Mountain Views News          Saturday, July 23, 2011

13

LEFT TURN/RIGHT TURN

 Mountain Views News Saturday, July 23, 2011 

HOWARD Hays As I See It

GREG Welborn


Your 70% Tax Rate 

Will Be Transformative

“We knew that what we 
were doing here could be 
about a little more than 
just a football tournament. 
If winning this makes one 
person, someone who lost 
something or someone who 
was hurt or damaged by 
the events that touched our 
country, feel better for even 
one moment, then we have 
really achieved a most special thing. If it makes 
everyone happy and joyful and gives them a 
reason to cheer after such difficult times, then we 
have been successful. Japan has been hurt and so 
many lives have been affected. We cannot change 
that but Japan is coming back and this was our 
chance to represent our nation and show that we 
never stop working. This is like a dream to us and 
we hope our country shares it with us.”

- Homare Sawa

 

If you’re a regular follower of Limbaugh, 
O’Reilly, Hannity or Beck, you’re familiar with 
the name Saul Alinsky. It appeared in last week’s 
MVN, in Hugh Hewitt’s “Right Turn” offering for 
the week. He both began (“Obama unleashed his 
inner Alinsky-ite”) and ended his column with 
references to Alinsky, included the obligatory 
reminder of the president’s own background as 
a “community organizer”, and railed against the 
prospect our nation’s healthcare dollars might be 
spent on healthcare, rather than million-dollar 
bonuses for insurance execs.

 Right-wing propagandists seem to assume 
we’re familiar with the name, and will ascribe 
dubious intent to anyone linked with it.

Saul Alinsky was born and raised by Russian 
Jewish immigrant parents in Chicago at 
the beginning of the last century. He later 
acknowledged anti-Semitism at the time to have 
been “so pervasive you didn’t really even think 
about it; you just accepted it as a fact of life.”

As a young man Alinsky turned to labor 
organizing for awhile, then returned to the slums 
of Chicago to begin a lifelong dedication to 
“community organizing”, or, as he put it, to “turn 
scattered, voiceless discontent into a unified 
protest.” His early efforts were among workers at 
the Union Stock Yards, those depicted in Upton 
Sinclair’s “The Jungle”. Illinois Governor Adlai 
Stevenson said Alinsky’s efforts “most faithfully 
reflect our ideals of brotherhood, tolerance, 
charity and dignity of the individual.”

These efforts took him to the slums of Kansas 
City and Detroit, and the barrios of L.A. By the 
1950’s he focused on the black ghettos of Chicago 
and Oakland, which earned him the hatred of 
Chicago Mayor Richard J. Daley, and a resolution 
from Oakland’s City Council banning him from 
the city.

His work inspired “community organizers” 
from Cesar Chavez in the fields of central 
California to Barack Obama in the slums of 
Chicago. He was the subject of a senior honors 
thesis by Wellesley College student Hillary 
Rodham (Clinton).

While working to see people “banding together 
to improve their lives”, Saul Alinsky refused to 
align himself with any political party or ideology. 
He explained, “if you think you’ve got an inside 
track to absolute truth, you become doctrinaire, 
humorless and intellectually constipated. The 
greatest crimes in history have been perpetrated 
by such religious and political and racial fanatics, 
from the persecutions of the Inquisition down to 
Communist purges and Nazi genocide.”

His work informed the anti-war movement 
of the 1960’s, but he criticized actions such as 
burning the American flag and alienating the 
middle-class Nixon referred to as the “silent 
majority”. Where others saw enemies, Alinsky 
saw potential allies. A decade before the Reagan 
presidency, Alinsky warned this increasingly 
troubled middle-class might be “ripe for the 
plucking by some guy on horseback promising a 
return to the vanished verities of yesterday.”

Saul Alinsky has been gone almost forty years 
(a heart attack at 63), but his message carries 
special resonance today: a call to action across 
classes and borders, to reject passivity and engage 
in nothing less than “eternal war”; a “war against 
poverty, misery, delinquency, disease, injustice, 
hopelessness, despair, and unhappiness.” “I love 
this goddamn country”, Alinsky said, “and we’re 
going to take it back.”

No wonder this “community organizer” 
continues to unnerve the right.

Like many an old sci-fi movie, the problem 
comes not from the “outsider”, but from those 
who fear what they don’t understand. There’s 
an inability, or unwillingness, to understand the 
definition of “community” in its broadest sense - 
one that spans class, geography, and generations. 
There are those who can’t understand how one 
who’s achieved success in life can feel a sense of 
community with those who haven’t. They assume 
an inherent phoniness when the likes of a Sean 
Penn or Brad Pitt espouse shared community 
with the suffering in Haiti or Namibia.

They’re perplexed that those over 55 aren’t 
satisfied with assurances their own Medicare 
coverage won’t be affected under the Republican 
proposal. It’s not them, but the next generation 
who’d be given a voucher and sent on their way, 
so why should they care?

A sense of community brings feelings of shared 
concern, and also shared triumph. Attendance 
and TV ratings broke records when the New 
Orleans Saints returned to the Superdome in 
2006, the year after Katrina.

Last Spring I wrote of the numerous Japanese-
related events taking place in the San Gabriel 
Valley, and how the community affected by the 
earthquake and tsunami extended across the 
Pacific Ocean all the way to Sierra Madre. We 
can commiserate with the ladies of Team USA, 
while also sharing the joy of Ms. Sawa and her 
teammates.

