Thursday, April 10, 2014

A 2.1 TRILLION DOLLAR WASTE

The news is so full of what is wrong with America that we don’t take time to think about what is so right with our country. I think about Senator Elizabeth Warren pointing out to those who have built small companies that they exist in an environment that allows them to become entrepreneurs. We have and educated work force, paved streets, and utilities, we have a banking system, and we have regulations that allow everyone to have fair and equal treatment under the law. The government treats all equally; huge corporations as well as the smallest of businesses, the highest paid as well as the lowest paid workers. We have a compassionate government. We are so far removed from the reality we are seem to be blind to the actuality of rest of the world. From our perch of righteousness, we look with as much horror at places such as the Central African Republic where religious strife is tearing that society apart—half the Christians are killing the Muslims half in the name of religion. We see that in the same light, as we look at a single, uncared for, demented person digging in garbage for food out the window of a five star hotel in some remote capital around the world. We sometimes see wealth in that same light. We do not seem to be able to judge amounts to put them in some sort of perspective we can grasp.    

According to a recent report, more than $2.1 trillion worth of profit generated by some of the biggest United States-based corporations is being held in banks over seas. Can anyone really grasp how much money that is or where it came from? Regardless, we know why it is there—insatiability like in a hotdog-eating contest; it makes no sense. It is as much a waste as eating 69 hotdogs and buns in 10 minutes—and equally as degusting.  


It is there because the multimillion-dollar corporations do not want to pay taxes on it, which they would have to do if they were to bring it back into this country. We can and should shame on these decision makers. They live in our beautiful country, they enjoy the protections and the freedoms, they have the fairness of banking, and they have a say in the tax laws that has allowed them to accumulate all that money. They could cut their prices, pay workers more, or they could pay taxes. It is not possible that 2.1 trillion has any meaning for them any more than it has for the person digging in the garbage pail. A sum of money like 2.1 trillion-dollars has no meaning in either context. Money only has meaning when reduced to usable amounts; 2.1 trillion dollar divided by 330 million people can enter our consciousness; $6,363 for every person in the United States.      

URL: firetreepub.blogspot.com Comments Invited and not moderated

No comments:

Post a Comment