I'm Just Saying

My latest book is now available at book stores everwhere. You may purchase it on Amazon and Barns&Noble. You may also buy it directly from me free shipping. This book is a complilation of the posts listed on Banging the Drum Blog

http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Im-Just-Saying/Ronald-L-Clark/e/9781608448104/?itm=1&USRI=i%27m+just+saying

http://www.amazon.com/Im-Just-Saying-Ronald-Clark/dp/160844810X/ref=sr_1_17?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1292948092&sr=1-17

ETFs. OMG, HERE WE GO AGAIN

ETFs. OMG, Here We Go Again

It was announced today that ETFs (Exchange Traded Funds) have now reached $1 Trillion dollars. Please take the time to research ETFs and if you can filter out most of the esoteric BS, you will find that ETFs are gussied-up derivatives. Brothers and Sisters, ETFs are not Capitalism; they are simply another way to make money off of money. Capitalism is when you invest your hard earned money into a business that is engaged in productive enterprise and the business makes a profit by producing something that people need or want. This adds to an economy. MONEY is not an economy. Money only enables commerce that makes it easier to grow an economy. Making money off of money cannot grow an economy and the growth of ETFs will be the next bubble that can destroy our fragile economy. Yes Gordon Gekko, greed is still alive and well.

We Can't Win At The Ballot Box

You say you want to cut Big Government down to size and regain our freedoms by using the ballot box? Good luck with that. It can’t be done and here is the reason why. VESTING. That’s right fellow citizens, VESTING. What is vesting? Vesting is when you invest your money, time or other good and valuable resources into a program and then expect a return on your investment. Let me give you a real life example of how our elected Government uses Vesting as an insidious device to perpetuate and expand power by creating basically social programs that cannot ever be stopped or curtailed because of vesting. Let’s take Social Security as an example and here is how it works. You start a safety net program for old age and pass a law that says you must participate in the program by paying taxes to support the program. Viola, you are now part of the program and you can’t get out without losing all of the money you have paid in even if you could. After time passes you realize that you have paid a great deal of money into the system and you then demand that the program be continued in order that you receive your fair share of what you have invested into the system. In short, you have become VESTED regardless if you wanted to be or not, and the program can never, never ever, be terminated because the citizens have become VESTED in the program. It only gets better. The Government keeps on expanding the program (Social Security) into other areas and forces you to pay more taxes because you can’t or won’t get out of the program due to VESTING. I bet most people don’t realize that Medicare, Medicaid, Obamacare, Aid to Dependant Children, etc. were all enacted under the Social Security Act. Insidious because those who don't even pay into the system are now VESTED. Now multiply all of the others program that use vesting to perpetuate themselves and you have a situation where the citizens of this country will never allow anyone to stop these programs because of VESTING. For these programs to be fair, they should include an “Op In” clause so that if you want the Government to run your healthcare or retirement, then you must Op In into the program and only you and others who Op In to pay the taxes to support the program. I am now laughing out loud! You should live so long. I’m sorry Brothers and Sisters, you can’t fix our Big Government via the ballot box, our big Government was designed to be unstoppable.