Lloyd Lofthouse

Do you envy and worship wealth and power?

If the world had more love and/or understanding, than hate, the thirst for power and greed (that seems to always be more powerful), our Earth would be a better place for all forms of life, not just our species.

The Jewish/Christian Bible warns us about greed, not once, but many times. The Old Testament was Jewish, the new Christian. Jesus Christ during the three years he was a teacher said he wasn’t trying to replace the Old Testament with his teachings, but to help people understand better.

Timothy 6:10
“For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs.”

Confucius said, “Good People are generous without being wasteful; they are hardworking without being resentful; they desire without being greedy; they are at ease without being haughty; they are dignified without being fierce.”

Hinduism teaches, “So, we should not be greedy.” So we should keep the mind under control, so that it does not constantly dwell on material possessions. If we do not, we will lose our peace of mind. That is why Vallalar likens the mind to a bouncing ball. When we are controlled by our desires, our mind loses focus.”

Muslims are warned in the Quran to be on guard against greed. A Muslim should not save and hoard great sums of money, but should distribute it to those who are in need of it. 2. It is never acceptable to earn a living by doing wrong.

In their writings, the Taoist sages dwelt upon the harmfulness of greed as it could impoverish people morally and spiritually. On the other hand, “those who know contentment are enriched,” and “a contented person always lives in abundance.”

Disclaimer: I do not belong to any religion and never will.

Lloyd Lofthouse

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2 responses to “Do you envy and worship wealth and power?”

  1. Mike Pulcifer Avatar
    Mike Pulcifer

    Agreed…too much money is paid to people like Fauci (about $400k/yr) and Randi Weingarten, who makes over half a MILLION each year to run the American Federation of Teachers. Isn’t there a federal and/or military pay scale (E1 – E15) or something like that so we could have a reasonable amount of compensation for these kinds of positions, including the heads of “charities”?

    Reply
    1. Lloyd Lofthouse Avatar
      Lloyd Lofthouse

      That’s what the Eisenhower tax rate was for. Tax those who earned the most at higher rates. Tax those who are worth the most at higher rates. If Faucie was earning income in 1950 equal to $400,000 today, that would have been $32,000, annually, but a millionaire was still a millionaire. in 1950.

      But $32k before taxes in 1950 was 3.2% of one million dollars.

      Instead of putting limits on what someone in the working class can earn, like Fauci, who isn’t worth a hundred million or more, tax everyone at the Eisenhower tax rates, adjusted for inflation since the 1950s. And when the super rich die, have a 90% death tax so we get rid of generational wealth that’s created a class of entitled royalty in the United States that now also is beyond the law that’s applied to the working class that never earns that kind of wealth.

      Still, we have to find a way so working class families can survive. Taxes should not shove them from the middle class into poverty and starvation. We do not want to return to Republican President Hoover’s tax rates during the start of the Great Depression.

      Hoover was the president best known for fumbling America’s economic policy during the start of the Great Depression. He was also one of the country’s most prolific tax raisers. The Revenue Act of 1932 raised the top rate from 25% to 63%, but no income bracket was spared.

      Let’s take a look at what that might look like:

      “According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the median income in 2021 was $70,784. So American families earning between $47,189 and $141,568 are technically in the middle class, according to the Pew Research Center’s definition.”

      Using that median income, the 63% GOP tax rate at the beginning of the Great Depression would mean paying $44,594 in Hoover taxes, forcing that working class family to have to find a way to survive on $26,190 annually instead.

      I’m going to use Traitor Trump’s income as the CEO of his Atlantic casinos after the traitor filed for bankruptcy for that failed attempt, one of many of Trump’s failed business ventures. YES, Traitor Trump even gave himself a raise after filing for bankruptcy.

      The Traitor’s annual income for just that one business venture was about $13,000,000 annually, while his casino hotels were not earning enough to pay the bills, while those casino hotels were going through bankruptcy. Before filing for bankruptcy , the traitor’s income was about $11,000,000 annual as CEO. So, after fling for bankruptcy and not being able to pay the bills, he still gave himself about a two million dollar raise.

