The American evangelicals

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One effect of Trump’s candidacy in the American elections is the split among self-identifying evangelicals. It seems, according to the Washington Post, that white evangelical Protestants who are working class are more than twice as likely to support Trump than their brother evangelicals with college degrees (15% to 37%). Those who attend religious services infrequently are more likely to vote for Trump than those who attend every week (44% to 23%). Support for Trump is growing: in November the figure was 37%; in late January 53%.

Many pastors see a split between Christian pragmatists and Christian idealists. An uninvolved observer might observe that this election has highlighted the hypocrisy among a bloc that has always been regarded as solidly behind the teaching of its pastors. The latter are now having to come to terms with the fact that a large proportion of their flocks are arguably not Christian at all. It’s hard to extend Christian forgiveness to over half a flock that seems to enthusiastically support religious intolerance, racism and thuggery at political meetings, not to mention more wars to “make America great again”.

Well, at least it’s all out in the open now.

How to cut the costs of benefits/entitlements

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If the British Government wanted to strip £12bn off the benefits bill it could do so at the stroke of a pen. All it has to do is “make it a legal requirement for employers to pay a living wage”.  At the moment firms routinely pay their workers less than is needed to live on, knowing the taxpayer will pick up the tab for subsidising such “poverty wages”. An estimated £76bn is spent on people in work, compared with £8bn on benefits for the unemployed.

Businesses milk the system by creating more subsidy-attracting, part-time jobs and fewer full-time ones. Not that firms admit their dependency on the state: they affect to despise “red tape” but see nothing wrong in employing people who must “submit themselves to miles of it”.

This is quite the wrong way round. If a company really can’t afford to pay a living wage, it’s the company, not its workers, who should apply for benefits. That has the virtue of both honesty and of saving the state a huge amount of money. (Deborah Orr, The Guardian)

The cost of administering the present broken, if not corrupt, system must be huge.  The advantages of “company welfare” as described by Deborah Orr is that the number of bureaucrats could be severly cut, administration streamlined, and companies would soon be getting unwanted attention for being cheap, exploiting their workers and taking taxpayer handouts.  They might well decide that paying a genuine living wage would be preferable to the bad publicity.

Brexit – the voteless millions

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(with apologies for mentioning the issue again, but it is rather important)

There are millions of people whose lives will be directly affected by Britain’s EU referendum but who will have no say in it whatsoever. These include some 2.4 million European citizens living in the UK – 79% of them in work – whose immigration status and jobs would be thrown into doubt if Britain chose to leave the EU. Only Cypriots and the Maltese (owing to their membership of the Commonwealth) and the Irish (owing to a special treaty with Ireland) will be able to vote: the rest must simply watch and hope. 

Then there are those Britons (about 2.2 million) who have taken advantage of the EU’s principle of free movement to live abroad, the largest number from any member state. Of this group, those who have been away for more than 15 years won’t be able to vote. They’ve no idea what might happen to their jobs and homes (many left because of rising property prices) in the case of Brexit. Nobody at this point knows what the status of these people will be.  One assumes that they have kept their British citizenship, but they might not be able to buy a property ever again. 

I sympathize with those fed up with immigration and the remorseless change in the culture of England.  At the same time, to leave the EU is a huge gamble, one I wouldn’t want to take.  But then, I am not allowed to vote, like the 2 million mentioned above, because, although a British citizen, I live two thirds of my life outside the UK. Regardless of the rules I have a personal, financial and emotional interest in the outcome.

An example of why people want radical change

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Mike Sommers is the former Chief of Staff to former Speaker of the House John Boehner. Last year, and for more than two decades before that, Mike Sommers was the “go-to” guy for some of the most powerful people in Washington when it came to getting things done in the House of Representatives. He was at the center of every tax and budget fight. He knows all the important people in Washington, a lot of whom owe him a favor or two.

Mike Sommers has just become the president of the Private Equity Growth Capital Council (PEGCC), an organization dedicated to defending the carried interest loophole, one of the most indefensible tax loopholes in the American tax code, on behalf of Wall Street millionaires. It allows investment managers to pay the capital gains rate, rather than the ordinary income tax rate on income they earn managing other people’s money, despite them having none of their own capital at risk. The loophole is based on 16th century shipping law meant to protect captains against the loss of their boats.

In a move that illustrates how corrupt the American political system has become, Mike Sommers in now in charge of defending a loophole that allows hedge fund billionaires to pay lower tax rates than dental hygienists, zookeepers, and the guy who valets their cars at fancy restaurants. Apparently, hedge fund managers believe that sitting behind their computer screens is as perilous as navigating the high seas on a wooden boat 400 years ago.

This year, because of the Private Equity Growth Capital Council and Mt. Sommers, hedge fund managers will pocket $1.8 billion they don’t deserve.

When Patriotic Millionaire representatives met with members of Congress to urge them to close this indefensible loophole immediately by passing the “Carried Interest Fairness Act”, Congressmen, Democrat and Republican, said the same thing. “Of course” they support closing the carried interest loophole, “However” it was “very important” to “address the issue as part of comprehensive tax reform.” In other words, they were prevaricating.

“Comprehensive tax reform” will likely be on the agenda in 2017. Who will be at the negotiation table? You guessed it – Mike Sommers. That’s part of his big new job that’s going to cost our country $180 billion. (Edited version of a report from Patriotic Millionaires).

This is why so many people are supporting Bernie Sanders. The current system undermines the spirit of the Constitution and offends against fairness and the tenets of Epicureanism. And that’s for starters.

There is only one life

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“There is only one life. No one will bring back the years; no one will restore you to yourself. Life will follow the path it began to take, and will neither reverse nor check its course. It will cause no commotion to remind you of its swiftness, but glide on quietly. It will not lengthen itself for a king’s command or a people’s favor. As it started out on its first day, so it will run on, nowhere pausing or turning aside. What will be the outcome? You have been preoccupied while life hastens on. Meanwhile death will arrive, and you have no choice in making yourself available for that.(Seneca)

The message is: enjoy your life and do something of which you are proud. Don’t waste time on unproductive things, or unpleasant people for that matter.