The Fiscal Cliff and the Art of War

Generally the one who first occupies the battlefield awaiting the enemy is at ease; the one who comes later and rushes into battle is fatigued. Therefore those skilled in warfare move the enemy, and are not moved by the enemy.

Getting the enemy to approach on his own accord is a matter of showing him advantage; stopping him from approaching is a matter of showing him harm. Therefore, if the enemy is at ease, be able to exhaust him; if the enemy is well fed, be able to starve him; if the enemy is settled, be able to move him; appear at places where he must rush to defend, and rush to places where he least expects.

With this fiscal cliff problem, we have no leverage, no way to move the immovable object known as Obama and the Democrats. With Obama intransigently standing in the way, it’s no use yelling and screaming at him. He likes that. Either figure out a way to go around him, or failing that, just go back the way you came and wait for advantage. Getting impatient and caving is what Obama counts on. Don’t do it.

People keep saying that elections have consequences, but I don’t think they understand that elections have consequences! You voted for Obama, well goody for you, and hey, by the way, these are your consequences you mouth-drooling imbecile. Bon Appétit.

Words mean something. The problem is that they mean different things to different people. For instance the word “rich,” is probably the most contentious word in the English language. It’s completely relative to changing circumstance. To an Ethiopian I’m rich. To a billionaire I’m a pauper. Take for instance this hypothetical example:

A family of four wanting to purchase a modest home of perhaps 2000 square feet in San Francisco is probably going to pay upwards of a half-million dollars or more for that home. A basic rule of thumb for how much house a family can afford is anywhere from 150% to 400% of that family’s annual income. Splitting the difference gives us CNN-Money’s figure which is 250%. When you add in the higher cost of everything in San Francisco County, from taxes, to gasoline, food, entertainment, dining out, etc, a middle-class family of four hoping to live in a modest home in San Francisco would need to make enough money that it would fall under Barack Obama’s definition of “rich,” i.e. people who make more than $250,000 a year. Now then, here’s the magic question: are they rich? Perhaps if they were living in Marion County, West Virginia they’d be rich, but they’re living in San Francisco, California, and even a moron should be able to understand why that makes a difference.

There’s been a whole lot of talk coming out of Washington DC about the fact that raising the tax rates on those individuals making north of $250,000 would hurt small business, and an equal amount of talk saying that it would only affect the top 2%. Depending on who you talk to you’ll either find out that it will affect less than 3% of small businesses that pay individual rates, or you’ll find out that these new higher marginal rates will hit the small businesses that employ half of the people that work in small business.

All of that back-and-forth bickering merely serves to obscure the basic fact that America is pretty much done for. America is just like that lucky family that won the lottery seven years ago. We got rich quick and started buying everything in sight: big house, fancy car, elegant furniture, expensive designer clothing, and on and on and on. When we suddenly realized we’d spent up our yearly lottery allotment, we went to the bank and borrowed against next year, and the next and the next. Now the bank wants its money and all we have left is lots of material things that aren’t worth nearly what we paid for them.

America foolishly squandered its post-World War II windfall. We were able to get rich quick because after the biggest war in history, all the other developed nations of the world were forced to spend their time and resources rebuilding their shattered cities, while we were able to invest our time and resources in new factories, new skyscrapers, electronics and computer research, new airports, etc. For a couple of generations we had little to no competition. It was a seller’s market because we were the only store. And, just like that lottery winning family, we threw lots of parties. Look at Detroit and tell me it doesn’t look like the aftermath of one wing-ding of a shindig! Profligacy became our way of life, and today there aren’t many people left alive who can remember what it was like when it wasn’t so easy, and none of those who can remember are in any position to change the direction we’re going now.

Read the entire post at Vantage Point of the One-Eyed Jack