What happened to my country? Our infrastructure is falling apart, Social Security’s been depleted, we are $16 trillion in debt, and we’re told that “we the people” caused this. I don’t think so. As a boy in school, I remember the teacher telling us about a law concerning the profit margin. Anything over 10 percent profit was heavily taxed and over 15 percent, very heavily. This was to help keep the economy in balance.

It somehow disappeared between then and the early ’70s. As a young man, I watched gas prices skyrocket. We watched as a few became very wealthy—suckin’ it out of the many.

Social Security was implemented after the Great Depression, so we the people could have relative security in the years following our retirement. It is our money—not to be touched—and the growing interest would further secure all. How unfortunate that the greedy ones we hired to maintain and run this country decided it was some kind of slush fund.

I never believed they were doing anything but pocketing the interest. But then they started digging into the principal and didn’t pay it back.

Now, as the largest generation of retirees is arriving, we have politicians trying to tell us that Social Security is a “privilege” and not a “right.” Every man and woman, from the day they signed a W2, has, without choice, put into the Social Security system.

A president some consider a brilliant economist was Bill Clinton. While he was busy taking down the national debt in big chunks, jobs did not seem hard to find—that is, until he cut red tape and lowered taxes to make it profitable to operate American businesses out of other countries (where labor and inferior-grade materials are much cheaper). Since then, the American worker has been wondering where the jobs went.

Meanwhile, the business heads and their management (profiting massively) try to sell us inferior products manufactured by people working for slave wages—children not excluded.

Since the beginning of income tax, our public servants have been paid well to maintain and run this country. Now, we learn that our electrical grid is about to burn out, our dams are ready to burst, our bridges are falling down, and our roadways are crumbling. We paid for the upkeep of all of this, why didn’t it happen?

So, do you really want to save America? OK, fat cats, listen up! Bring your businesses and your money back home where they belong, to the good ol’ U.S. of A. Put America back to work, then reinvest all you have back into the country that gave it all to you. Your returns will not be disappointing.

R.S. “JUDGE” TALMAGE
Midvale