Choices

We keep hearing the incessant drone coming out of Washington DC that the rich are greedy….the rich are selfish…the rich are the cause of all of our society’s ills. If the rich would just give more…"share the wealth"…everyone would be better off. This form of class warfare is just one more wedge Washington is using to separate…or to divide and conquer…us…to mold us into their blind little sheeple.

Here are a few facts about the rich that the government doesn’t want you to think about:

1. The top 5%...or the wealthiest Americans…pay nearly 50% of all income taxes collected, while the top 50%...middle class Americans and up…pays 94% of all income taxes collected. The bottom 47% pays no income taxes. That’s right, nearly half of this country pays zero income taxes, but a large share of these people are first in line to get their thousands in unearned tax refunds when tax time rolls around, thanks to the Earned Income Tax Credit.
2. The rich create jobs. I have never worked for a poor person. My jobs have always come from rich or upper middle class people who took a risk on an idea and created a place for me to work. What about you?
3. The rich contribute funds to build hospital wings, college libraries, museums, and many other public facilities.
4. The rich create scholarship funds and charitable foundations. Where would cancer patients be without the generosity of Jon Hunstman, Sr. and his Hunstman Cancer Institute at the University of Utah? Where would seriously ill children be without the generosity of Danny Thomas and the St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, which treats children regardless of their ability to pay? These are just two examples of the excessive generosity of the rich.

Yeah, the rich are just greedy, selfish individuals who think of nobody but themselves.

In reality, society’s ills have less to do with the rich and more to do with the choices many of us have made to be like or better than everyone else. When I was young it was referred to as, “keeping up with the Jones’”. This is how it went: one neighbor bought a new car, and then soon his next door neighbor bought a new car. One neighbor bought a boat, and then soon his next door neighbor bought a motor home, etc. It used to be funny to watch, not anymore.

Today, our kids have to wear the latest fashions so they don’t feel left out. We have to have the latest and greatest technology from Xbox and Wii console games to big screen televisions. We have to have the latest gadgets from the iPhone to the iPad or their similar counterparts. We buy toys we never use...but we just had to have them anyway. We have more cars than we can drive at one time and we buy homes we can’t afford. Let’s face it, we are an, “I want it now society”. The only difference is that the rich can pay for their toys, while the poor what everyone else to pay for theirs and the rest of us, if we can’t pay cash for what we want, we go into debt for them.

When it comes to wanting things now and not wanting to wait, I have been just as guilty as anyone else. At nineteen I left home…bound for college and my new life as an independent adult. I immediately put myself behind the eight ball when I applied for, and received, my first credit card from Meier & Frank…I just had to have new clothes to start my new life. Ever since then I have been a slave to one credit card or another, sometimes several at a time.

The only one who took advantage of me was me…no one else. No “evil credit card company” forced me to use their credit cards. No “greedy credit card company” drove me to the store or guided me to the online store to shop…just me…and only me…and I did it of my own free will…I gave them control over my life. Finally, at almost fifty, I have learned my lesson. If I can’t pay cash for it, I don’t buy it. But I often wonder how much better off I’d be today if I had used that philosophy thirty years ago…choices.

I bought a house almost ten years ago. I made sure I bought a house I could afford and not pay more for a mortgage than I was paying to rent. I felt pretty good about my little two bedroom bungalow and my wise astute purchase. Then a few years later I decided I needed to replace the siding. My house value had increased significantly, so I applied for, and received, a second mortgage to pay for the siding. Then, in 2008, the housing bubble popped and my house value dropped over twenty-thousand dollars. Now I owe more than my house is worth…not a lot more…but more just the same…but not because any “evil banker” forced me to take out a second mortgage. Once again, it was all me. I went to them…they didn’t come to me…choices.

We’ve all made choices that have either put us ahead or behind in life. Think about where your choices have put you. If you’re choices have put you behind, then admit to yourself who really put you there and stop blaming everyone else. Stop being envious of the rich and realize that if you had made better choices or taken some risks, maybe…just maybe… you could have been rich too or at least been better off than you are. Don’t expect someone else to bail you out either. Take responsibility for your own actions and make the choices that will make your life better in the future. And, if you’re of the mindset that if the rich would just "share the wealth" my life would be better, stop thinking that way. Taking something from others that you didn’t earn will not make your life better; it will just make you dependent and less free.