Is History Repeating Itself?

Is History Repeating Itself?

Can The U.S. Make The Same Mistakes Of Past Cultures And Obtain Different Outcomes?

Is the U.S. doomed to follow the decline of the Roman empire?

Here is something to think about...

I have been reading a great book by Rabbi Daniel Lapin, "America's Real War". The subtitle of the book is: An Orthodox Rabbi Insists That Judeo-Christian Values Are Vital For Our Nation's Survival.

Rabbi Lapin says, "Our country is in a tug-of-war. At one end of the rope are those who believe in a secular nation. At the other end are those who stand for a spiritual America. I believe the basic question is whether America is a secular or a religious nation. Whichever view people hold, they do so with utter conviction."

Rabbi Lapin makes the following distinctions between the two opinions, or worldviews:

• One end of the rope is anchored by people who believe that the Judeo-Christian tradition represents primitive tribalism and intolerance. These people are joined by many in the "middle ground" who are not committed to every nuance of secularism (that is, anti-religion) but still feel that religious America poses a real threat. They favor a secular America as the lesser of two evils.
• On the other end are Americans who feel increasingly alienated by this "enlightened" perspective which denies and attempts to rewrite America's history and then redefine the culture.

www.RabbiDanielLapin.com

The book makes the argument that America is a religious nation in both its history and dominant culture. Not only that, America is has undeniable Judeo-Christian foundational ethics.

Rabbi Lapin then argues in subsequent chapters that "Almost every social pathology and nearly every sign of civic disarray can be traced to one thing: the extirpation of religion from American life during the past three and a half decades."

He concludes, and then provides evidence that, "A culture's prospects for success and durability are best revealed by examining what it considers the purpose of life, what is death, how sex should be treated, and similar questions that most of us answer in one of only two ways. Either we consult the the traditions of our faith, or rejecting faith, we seek emotionally satisfying answers."

The Rabbi makes an uncomfortable analogy between the unsinkable Titanic and America. The impending doom of the "unsinkable" ship was sealed when it struck an iceberg. However, aboard the Titanic, many people did not even know about the collision, nor the timing of the inevitable disaster. Many passengers scoffed at the notion that the collision could imperil the unsinkable ship, much less on the maiden voyage of the engineering marvel.

Rabbi Lapin feels that America "hit the iceberg" in the early 1960's. Only a few people knew it at the time. Fewer people cared. Imperceptibly at first, America began to change gradually. But those of us who have lived long enough to be able to look back to the 1960's can testify that the country looks very, very different. And many of us - especially those of us on the religious end of the rope - do not think the changes that resulted from the opposition of traditional religious values have been for the better of American society.

One chapter compares the changes in America over the past few decades to the decline and fall of the once great and seemingly invincible Roman Empire. In the chapter, Rabbi Lapin refers to "A History of Roman Civilization" by historian, Will Durant.

He relates that towards the end of its fall into oblivion, the Roman Empire was briefly propped up by a return to enduring values. In the third century, emperor Marcus Aurelius Severus Alexander made the Empire flourish by recommending that the people embrace and live by the morals of the Jews and Christians. He opposed secularism and reduced taxes.

He didn't last long. But the point is that although Rome became a footnote to history after the fourth century, it is not yet too late for America to step back from the brink and endure.

What ultimately caused the downfall of the Roman Empire?

• The government issued decrees that attempted to replace sound economic laws, including wage and price controls.
• The mismanaged economy sank under its own weight. The required government bureaucracy was estimated to equal half of the population.
• The cost of government and welfare programs required more and more taxation. The state created a special force of revenue police to examine all property and income and exact severe penalties for tax evasion.
• Larger government spawned yet more regulation, intrusion, and abusive taxation. The government became the enemy of the productive sector of society.
• At the same time, moral and aesthetic standards disappeared, spurred on by unlimited immigration and clashes of hundreds of cultural norms.

Sound anything like the United States today? Why has "liberating" us from all objective standards, allowing every person to determine morality for himself, failed to deliver the nirvana that was promised?

Need another example. Rabbi Lapin points out that the U.S. is the only country in the world to place "In God We Trust" upon our currency. He argues that this faith-based motto has been intrinsic in the American economic model and the unprecedented strength of the American capitalist system.

On the other hand, secularism demands that this motto be removed from our currency to "protect" us from religion. Do you agree? Have our Judeo-Christian values enabled the success of the American "experiment"? Will the elimination of these values result in the failure of this experiment?

Residual Income Business to Business

Residual Income Business to Business

#1 Residual Income Opportunity For Everyone Who Hates MLM

Six Reasons To Run Away From Network Marketing – And A Very Profitable Alternative
You will never get rich working for someone else!

