There is a wave coming towards all of us. Be prepared.
The political pressure on enforcement bureaucracies is growing. People are mad. They want their government officials to crack down on corruption. The problem is that it will not be politically acceptable to go after people who have political clout. So what traditionally happens is that enforcement actions against people who do not have political clout increase in number. Too often, those targeted are innocent or their infractions are relatively harmless and unimportant.
The message unfortunately is simple: “You want us to crack down on ourselves? Well, we will crack down on you.”
To make matters worse, the pressure on government budgets is rising. So that means enforcement bureaucracies are under pressure to generate fees from fines, civil and criminal money penalties, forfeitures and seizures and various forms of audits and investigations. One agency Inspector General office with which I was familiar used to audit people and tell them they would “go away” for a settlement payment that was less than the cost of their continued time and money. It was simply a form of racketeering.
Not to mention, we keep passing more and more laws and regulations. No one can afford to keep up with them all let alone comply. We are criminalizing everything except what large corporations can afford to manage.
Can you imagine a world where investors can lose $60 billion on the Madoff scheme and no one can figure out where the money went, and the largest bankers can get $12-14 trillion with no explanation of where the money went but St Cecilia’s church outside of Pittsburgh is not allowed to include Mary Pratte’s coconut-creme pie in their fish fry dinner?
I can. It is all on the front page of the Wall Street Journal.
I do not know about socialism/communism/nazism but I know that all of us are increasingly becoming tax slaves!
I am in tax compliance…sales/use tax to be more precise. Now..can some learned sage one this blog tell me why the public seemm to always be willing to vote for tax increases concocted by local officials!!! Recently our local area populace voted 1.5% increase in sales taxes!!! 10+% sales tax to buy a car in some areas.
#1 source of sales tax revenue= car sales! Detroit is a page, perhaps chapter, in history.
Tomorrow I will:
check for proper payment/collection of sales/use tax
make sure you have a license to operate (you too the along the roadside knick knack (or pie) peddler .In fact, a liitle extra for you because you can’t be trusted to fork ovet all your sales tax receipts!! Ignorance of the law no excuse.. let me add some interest and penalty laginappe..
alcohol/beverage permits badges etc…fingerprints please, no fuss, it’s required….of course no one else will know..
In the afternoon, for amusement I will make sure all amusement fees paid..juke box, pool tables, weight machine…no fun without a license…
Now, Mr investment sales person…you realize you owe a license based on your commissioned sales?? Your losing money. It’s a license to try not a license to succeed. Good luck. If you don’t make it give me the address of your replacement as he/she will need a license. They are non-transferable..
Now, Mr Builder do you have an occupational license to construct that thing…
and so forth..I can never catch up..too many non compliants..so little time
Now I am just a lowly local sales tax person. Wow, good luck with the rest of the State,Fed, and other revenue farmers!!! In all honesty, you probably don’t have much of a chance. but be positive. Obama change is here…your tax dollars will provide for you..enjoy the mush, it was a good year for the farmer..a bumper mush crop for the indentured taxpayer to stay nourish on..
With the Democrats in office I have job security. If the people decide to vote others into office perhaps we as Americans will have more freedom&liberty (less debt for sure). My future is in uncertain hands..I would choose freedom..(mush is not my favorite food source) but if things do not change.. I can stay busy and perhaps get to the front of the line…
Note: not intended for the 95% who received the president’s recent tax cut. For you, congratulations and keep up the good work.
Exactly Teresa Renberg
Thomas J. DiLorenzo is professor at Loyola College supposed to be well educated. I am visiting on daily basis LewRockwell.com and some contributors mentioning socialism in context of current crisis. So, I am assuming those are serious folks with serious thought. I must say it is breathtaking foolishness and idiocy. I cannot even imagine anything what even resemble to socialism in country of: Ayn Rand, Milton Friedman, Goldman Sachs and other banksters.
