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It takes only two things to keep people in chains: The ignorance of the oppressed and the treachery of their leaders..
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What becomes of a nation when lies and ignorance rule?
It’s a question quite appropriate to the times. Let me provide some examples.
Ben Carson: The World Was Created in 6 Days. Literally.
During a 2011 lecture that was part of a “Celebration of Creation,” Carson decried the Big Bang theory and asserted that Darwin’s theory of evolution was “encouraged” by Satan.
In that talk, Carson did take slight issue with those creationists who claim the Earth came into existence just several thousand years ago. He noted, “I am not a hard-and-fast person who says the Earth is only 6,000 years old.”
Yet Carson quickly added, “I do believe in the six-day creation.” And he meant literally six days, not metaphorical days—that is, not days that might have lasted millions of years.
He explained:
It says in the beginning God created the heaven and Earth. It doesn’t say when he created them, except for in the beginning. So the Earth could have been here for a long time before he started creating things on it.
But when he did start doing that, he made it very specifically clear to us the evening and the morning were the next day because he knew that people would come along and try to say that, “Oh, it was millions and millions of years.”
And then what else did he say in the very first chapter? That each thing brought forth after its own kind. Because he knew that people would come along and say, you know, this changed into that and this changed into that and this changed into that.
So at the very beginning of the Bible, he puts that to rest.
Ben Carson is President Trump’s selection to head the Department of Housing and Urban Development.
Carson has no experience, education, or knowledge in this area. Total ignorance. Would any company hire a manager who has no experience, education, or knowledge about the area he is supposed to manage?
Then we have the words of Anthony Scaramucci, the new Trump communications director:
“I know that (President Obama) believes that the human beings are affecting the climate. There are scientists that believe that that’s not happening,” Scaramucci said.
When CNN anchor Chris Cuomo pointed that the “overwhelming consensus in the scientific community” is that humans are driving climate change, Scaramucci said people also once accepted the idea that the Earth was flat.
“Chris, there was an overwhelming science that the Earth was flat and there was an overwhelming science that we were the center of the world. One hundred percent. We get a lot of things wrong in the scientific community,” Scaramucci said.
Cuomo talked over him: “It’s called ignorance,” he said. “You learn over time.”
Scaramucci responded: “I’m not suggesting we’re not affecting the change, I honestly don’t know. I’m not a scientist. If you’re asking for my opinion.”
“I’m not,” Cuomo said.
Scaramucci also brought up another controversial idea: how old the Earth is.
“You’re saying the scientific community knows, and I’m saying people have gotten things wrong throughout the 5,500-year history of our planet,” he said, then later corrected himself to clarify that he meant human history, not Earth’s entire history.
Modern humans have actually been around for roughly 200,000 years, however.
Scaramucci uses the old “If scientists were wrong once, you can’t believe anything science tells you” lie. It’s a false proposition designed to deny any facts in any argument.
No matter what scientific evidence you provide for anything, the other person merely says, “Scientists were wrong once so they could be wrong again,” thereby destroying all facts. It is intentional ignorance.
Then comes Donald Trump, possibly the most ignorant man ever to occupy the oval office. His ignorance comes from his ego and mental laziness.
He hates reading and because he believes he already knows everything, he refuses to expend the effort learning requires. He tweets because his attention span is to short for more thorough writing.
Trump urges Senate to pass health care bill, says he has ‘pen in hand‘
President Trump said Wednesday he is anxious for Senate Republicans to come together to pass legislation to repeal and replace ObamaCare, a day before Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is expected to release a draft of a new bill.
“I am sitting in the Oval Office with a pen in hand, waiting for our senators to give it to me,” Trump said.
On Wednesday, Trump expressed frustration that Republicans are struggling to pass the legislation — especially since they now have a president willing to sign it.
“Obama wasn’t going to sign it. … Now we have a president that’s waiting to sign it,” he said. “I have pen in hand so now it means something.”
Notice that Trump had no idea what might be in the latest bill. Not only has Trump demonstrated abject ignorance about health care insurance, but the new plan hadn’t even been released.
He had no idea what was in it.
Yet, he was sitting, “pen in hand,” ready to sign whatever was put in front of him, just so he could eliminate something with Barack Obama’s name on it.
This is the ultimate of dangerous ignorance for a President of the United States — neither knowing nor caring what he was signing, so long as it was anti- his predecessor.
What becomes of a nation when lies and ignorance rule?
We are well on our way to learning.
Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
Monetary Sovereignty
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The single most important problems in economics involve the excessive income/wealth/power Gaps between the have-mores and the have-less.
Wide Gaps negatively affect poverty, health and longevity, education, housing, law and crime, war, leadership, ownership, bigotry, supply and demand, taxation, GDP, international relations, scientific advancement, the environment, human motivation and well-being, and virtually every other issue in economics.
Implementation of The Ten Steps To Prosperity can narrow the Gaps:
Ten Steps To Prosperity:
1. ELIMINATE FICA (Ten Reasons to Eliminate FICA )
Although the article lists 10 reasons to eliminate FICA, there are two fundamental reasons:
*FICA is the most regressive tax in American history, widening the Gap by punishing the low and middle-income groups, while leaving the rich untouched, and
*The federal government, being Monetarily Sovereign, neither needs nor uses FICA to support Social Security and Medicare.