Your employer “buys you” at wholesale and “sells you” at retail. After paying you and all the other operating expenses, he hopes to have a little profit left over…

So why not start your own business? Well, that’s really expensive and often complicated and slow. Many, many people have invested in expensive franchises to escape the corporate world. But most soon discover that they have spent thousands (often HUNDREDS of thousands) and only bought themselves a new JOB. Many end up making less and the failure rate is very high, costing the franchisees everything.

Business to Business Sales

Network marketing is a concept that has promised to level the playing field.

In networking, you earn a commission on what you sell plus an override commission on the sales of the new reps that you “sponsor”. This is the double promise of direct sales commission income and residual income from the efforts of others. Plus, these residual commissions can accumulate from sales reps many levels deep, and this is why network marketing is also accurately called multi-level marketing (or MLM). Anyone can join a network marketing company and let the company take care of the operational details like product production and labeling, order processing, product shipping, accounting, and commission payments.

Sounds pretty good, doesn’t it? Unfortunately, reality doesn’t often match with the promises of network marketing.

First, nobody gets paid until someone sells something! Despite the claim, “You don’t have to sell anything, just share the products,” selling is REQUIRED! You NEED to convince people to STOP buying what they are now getting from WalMart, Target, or Amazon and buy from YOU. Or you need to convince people to START buying something in addition to what they are now buying

In truth, you need to do some HARD SELLING to get people to change their buying habits. In addition, you NEED to sell others on the opportunity to also spend money to do the same thing and become sales reps, too.

Network marketing has been correctly called the SALES BUSINESS for people with no SALES or BUSINESS experience. Is it any wonder that most people in MLM never make a dime, and ruin their relationships with friends and neighbors?

Other problems with most MLM opportunities lie deep in the details. Look carefully at the “compensation plan” of your chosen company. Beware of these gotcha’s:

1. Having to recruit a number of people BEFORE you qualify for any commissions. This may also be seen as having to “pass up” the first few sales to your sponsor, or every other sale, etc. In either case, you don’t get paid for everything you do.

2. Having to achieve and maintain a certain volume of sales before you qualify for commissions. Miss your quota and you earn nothing. And since the reps you recruit and the customers that you accumulate are continually cancelling, you need to fill these slots first to get paid every month. Only a few “super-salesmen” can sustain this constant sales pressure, and even these don’t succeed because they never create any depth in their downline.

3. Having a limit on how many people you can sponsor. This is described as “width”. Some companies force “break-aways” or other methods to push recruits to lower commission levels. If you have any limits your earning potential is also limited.

4. Being required to build a downline with a number of “legs”. In other words, any diagram with right, left, center, etc. positions for the reps you sponsor and the reps that they sponsor. The ONLY reason for these legs is that most companies require that you balance these legs – or they only pay commissions on the sales of the SMALLER leg. This means that only get paid on less than half of your sales that month (even if the sales volume of the other leg gets carried over sometime into the future).

5. Having to increase sales and the numbers of recruits in order to move up in the commission payout scheme. Obviously, the first in are buoyed by everyone that joins after them. These are the “gurus” that are featured on stage at the glitzy events you are forced to pay to attend. They have achieved their success largely on the efforts of wannabees way down the line. In reality, it is next to impossible to catch them much less pass them. Most people never make it past the second or third level in any organization. Actually, as many as 90% of people will quit without making any money or even making it past the second level.

Just like in a casino, the “house” always wins as long as people are playing.

Do you also understand why network marketing “gurus” are continually jumping to new companies, just so they can start the recruiting process (and bonus payments) over again with a new crop of suckers?

 

6. But the worst feature of network marketing is called “auto-ship”. This requires every independent representative to ALSO be a customer. You are REQUIRED to buy a certain amount of products – automatically billed and shipped to you – EVERY month. (Very few companies allow you to promote the product line without also being a paying customer). 

You better find a way to use all the products and pay for the next shipment every month or you will not qualify for commissions. In addition, to move up to higher commission levels you are REQUIRED to buy more and more. Even worse, commissions are calculated on an artificial value called “business volume” that is often 20% to 30% less than the actual retail price you paid. (This is just another way the company short-changes you on the sales you make.)

Of course, you are encouraged to buy and use ALL the products of the company. The auto-ship is typically about $100.00 per month of products. But you could easily buy hundreds of dollars per month. Now if your products are so beneficial, why wouldn’t you want everyone in your family to participate. Why should only one person be healthy, happy, trim and youthful? So now a family of four needs to spend at least $400.00 per month. Where does this money come from if you aren’t earning commissions? How long will you keep this up?

