Really Selfish Financial Advice from an “Expert”

A couple of week of weeks ago a well known media personality and self-proclaimed expert on the stock market said “If you’re in the stock market, if you care about your paycheck, you go with Trump”. I have never listened or watched this individual or any other media financial expert for that matter. And for the record, an ex is an has-been and a spurt is drop of water on pressure.

This “advice” is either ignorant, selfish or probably a combination of both. Here’s why.

In 1982 when my daughter was one year old, the per capita Federal Deficit in the US was $6,129. In other words, if one divided the total deficit by the total population, the deficit per individual, was $6,129. In 2020 when her youngest daughter, one of my grandchildren was two, the Federal Deficit per capita was $84,212. This is an increase of almost 1,400% over 38 years or an average of 7.1% annually. By comparison, the inflation rate over the same time period was 2.7% or a total of 167%.

My daughter could not vote for about half of this time period and when she could vote , she was was in college or obtaining a graduate degree. Now she works hard, does well, and pays a lot of taxes. The Deficit which she inherited had very little to do with her. For her youngest along with all my grandchildren, they are born into personal huge debt that they had nothing to do with, but will be paying on it one way or another for the rest of their lives.

That is incredibly unfair to them.

How did this happen. It started with the Reagan presidency and when the Republican party went from being financial conservatives to the “Borrow and Spend” party.

And for those who want to blame Democrats, the Republican party controlled the House, Senate and Presidency the majority of those years.

For the record, the only balanced budget since then was under the Clinton administration.

Does this mean I do not find the Democrat party complicit is this and unconscionable increase in National Deficit per capita. They are. But at least they are willing to raise taxes to offset the increase in spending. Republicans will not. Some years ago, Republicans even signed a pledge to not increase taxes. So they did not represent their District or State, simply the wishes of a few very wealthy Republicans.

And the result. Increasing Federal Deficit for our grandchildren. Simply, charge it to the kids.

Two examples.
1 – During the second Bush Administration we as a country started two wars, Afghanistan and Iraq. The Bush Administration knowing that paying for the wars with increased taxes would be very unpopular politically decided instead to reduce taxes and pay for the wars with deficit spending. This was supported by Republicans in Congress which had a majority in the House the first six years of the Administration and also the Senate which was controlled by Republicans. A study by the Watson Institute of Brown University which was updated in January, 2020 found that if the war debt is not paid down, the interest alone will over $8 Trillion Dollars annually by the 2050s. Charge and send the bill to the Grandkids.
2 – During the Trump Administration he cut taxes, especially for corporations and under his Administration the deficit increased by almost $8 Trillion Dollars. The cash savings from the corporate tax cuts enabled corporations to buy buy back their own stock. Corporate buy-backs reducing the number of outstanding shares increasing the market value of each share. When considering this, keep in mind a recent study found that the top 10% in America own 93% of the stock while the bottom 50% own about 1%. The corporate taxes were essentially a way of transferring money in the form of Federal Debt from future generations by increasing their percentage of the National Debt to the wealthiest in American today.

So you can see why this voting advice did not surprise me, but did really piss me off. This individual was talking to the wealthiest Americans stating supporting Trump may lower their taxes. He and others like him simply do not care about the vast majority Americans who will have not benefit from tax cuts for the rich but still stuck with the Deficit they created. And he and others certainly do not care about the fact everyones grandchildren will pay for their reckless and selfish spending one way or another.

My grandchildren and yours deserve better and they only way that will happen is if we as a country increase taxes, income and wealth, on the very wealthiest.