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The Real Battle: Makers v. Takers
Townhall.com ^ | March 14, 2011 | Lurita Doan

Posted on 03/14/2011 8:15:53 AM PDT by Kaslin

Ideological budget battles between GOP and Dems in congress mask the real battle erupting across America-- the battle between the makers and the takers. Entrepreneurs and other working Americans, the makers, are growing tired of government's rapacious hand in their financial pocket and they are becoming more aggressive and more outspoken in their protests. Dems should expect this trend to continue.

The recent Bureau of Labor Statistics report citing systemic high unemployment for the past two years shows that of the approximately 300 million Americans, only 47% of adults have full-time jobs. It's a mind-boggling statistic: 53%-- or a majority -- of American adults do not work. The repercussions for our country are dire, despite the White House proclaiming the recent Labor report as good news.

Meanwhile Dems in Congress are relying on an elaborate Ponzi-scheme of increased taxes and hide-the-budget-pickle to justify spending increases on a bevy of social re-engineering programs while the White House continues to champion an expansion of the regulatory straight jacket hobbling entrepreneurs.

Clearly, the White House operates in a cloud of incredible conceit. Team Obama seems to believe that entrepreneurs can innovate and create new jobs and grow the American pie regardless of his anti-growth, pro-tax, increasingly regulatory policies that are crushing small businesses. Even as President Obama and Dems in Congress maneuver and scheme to help "takers" protect their claim to an ever larger slice of the pie, the pie is likely to get smaller and is no longer growing as before.

GOP mostly represents the "makers"--the entrepreneurs who create the pies that the White House wants to tax and regulate to death. Increasingly, the Dems represent the "takers"--the folks on the dole, receiving entitlement support, government subsidies and those deriving power from government protectionism. The battle lines between these two groups, the Makers and the Takers, has never been more apparent.

Takers, dependent upon government and their union allies, argue that in these rough economic times, they need to preserve or increase their slice of the pie. Makers are worried whether, given the increase in government regulatory handcuffs and increased tax knee-capping, they can even make a pie.

Our country now runs the risk that the equivalent of donor fatigue is setting in as the 47% of Americans who actually work are asked to bear even greater burdens for public support. Dems should be worried about how much longer their demands will be tolerated. Eventually, even a dancing chicken will jump off the hot stove.

The March 2011 Bureau of Labor Statistics unemployment report showed that private industry employers spent an average of $27.75 per hour worked for total employee compensation and that the average cost for legally required benefits was $2.28 per hour worked in private industry (8.2 percent of total compensation).

Is it any wonder that businesses aren't able to grow at a rate to keep up with the growth in government spending?

Another disturbing statistics from the Consumer Price Index (CPI) reported that the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U) increased 1.6 percent over the last 12 months. This is more bad news for taxpaying Americans because the price of goods went up for them, which means their paychecks don't stretch as far, but it also means that the voracious requirements for increasing government wealth transfer schemes grow, which increases Democrat demands that working Americans pay even more.

Rush Limbaugh has said that "no nation in history ever taxed itself to prosperity." How true. But, George Bernard Shaw best explained the dilemma faced by the GOP makers when he said: "A government which robs Peter to pay Paul can always count on Paul's support." The takers, currently outnumbering the makers, will always be willing to vote more taxes on the Makers. The takers will continue to use guilt-tripping rhetoric to try to make Makers feel guilty that they aren't doing more for them.

The Makers v. the Takers--now that's the real battle for the ages.


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; Editorial; Government
KEYWORDS: biglabor
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1 posted on 03/14/2011 8:15:54 AM PDT by Kaslin
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To: Kaslin
The Makers v. the Takers

The weird thing is that sometimes this is the same person!

2 posted on 03/14/2011 8:18:18 AM PDT by Huck (Fools make feasts and wise men eat them - Poor Richard)
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To: Kaslin

who is John Galt?


3 posted on 03/14/2011 8:18:51 AM PDT by vanilla swirl (We are the Patrick Henry we have been waiting for!)
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To: Huck

“Our country now runs the risk that the equivalent of donor fatigue is setting in”

Nuff said.


4 posted on 03/14/2011 8:21:50 AM PDT by ichabod1 (Hail Mary Full of Grace, The Lord Is With Thee...)
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To: Kaslin
GOP mostly represents the "makers"...

If only this were true...

5 posted on 03/14/2011 8:22:53 AM PDT by Mr. Jeeves ( "The right to offend is far more important than any right not to be offended." - Rowan Atkinson)
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To: Kaslin

Led by the fakers.


6 posted on 03/14/2011 8:23:09 AM PDT by Steely Tom (Obama goes on long after the thrill of Obama is gone)
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To: Kaslin

Producers, looters, and moochers.


7 posted on 03/14/2011 8:23:19 AM PDT by ichabod1 (Hail Mary Full of Grace, The Lord Is With Thee...)
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To: Kaslin

Maybe we should hire more federal, state, and city/local government employees. They make very good salaries and a decent portion of it is paid back in taxes.


8 posted on 03/14/2011 8:28:22 AM PDT by Em and Brets Mum ("Ending a sentence with a preposition is something up with which we will not put." Winston Churchill)
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To: Kaslin
And when the Takers (Dems/Leftists/victims of the Makers) completely obliterate the Makers (we, in the private sector) there will be no one to pay those high salaries, benefits, etc. You'd think they would realize this.
9 posted on 03/14/2011 8:31:12 AM PDT by originalbuckeye
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To: Huck
The weird thing is that sometimes this is the same person!

Never!
Soros is the only person I can think of in that position, although movie stars and sports types who are paid outrageous amounts, and keep their money overseas or hidden, might qualify.

I have not bought, for a second the welfare recipients who whine, "we pay taxes too!"

