Buckles

Buckle up for safety. Buckle down for financial security. Put them together and you just might survive the next crash, whether it be from an auto accident or the next big dip in the market value of your dwindling investments.

In neither instance are you likely to come out unscathed… unless you’re a corporate executive who’s assured of a big fat pay check and a hefty bonus or two, fitted with designer crash helmets and an armored military Humvee; a commercialized Hummer might not suffice with a revolting public, what with the continued excesses of Big business, Big government, Big Banks and all the Big-dealing lobbyists whose only goal is to keep the status quo of the average American living under the thumb prints of serfdom.

Corporate executives are aghast at the very thought they should give up a penny’s worth of compensation through a redistribution of their wealth, and that of their cronies, to those who do the grunt work to fill their pockets with riches beyond our wildest prayers.

We’re much too reliant on government. We have become submissive to governing bodies who cower unabatedly to the real power brokers, certainly not the voters who put them in office, but the Big Game players aforementioned.

The pittance of minimum wage salaries does nothing to keep families from living in poverty. To make a point, out of approximately 32 million people who may [be forced to] participate in the government mandated health care system [if enacted], 19 million are expected to be eligible to receive subsidies of anywhere from 90% for a family of four whose income is about $88,000 ($44,000 for individuals) to a 97% subsidy for a four family household with an annual income of approximately $29,000 ($14,000 threshold for singles). That’s a lot of people and a whole lot of subsidizing with taxpayer dollars.

Since 1980, the average working man and woman has seen their income increase about thirty percent. Also since then, corporate executives have given themselves (through their hand-picked board of directors) anywhere from three hundred to four hundred percent pay raises.

(It’s rather interesting, and disappointing, that during my extensive searches through the mazes of Google, which in (4.4 seconds) might display upwards of ‘About 1,234,578 results’, could I find a single source that narrowed the gap of the 300% to 400% figures. This led me to believe that no one really knows, or willing to admit, to what degree the top 1% of these high and mighty money mongers actually ‘earn’. In some cases, might it possibly be 1,000% above and beyond that of what the core majority of Americans make?)

Going a step further, and pointing out that nobody wants to give up what they’ve been generously given, the expiration of the G. W. Bush tax cuts that only benefited those with the highest bundles of cash reserves, is under fire from the ones who benefited from those tax cuts.

Nor can I fail to comment on the claims, and complaints, that the top 1% wage earners pay a ‘disproportionate’ percent of income taxes. Their accountants know what loopholes to leap through to lessen the impact of paying the government their fortunes as allowed by current tax codes. They have accountants; we have tax preparers who may receive training but, otherwise, don’t have the same level of education, thus no CPA after their names – many are seasonal employees who are paid hourly wages instead of commissions, such as many who work for, as an example, H&R Block.

From 2007 figures, the top 1% of income earners had a 19% share of all income in the U.S. but paid 37% of the total U.S. tax bills. The bottom 50% made 13% of all earnings but contributed only 3% in federal income taxes. But the bottom 50% are the American consumers whose spending make up 70% of GDP but only with what financial resources they by spending whatever their financial resources allow. Most have lost their jobs, savings, investments and home values. By no stretch of the imagination do these people have the disposable income to help dig the U.S. out of the continued deterioration of the nation’s still faltering economy. With their credit cards maxed out, or cancelled for non-payments and declared bankruptcies, the situation makes it a foregone conclusion that a solid recovery is nowhere in sight.

In my estimation, the best course of action for the average American, whether working, living from one extension of unemployment benefits to another, or barely surviving on Social Security incomes, is to buckle down before they buckle under. It may be the worst course of action to avoid deflation and Dow Street investors would send industrial averages tumbling to lows not seen since when? The depression maybe?

If you should take personal responsibility of your financial future and place your dollars and cents in a guaranteed but low interest money market accounts or certificate of deposit, it may prolong the recovery but you will have done what all wise people should do: look out for your own self interest and emulate what the Big Bad Boys are doing.