A Friend In The Devil

My Friend the Devil


The Devil is more pathetic
than he is the Prince of Darkness
during a night of heavy drinking
he'll call you at three AM
and bare his soul in detail
Or he'll stop by unexpected
to hit you up for twenty bucks
and fat chance of that coming back
Once wallowing deep in self pity
on how unfair the universe is
Old Satan had to rightly admit
he's as evil as they come, but added
every bit of evil he's ever done
started with a willing accomplice

The national elections of last November have come and gone, people have settled with the devils they know than opting for change. I've been hearing all kinds of political arguments where two sides square off and can't agree on the most basic facts. I'm not talking about ideas that are miles apart, these are people living in parallel universes.

The recent debate over guns is a good case in point. It's difficult to listen to people that say it important to be patriotic but in the next breath claim that we all have to protect ourselves from a tyrannical government. The gun industry is a multi-billion entity and public safety be damned if there few more sales to be made. The pro-gun argument as brought up the gun culture of Switzerland. One Swiss citizen had a brilliant rebuttal on how different the United States is from Switzerland and how Switzerland has very strict controls on private ownership of guns. The one thing that stayed in my mind was when that Swiss citizen explained how his country has a social contract to take care of each other and because of that "we are not at war with each other, like they are in United States".

It's best to be opened minded and on friendly terms with as many people as possible -but that's not easy. My version of Occam's Razor for political discussions is whoever relies on the least number of conspiracies probably has the best solution. There is no shortage of true believers that hold on to the conviction that Obama's Hawaiian birth certificate is a forgery, that the World Trade Center was packed with explosives and every aspect of the 911 tragedy was pre-planned by the US government, or the Federal Reserve was created by a cabal of Satan worshipers that spent their summers together in a place called Bohemian Grove. 

One bit of political logic that defies common sense  -is the government needs to keep lowering taxes on the investing class so they will have more money to create jobs. Some of that logic was refuted in the last election cycle.  If that was true we should be swimming jobs. When Clinton ended his term as president the government had a surplus and unemployment was like 3%. George W Bush cut the taxes on the investing class and within eight years the surplus is gone, the economy is ready to meltdown and unemployment shoots up over 10%. Now during the Obama years taxes are kept low, actually the tax burden on the top 1% is lower than it's ever been since 1945. You think we now have to pay the investor class to go out and invest.

That almost seems to be the case. In every state large employers are paid to stay or come in and set up. There are all kinds of subsidies and tax abatements (corporate welfare). Of course every other tax payer has to make up the difference -including smaller businesses and competitors. That doesn't sound like free enterprise, does it?

What is totally in conceivable is that 19 states allow certain select employers to keep the state payroll tax for themselves. Instead of state governments writing a check to attract or keep a business within state boundaries, this kind of stealthy deal hides the true cost. The lost tax revenues are not tracked by the state so only an accountant with access to the official records could figure out much the rest us are paying for that big box store or politically connected industry to stay in business.    

Think about it? Money being withheld from workers paychecks isn't going for improved roads, police protection or better schools -no it's going straight into the pockets of the employer. Every worker is paying for their job. It's one reason why big box stores and franchised retailers can have huge economic advantages over small business; and maybe it's one reason Main Street in American is suffering so much. This is not only unfair but it could be unconstitutional because the workers are being forced to pay a tax but they have no representation with the actual recipient. Even if this is not unconstitutional this practice stifles competition and helps create a shrinking pool of lower paying jobs. 



The Fine Print is a book worth reading. David Cay Johnston explains why internet service is so much better in over twenty other countries than it is here. Or why your phone bill keeps going up while the cost of communications keeps going down. It a good way to find out more about the devil we live with.