“I owed the IRS $10,000 but I went to the firm of Joe Cheat and Associates and I only had to pay back $400.”

This, in my opinion, was the start. People tried to weasel out of their obligations in a semi-acceptable manner.

If you owe the IRS taxes it’s because you made the money. It’s as simple as that.

The problem, however, is the honest guy who sees that ad over and over again starts to wonder why he/she doesn’t do the same.

We have some wonderful examples of our ‘Big-League’ politicians who are doing this on a grand scale.

“Hell, why waste time with Joe Cheat and Associates, I’ll just bypass the middleman and simply not pay my taxes?” 

No one wants to voluntarily give away their hard-earned money but that happens to be the system that we live under.

If you want government services you must pay for them. That’s why we have a system of taxation. To do otherwise is to take advantage of the person who is willing to work and play by the rules.

Remember, money doesn’t come cheap. You trade hours of your life for a paycheck.

You have made a decision to swap part of your life for dollars.

How many hours of your life are you willing to give to someone who would rather go fishing or play golf instead of working because he/she figured out a system to coast at your expense?

Today, there was a news article on the Internet from The Christian Science Monitor. It was an article written by Mackubin Thomas Owens who is Professor of National Security Affairs at the Naval War College in Newport, R.I.

In it he writes, “This week, New Jersey became the first Northern state to apologize for slavery. The resolution expresses “profound regret … for the wrongs inflicted by slavery and its aftereffects in the United States….”

The reason I am writing this is that last week I met an extraordinary man, Dr. Jefferson Wiggins. Dr Wiggins started out life as the son of share-croppers in Alabama and his first recollection of his past was when the Klan came to his house to lynch his father. They came because his father had sold a bale of cotton that the family had picked and he was told not to sell until prices rose.

The family had not eaten for four days and this was their only means of survival.

They were no longer officially slaves. Slavery had long before been abolished but they were not free by any means.

Dr. Wiggins rose from that frightening beginning to enlisting in the US Army during WWII when he was well below age.

His story is of the long struggle that racism inflicts on people and his efforts to become not just a “boy” in Alabama but to a commissioned officer in the US Army.

It is truly an amazing story and is the subject of his book that I highly recommend to every American. “Another Generation Almost Forgotten.”

Dr Wiggins is Chairman of the Wiggins Institute for Social Integrity in New Fairfield, Connecticut.

When I was a kid in junior high school I stocked shelves in a small neighborhood grocery store. The owner, Harry Levine, was a quiet, honest and wise man. I remember him telling me about his coming to America.

WWII had ended that summer and the Russians were occupying Eastern Europe as a reward for their participation in the war.

He said, “This will be very interesting.” He continued, “When I was a young man in Russia many of my friends were excited about the coming revolution. They said, “Comes the Revolution we will be dancing in the streets.”

Harry said that he then said, “Comes the Revolution we will be sleeping in the streets!”

That’s when he decided to come to the United States.

His assessment was not that far off according to Ayn Rand in her book, “We the Living”. Revolution can only occur when there is a large enough group of people who have been squeezed almost to the point of starvation, the point at which they feel that they have nothing to lose.

We are all aware that societies stratify into a small wealthy class, a large middle class of workers who produce the bulk of the goods and services and the poor.

A small group of very poor people can do little to influence historic events. As long as there is a large middle class who are reasonably satisfied with the conditions of their lives, everything runs smoothly.

However, things are not going smoothly at the moment. The bottom tier of the middle class in the US has been sliding into the ranks of the poor.

Unlike most countries in past history, the United States is unique in that there is a system in place that supports the poorest of the poor through social programs. As long as these people are fed, housed and have their medical problems taken care of they will never revolt because they have too much to lose.

It is the middle class, those who have worked hard to raise their living standards and accumulate assets to guarantee their future comfort, who are the most discontented today. They are seeing their home values drop, their savings go into their heating oil tanks and automobile gas tanks and food prices climb.

It is their security that is most deeply affected.

As the middle class is pushed into the poverty strata, they will require social benefits themselves which will add to the demand on available money.

This leads to one of two choices: reduce benefits or increase taxes. Either choice leads to further discontent but raising taxes drives more people into the ranks of the poor which compounds the problem.

There were 36.5 million people in the US below the poverty level in 2006. With rising fuel costs, which also raises the cost of raising and transporting food, the poorest people will suffer the most whether you consider those below the poverty level or those in the lower middle class. Food, heating and utilities take a greater percentage of income for those who can least afford it.

Those under 18 also fare the worst because if they are considered to be in the work force at that age they are probably high school drop-outs with little hope to rise above the poverty level. They have the least working experience so receive the lowest wages.

Discontented younger people are rioting in France as I write this. France experienced serious riots by young people in 2005 also.

Revolution can bring on far greater hardship than exists under present conditions of discontent in most countries. Again I make reference to Ayn Rand’s book, “We the Living”. There are always opportunists willing to step in for personal gain when there is upheaval. Consider the looting that took place during the Watts riots of 1965, Detroit in 1967 and after Hurricane Katrina. These are relatively small localized areas.  Extend that chaos to an entire country and one can see it is far better to avoid the conditions that lead to riots and revolution than try to live with them after they occur.

I wonder why the majority of people in the US accept the opinions of celebrities and politicians as absolute truth yet distrust what scientists say about the same subjects?

That’s why I am starting this site. I intend to discuss both social and environmental issues and back up my statements with facts.

I have advocated for years that statements concerning major decisions should be evaluated as to their truth before a person blindly follows the advice.

“Who’s telling you what and why?” That is what you should ask yourself whenever you hear or read something that seems illogical or contrary to what you had previously believed.

Scientists, by definition, are seekers of truth. We study the cause and effect of everything that we observe. We want to know the ‘why’s’ of the world around us.

Survival is impossible without making decisions that are valid, that is, are based on a ‘truth’. Decisions that are based on opinion have no validity because opinions are simply that, opinions. Everyone has a differing opinion that has been formed based on family prejudices. We are taught to conform to the values of the family into which we have been born. Here we develop our opinions regarding food, social interaction and fears. We are taught as children that our survival is based on our acceptance of the values of our parents.

As we mature, we learn. We experience and interact with people who have different opinions and we start to change our own home-instilled opinions.

How radically we depart from our original opinions are a function of how persuasive those people are that we encounter. We are taught by our parents to accept the values of our elementary school teachers because these are people who ‘know’. They are educated therefore, we are told, that we must believe them.

Perhaps they are ‘educated’ but they still have opinions of their own and if we question those opinions, we get ‘Ds’; if we accept them, we get ‘A’s’.

In short, if we think for ourselves, we get into trouble.

The same process, except much more so, exists in the military. The person who thinks for himself rather that following orders is labeled a ‘misfit’ and a ‘trouble-maker’.

There is, however, justification for no independent thinking in the military. Military success is predicated on applying the correct estimates of manpower and weapon requirements necessary to win a battle or a war. Winning means survival; losing can mean death.

Going into battle requires an ordered move toward a specific and a single objective by coordinated groups and timing is critical for success. Anyone arriving too soon will either be killed or will alert the enemy to an impending attack. Anyone arriving too late will leave the people depending on his support in a weakened and dangerous position.

There is no room for independent decisions. Orders cannot be questioned, for better or for worse.

So, the question is should we think to survive in society or should we simply do what we are told by people that we trust?

The answer is, “It depends.”