With all the talk about taxes, one-percenters, 99-percenters, and so on, not much has been said about how we got into this mess. Our memory is short, but let me try to refresh it. Two unnecessary unfunded wars, financed on borrowed money. Then the uncontrolled, barely regulated banks playing roulette with other people’s money and hedge funds and homes. You can only gamble so long before the table turns against you.
Then a Congress led by three downright evil representatives and one senator, whose only game was to defeat a multi-racial president. That was not their job – that belongs to the voters. These are members of the group that committed an act of treason. When sworn in, they pledged to uphold the Constitution. Later, they made a pledge to an unelected individual who fully and with no reservations stated he wants to bring down this government.
Isn’t that what bin Laden was trying to do? We have arrested people who were trying to blow up planes and Times Square. How is Grover Norquist any different?
He states he wants to bring down this government. You, I and any of our friends could go to jail if we voiced any plan to destroy this nation. Why is Norquist the exception? He is just a citizen, appointed to an office but never elected. Now he heads up a group who blatantly state they are set on destroying our government of 200 years. Their stupid chant, “no new taxes,” is akin to saying, “no new equipment” or “no new schools” or “no new roads.” I wonder if they have the guts to refuse their salary if elected. Isn’t it our tax money that pays those salaries and perks?
But enough about these jerks. Let’s talk about the good guys that can really bring us out of this recession. Not the wily bankers, those that President Bush and Secretary Paulson bailed out with TARP money coming from the good ol’ taxpayer, which they promptly used to give themselves huge bonuses.
Let’s get to who can save this country – the 99 percenters – commonly called consumers. If the consumer does not have a meaningful job, he cannot purchase the items manufactured by big and small entrepreneurs. No demand, no profit, no growth.
Not much is said about these most important persons. But knowledgeable businesses spend millions trying to please them. For without the consumer, nothing moves and decline is inevitable. He is as necessary to business as water is to fish. From the beginning of time the consumer has held the cards; whether using barter or cash, he is king. The only other economic system is slave labor and gruel – no need for taxes, just your life, wife and the children produced by that union for more slaves.
The consumer started the union, which gave us 40-hour weeks, a meaningful wage and time to spend it. The consumer started education, as he rightfully knew that it was needed to become a better producer and to climb the ladder of success. The consumer provided the will to push for better products, merchandise, food supplies and a better life for those that followed. Inventors, entrepreneurs, banks, and commerce – are all the result of the consumer wanting to better his world. To do this the consumer needs jobs.
Think about a grain of wheat. Follow that grain from farmer to consumer and see how much taxes it produces. The farmer will only plant as much grain as the consumer is capable of purchasing. If there is too much wheat, the price goes down; too little, the price is too high and the consumer won’t buy. The whole system depends and relies on that great person, the consumer.
It isn’t the investors, bankers, no-tax onepercenters, big business, or small business, it is the proud, hard-working, taxpaying, even union-joining consumer that turns the wheel that grinds the wheat that makes the flour that goes to the baker who buys the coal to heat the ovens to bake the bread. I can’t remember the rest of the rhyme but you get the picture. Consumers – without them, nothing.
Even the ladies of the night know if you give great service the consumer will stay with you even when getting screwed.
Galen Larson writes from Montezuma County, Colo.
