Mindconnection eNL, 2008-10-05

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Product Highlight | Brainpower | Finances | Security | Health/Fitness | Miscellany | Thought for the Day

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The next time you have a problem with a neighbor, coworker, in-law, or spouse, remember that someone living 3,000 years ago had the same problem (but obviously with a different neighbor, coworker, in-law, or spouse). Sure, the details might be different (3,000 years ago, politicians lied in person instead of on television) but the basic problem is the same.

In addition to being relatively shallow, our perspective is also relatively narrow. Think of some personal problem you had yesterday, and odds are that several million other people had that very same problem yesterday. More importantly, several million people had that problem the week before and many of them solved it.

Whatever problem you encounter, whatever situation you're in, whatever challenge you face--someone has been there before. Probably more "someones" than there are people living in China today. You're not the first with this issue, and you won't be the last. In fact, probably several million other people have this problem or one similar to it at this very moment.

What does this have to do with brainpower? Plenty. One of the things I've discovered to be a grossly limiting factor in the use of brainpower is a sense of defeat. I come across this time and time again. Underlying it every time is the limited perspective we just talked about.

If you find yourself in "limited brainpower mode," feeling defeated by what is facing you, stop. Consider that things are not as they seem. Someone else has solved this before, and so can you.

You have many options at this point, such as:

1. Gird yourself in the knowledge that this problem has been seen and solved before, except perhaps for the details of it. Then, forge ahead with confidence and renewed commitment to get past it.
    
2. If the problem appears solvable, it has already been solved. Realize that the solution to this problem exists. Go out and find it, rather than come up with it yourself. Update the details as needed, and you have your solution.
    
3. If the problem is one that can't be solved, for example, changing human nature or ridding government of corruption, stop agonizing over it. Realize that a means of coping with it exists. Find out how others have made peace with the situation or turned it around to their advantage. Apply what works for you.

Opening up your perspective can open up new possibilities for you, by tapping the brainpower of others. Or simply providing you with the confidence to tap deeper into your own brainpower.

Preface: I wrote the following piece for this issue, before this past Friday (03OCT). That was the day CONgress inflicted upon America the 450-page pork-barrel spending bill that incidentally contained a bailout. This was a bailout of an industry that committed fraud due to what this same CONgress did during the dark Clinton years (not to be confused with the dark Bush years). The domino effect of this bill (members of CONgress trading even more favors in the future) will serve as a multiplier on the original amount of theft (there is no other word for it) committed via this bill.

As I don't understand that entire issue of the bailout (which is a minor part of this bill) and erroneously thought larceny was illegal (and larceny is 448/450ths or about 99.56% of this bill ), I will not attempt to comment on it further. Other than to say the cost per person is staggering. A trillion is a million million. Divide a trillion by 100 million wage earners, and the cost is a "gasp when grasp it" thing. You have personally been robbed of this much money. In one day. How long will you have to work to replace that money?

If you vote Demopublican this November, you send a message to these crooks that it's OK to steal years of your wages in a single day. On top of the other taxes you pay. Isn't it about time we all used our power to object, since we don't have the power to elect?

And now, the piece I had originally composed for this issue....

Many people have a heightened concerned about the economy, right now. It's spiked by the Freddie/Fannie bailout that we can't afford, plus the other financial lunacy that the mudstream media is finally noticing.

Never mind that the people who caused the Freddie/Fannie fiasco slunk away with their multi-million dollar bonuses and the govt fat cats who let them do it have awesome retirement packages waiting for them. This kind of skullduggery is nothing new. A handful of federal employees quietly made $103 million disappear while helping defraud 4300 investors in the Hoyt Fiasco.

Corruption is normal. The fact the mudstream media happen to actually notice it and report on it and actually get some details right for a change doesn't mean the economy is suddenly in a freefall. Even the New York Times got most of the details correct, but that isn't a sign of Armageddon despite being spectacularly unusual.

Let's keep a sense of perspective, here. The US economy has been in the toilet for decades. Since the end of World War II, the US federal govt has debased the currency an astounding 95%. Mull that over, for a moment. The implications are staggering.

During the Johnson misadministration, we got saddled with costly, defective social programs that destroyed families and produced other ills. There was that senseless invasion of Vietnam, too. Since then, the federal debt has been getting worse and worse, as the disease of Keynesian economics has been an excuse for gross mismanagement and fiduciary irresponsibility. Today, our federal debt is approaching $10 trillion. And that's only one aspect of what's wrong with our economy.

All of the problems are long-term. All of the solutions are long-term, as well.

Perhaps our worst problem is that wealth transfer organization known as the US CONgress. The people who misrepresent us in CONgress are constantly spending our money in ways they shouldn't. Every dollar they mis-spend is a dollar of tax because the money has to come from somewhere and it's not growing on trees. Whether you pay tax via the inflation tax, the credit crowding tax, or some other tax, your taxes go up whenever CONgress spends anything.

This practice of spending insensibly is why our economy is suffering. All of that spending didn't happen overnight. Thus, the problems with our economy didn't suddenly just appear. They have been with us for a very long time.

The regular taxpayer is powerless to stop this looting, so what can you do? Well, if you look at what CONgress has done it becomes pretty clear. Do the opposite of what they do. Spend within your means, under the assumption you have to behave in a responsible manner and not like someone with a compulsive spending disorder.

Most of all, don't get rattled. Yes, things are bad. But they have been working their way to bad for over half a century.

Waiting until your security is compromised and your identity stolen is a costly approach to identity protection. It's like closing the proverbial barn door after your daughter and her boyfriend have snuck in there for the night, er, I mean after the horse got out.