10 posted on 03/14/2011 8:33:06 AM PDT by Publius6961 (There has Never been a "Tax On The Rich" that has not reached the middle class)
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To: vanilla swirl
who is John Galt?

He should be the symbol of the Tea Party.

When asked by my 6th graders where I was going for spring break, I replied "Galt's Gulch, CO".

I completed my second journey through Atlas Shrugged over the weekend. It was far more enjoyable the second time around.

11 posted on 03/14/2011 8:33:57 AM PDT by Night Hides Not (If Dick Cheney = Darth Vader, then Joe Biden = Dark Helmet)
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To: Kaslin

12 posted on 03/14/2011 8:35:30 AM PDT by sten (fighting tyranny never goes out of style)
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To: Night Hides Not

"I completed my second journey through Atlas Shrugged over the weekend. It was far more enjoyable the second time around."

I've read the book several times, but this is the first time I've lived through it. As I watch high speed rail to nowhere being funded with our tax dollars, companies and industries being nationalized, and ObamaCare continuing despite the obviously correct court ruling that it is unconstitutional, I'm beginning to think that instead of being prophetic, Ayn Rand was an optimist.

13 posted on 03/14/2011 8:39:13 AM PDT by Pollster1 (Natural born citizen of the USA, with the birth certificate to prove it)
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To: Mr. Jeeves
GOP mostly represents the "makers"...
If only this were true...

Exactly.
The 'Rats are still clueless about how bad things are.
The RINOs and even the freshmen are tending to wobblyness.

They are convincing themselves that a 60 billion$ cut was bold, and they are drifting toward a "compromise" with the 'Rats of something south of $20 Billion.

An insult to our intelligence and their "bold commitment!"

Another WTF? moment...

14 posted on 03/14/2011 8:44:52 AM PDT by Publius6961 (There has Never been a "Tax On The Rich" that has not reached the middle class)
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To: Kaslin

“The Devil is never a maker, The less that you give, you’re a taker.” — Ronnie James Dio


15 posted on 03/14/2011 8:44:59 AM PDT by TexGuy (If it has the slimmest of chances of being considered sarcasm ... IT IS!)
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To: Kaslin
Each time this subject is brought up, we ought to circulate the following warning from Thomas Jefferson:

"To preserve [the] independence [of the people,] we must not let our rulers load us with perpetual debt. We must make our election between economy and liberty, or profusion and servitude. If we run into such debts as that we must be taxed in our meat and in our drink, in our necessaries and our comforts, in our labors and our amusements, for our callings and our creeds, as the people of England are, our people, like them, must come to labor sixteen hours in the twenty-four, give the earnings of fifteen of these to the government for their debts and daily expenses, and the sixteenth being insufficient to afford us bread, we must live, as they now do, on oatmeal and potatoes, have no time to think, no means of calling the mismanagers to account, but be glad to obtain subsistence by hiring ourselves to rivet their chains on the necks of our fellow-sufferers." --Thomas Jefferson to Samuel Kercheval, 1816. ME 15:39

Note Jefferson's very last thought here. He declares that when government taxing and debt have reached certain levels, in order for individuals to survive, then their chosen "employment" becomes "hiring ourselves to rivet their (the government's) chains on the necks of our fellow-sufferers." Might that account for why it is government employment levels which have risen at such great rates in the past 2 years?

Inasmuch as government creates no wealth and has no money, the pay for every job in government must first come out of the pockets of hardworking citizens in the private sector or be borrowed (to be paid back eventually from the pockets of future generations).

Ahhh, guess that's what Dems call "redistributing" wealth!

In Jefferson's words, it's called "rivet(ing) chains on the necks of our fellow-sufferers."

16 posted on 03/14/2011 8:54:29 AM PDT by loveliberty2
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To: Em and Brets Mum
Maybe we should hire more federal, state, and city/local government employees. They make very good salaries and a decent portion of it is paid back in taxes.

That is a seductive argument but like many seductions you end up getting done without even a kiss. However, it is in keeping with what the Left is known for - taking three steps forward so that when the Republicans return they can only move back two. Usually, we are left with the result of the seduction - a new baby program that only grows and grows and costs more and more.

In order for a government worker to be paid the money it must first come from a private producer of wealth. More must be taken from the private sector than is paid to the public employee in order to pay for the overhead of distributing it to the employee. Therefore, more is taken out of the privates sector than is put back into the government in taxes or back into the private sector by purchases.

That means less money for investment by the private sector to create jobs and pay taxes. You cannot take money from the private sector and put it into government and expect a gain. Government regulations and taxes must be paid for by the private sector. That means either increased prices or improved productivity, usually increased prices. Therefore, we always pay fpr government actions either through higher prices or higher taxes, often both.

17 posted on 03/14/2011 8:56:33 AM PDT by Mind-numbed Robot (Not all that needs to be done needs to be done by the government!)
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To: Huck
The weird thing is that sometimes this is the same person!

Spent my working life in NYC. Decent job with a utility. Renter, single, no dependents, no deductions....I got creamed with taxes. Now I own my own home outright, get a pension and SS retirement benefits. Still pay income (pension and part of my SS benefits), real estate and personal property taxes.

Wonder where I fit in?

18 posted on 03/14/2011 9:00:01 AM PDT by Roccus (POLITICIAN...............a four letter word spelled with ten letters.)
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To: Kaslin

” 53%— or a majority — of American adults do not work. “

and hence trillion-dollar deficits...


19 posted on 03/14/2011 9:13:41 AM PDT by mo ("If you understand, no explanation is needed; if you do not, no explanation is possible")
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To: Mr. Jeeves

Agreed, another myth not unlike the tards represent the ‘little guy’.


20 posted on 03/14/2011 9:20:16 AM PDT by 556x45
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