The Celestial Wheel   Connect The Dots     February 27, 2011     Back To The Celestial Wheel

Connect The Dots

Connect The Dots Game

     Yesterday saw the first widespread protests against the Republican's agenda to preserve their selfish monied interests -- pitting egalitarianism against their elitism.  Protesters across US decry Wis. anti-union effort.

     Although The Celestial Wheel is on hiatus due to declining Participation, I broke into the emergency cookie jar this morning to publish this fun and simple connect the dots game --  showing this noble protest effort treats the symptoms, not the underlying disease.  This is not about unions, it's not about public overspending, too-high taxes, claims of socialism...

     Can you guess what this is?

     No?  You still need to connect the dots?  Here's a hint,

     Unions under fire as states try to curtail benefits, Forty-four states and Washington, D.C. are facing a total shortfall of $125 billion for fiscal 2012.

     On Street, Pay Vaults to Record Altitude, In 2010, total compensation and benefits at publicly traded Wall Street banks and securities firms hit a record of $135 billion.

     Okay, now you have the picture.  In case you still don't understand, it's the Republican Party's mascot.

     Do you know what you can and should do to fix this problem?  No?  It's simple, really.  The Celestial Wheel has been playing this tune for years and years, Vote with your pocketbook.  This is called a run on the bank.  The February 21, Popular Protests In The U.S, stated,

     Once the big banks are out of business, the infection sapping the country will be gone. Connect these dots:  That the big banks pay themselves more than the sum of the states' shortfalls reveals their lack of consciousness of guilt.  By their endless greed and fraudulent practices, the big banks caused the Millennium Contraction that has drained our economic health.  They bankroll the monied interests to inflate corporate income and elephant-stomp on the rest of us by not paying their fair share of taxes, reducing taxes on business and the rich and reducing retirement, health care and other essential programs. 

The top 1% now earns 24% of total income. 

That we already pay for Social Security and Medicare in payroll taxes doesn't matter to them.

Bake New Pies

     This pie chart comparison between revenues and expenses is used by The Only Chart You Need To See To Understand Why The US Is Screwed to show why the U.S. must cut spending, specifically entitlement spending.

     That is exactly backwards.  Let's consider just three items.

    First, the left pie is too small.  Corporate profits in 2010 were $1.65 trillion = $1650 billion.  (Corporate Profits Were the Highest on Record Last Quarter)  The 191 billion corporate taxes paid is 11%.  If the tax-dodging corporations paid the stated 35% rate, corporate taxes would be 577 billion = 386 billion.  That single change would decrease the federal deficit a whopping 29% -- from 1,350 billion to 964 billion.

    Second, the right pie is inflated. Medicare and Medicaid cost $724 billion.  The corporate-owned health care system is 17% of our economy, compared with 8% for government systems in almost other first world countries.  Health care costs should be cut in half, saving $362 billion.  That's another 27% of the deficit.

     Third, the right pie is further inflated with defense spending of 654 billion.  That's nearly half what the rest of the globe spends!  Stop our failed wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and cut back unnecessary weapons programs to save another 250 billion.  There goes another 19% of the deficit.

     Just these three changes chop the deficit by 73%, or 998 billion (just a hair under a trillion), to 352 billion.  That's still a deficit, but it's manageable.  And cutting these cancers from the U.S. economy will spur healthy growth, increasing tax revenues on Federal, State and local levels to balance all public sector budgets.  Along with this, the rest of us can regain economic security.  It's not very difficult to bake these new pies.

     Of course, we still have the horrific national debt the Banksters and corporate interests have foisted upon the country.  But without first rebalancing the budget to eliminate the deficit, we have no hope of saving ourselves -- from them.

    And this egalitarian process can only begin by first applying the very simple technique voting of with your pocketbooks to starve the bankster beasts.  Subscribers who have already pulled their money from the big banks report feeling lighter and other expressions of relief.  The one I like the best is grim satisfaction.

     There's not a lot of time left.  The Celestial Wheel has correctly predicted since late 2004 the three-step process from Second Gilded Age, to the Millennium Contraction to Second Progressive Age.  See Through The Second Gilded Age and Through The Millennium Contraction.  The latter predicts the hammer will begin to fall hard again in just a few months.  Don't delay! 

PS  With The Celestial Wheel emergency piggy bank now emptied, a baker's dozen of paid Participants is needed.  You can join for as little as $4, or as much as $50.  Sign up on the home page.  And, forward this to your family, friends and acquaintances.  The issue is not whether you can afford a few dollars, but rather that you can't afford to be unaware of the tough karma headed your way.

If a tree falls in a forest, and there's no one around to hear it, there's no sound. 

An unobserved action is absolutely identical to one which did not occur at all.