My grandfather was the Treasurer of the Brecht’s Candy Company in Denver for years. He taught me, at the age of 12, double-entry accounting. In order to receive my allowance (10 cents per week) I had to produce my ledger showing the current state of my financial account.
I went on to receive a degree in accounting from the University of Tampa, where I studied governmental accounting. Two things I learned early in my accounting experience were “There is no such thing as free money” and “I can only buy what I can pay for.” Which is another way of saying I had to operate on a balanced budget
There are two things currently being discussed or pushed through Congress that I would like to address; the infrastructure bill (or reconciliation, or Make America Better, or whatever it’s being referred to as today) and the digital dollar project. Both of these issues are inextricably intertwined.
First, there is an effort by the Democrats to replace the U.S. dollar with a digital dollar. Eventually that means no more cash. While that may be fine for high finance, it could be disastrous for millions of low-income and homeless people, and others who have no bank account or credit cards and rely on only small cash transactions. For these people, it’s, “If I can’t hold it, I don’t own it.”
Some digital dollar in the clouds means absolutely nothing. There are several other disadvantages to this harebrained idea. We have heard over and over about cybersecurity breaches. Just this past week The Manhattan Mercury reported on a breach of the Pottawatomie County computers, and this isn’t even the tip of the iceberg. Security breaches of our gas lines, electrical grids, government and corporate data systems, and financial institutions happen on a daily basis.
The advising firm Prescouter in November 2019 wrote, “We have already seen evidence of this, with multiple ICOs getting breached and costing investors hundreds of millions of dollars this summer alone.” (One of these attacks by itself resulted in the loss of $473 million). A lot needs to happen in the cybersecurity world before we even begin to think about such a major transformation of our economy.
The second issue is the president’s proposed $6 trillion proposed budget. This comes after the trillions of dollars spent on the COVID problems the last year and a half. The question is how is this to be paid for? The president claims, “It costs zero dollars” because it is “paid for with taxes.” Now I hate to disappoint the president, but tax dollars do not grow from magic jelly beans. That money comes out of someone’s pocket. So how does Joe propose raising that tax money?
“Instead of wasting money on tax breaks, loopholes and tax evasion for big corporations and the wealthy, we can make a once-in-a-generation investment in working America,” he said.
So how do these corporations pay all these taxes and still make a profit? They raise the price of their products. And who has to pay the new price? We, the American consumer. This is Economics 101, Mr. President.
Another issue here is how to account for the increased tax revenue. An estimated 1,500 new employees will be added to the IRS payroll. They will be monitoring every bank and credit card transaction of $600 or more. That means, if you work for a living, Big Brother will be spying on your bank account! Add to this the digital dollar project, and Big Brother will know every penny you receive or spend.
This is the largest attempt in American history for the government to control every aspect of the American economy. Bernie Sanders said of this budget proposal, “It is only the beginning.”
The basic rules of Marxism as outlined in “The Communist Manifesto” and the “State and Revolution” are to eliminate the opposition and to gain control of the economy, transportation and communications. Gen. George Patton is quoted as saying, “Rommel, you magnificent bastard. I read your book!”
We are at war for the soul of this nation. But don’t believe me, read the books!
Bill Shea is a retired major in the U. S. Army. He also worked at K-State as an instructor in computer science and still supply preaches for MCC. He lives in Manhattan.
SHEA | Economics for presidential use only | Opinion | themercury.com - Manhattan Mercury
Read More
No comments:
Post a Comment