Debt Denial: Stealing from Our Kids
Our handling of the national debt is like a grand, inter-generational Ponzi scheme that’s destined to drown our children and grandchildren in red ink. Our leaders like to call their strategy borrowing, but it is really tantamount to stealing — from our children, worse yet. Why? Because we have no plans to pay the debt. None. We continue to borrow just to make interest payments that are estimated to be $5 trillion over the next decade while doing nothing to pay down a staggering debt of $17 trillion.
Equally alarming, perhaps even surreal, is that party leaders who can hardly agree on the color of the White House can be found nodding their approval at the fiscal fiction “that deficits don’t matter,” as then-Vice President Dick Cheney told a disbelieving Paul O’Neill, the treasury secretary at the time.
Fast forward a decade to President Obama, the anti-Cheney, who was telling George Stephanopoulos on ABC that “we don’t have an immediate crisis in terms of debt. In fact, for the next 10 years, it’s gonna be in a sustainable place.” House Speaker John Boehner, considering the President’s comments in a separate ABC interview, concurred that the crisis is not immediate. This pervasive Washington attitude is reflected in Office of Management and Budget’s 2014 projections that show the national debt haplessly climbing skyward through 2020 with no sign of coming down.
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Flip Side of the Minimum-Wage Debate
September 8, 2014 – Something that Washington does not want you to know about and hopes that nobody else will discuss during the minimum-wage debate is take-home pay after taxes for low-wage earners. Washington claims that Americans should be paid living wages so that they can live a decent life. However, it is not willing to give up its share of the booty that it would collect from the same low-wage earners it claims to help.
For example, the federal government will collect at least 15 percent of the increased income from those low-wage earners through payroll tax. In other words, if the minimum wage goes up by a dollar, the federal government will take away, directly or indirectly, at least 15 cents of that additional dollar from the working poor.
Asking large corporations, which are in business to make money, to pay additional wages is like asking them to be saints. Government mandates do not have a major impact on large corporations, since they will figure out a way around them. After all, they can rent lawmakers; one former senator famously declared, “My vote can’t be bought, but it can be rented.” On the other hand, politicians do not pay anything from their pockets either. They will just give the money to one group and take it from another, but not from the special-interest groups that finance their campaigns. read more…
Confessions of an Old Man
How Millennials are Being Robbed
Confessions of an Old Man is about how next generation is being robbed of their future and what can they do about it. The goal of the book is to get Millennials angry enough to actively engage with the American political system and take control of their destiny instead of their future being decided by rich old white men. It is a statement of collective guilt that places the responsibility on my generation, the baby boomers, for dealing a bad card to their children and grandchildren. My generation controls the Congress, the Supreme Court, and the presidency, so we cannot shirk from the responsibility.
This book starts by defining the MI generation and characterizing its economic and political power in decades to come. It then provides an analysis of adverse impact of student loans, national debt, health-care cost, global warming, and retirement on future generations. The book concludes with a challenge and a road map of a better future for all Americans.
Kirkus Reviews
“An inspiring, provocative encouragement to younger generations to exercise political clout….the author supplies a surprisingly sober analysis–one that’s consistently reasonable and pragmatic….this is an intelligent call for practical reform….A spirited critique of American politicians’ treatment of younger generations, and a plan of action for youth empowerment.”
San Francisco Book Review
“Exploring the ways that the baby boomer generation has robbed millennials of future economic stability, Moon uses in-depth research to quickly establish himself as an authority on the subject…. Anyone who is interested in learning a little more about economics, government, the environment, and the implications of the so-called “American Dream” is sure to enjoy Moon’s Confessions of an Old Man.”
Manhattan Book Review
“I recommend this book to all who desire imminent change, but I deem it a must-read for Millennials. …In his confession, this old man is guaranteed to convince the reader that serious issues can be conquered by working the democratic process–but the people must act.”
Introducing Author Munir Moon
Munir Moon is a former financial industry executive, a successful small business owner and an author of three books. Moon spent eight years in the financial industry, starting at Chase Econometrics and ending at a savings and loan association during the 1980s. He was a firsthand observer of the financial crisis in the 1980s, which resulted in the demise of the savings and loan industry, to be repeated in 2008 in a different form. Having a son born with cancer who survived numerous surgeries, he has experienced the best and worst of American healthcare system. As a businessman, he appreciates the impact of over-regulations, taxes and globalization.