives’ all too familiar pitch is smaller government and lower taxes for everyone, but they share similar goals with the Republicans in the USA. Their underlying goal is, as always, to enable a small number of rich people, the 1%, to become wealthier and more powerful.
Greed is a Scary Thing.
Inexplicably, many people will vote for lower taxes even if it goes against their own self interest.
As a young physician I made the mistake of complaining to my parents about the taxes I was paying. My father responded, "You’re really going to have to adjust your attitude. Be grateful that you’re earning enough income that you can pay a lot of tax. Our taxes enable us to assist our fellow Canadians and help us do many good works around the world."
I listened to my dad, I adjusted my attitude and learned to be less selfish.
The great purpose of life is to be of service to others.
In my six decades Canada has been known as a country:
Contrast that with what we’ve become known for in the very short time since the Harper Conservatives took power. A country:
Do you remember when Justin Trudeau gave the eulogy at his father’s (Prime Minister Pierre Elliot Trudeau’s) funeral and quoted his father as saying, "… never attack the individual. One can be in total disagreement with someone without denigrating him as a consequence."
Contrast Trudeau’s paradigm with what the Harper Conservatives’ attack ads did to Stéphane Dion and Michael Ignatief. I was dismayed that so many Canadians allowed themselves to be influenced by American-style attack ads. Interestingly, most folks in the middle and on the left of the political spectrum didn’t vote Conservative, they just didn’t bother to vote. As a direct result, we now have a majority government that over sixty percent of our voting population did not endorse.
Are you happy with the direction the Harper Conservatives are taking Canada? Is greed really that appealing? I’d love to see my children and grandchildren enjoy the kind of Canada I’ve experienced throughout my lifetime. That’s not going to happen with the Harper Conservatives.
Don’t sit back hoping a charismatic, new leader for the Liberals, NDP or Green Party will appear. Canada’s future depends on a majority of Canadians standing up and proclaiming that, "Canada is much better than the Harper Conservatives’ ideology."
1% vs 99%: Capitalism has been hijacked by greed. For the last couple of decades, capitalism has been primarily benefiting just 1% of our population.
Q: Are you pissed with politics?
I am too, but don’t make the mistake of thinking, "Politician’s just don’t get it." The reality is that conservative politicians are getting exactly what they want.
Here’s some current economic data, courtesy of Robert Reich‘s recent online articles, that illustrates precisely how well conservatives are serving the richest 1%.
Robert Reich was the nation’s 22nd Secretary of Labor and is a professor at the University of California at Berkeley. His latest book is "Supercapitalism."
"New data from the Commerce Department shows employee pay is now down to the smallest share of the economy since the government began collecting wage and salary data in 1929.
Meanwhile, corporate profits now constitute the largest share of the economy since 1929."
"… tax rates on the super rich are now lower than they’ve been in three decades"
"This tsunami of big money into politics is the real public nuisance. It’s making it almost impossible for the voices of average Americans to be heard because most of us don’t have the dough to break through. By granting First Amendment rights to money and corporations, the First Amendment rights of the rest of us are being trampled on."
Related posts:
Comment: It’s possible you arrived at this blog post because you were redirected from one of my old network marketing websites. I apologize if the information you might have been searching for is no longer available.
I attempted to create wealth for myself, my family and friends with a couple of direct sales businesses. I persevered for over a decade. I enrolled thousands of hopeful people; unfortunately, only a couple of those people earned a significant income. My goal was to help, but the attrition stats were undeniable. I started to feel like I was picking pockets rather than doing good. The big question is, did I fail thousands of distributors, or, did network marketing’s business-model for distributors let all of us down?
I recently decided to sever my ties to the network marketing profession. Thank you to all the wonderful people, I’ve met along the way. I wish you health, happiness and enormous success in your future endeavours.
Network marketing has been around for over fifty years, so its track record is very well established. Millions and millions of people, worldwide, have enrolled; unfortunately, the vast majority ended up losing their money. Significantly, and contrary to myth, only a minuscule fraction of one percent of network marketing professionals have actually earned serious incomes.
Here’s a typical example: ‘Big Money’ stories enticed people, by the hundreds of thousands, to discover an exotic, super-fruit, juice company. Titillated by stories that the company’s top income earners were paid millions of dollars every year, financially desperate people felt they had new hope; some actually dreamed about earning as much as $100,000 per month. What happened to their dreams?
