174 results for author: Dave Svetlik

WEALTH AND MONEY, PART IV: THE CREATION OF MONEY AND DEBT

The prescient fears of Jefferson and Stamp have come to fruition. In America and around the world, governments are crippled with debt. Nation upon nation is said to have overspent and now must pay the price.

WEALTH AND MONEY, PART III: PHYSICS VERSUS MONEY

  Imagine yourself an intergalactic traveler visiting Earth. You land in a place called America and notice the crumbling infrastructure. You wonder, “Why would a people who had built such magnificent highways, bridges and airports allow them to fall into such disrepair?” You question: “Does America have sufficient cement, sand and gravel to rebuild its infrastructure? Yes. Is there adequate structural steel and other needed materials? Yes. Is there construction equipment? Yes, it sits idle. Is there fuel for the equipment? Certainly, America currently exports energy. Do Americans have the knowledge? They’ve built roads, bridges and ...

WEALTH AND MONEY PART 2: PRODUCTIVE CAPABILITY VERSUS MEDIUM OF EXCHANGE

WEALTH AND MONEY PART 2: PRODUCTIVE CAPABILITY VERSUS MEDIUM OF EXCHANGE One cannot eat money. It cannot be used as clothing. A house or chair cannot be built out of money. One cannot ride to work in a dollar bill or use it to mow the lawn. This is because food and clothing, a furnished house, a car, and a lawnmower are wealth. Money is the claim to wealth, a medium of exchange accepted as valid by a society. It has no value in and of itself. In fact, the overwhelming majority of “money” doesn’t exist. It is simply an entry on a computer screen or in a ledger representing credit or debt. But the manipulation of money exerts great power ...

WEALTH AND MONEY: PART I

PART I: THE DESTRUCTIVE/CONSTRUCTIVE CONTRADICTION   Born in the late 1800’s, Frederick Soddy and R. Buckminster Fuller led extraordinary lives. Soddy won the Nobel Prize in chemistry in 1921 and Fuller became well known for his work in architecture and the development of the geodesic dome. Soddy was a British citizen, Fuller an American. Both were deeply rooted in science and the laws of physics, and both spent the latter half of their life trying to apply their knowledge of physical reality to making the world work for everyone. Inevitably their quest led them to the field of economics and the study of monetary systems. Remarkably, though ...

THE RIFLE

Born in the late 40’s, I grew up in a family of hunters. Fair shots most of them, I remember standing next to my father when a spooked buck crossed our path at a dead run. Dad shot twice, hit twice, and the buck went down. It was near Hatfield, in central Wisconsin. Dad’s rifle was an old, iron sight, pump action, 30 Remington. It has killed (we kill deer – corn and oats are harvested) a few deer since my father died in ‘94. My sons have used the rifle. It was never a popular caliber and bullets are no longer manufactured for it. I have about 35 left – should last me until I no longer hunt. The rifle is a treasure to me. It is easy for ...

WISDOM FOR JUSTICE

Religion at its very best is universal. It knows no boundaries, transcends all divisions and labels, judges not, excludes none. It is the ancient and eternal quest for a decent humanity, for caring societies and communities, for seeking unity with others. It accepts. It knows the human acts of thinking, questioning, doubting, of fearlessly seeking the truth, as deeply moral endeavors. It moves convictions to actions. The Wisconsin faith based organization known as Wisdom is the embodiment of religion at its best. A member of the international network known as the Gamaliel Foundation, Wisdom is dedicated to improving the lives of the people of ...

The Rifle

Born in the late 40’s, I grew up in a family of hunters. Fair shots most of them, I remember standing next to my father when a spooked buck crossed our path at a dead run. Dad shot twice, hit twice, and the buck went down. It was near Hatfield, in central Wisconsin. Dad’s rifle was an old, iron sight, pump action, 30 Remington. It has killed (we kill deer - corn and oats are harvested) a few deer since my father died in 94. My sons have used the rifle. It was never a popular caliber and bullets are no longer manufactured for it. I have about 35 left – should last me until I no longer hunt. The rifle is a treasure to me. It is easy for an ...

NOT A DEMOCRAT . . . . A HUMBLE OPINION

As the dust settles on the November elections and the Democrats assess the damage, one thing seems increasingly clear. . . it is no longer clear at all just who or what is a Democrat. Given the apparent identity crisis, a process of elimination may be in order. . . If you are not willing to openly fight the historic wealth inequality that has replaced democracy in America, you are not a Democrat. If you are not publicly advocating the breakup of “too big to fail” Wall Street banks, you are not a Democrat. If you do not rigorously support criminal prosecution of the fraud perpetrated on the people of America by the heads of Wall Street ...

Tax Dodger…Verizon

This is the eighth in a series on corporate tax dodgers. These summaries are taken directly from the report on Corporate Tax Dodgers by Americans for Tax Fairness and the Institute for Policy Studies It is the same old story. Spend $15 million in a single year for lobbyists to convince legislators to pass laws allowing you to pay no taxes (from 2008 to 2012 Verizon actually had a negative 2.8 percent tax rate amounting to a $7.3 billion tax subsidy). Claim that low taxes create jobs and proceed to slash your workforce by 28,500 people. Drive America and her people into debt. Then have your multimillionaire CEO, Lowell McAdam, join “Fix the ...

Corporate Tax Dodger…Apple

This is the seventh in a series on corporate tax dodgers. This summary is taken directly from the report on Apple Tax Dodging by Americans for Tax Fairness and the Institute for Policy Studies Purchase the legislators and legislation which allow you to “legally” pay few, if any taxes: “Apple could spend $4 million lobbying politicians on the Hill, twice what the company spent last year and more than 20 times the $180,000 it spent in 1999, according to Reuters. The bump in lobbying spending comes with the iPhone maker under fire for allegedly being one of the largest tax avoiders in the nation. Multinational U.S. corporations are currently ...