Bill is an American success story. He dropped out of college to follow his dream of making windows – and he hit it big. Bill is one of the people we look up to when we decide that we want to pursue our dreams. I used to be one of those people.
On the outside, Bill appears to be a saint because after he managed to convince everyone to install his windows in their homes and their offices, he used some of his money to improve his self image. He opened a charitable organization or two, convinced others to toss a few pennies of their wealth into the pot, and started doing good deeds, making sure that they were publicized so the whole world would see how wonderful Bill and his friends were.
What Bill didn’t reveal was the fact that he was actually playing a shell game. While our eyes were watching his charitable organization, him and his cronies were buying our governmental leaders in the background. They spent so much money buying our government that they decided that they didn’t want to buy our government and pay taxes too. Bill traveled to Puerto Rico, arranged to pay almost nothing in taxes (it wouldn’t look right if he got off paying nothing, he realized), and then “sold” the rights to some of some of his most profitable products to a tiny little company he created there.
It was the equivalent of selling a $100,000 home to your brother for five bucks, only in this case, Bill used the legal system to turn a portion of his money into the brother. Corporations are almost considered to be “people” in our legal code, so he essentially cloned himself, made the clone a resident of Puerto Rico, and transerred the rights to his most profitable products to this clone at a laughable price to avoid paying taxes in the US.
Bill did this because there is one organization in the US government that doesn’t contain elected officials he can buy: the IRS.
The IRS doesn’t discrimate. It is filled with low-paid employees who have one mission: ensure that everyone pays their fair share in taxes, if not a bit more.
The good people at the IRS watched Bill and his cronies pull stunts like this for years. They had been the ones getting yelled at when people noticed that Bill and his friends weren’t paying their fair share. They took it and took it until they got fed up and decided to fight back.
They not only decided to do a full audit on Bill, they called in the biggest legal guns they could to fight back.
“The nerve of these bastards,” Bill ranted when he received the audit notice. “Don’t they realize that I OWN them? I think it’s time they found out who their boss really is!”
Bill called up his cronies. His cronies called their friends. As one they hired attorneys and jumped into the fray. One by one they called the politicians they paid off, forcing politicians on both sides of the political fence to attack the IRS and start shoving new laws through the pipe to not only make the IRS stop, but to pass laws that prevented the IRS from trying to make them pay their fair share in taxes ever again. They also decided to punish the IRS for stepping out of line. Budget cut after budget cut caused the little agency that could to stop challenging Bill and his cronies whenever possible.
~
While the words I have written here are fiction, simplified for understanding and dramatized for effect, these words are roughly based upon a true story. This is the story of how the rich are using our money to manipulate our nation in their favor. This story is about one aspect, about how Bill and his friends manage to bully our government to get out of paying taxes, but they also use these same tactics to make our national leaders dance like puppets on a string.
Check into the donation records of every single politican in Washingington, and you will find evidence of how they buy our nation’s officials. Bill and his cronies make large donations to campaigns, knowing that these politicians will repay the favor whenever Bill and his buddies pick up the phone.
It doesn’t even stop in Washington. Up and down the political chain, from the smallest town to our national government, Bill and his friends are doing this. If you’ve ever looked at your mayor or sheriff and wondered how they managed to win their office, follow the money and you will find out. They’ve yet to make many of the campaign contributions private so you can still track them to a degree.
This is the sad reality of the United States. What was previously considered the “greatest nation in the world” is being turned into a puppet regime.
We can fight, we can scream, we can protest until the end of time and this will not change. The only thing that will happen is that we will be labeled as extremists and hauled off to jail as a terror threat.
But there is one way we can stop them. The method is completely legal, ethical, and non-violent. If we cut off their food supply, if we stop giving them the money that they need to buy our politicians, they will lose their ability to control our country. By removing our money from their pockets, we will cause their businesses to fail.
Even if you buy one less item from them, it helps. Even if you start patronizing one local business instead of the Big Ones, it helps. Even if you just keep the TV you have or the computer you have or the clothes that you have or the phone you have, it helps. Because every single one of these decisions places another nail in their coffin.
Our current business model considers a business to be a failure if it cannot show an increasing profit year after year. Our economic model is based upon exponential growth. Stop that growth, and they die.
If you are tired with the way things are in our nation, if you are tired of the rich growing insanely richer while the rest of us struggle, if you are tired of living in a nation that has turned into a puppet regime, then I hope that you will join us.
Use what you have.
Stop buying new.