Not too long ago, that company’s, government mandated, income disclosure statement revealed that:
99% never earned any money. 0.9% earned less than $100 per week. 0.1% earned more than $100 weekly.
You might be thinking, “One out of every one thousand people earning $100, or more, per week doesn’t sound too bad.” Unfortunately, your thought process may not have factored in the distributor’s business related expenses. How much did the distributor spend for their required monthly product order? What were her/his marketing expenses (examples: product samples, brochures, DVDs, postage, newspaper ads, websites, pay-per-click ads and leads)? It’s, usually, surprisingly difficult to get a network marketing business into profit.
Q: What makes you think it will be different for you?
Here’s a quote I saved* (warning, it’s depressing for network marketers):
Roland Whitsell, a former business professor who spent 40 years researching and teaching the pitfalls of multilevel marketing: "You’d be hard-pressed to find anyone making over $1.50 an hour, the primary product is opportunity. The strongest, most powerful motivational force today is false hope."
*Note: My apologies to the original author, I neglected to record the attribution when I saved his/her quote.
When I was a teenager, I lifeguarded and taught swimming at the YMCA in Ottawa. When the Health Club manager was away, I was asked to fill in for him. It was a strange experience.
Background: My father had a Ph.D. in chemistry and ran the RCMP’s crime labs. My mother was a nurse, seamstress and artist. Our dinner-table conversations were substantive, interesting and full of humanity.
When I worked at the YMCA Health Club, all they cared about was MONEY and that’s all they ever talked about. The "Y" was where some of Ottawa’s money guys had lunch and regaled each other with stories of profit. It was a sad site for a young man, but mostly it was simply depressing. Where were the tales of helping other people live better lives?
I don’t think much has changed in the last forty-five years. I’m fearful that today’s moneyed elite have completely lost site of the collective good. The two percent of the population that controls ninety-eight percent of all the money appear to be oblivious to what’s happening around them. They even see massive foreclosure stats as a golden financial opportunity. I’ve always worried that Capitalism’s Achille’s Heel was and still is GREED.
Do you suppose Hampton billionaires learned anything from world history, specifically the French Revolution? Are they at all concerned by the Occupy Wall Street protests? I don’t know what to think about the protests, but I suspect sociologists might see them as a warning sign.
Related post: Conservative Greed
Tycoon? I’m not even close, but frankly, becoming a wealthy tycoon was never on my list.
Yesterday morning, I was speaking to someone on the phone, who imagined I was a tycoon sitting in a grand, plush office. He asked, "What are you looking at right now?" In my home office, the views are:
but, as it ended up, he was primarily interested in some details about my computer.
These days I have a very modest computer setup, but it does everything I want it to, plus it’s great fun and never gives me any grief.
Why the ‘Tycoon’ title? The picture is a Knowles’ plate featuring Norman Rockwell’s ‘Tycoon’. I found the plate when I was tidying my office.
"We, Not Just Me"
I was channel surfing when the words "collective good" grabbed my attention. Ends up, the author of a recent book was being interviewed.
Thomas Friedman, co-author of ‘That Used To Be Us’ is an American journalist who has won the Pulitzer Prize three times.
The reason Thomas Friedman’s words, "collective good" resonated with me, is that consideration of what’s good for the country is what’s currently missing in the USA. I’m convinced that greedy conservatives are largely responsible for the current political stalemate.
Wouldn’t you agree that a significant percentage of America’s economy is based on consumer spending?
Q: Why aren’t consumers spending?
A: The top 1—2% of income earners have all the money and many potential consumers don’t even have a job.
Unfortunately, many misguided, billionaire-controlled, GOP/Republicans are selfishly avoiding their responsibility for job creation. Did you know that:
Why do Republicans still want to "give these so-called job creators a tax break"?
Clearly, reducing spending is only part of the equation, corporations and the rich need to pay their share. It’s past time to consider the collective good and get America back to work.
I don’t think it’s overly dramatic to suggest that the American Dream in play. What does Thomas Friedman think? You might enjoy the following video that features an interview with Thomas Friedman:
Related:
Selfish conservatives: Are all conservatives selfish?
In the last quarter century,
80% of income gains, accrued to the top 1% of individuals.
Right now, conservatives in the U.S. are selfishly attempting to hang on to a record low tax rate. The Republicans claim to be concerned about the deficit and debt, but, thus far, they have been unwilling to pay their fair share to help their country survive a financial crisis.