2. FEDERALLY FUNDED MEDICARE — PARTS A, B & D, PLUS LONG TERM CARE — FOR EVERYONE (H.R. 676, Medicare for All )
This article addresses the questions:
*Does the economy benefit when the rich can afford better health care than can the rest of Americans?
*Aside from improved health care, what are the other economic effects of “Medicare for everyone?”
*How much would it cost taxpayers?
*Who opposes it?”
3. PROVIDE A MONTHLY ECONOMIC BONUS TO EVERY MAN, WOMAN AND CHILD IN AMERICA (similar to Social Security for All) (The JG (Jobs Guarantee) vs the GI (Guaranteed Income) vs the EB (Economic Bonus)) Or institute a reverse income tax.
This article is the fifth in a series about direct financial assistance to Americans:
Why Modern Monetary Theory’s Employer of Last Resort is a bad idea. Sunday, Jan 1 2012
MMT’s Job Guarantee (JG) — “Another crazy, rightwing, Austrian nutjob?” Thursday, Jan 12 2012
Why Modern Monetary Theory’s Jobs Guarantee is like the EU’s euro: A beloved solution to the wrong problem. Tuesday, May 29 2012
“You can’t fire me. I’m on JG” Saturday, Jun 2 2012
Economic growth should include the “bottom” 99.9%, not just the .1%, the only question being, how best to accomplish that. Modern Monetary Theory (MMT) favors giving everyone a job. Monetary Sovereignty (MS) favors giving everyone money. The five articles describe the pros and cons of each approach.
4. FREE EDUCATION (INCLUDING POST-GRAD) FOR EVERYONE Five reasons why we should eliminate school loans
Monetarily non-sovereign State and local governments, despite their limited finances, support grades K-12. That level of education may have been sufficient for a largely agrarian economy, but not for our currently more technical economy that demands greater numbers of highly educated workers.
Because state and local funding is so limited, grades K-12 receive short shrift, especially those schools whose populations come from the lowest economic groups. And college is too costly for most families.
An educated populace benefits a nation, and benefitting the nation is the purpose of the federal government, which has the unlimited ability to pay for K-16 and beyond.
5. SALARY FOR ATTENDING SCHOOL
Even were schooling to be completely free, many young people cannot attend, because they and their families cannot afford to support non-workers. In a foundering boat, everyone needs to bail, and no one can take time off for study.
If a young person’s “job” is to learn and be productive, he/she should be paid to do that job, especially since that job is one of America’s most important.
6. ELIMINATE FEDERAL TAXES ON BUSINESS
Businesses are dollar-transferring machines. They transfer dollars from customers to employees, suppliers, shareholders and the federal government (the later having no use for those dollars). Any tax on businesses reduces the amount going to employees, suppliers and shareholders, which diminishes the economy. Ultimately, all business taxes reduce your personal income.
7. INCREASE THE STANDARD INCOME TAX DEDUCTION, ANNUALLY. (Refer to this.) Federal taxes punish taxpayers and harm the economy. The federal government has no need for those punishing and harmful tax dollars. There are several ways to reduce taxes, and we should evaluate and choose the most progressive approaches.
Cutting FICA and business taxes would be a good early step, as both dramatically affect the 99%. Annual increases in the standard income tax deduction, and a reverse income tax also would provide benefits from the bottom up. Both would narrow the Gap.
8. TAX THE VERY RICH (THE “.1%) MORE, WITH HIGHER PROGRESSIVE TAX RATES ON ALL FORMS OF INCOME. (TROPHIC CASCADE)
There was a time when I argued against increasing anyone’s federal taxes. After all, the federal government has no need for tax dollars, and all taxes reduce Gross Domestic Product, thereby negatively affecting the entire economy, including the 99.9%.
But I have come to realize that narrowing the Gap requires trimming the top. It simply would not be possible to provide the 99.9% with enough benefits to narrow the Gap in any meaningful way. Bill Gates reportedly owns $70 billion. To get to that level, he must have been earning $10 billion a year. Pick any acceptable Gap (1000 to 1?), and the lowest paid American would have to receive $10 million a year. Unreasonable.
9. FEDERAL OWNERSHIP OF ALL BANKS (Click The end of private banking and How should America decide “who-gets-money”?)
Banks have created all the dollars that exist. Even dollars created at the direction of the federal government, actually come into being when banks increase the numbers in checking accounts. This gives the banks enormous financial power, and as we all know, power corrupts — especially when multiplied by a profit motive.
Although the federal government also is powerful and corrupted, it does not suffer from a profit motive, the world’s most corrupting influence.
10. INCREASE FEDERAL SPENDING ON THE MYRIAD INITIATIVES THAT BENEFIT AMERICA’S 99.9% (Federal agencies)Browse the agencies. See how many agencies benefit the lower- and middle-income/wealth/ power groups, by adding dollars to the economy and/or by actions more beneficial to the 99.9% than to the .1%.
Save this reference as your primer to current economics. Sadly, much of the material is not being taught in American schools, which is all the more reason for you to use it.
The Ten Steps will grow the economy, and narrow the income/wealth/power Gap between the rich and you.
MONETARY SOVEREIGNTY
#Monetary Sovereignty - Mitchell 