Ignore their advertising.
Stop feeding the monsters.
~#~
If you happen to find this post helpful, would you consider sharing it with a friend or on social media? Thanks!
I’ve written a lot of books sharing my odd view of life in hopes of helping others. My most notorious book is titled The Shoestring Girl: How I Live on Practically Nothing and You Can Too, but The Minimalist Cleaning Method is pretty popular as well. You can find them at the following places:
Barnes and Noble
Apple iBooks
Smashwords (non-DRM)
I’m going to say that the article is about the ‘Gate’d community. If you look more into that group then you’ll find out that they are actively involved in the idea of population control through the “charitable” act of taking vaccines to third world countries that are laced with diseases that the vaccine doesn’t cover. “The world is a vampire. She eats her kids…” Atmosphere: Vampires for the Album “God Loves Ugly’
— Bill Gates
I had to read that twice, because there is something…off…about that statement. That said, while I do have concerns about the charitable organizations that have been created by this person, I tried to maintain the focus on a single avenue; how this person has used his money and his power to make the US government bend to his will.
Thank you for your comment!
I agree, Annie. The ‘fictionalized’ story you tell is true today. The laws being passed favor the rich and legalize their actions. The budget Trump passed has done more to increase the bank accounts of the plutocrats than to make the playing field even for the rest of us
In a scramble to replace the government money given to the rich, politicians like Mitch McConnell are working to eliminate social programs such as medicaid, Medicare, Social Security, etc. by denigrating them as ‘entitlement’ programs, destroying any ‘bridge’ out of poverty and further weakening the poor and the elderly.
While I agree that we should eschew lining the pockets of the obscenely wealthy corporations, I fear it will only go so far until the small local businesses are shuttered, unable to compete, legislated to death.
My ex and I had a small farm and we sold our farm products directly to the consumer- beef, eggs, port, chickens, garden produce. The USDA, the state DNR, and the department of agriculture, trade and consumer protection were wolves at our door, imposing burdensome and costly requirements and restricting our ability to expand our operations in order to make a living.
Behind all of that was the fear that small operations like ours would take business away from big ag and factory farms. Big ag was also fearful of the increasing popularity of organic foods so they forced legislation to weaken the requirements and redefine ‘organic’ in order to get their foods labeled organic to enter the organic market.
I am so disgusted by it all.
I hate that that happened to you, Essie. It’s getting to the point where honest people are being forced to go underground and act like they are the criminals when instead they just want to be allowed to live in peace without harming anyone.
I’ve looked at this every which way I can. The option I suggest is the only peaceful, legal method I can think of. And if someone doesn’t speak out, doesn’t offer a solution, even an imperfect solution as mine is, who will?
Everyone else seems to believe that they need to keep quiet and let it go. But I no longer have anything to lose. Maybe by speaking up I can at least help others with more knowledge and authority than I have gain the courage to stand up and make a change.
I do enjoy your writing so much, Annie and I so agree that the US government is basically a puppet of the lobbyists. I also think that not giving money to big corporations is a great idea – though sometimes difficult to achieve. For example, I need to replace my deodorant and toothpaste but I don’t want to give the money to a big corporation, and I don’t want it wrapped in plastic = energy expenditure needed on research. And so it goes on. Not buying isn’t the only way to protest though – remember that many countries, including NZ where I live have strict controls on donations and electoral spending. Its not perfect, but it works https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_funding_in_New_Zealand
Hello, Deborah,
I have heard of nations who have placed limits on donations and electoral spending. Unfortunately, I don’t see the US traveling down that path in the near future. I wish I did but I don’t. It has become so entrenched within our political system that change will be difficult to achieve.
And I completely understand the dilemma about how to reduce spending money with the big corporations. I am facing that dilemma myself. I live in a town that is dominated by Big Business…and my only other alternative is to patronize OTHER big businesses. It is my hope that we can all work out a solution to that dilemma together.
As it is, I’ve pledged to use up the things I have while searching for a simple way to just spend LESS. I cannot see how to stop giving them money entirely at the moment, but if we all try to give them less, it will reduce their power to a degree. And if we keep looking, keep searching, we will find a way to stop giving them money entirely.
Because I’ve thought about this. I don’t believe in violence. I don’t want anyone to get hurt or go to jail. But by reducing the amount of money we give them we can make a difference, launch our own personal protest. And if we start where we are, with what we have and simply focus upon spending LESS, then we can work out the details as we go along.
Thank you for your comment. I appreciate you.