For all the reasons above, most people quit their MLM within 90 days, often less.

What’s worse, most blame the company or the product or their sponsor – instead of the built-in MLM deficiencies. They look for a new pre-launch opportunity, or they are recruited by their prior sponsor who has already jumped to a new life raft…

Sound familiar? Are you squirming as you read this? If you are like me, you have been unsuccessful in network marketing in the past despite expensive and sincere efforts. Ready for a change? Ready for a residual income opportunity that has NONE of the structural defects of traditional network marketing companies?

Then request more information, follow this link. Then send me a comment and I will connect with you to tell you more about this refreshing alternative. Learn how to get paid four (or five or six!) ways, including weekly bonuses for referring new reps plus residual commissions on their sales – for life with NO quotas, forced matrix, or legs to balance. You will also be paid monthly residual commissions on products that satisfied customers will HAPPILY continue to buy for years and years!

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The U.S. Tax System Explained

The U.S. Tax System Explained

See if this makes any sense to you...

An Example of the U.S. Tax System – Explained In Beer!

How messed up is the U.S. tax system? Maybe this example – using beer to represent tax payments – will illuminate the “injustice”!

The following example of the U.S. tax system was written by David R. Kamerschen, Ph.D., Professor of Economics at the University of Georgia. The original example contained only numbers so I have added my comments…

Suppose that every day after work, ten men go out for beer. For this example, let’s assume that the bar bill for all ten comes totals $100.

If they paid their bill the way we pay our taxes in the U.S. it would be divided like this:

- The first four men (the poorest) would pay nothing. They would drink every day, day after day for free. The cost would be assumed by the rest of the group.
- The fifth man would pay $1.
- The sixth man would pay $3.
- The seventh man would pay $7.
- The eighth man would pay $12.
- The ninth man would pay $18.
- The tenth man (the richest) would pay $59.

Doesn’t seem fair, does it? But that is what they decided to do.

The ten men drank in the bar every day and seemed quite happy with the arrangement. But then one day the owner of the bar threw them a curve. He said, “Since your group are such good customers I’m going to reduce the cost of your daily beer by $20. From now on, your group tab will cost just $80.00.”

The group still wanted to pay their bill the way we pay our taxes…

So the first four men were unaffected. They would still drink for free, day after day.
But what about the other six men – the paying customers? How could they divide the $20 windfall so that everyone would get his “fair share”?

(Note: this example is about a bar tab. When finished, re-read this example and imagine tax cuts – either in the form of increased deductions or newly created "free" benefit programs.)

The paying customers realized that $20 divided by six is $3.33. But if they subtracted $3.33 evenly from the share of the six men, then the fifth man and the sixth man would each actually BE PAID to drink his beer

So, the bar owner suggested that it would be fair to reduce each man’s bill on a “progressive” basis, with the lower income men receiving a greater discount. He proceeded to work out the amounts each should pay:
- And so the fifth man, like the first four, now paid nothing (100% savings).
- The sixth man now paid $2 instead of $3 (33% savings).
- The seventh man now paid $5 instead of $7 (28% savings).
- The eighth man now paid $9 instead of $12 (25% savings).
- The ninth man now paid $14 instead of $18 (22% savings).
- The tenth man now paid $49 instead of $59 (16% savings).

EACH of the six paying customers was now better off than before. And the first four continued to drink for free. Neither their costs or benefits changed at all.

But once outside the restaurant, the men began to compare their savings…
“I only got a dollar out of the $20!” declared the sixth man. He pointed to the tenth man, “But he got $10! That’s not fair!”

“Yeah, that’s right!” exclaimed the fifth man. “I only saved a dollar, too. Why should he get ten times more than me?”

“You’re right!” shouted the seventh man. “Why should he get $10 back when I got only $2? The wealthy get all the breaks!”

“Wait a minute!” yelled the first four men in unison. “We didn’t get anything at all! The system exploits the poor!”

The nine men surrounded the tenth man and beat him up. The next night the tenth man didn’t show up for drinks.

So the nine sat down and had beers without him. But when it came time to pay the bill, they discovered something important. They didn’t have enough money between all of them for even half of the bill!

And that, boys and girls, journalists and college professors, this is how our tax system works. The people who pay the highest taxes get the most benefit from a tax reduction. Tax them too much, attack them for being wealthy, and they just may not show up anymore. In fact, they might start drinking overseas where the atmosphere is somewhat friendlier.*

For those who understand, no explanation is needed.

