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Let me say this about that.

As LMSTAT pointed out last week, America has some big problems.  Leaders in  business and government have proven that they are no smarter than the average Joe Sixpack.  The guys running General Motors ran the company into bankruptcy.  The guys running the nation’s largest insurance company, AIG, ran it into bankruptcy.  The guys running the country’s banks have run 82 of them into bankruptcy this year alone.  And the federal government has accrued the largest debt in the history of government.  In other words, you could have put Elmer Fudd in any of these executive positions and achieved the same result.

Albert Einstein once said:  “You can’t solve a problem with the same thinking that created it.”  To this point, LMSTAT is looking for some very smart people to take over and…    lead us out of this morass.  To find these people, I have devised a “Test For Genius.”  Please answer the following questions.  You might be the genius we’re looking for:

   1)  What is the highest rate at which income can be taxed in the U.S.?

To understand the REAL answer, you cannot just look at the individual taxpayer, you must look at the money itself.  Say for example, you are in the 25% federal income tax bracket.  The average U.S. citizen also pays an additional 10% in state and local (including sales) taxes for an average of 35% tax on income paid to all governments.

Here’s how you calculate the “real” income tax.  Say, John is paid $100 to paint a house.  He gives 35% to the government in tax – leaving him $65.  John then pays Bruce this $65 to fix the brakes on his car.   Bruce pays $23 in tax (35% of $65) leaving him $42.  Bruce uses this $42 to pay Bill to install a new door in his house.  Bill pays $15 in tax, leaving him with $27.

This continues until the 11th guy in this scenerio is left with only 87 cents of the original $100.  In other words, the government got it all.  So, if you answered a), you probably live in a trailer with your half sister.  If you answered b), you probably flunked out of  ‘beauty school’.  If you answered c), you are an idiot, but an informed one.  If you answered d), move on to the next question.

   2)  The platform on which Barack Obama ran for President was based on:

If you answered a, b, or c, you must have been thinking of the leadership in Japan or Switzerland.  If you answered d), HOPE,  you are correct.  That doesn’t necessarily make you a genius, it just makes you gullible.

Here is the point.  The U. S. tax structure is like a giant Ponzi Scheme, except the con artist in this scenerio gets to make the rules and has a bad-ass army to ensure compliance.  It basically means the government has an endless supply of money, yet finds itself more broke than it has ever been in it’s history.  And, this money machine we have turned over to a guy whose offers us “HOPE”.

Ask any of the 69 million people that voted for him to explain what Obama means by “HOPE’ and none of them will be able to do it.  However, in a continuing effort to provide a useful public service, I can help with  Shambo’s definition of “HOPE”.

       HOPE  – A desperate need for a positive outcome in any particular situation for which one is too damn stupid to prepare.

The 18th century poet, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, knew how to find a genuis.  He said:  “First and last, what is demanded of genius is love of truth”.       

And, that’s all I have to say about that.          

Shambo