Dear Poor people

By Dan Behrman for The Liberty Block

Happy rich people will tell you ‘money can’t buy happiness’. Most people struggling financially would strongly disagree with that statement. Of course, you have bills to pay and mouths to feed. Money will make the source of your misery disappear, allowing you to be happier. How could anyone say that money can’t buy happiness when it easily cures so much misery?

The answer is a little different than what you might expect. The false premise is that you have nothing and need something. The truth is that you have less than nothing. You are being oppressed, and every time you try to pay away one form of oppression, another appears. You are being robbed every single day by debt that’s been forced upon you and in taxes, regulations, and governance that you don’t even know exists but is making every minute of every day more difficult for you.

Some politicians will come along and tell you that we should tax the rich to give you things you can’t afford, but that won’t solve the problem. You would have a few more tangible things, but you still won’t have any money. You’ll still be oppressed by debt, taxes, regulations, and authoritarian governance.

Politicians are selling you a bald-faced lie. Most of them are wealthy. Most have never worn your shoes, and many won’t even try to imagine what it’s like. They increase taxes so they can increase their salaries, power, and fame. They don’t know you, and they don’t care about you.

How much of our taxes go to funding projects or research that have no intrinsic value to our country? According to Rand Paul’s annual ‘Festivus Report’, our government wastes more money than we can conceive. For example, $4,290,000,000 ($4.3 billion) in PPP loans were improperly distributed to ineligible or duplicate businesses in 2021. Imagine if we had 4 billion dollars put into housing homeless veterans instead. Much of our tax money is used to abuse us, though.

They are bribing you with political promises. Sometimes they’ll pay for it with money that they will tell you they are printing out of thin air. While this sounds wonderful, it is indeed too good to be true. Unfortunately, they are merely borrowing it out of thin air. That means that the government is paying interest on nothing and creating massive, imaginary loans, IN YOUR NAME.

I have met so many people who live in poverty surrounded by wealth. So many people live with nothing but family and they are happier than most Americans. I can say this without a doubt, as I have spent plenty of time in places like Mexico, Uganda, and China. The average salary in Uganda is about $110 per month. 

Paradoxically, in these countries many struggle to feed themselves when there is virtually unlimited, fertile, unused land. People are not allowed to just grow their own food or they will face prosecution from the government.

The original intent of taxes, if it were ever noble, has been lost. While it might not seem totally feasible to eliminate all taxes, just imagine for a minute what it would do for you. Your paycheck would get bigger so you could pay off some debt and save some money. You could buy better quality food, be healthier, and reduce your risk of massive medical bills. 

Without landlords being forced to pay property taxes and income taxes, rents would drop significantly so you could have money to save or invest. The cost of buying a house would drop as well, so you could buy a house with all the money you saved. Without throwing money away on rent, you’d be paying into the equity of a home. With a house in your name and no property tax to pay, your cost of living would be much lower, as well. 

You wouldn’t be burning yourself out in the rat race to pay your bills. You could spend time with your family and friends, enjoying life. You could pass that property and savings to your kids, so they can start to build wealth and have a more prosperous life. Most importantly, they will never be financially oppressed in the way that most Americans were.

The average American has over $90k in debt, and millions of Americans have a negative net worth! You are not poor. You live in the wealthiest place in the world. 

You are beyond poor. You are financially oppressed by politicians who try to swindle you constantly. The liars who are selling you the cure in the form of bigger government and more taxes are the ones oppressing you. They want you to think that your neighbor will fund the next righteous government program, but they want your neighbor to think that you’ll be the one paying for it. They will tell you someone else will pay the bill with their money, but the truth is you are already paying it with your blood, sweat, and tears.