For those who do not understand, no explanation is possible.

* Or, as Ayn Rand writes in Atlas Shrugged, the producers may just retreat from the economy. 

Can the government force employers to hire and/or prevent them from firing? Can the government force (via the tax code) the most productive in society to support and subsidize the unproductive? At a rate all out of proportion to common sense and all the rules of capitalism? Can the government forbid investments outside of the U.S.? Can you find ONE socialistic society that works?

As Margaret Thatcher is quoted, “The problem with socialism is that eventually you run out of other peoples’ money.”

You better check your facts when you claim “the wealthy” need to “pay their fair share”!

Fight Back Against The "Second-Handers"

Are You Willing To Fight Back Against The "Second-Handers"?

The "takers" now outnumber the "producers" in the U.S. society.

Have you read “The Fountainhead”, the novel by Ayn Rand, first published in 1943? “The Fountainhead” was Ms. Rand’s third novel, and was a spectacular and enduring success.
However, Ayn Rand is best remembered for her next work, “Atlas Shrugged”, which was published later in 1957.

I loved both books because they made me mad! (Although I do not agree with Ms. Rand's atheist worldview.)

The setting of “The Fountainhead was the Depression era, with “Atlas Shrugged” set decades later. But both speak directly to the same issues that our society is still facing today.

In both books, fictional characters fight against the masses of humanity, unions, and the regulators. The main characters of these novels are in the tiniest of minorities. They are achievers, productive contributors to society who are forced to struggle against the majority who are consumers. The consumers do not value the contributions of the producers, they despise the producers. They support any means to bring the producers down to their level – and these means equate “morality” simply because of the intention to achieve “collective good”.

These views are even more widespread TODAY than they were during the 1940′s and 1950′s! And they are just as cancerous and invasive.

The main character of “The Fountainhead” is Howard Roark, an architect. Roark is driven by his quest for perfection in the form and function of his buildings. He continually battles incompetence that seeks to compel him to compromise and weaken his designs. He refuses to achieve acceptance at the cost of mediocrity.

The culmination of his career is the destruction of a public housing project that was being built contrary to his specific and painstaking designs. The project had been taken over by a series of parasite designers, bureaucrats, and others who all imposed their selfish desires – none of which added anything to the project but were simply the result of the meddlers’ personal corruption and greed. The project thus evolved into an unrecognizable and uneconomical abortion. Roark’s only defense was to blow it up! 

The following are excerpts from Roark’s self-defense at his trial. Read these words and compare the atmosphere of the day to our current economic and social environment – remembering that Ayn Rand published these words in 1943, almost 70 years ago!

“Throughout the centuries there were men who took first steps down new roads armed with nothing but their own vision. Their goals differed, but they all had this in common: that the step was the first, the road new, the vision unborrowed, and the response the received – hatred.”

“They fought, they suffered and they paid. But they won.”

“No creator was prompted by a desire to serve his brothers, for his brothers rejected the gift he offered and that gift destroyed the slothful routine of their lives. This truth was his only motive.”

 “The creators were not selfless. It is the whole secret of their power – that it was self-sufficient, self-motivated, self-generated. The creator served nothing and no one. He lived for himself.”

“(E)verything we are and everything we have comes from a single attribute of man – the function of his reasoning mind.”

“But the mind is an attribute of the individual. There is no such thing as a collective brain. There is no such thing as a collective thought. We can divide a meal among many men. We cannot digest it in a collective stomach. No man can use his lungs to breathe for another man. No man can use his brain to think for another.”

Hyperinflation: Think It Can't Happen Here?

Hyperinflation: Think It Can't Happen Here?

How much are you willing to BET hyper-inflation can't happen in the U.S.?

100 TRILLION Dollar Note

We are already in the presidential election cycle for 2016. Yuck, I know!

Please take my advice and listen carefully how each candidate proposes to reduce the national debt and return the U.S. to a balanced budget.

By the time the next President is elected, the U.S. will have accumulated over $20 trillion dollars in debt (NOT counting unfunded payments to Social Security, federal pensions, Medicare, and more totaling another $100 trillion...)

How much is 20 trillion? 20 trillion is 20,000,000  million dollars. If a stack of $1,000 bills 12 inches tall equaled 1 million dollars, it would take a stack of $1,000 bills 1,000,000 feet high to equal ONE trillion dollars. That's over 173 MILES high!!!

Greece, Portugal, Spain, and Italy have been bankrupt for several years. Russia is teetering on insolvency, as is Venezuela and Argentina. The U.S. economy is in terrible trouble, but it STINKS LESS than other economies around the world. That is what is saving us (the U.S.) - so far!