I wonder do they know what socialism is? Do they differentiate: Socialism and Nazism?
This is rather Nazi political structure, or “estato corporativo” how it’s know by its inventor Mussolini. Everything is fairly corrupt in US, so is language and now we have legacy assets insted of toxic assets. Or, moral hazard, what moral has to do with hazard it is unknown to me, bonuses are retention payments or retention bonuses.
All this is really surreal.
What you are protesting is corporatism, not ‘socialism.’ In 1970, Noam Chomsky gave a lecture called ‘Future Government’ and Identified the disturbing ideology of neoliberalism (neoconservatism) Its an enlightening lecture.
‘George Ball has explained that the project of constructing an integrated world economy dominated by American capital, an empire in other words, is no idealistic pipe dream, but a hard headed prediction. It’s a role, he says, into which we are being pushed by the imperatives of our own economy. The major instrument being the multinational corporation which George Ball describes as follows: “in its modern form the multinational corporation, or one with worldwide operations and markets, is a distinctly American development. Through such corporations it has become possible for the first time to use the world’s resources with maximum efficiency, but there must be greater unification of the world economy to give full play to the benefits of multinational corporations.” These multinational corporations are the beneficiary of the mobilization of resources by the federal government and its worldwide operations and markets are backed ultimately by American military force, now based in dozens of countries. It is not difficult to guess who will reap the benefits from the integrated world economy, which is the domain of operation of these American based international economic institutions.
[45:04]
Well, at this stage in the discussion one has to mention the specter of communism. What is the threat of communism to this system ?’
Btw, I worry that misinformation causes many to confuse the system my family enjoys here in Europe with Communism.
http://www.socialdemokraterna.se/upload/Internationellt/Other%20Languages/WhatisSocialDemocracy.pdf
“To make matters worse, the pressure on government budgets is rising”
And THAT is what angers me even more than the “pie Nazi’s” ! God forbid that governments should have to scale back like the rest of us. They have become like a metastasized cancer growing out of control in both size and scope. I don’t know about you folks, but my “government fun meter” has just about pegged out.
These self serving puffed up bureaucrats have got waaayyy too much power over our lives and it’s time to reel these $@#@%’s in.
“Then said he unto them… he that hath no sword, let him sell his garment, and buy one.” – Luke 22:36
Thom DiLorenzo offers a solution: The fact is that the American people have been servants or slaves to their government for generations. It wasn’t always that way. When the Adams administration enforced the Sedition Act that made criticism of the federal government illegal, Jefferson and Madison responded with the Virginia and Kentucky Resolves of 1798 that clearly stated that the people did not intend to allow the enforcement of this unconstitutional law within those two states. Section One of Jefferson’s Kentucky Resolve stated, for example, that “the several States composing the United States of America, are not united on the principles of unlimited submission to their General Government . . .” Other states supported Jefferson and Madison in their defense of free speech.
(Read more of The Rush towards socialism – and how to stop it)
Reminds me of when I used to live and do business in Russia. Everybody was permanently in violation of a wide number of rules/laws/regulation. In such an environment, laws and their enforcement aren’t used to establish a just society, but to establish and protect (power/policy/business/crime/etc) monopolies.
It’s getting pretty damn close to the point that much of what we do on a daily basis is going to be criminal or violating a code. This is where taking a stand and not backing down is going to have to happen. If I’m told I can’t have a garden with a license or oversight, I will break their law.Ofcourse I would bake the pies too 😉
Soon there will be no choice for many but to follow their own true principles and make our world a better place one good deed or act at a time.
I was reading the “Black Swan” author’s comments from the link below and then read yours above.
http://money.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=798993
I’m convinced our fear of government power has set the base line way back for traditional personal actions like protesting. To resolve the Banker’s taking our financial soverignty we’d have to protest…and risk loosing friends and jobs. Oh, that brings us back to your solution. Gain more by replacing global vendors with local independent relationships.