Why Immigrate to the United States?

I view the "American Dream" to involve some of the following:

(1) Education - Part of the American Dream is the opportunity for you and your children to receive a quality education, starting with the public elementary education, quality high school, and high level colleges and universities. Education is affordable and accessible to all.

(2) Employment - Part of the American Dream is the opportunity for secure employment with respectable living pay.  Hard work, loyalty, and innovation are rewarded with respectable pay and job security.  Long term employment is a real and achievable goal.  A retirement with respect is attainable with hard work and loyalty.  Small business ownership is attainable and a goal of the business community.

(3) Home Ownership - Part of the American Dream is the opportunity to afford an appropriately sized home.  This is to both keep a permanent roof over your head, but also to have a permanent stake in this society.  Not just for yourself, but for your children and grandchildren.  It doesn't have to be an extravagant home by any stretch, but a permanent one that you can keep with security and get with financial responsibility.

(4) Health - Part of the American Dream is health and its many forms.  Its the personal health of your family.  Its health safety in the workplace.  Having a safe, clean hospital in your community or city.  It means access to health in all its shapes and forms, including access to a doctor.  It also means clean air, food, and water. 

(5) Freedom - Part of the American Dream for many outside of this country is the freedoms we offer.  It involves being able to speak your mind without fear of repercussion, including from the government.  It means being able to protest and assemble without fear for your own safety.  Its the freedom to practice your own religion safely and without fear.  It is the freedom to participate in the political system without fear for your own safety or even fear of losing your vote.

My parents immigrated to this country for most of if not all of the above reasons.  My own experience and their experiences lead me to believe that those are what the American Dream consists of.  They lived it.  They succeeded within the framework of the American Dream.  They left their home country for a better life and got it. 

My father got higher education and started his own small business which is still open over thirty years later.

My parents saved up money and own their own home.

They sent all three children to affordable colleges.

They had access to insurance and hospitals when they got ill and when my mother had to give birth to my siblings and I.

They worked hard to become naturalized American citizens and exercise their right to vote in every election, not just presidential ones.

They believe their children can live within this framework.  They believe that their children can still achieve their dreams within this framework.  They believe that the American Dream is alive for the society of the United States.  They are "minorities" (Jewish).

I am seeing cracks in their thinking.

For example...

They think its atrocious that not everybody has access to health care, even the poor.

They think its a shame the college education has become financially unattainable for so many compared to when they got their degrees.

They think that attacks on retirement, social security, and medicare are appalling.

They still worry about practicing their religion openly with representatives and presidential politicians speaking about the United States as a Christian Country.

Even they, the responsible homeowners who only bought within their means and extremely carefully, are beginning to wonder how it is that so many people are being foreclosed by Wall St. and the Banks.

My mother typically votes Republican, my father typically votes Democrat.  They are registered independents.

If they are having doubts, if there are chinks in the armor, what are people outside the country thinking?  What are potential immigrants thinking?

 Why should they consider moving to the United States and not elsewhere?  What do potential immigrants have left as reasons to move to this country anymore?

It seems that all of the aspects of the American Dream are under attack, being destroyed, or are close to being dead.  This comes from the super wealthy and corporate interests, who have no interest in watching the American Dream survive, for that comes at the expense of their own wealth.  And if you are a foreigner who is considering starting a new life in the United States, this is a frightening prospect.

So I wonder, from children of immigrants and children of non-immigrants, why would people want to move to the United States?

"The owners of this country know the truth.  Its called the American Dream, cause you have to be asleep to believe it." - George Carlin

PEACE

Young Americans Suffering Disproportionately

This morning I found an article which discusses the record "wealth gap" between the young and the old in this country.  I have no problem with older Americans having wealth.  I have a problem with the youth of this country suffering like this.  

The following article from this morning's Associated Press:

"WASHINGTON (AP) — The wealth gap between younger and older Americans has stretched to the widest on record, worsened by a prolonged economic downturn that has wiped out job opportunities for young adults and saddled them with housing and college debt.