Today we’re witnessing worldwide financial turmoil. Stock markets are watching billions of dollars in equity disappear, presumably in response to S&P downgrading the USA’s credit rating from AAA rating to an AA+.
Q: Why was the U.S.A.’s credit rating downgraded?
A: Enormous debt and politics
Ronald Reagan increased the debt limit eighteen times, yes, that’s 18 times; back then, there was no fuss. What would have happened if the GOP Republicans had not played their politically-motivated, brinkmanship card this time around?
Did Standard and Poor’s conclude “These selfish folks just don’t get it.”
Spending cuts alone will not get rid of the debt. The US Government needs more revenue. Fortunately, the USA, unlike Greece, is a very wealthy country. The best place to get more revenue is from folks who already earn a lot of money. The George W. Bush tax cuts must be allowed to expire, as was originally legislated.
Addendum: John Boehner, Republican Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, recently stated, “I got 98% of what I wanted” in the Debt Ceiling negotiations. I wonder, did that include the subsequent S&P downgrade and the Dow plunging 630 points today?
Q: Is conservative greed synonymous with capitalism or just an unfortunate byproduct?
Greed is defined as an intense and selfish desire for something, especially wealth and power. It has long been classified as one of the seven objectionable vices that are commonly referred to as the Seven Deadly Sins.
Capitalism is defined as an economic and political system in which a country’s trade and industry are controlled by private owners for profit, rather than by the state.
The once enviable quest for wealth has recently spiralled out of control. I’m convinced that some rich people, banks, insurance companies and other financial institutions have become very greedy. My suspicion is that ‘dark market’ OTC derivatives and other complex financial products live on the razor’s edge between ethical and unethical (dishonest/fraudulent). It would appear that these ‘black box’ financial strategies have worked well for the top 1% of income earners. The top one percent suffered very little when the world’s economy melted down in 2008; in fact, many dramatically increased their fortunes shortly after the crunch. Sadly, the unconscionable games corporations and rich people played with financial liquidity devastated working people worldwide.
Michael Moore‘s ’Capitalism: A Love Story’ is food for thought.
In the last quarter century, a lack of regulatory oversight encouraged greedy, unethical business practices to flourish. The goal was profit, the means to that end no longer seemed to matter. When the inevitable happened and the banks and insurance companies were on the verge of collapse, who paid for the bailout? It certainly wasn’t the rich, their bonuses continued unabated.
Ethical Profit Is Good, Greed Is Not.
Right now, the news is dominated by the USA’s debt ceiling crisis. Unsurprisingly, the GOP/Republicans, the conservative political party that most American rich people belong to, is unwilling to end the costly George W. Bush tax cuts and to eliminate tax loopholes. I recently read that the richest four hundred people in the USA, worth over one billion each, paid an average of 16% in taxes. Rich folks are are currently enjoying the lowest tax rates in the last sixty years. Can the US afford to continue to fund tax cuts for top income earners by borrowing billions, every year, from China and Russia? Former Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan doesn’t think so.
It’s time for critical-thinking, ethical rich people to help. Get in touch with your Congressional Representative and instruct them to let the Bush tax cuts expire. You can’t possibly expect the working poor to shoulder most of the debt burden.
A: Greed is an objectionable vice and a regrettable side effect of the capitalist paradigm. Government oversight is necessary to prevent financial disasters.
“All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.”
– Edmund Burke
Update (20110714):
Interesting numbers (SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES S.1323.PCS Findings):
1. The Wall Street Journal reports that median pay for chief financial officers of S&P 500 companies increased 19 percent to $2,900,000 last year.
2. Over the past 10 years, the median family income has declined by more than $2,500.
3. Twenty percent of all income earned in the United States is earned by the top 1 percent of individuals.
4. Over the past quarter century, four-fifths of the income gains accrued to the top 1 percent of individuals.
Note: You might be wondering, “Why is a Canadian commenting on US politics?” If the USA defaults the Canadian and world economies will be adversely affected. Yes, it really is that big a deal.
Aside: The conservative musketeers, Rupert Murdoch, the Koch Brothers and wannabe musketeer Dick Armey that have been manipulating politics in the USA, have also infested Canadian politics.
Links to NewExtraIncome.com removed, please see below.
The post references the rich getting richer and leverage.
Update 20111103: I’m no longer involved with network marketing.
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