With online banking and credit card management, you can check your various accounts every day or maybe on a less rigorous schedule if you prefer. Look for things that are out of place, such as charges you don't recognize.

It's also a good idea to check your Credit Report every 8 months or so. You are legally entitled to a free report from each of the three nationwide credit reporting companies, once per year. Getting one report from each of them on a rotating basis every 8 months means you tap each of them once every 24 months.

You probably know who these folks are. But in case you don't, they are Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion. Look them up online and request away.

If you're particularly paranoid, you can sign up with a credit monitoring company. But that isn't cheap. You're looking at around two hundred bucks or so a year. With the current inflation rate, that will be your entire daily lunch budget by 2010.

Where the real danger lies

The most important place for Americans to engage in identity protection is the most hated (dis)organization they know. And, of course, I need not mention them by name (similar organizations victimize people in other countries, for example the Inland Revenue Department in the UK). I am not as familiar with the criminal activities of similar (dis)organizations in other countries, but I do read the GAO reports and other information on the collection of criminals particular to the USA. This is all public information, but most of the voting public doesn't read it.

Yes, there are a few decent folks who take a job with this bunch and are somehow convinced they work for the good guys. Count yourself lucky if you end up dealing with one of them, and be sure to treat them with the utmost courtesy and respect. They aren't the ones you want to stress out into finding another line of work.

But the evidence that huge numbers of the employees see their jobs as a way to lead a rewarding, risk-free life of crime is overwhelming and well-documented by the government's own investigators. This does not bode well for you.

Government inspectors uncover all kinds of criminal behavior in government agencies, not just this one. Nothing gets done about it, but it gets uncovered nonetheless.

For example, the Department of the Interior (DOI) oversees the Minerals Management Service (MMS). The MMS supervises oil and gas company work on federal lands. In mid-September of this year, the Inspector General of the Interior Department revealed that MMS employees engaged in sex with oil company employees, used cocaine, and accepted thousands of dollars of gifts from the oil industry. His report said "a culture of ethical failure" prevailed in the MMS.

This "culture of ethical failure" is what governs how you are dealt with by the aforementioned most hated (dis)organization. Your first line of defense is to ask them to send you your transcript and to do so quarterly. Learn what the codes mean and look for anything that reeks of "past due."

Why is your transcript so important? Because these folks are known for hiding your tax problems, even if you write to them and ask if there are any. Having a letter on file on their stationary saying they've investigated (whatever you wrote them about) and that and you will have no personal tax liabilities arising from (whatever you wrote them about) is no defense. They simply say they made a mistake and you should have caught it. They will say that you should have reviewed your transcript, and since they provide it free of charge for the asking there is no reason for you not to have done this. And the ruling will always go in their favor for this reason.

It doesn't matter how ridiculous the actual situation is. In one case, they waited a quarter century before assessing the taxes (they have many ways around the Statute of Limitations) and then hit the victim with ungodly enormous interest and penalties. The taxpayer produced a letter stating he didn't have any personal liabilities from the root transaction for which he was now liable, but there was that transcript defense. The letter was ruled irrelevant.

In thousands of cases, this waiting like a snake in the grass has allowed them to hit the victims with tax bills greater than a decade of wages. Which, of course, people have to pay because they no longer have the records they would use to defend themselves.

A $2,000 tax debt that you actually never owed can suddenly result in a 10-day notice of asset seizure along with a note that you owe half a million dollars. Arriving a few days after said seizure takes place.

This isn't idle speculation. This kind of crap is what happened to thousands of people caught up in the AMCOR and Hoyt scams conducted by rogue employees of this particular organization that CONgress, in complete defiance of logic, entrusts with collecting money.

How can a huge tax debt appear, if you always pay your federal income tax? Any of a long list of ways, including identity theft. Employees of this highly hated (dis)organization routinely steal several thousand computers from their own offices each year (source: GAO). There is no way that any of your personal information is safe when such people have access to it.

CONgress won't do anything about the rampant crime within this particular (dis)organization, or about the exposure of your personal information to the criminals who are on its payroll. Your misrepresentatives in CONgress aren't accountable to you, because they are beholden to the lobbyists who are their de facto employers and who reward them quite generously. Ever wonder how so many members of CONgress end up being millionaires? They are too busy running their own personal scams to actually do the job they are elected to do, and so the criminals have a great deal of freedom to commit crimes. It's not absolute, but it the limits aren't exactly tight either.

This isn't conspiracy theory. It's a summary of the massive amount of criminal activity the government's own inspectors uncover and document every day.

You can't stop problems through prudent protection of your information from these criminals, because you are legally required to provide it. But you can prevent any small problems that arise from causing your ruin decades down the road.

Get that transcript, and review it. Do this quarterly.

If you find a problem, hire a tax attorney to follow up on it. If you decide to "save money" by dealing with these folks yourself, you will end up volunteering information they can use against you. Just as anyone accused of a crime should never talk to the police, anyone with a tax problem should never talk directly with these folks either.

If you commit a crime, you have some legal protections such as Miranda, discovery, burden of proof, presumption of innocence, and so forth. Not so when dealing with these folks. You start out with a presumption of guilt and the burden of proof is entirely on you. That includes proving a negative, even though that's impossible.

Just ask Ted Elzinga, who retired to his ranch and then was hit with backtaxes on income he never earned because he couldn't prove he didn't earn it. If he'd been checking his transcript, he could have limited the damage to one quarter instead of being hit with several years of accumulation.

http://www.supplecity.com/articles/bodyfat.htm

1. Hawaii's Mount Waialeale is the wettest place in the world. It rains throughout the year and about 460 inches per annum. But this is nothing compared to how the US taxpayer gets soaked every day.
    

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