The typical U.S. household headed by a person age 65 or older has a net worth 47 times greater than a household headed by someone under 35, according to an analysis of census data released Monday.

While people typically accumulate assets as they age, this gap is now more than double what it was in 2005 and nearly five times the 10-to-1 disparity a quarter-century ago, after adjusting for inflation."

 First of all, lets not call it a "wealth gap".  Young people in this country are poor.  I have no shame saying it. 

It's the kind of poor where you can barely get a minimum wage job that forces you to live paycheck to paycheck. 

It's the kind of poor where you have to get two, maybe three jobs just so that you can pay rent, bills, and buy food because you don't want the internal shame of being on public assistance.

It's the kind of poor where you can't save for your future, because every cent is going to student loans that got you that college education that you were told would make your future.

It's the kind of poor that doesn't allow you to have any health insurance.  Hospital visits are out of the question.

It's the kind of poor that forces a young couple with a new kid to sell their home, thinking they were secure in their jobs until Wall St. destroyed the economy and any sense of your future with it.

Meanwhile, the old are being forced to stay in their jobs longer just so that they can keep their health insurance while politicians talk of raising the social security and medicare ages.  They are forced to delay a well deserved retirement just so they can remain in their homes for fear of foreclosure. 

***

The current state of affairs is no good.  High unemployment is crippling young people.  Student loans are making them slaves to the system.  Poverty is creeping in to their lives across the board at an alarming rate.  Meanwhile the government cuts education programs, public assistance programs, food stamps, child health insurance, and more.  They are coming for social security and medicare as well.  People are suffering and their suffering is increasing.  If you are young and experiencing this, it is frustrating, angering, but often just damn depressing.  If you are old, you are watching your life's work whittled away at while your children and grandchildren suffer needlessly. 

We're not leeches.  We don't expect much.  We just want a fair chance at achieving our dreams (you know, that "American Dream").  We want to have that chance without being saddled by crippling debt, whether student or medical.  We want to have that chance without having the corporate owned government putting obstacles in our way.  We want to have that chance without the corporate owned media belittling us at every turn.

We want a FAIR chance.  We deserve the same opportunity as the 1% is given.  The same opportunity to try, to succeed, and to fail without fear of death.  The same fair playing ground for everybody, not just the 1% or even just the 99%, but for ALL.

Isn't that what we used to say everyday to start the school day?  "Liberty and Justice for All"!

 

PEACE

 

U.S. Corporations Paying No Taxes

I know this is probably old news for a lot of us, but if I get one person to realize this for the first time, I've achieved what I want.  If you are not aware, between 2008 and 2010, thirty large and wealthy American Corporations paid zero income tax.  As you read this post, think about how much income tax you paid this year.

"(Reuters) - Thirty large and profitable U.S. corporations paid no income taxes in 2008 through 2010, said a study on Thursday that arrives as Congress faces rising demands for tax reform, but seems unable or unwilling to act.

Pepco Holdings, a Washington, D.C.-area power company, had the lowest effective tax rate, at negative 57.6 percent, among the 280 Fortune 500 companies studied.

The statutory U.S. corporate income tax rate is 35 percent, one of the highest in the world, but over the 2008-2010 period, very few of the companies studied paid it, said the report.  The average effective tax rate for the companies over the period was 18.5 percent, said Citizens for Tax Justice and the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, both think tanks."

 From the actual report itself (.pdf file), the following thirty companies paid ZERO income tax, as well as receiving millions...oh wait, I meant billions in tax rebates from the government.