      At the Hoover 63% tax rate at the beginning of the Great Depression, someone like Traitor Trump at the time would have been forced to pay more than $8.3 million in taxes with $13,000,000 in income as a CEO, leaving him with a measly $4,680,000 to live on. Imagine how horrible it must have been for someone like Traitor Trump, who was use to shitting on gold plated toilets, to suddenly find himself living on less than $5 million annually.

      And you singled out a working class American, Fauci, one of Traitor Trump’s targets because Fauci wouldn’t do what the traitor wanted during the high point of the pandemic. What does that say about you? Because Fauci wouldn’t kowtow to the Traitor! Because Fauci wouldn’t lie for the Traitor!

      Now let’s look at what taxes should be:

      “President Dwight David Eisenhower, perhaps the last real Republican, had a 90 percent tax rate for the super rich during his administration.

      “Eisenhower explained it this way: The super rich could avoid the high taxes by investing their money in things that make America stronger. If they wanted to avoid high taxes, he said they could invest in business expansions and higher employee wages. They could give a million or two to tax-exempt non-profits that feed, house and clothe poor people of America, among other things.

      “They did some of that, but the Eisenhower years generated enough taxes to launch and complete the labyrinth of interstate highways, the largest road project America had ever seen and is needed again.” …

      “Let’s take an example from 1963, the last year that top rates exceeded the 90 percent high water mark. A single filer in the $1 million bracket ($8.2 million today) faced a rate of 91 percent for every dollar earned over $200,000. While the statutory rate dropped for earnings below $200,000, it did not drop much. The 72 percent rate’s threshold kicked in at $44,000 (about $360,000 today). A 50 percent rate applied to single-filer earnings above $16,000 (about $130,000 today), with several other rate jumps as you attained higher income thresholds in between. …”

      How much would a working class individual like Fauci pay in taxes today if we still had the much fairer Eisenhower tax rates? Still, what’s interesting is that earning $400,000 annually does not make you filthy rich.

      TODAY, “What is the federal tax rate for $400,000 income? That means that your net pay will be $234,205 per year, or $19,517 per month. Your average tax rate is 41.5% and your marginal tax rate is 49.8%.”

      “How much would a billionaire pay in taxes? Analysis from the White House published in 2021 suggested that the wealthiest 400 billionaire families in America paid an average tax of just 8.2% of their income. Your average Joe has a starting tax rate of 10%, making billionaires the least taxed group in the country.”

      So if Fauci paid the average tax rate for someone in his bracket, that rate was higher than 40% vs a billionaire paying 8.2%. If one billionaire today pays 8.2% on one billion dollars in earnings that leaves the billionaire with $918,000,000 to invest or spend compared to what someone lie Fauci has left after being taxed more than 40% on his earnings.

      I think we should return to the 91% tax rate for the super wealthy. They won’t get taxed 91% on every penny. That 1950’s tax rate doesn’t kick in until after they have already earned $200,000 annually, almost as much as Fauci clears after he pays his taxes.

      I worked for 45 years, never collected unemployment, and always earned too much to qualify for SNAP or Section 8 housing assistance so I never even looked at that because it’s meant for the real poor so they do not starve, so they can pay rent and not end up homeless. Still, even with SNAP and Section 8, the United States has more than a half million people homeless. Then there’s the number of US citizens that cannot afford health care because they are so poor.

      The number of uninsured individuals remains well below levels prior to enactment of the ACA. The number of uninsured nonelderly individuals dropped from more than 46.5 million in 2010 to fewer than 26.7 million in 2016, climbed to 28.9 million individuals in 2019 before dropping again to 27.5 million in 2021.

      I also never came close to gross earnings of $100k. My highest earnings were my last year of teaching when I picked up an extra class and taught summer school., retiring when summer school ended in August.

      I barely broke $80k before taxes that year. After taxes (income, sales, property), I probably net closer to about $60k.

      Reply

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