Here are some historical comparisons of the result of over-inflating the economy and currency:

1. In 2008, the socialist dictatorship of Zimbabwe, Robert Mugabe, created an annual inflation rate of 11,250,000% resulting in currency that was basically worthless. At independence in 1980, 1 Zimbabwean dollar was worth approximately $1.25 in U.S. dollars. By mid-2008, one U.S. dollar was worth 688 trillion Zimbabwean dollars. The government was forced to print a $100 Trillion Dollar note - see above - that had the value 14 U.S. CENTS!!!.

2. In 2007, Turkey had been suffering from chronic inflation for decades. In 1980, one U.S. dollar was worth 90 Turkish lira. By 2004, a U.S. dollar was worth 1.3 million Turkish lira. As a result, in 2007 the government simply declared a “revaluation” of the Turkish lira. One million Turkish lira would henceforth be worth only 1 lira.

3. In 2005, Romania devalued its currency: In 1998, the highest printed denomination in Romania was 100,000 lei. By 2005, it began printing 1 million lei notes. The Romanian government then devalued its currency, declaring that 1 new lei would be worth 10,000 old lei.

4. Argentina devalued its currency previously back in 2001: Overspending by the Argentine government resulted in massive inflation in the 1980s and 90s. By 1992, one new peso was worth 100 billion pre-1983 pesos. Had you stuffed cash in your mattress during one of Argentina’s many recessions, not trusting their shaky banks, you would have ended up with nothing but waste paper.


5. Russia faced a collapsed economy previously back in 1999: Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, the new Russia saw annual inflation of between 2,500% and 8,500% a year. The value of the ruble declined from 40 rubles to the dollar in 1991 to 30,000 rubles to the dollar by 1999.

Of course, that kind of hyperinflation ONLY occurs in other, backward countries! It could NEVER happen in the good, old U. S. of A

How much are you willing to BET? Try EVERYTHING!

The Recession Has Hit Everyone

The Recession Has Hit Everyone

I was rereading some old posts from 2011 and came across this article from Casey's Research by Vedran Vuk, Editor of Casey’s Daily Dispatch.

It's not funny how little has changed since 2011. Here is the article:

The Recession has hit everybody…..

• I got a pre-declined credit card in the mail.
• CEOs are now playing miniature golf.
• Exxon-Mobil laid off 25 of its congressmen.
• I saw a Mormon polygamist with only one wife.
• If the bank returns your check marked “Insufficient Funds,” you call them and ask if they meant you or them.
• Angelina Jolie adopted a child from America.
• Parents in Beverly Hills fired their nannies and learned their children’s names.
• A picture is now only worth 200 words.
• The Treasure Island casino in Las Vegas is now managed by Somali pirates.
• Congress says they are looking into this Bernard Madoff scandal. Oh great! The guy who made $50 billion disappear is being investigated by the people who made $1.5 trillion disappear!
• And, finally…

I was so depressed last night thinking about the economy, wars, jobs, my savings, Social Security, retirement funds, etc., I called the Suicide Hotline. I got a call center in Pakistan , and when I told them I was suicidal, they got all excited and asked if I could drive a truck.

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Thought you’d get a laugh – or a sigh. Truth is stranger than fiction, right? To read more you can sign up for a free daily email subscription. Go to CaseyResearch.com.

Randy Reek Is On The Web!

Randy Reek Is On The Web!

This Blogger blog is an updated version of my old Word Press blog - that frankly contained a lot of outdated info and opinions.

Here is what I wrote on that blog back in 2011:

The world has not been aching for another website. But, here I am anyway.

Why? I have felt a need – a “calling”, if you will – to pass along (what I consider to be) valuable information.

What kind of information?  A collection of useful facts and that will make your life better!

Such as? Current topics that affect your checkbook, including helping your family become better equipped to weather whatever the world throws at us. Developing a long-range perspective (including eternal) versus that of the average American who has no plan for next week, much less next year or ten years from now.

What gives me the right to publish information on any of these topics? 

More than 50 years of trial and error. Added to this, a commitment to life-long learning which includes consuming LOADS of information from LOTS of varied (and eclectic) sources on a daily basis.

What’s in it for you? It is my hope that you will find my posts either interesting, thought-provoking, challenging, infuriating, inspirational, or rebuking. I will have achieved my goal if some of this information creates a sense of urgency and forces you to take action (in one form or another.) 

Complacency has become the norm. What a boring way to “live”. Thanks for reading. Stay tuned!

Please check the categories for blog posts in specific topic areas. And don't forget to comment and follow me on Facebook.