(1) Pepco Holdings (2) General Electric (3) Paccar (4) PG&E Corporation (5) Computer Sciences (6) NiSource (7) CenterPoint Energy (8) Tenet Healthcare (9) Atmos Energy (10) Integrys Energy Group (11) American Electric Power (12) Con-way (13) Ryder System (14) Baxter International (15) Wisconsin Energy (16) Duke Energy (17) DuPont (18) Consolidated Edison (19) Verizon Communications (20) Interpublic Group (21) CMS Energy (22) NextEra Energy (23) Navistar International (24) Boeing (25) Wells Fargo (26) El Paso (27) Mattel (28) Honeywell International (29) DTE Energy (30) Corning

But what does it all mean?  Taking a closer look at these companies shows us the following industries.

- 14 Energy / Utility Companies
- 3 Transportation Companies
- 2 Healthcare Companies
- 2 Conglomerates
- Remaining in Chemicals, Communications, Advertising, Aerospace, Defense, Banking, Finance, and Toys

Do you think its any coincidence that there are so many energy companies on this list?  How about healthcare?  How about these giant conglomerates, like G.E. that are on this list?  And it's more than just these companies paying zero income tax, they are actually receiving money from the government to the tune of billions of dollars.

Take G.E. for example.  In 2010, G.E. had a profit of 4.2 BILLION dollars.  The government gave them tax breaks to the tune of 3.3 BILLION dollars.  This gave them an effective tax rate of -76.6%.  Seem fair to you?  What was your tax rate?

How about an oil company?  In 2009, Exxon-Mobil had a profit of 2.5 BILLION dollars.  The government gave them tax breaks to the tune of 950 million dollars.  This gave them an effective tax rate of -38.3%.  Seem fair to you?  What was your tax rate?  How much were you paying per gallon of gasoline in 2009?  How much did that affect your life?

Oh I know!  How about the company that held our country at gunpoint?  In 2008, Goldman Sachs had a profit 4.9 BILLION dollars.  The government gave them tax breaks to the tune of 786 million dollars.  This gave them an effective tax rate of -16%.  Seem fair to you?  This doesn't even include the bailout funds.  Or all the foreclosed homes.

How could I forget about healthcare!  In 2009, the for profit healthcare group Tenet Healthcare had a profit of 193 million dollars.  The government gave them tax breaks to the tune of 53 million dollars.  Tax rate of -27.3% anyone?  Tenet operates 139 for profit health centers in the United States.  They've been involved in psychiatric fraud, medicare fraud, unnecessary heart surgery scandal, and Hurricane Katrina scandal.  So it seems only fair that they receive money from the government.

***

See where I'm going with this?  How is it that the rest of us, the 99%, have to see our jobs destroyed (sorry, I meant, "Management wanted to curtail redundancies in the human resources area, so many people are no longer viable members of the workforce" - thanks George Carlin), our pensions destroyed, our retirement destroyed, and then our social safety nets destroyed?  And then watch as that money, OUR tax money, given away to the 1%?  This is purely and simply reverse Robin Hood!

This is why people are fed up.  This is why people are protesting.  The 99% are slowly losing everything they've worked so hard for, while the 1% are bleeding this country dry all in the name of their corporate profits and CEO pay.  You want healthcare?  Sorry, government tax break for the corporate 1%.  You want affordable gasoline?  Sorry, government tax break for the corporate 1%.  You want to heat your home in the winter?  Sorry, you have to go broke so the government can give its tax breaks for the corporate 1%.  You want your labor to be valued by forming a union?  You know, the same labor that created this wealth?  Sorry, aint happening.

And so it goes.  On, and on, and on, and on...


It's infuriating.  If you have time, read the report, however I warn you its 71 pages of infuriating material.  I will blog about parts of this report more.

Finally, to end this post...

Corporations will say rightly that the loopholes that let them slash their taxes were perfectly legal, the report said.

"But that does not mean that low-tax corporations bear no responsibility ... The laws were not enacted in a vacuum; they were adopted in response to relentless corporate lobbying, threats and campaign support," the report said.

 Don't let these people lie anymore.  Don't believe anything they say anymore.