Community organizers from Saul Alinsky to 
Barack Obama have sought to bring political 
and economic empowerment to communities 
at home and abroad. Another kind of solidarity 
was displayed on a banner carried on the field by 
the Japanese team; “To Our Friends Around The 
World - Thank You For Your Support”.

Maybe next time for the Americans; but what 
a game against Brazil! For now, perhaps we 
can celebrate (or commiserate) by sampling the 
product of the Japanese team’s sponsor - and 
have Yasu-san serve us up a Kirin beer down at 
Mountain View Sushi. 

The debt ceiling debate in Washington has the 
feel of theatre in that it appears simply to be so 
much political posturing without meat or merit. 
While there is truth in the sense that both sides 
are trying to position their argument so as to 
garner the most public support, the issue at hand 
is anything but insignificant. We are witnessing 
one of the defining debates of our generation, the 
results of which could very well accomplish the 
transformation of our country which candidate 
Obama made such an integral part of his 
campaign.

If the conservatives lose this battle, the 
marginal tax rate for the middle class will quickly 
become 70%. The taking of more than two-thirds 
of the average American’s income will change the 
nature of our relationship with the government 
and our culture as a people in fundamental and 
devastating ways.

Consider the current tax structure for a minute. 
The top federal rate is 35%, but it’s scheduled to 
rise to 39.6% in 2013. Payroll taxes are 12.4% for 
social security and 2.9% for Medicare. There are 
also state taxes which are now 10.5% for those 
of us in high-tax states like California. Thus, 
considering the offsets, caps and phase outs 
which apply to all this, the combined top tax rate 
is currently 44.1%.

When the Bush tax cuts expire and when 
Obamacare payroll taxes kick in, the combined 
tax rate will rise to 58.4%. As bad as that sounds, 
the situation gets worse. The administration’s 
own projection of the necessary rise in ALL 
income tax rates is 31.7%, which will take affect 
in 2016. This is needed to cover the deficits built 
into the spending plans the President already 
successfully rammed through the last Congress. 
This will raise the top combined tax rate to 
68.8%. The government will be taking 2/3rds of 
Americans’ hard earned wages.

While the argument is made that these rates 
would “only” apply to the “rich”, the truth requires 
a different extrapolation. Given the projected 
deficits in future years, tax rates on the middle 
class (let’s say a couple earning as little as $60K in 
California) will rise to 70% by 2035 and 80% by 
2050. That middle class couple is currently paying 
a combined rate of “only” 45%, but because so 
many of the payroll taxes are disguised or taken 
bit by bit in small amounts from each weekly 
paycheck, most middle class earners don’t realize 
what they’re already paying.

Most simply complain about the high cost of 
living or the struggle to make ends meet without 
realizing that their friendly elected officials are 
the ones whose hands are nestled so deeply in 
their pockets. Think about how tough it’s going 
to be to feed, clothe and 
house a family when that 
burden rises to 70%. 

The results will indeed 
be transformative. First, 
more Americans will find 
it necessary to turn to the 
government to meet their needs. Dependence 
will increase and self reliance will decrease. The 
very essence of our cultural identity as Americans 
will have been changed. We will be less the 
boot-strapping entrepreneurs and more the 
government-reliant wage slave. Second, these tax 
rates can only dampen economic activity. There 
is a reason that European per-capita income 
is 30% lower than in the United States. Their 
economies have long been saddled with these 
levels of taxation.

Some have argued that even if the conservatives 
lose the argument today, there will always be 
other elections and opportunities to reverse the 
situation. Theoretically, that may be true, but as 
time progresses it does become harder and harder 
to reduce spending. The reason is simple. All 
government spending ultimately creates a class of 
recipients that come to “depend” on that income. 
Naturally, they resist all efforts to reduce their 
income. As more and more Americans are forced 
to become dependent on government spending 
of one stripe or another, the tougher it becomes 
to reverse the trend and reduce the spending.

The answer to this problem lies in taming 
government spending now. Our current and 
projected deficits far exceed anything that has 
ever been experienced in this country before, but 
they are not simply due to the faltering economy. 
Decreased tax revenues don’t come anywhere 
near explaining the amount of the deficits. The 
culprit is the amount of spending voted in by the 
last liberal Congress at the behest of the Obama 
administration. The battle in Washington is 
whether that level of spending and government 
control of the economy and our lives is going to 
be the new norm, or whether we’re going to return 
to the traditional balance between individual 
control and government control. If the liberals 
win this one, America’s transformation will 
largely be complete. Sadly, it won’t be a change 
for the better.

About the author: Gregory J. Welborn is a 
freelance writer and has spoken to several civic 
and religious organizations on cultural and moral 
issues. He lives in the Los Angeles area with his 
wife and 3 children and is active in the community. 
He can be reached at gregwelborn@earthlink.net.


BUSINESS TODAY

The latest on Business News, Trends and Techniques


Marketing vs. Advertising – Part I

Promoting Your Small Business

by La Quetta M. Shamblee, M.B.A.

It is important for business owners to 
understand the differences between marketing 
and advertising. Both are very important, but each 
one serves a specific purpose toward the primary 
goal for a for-profit business – that is, to generate 
sales revenue.

Think of marketing as the umbrella that 
encompasses the full range of business activities 
available to bring buyers and sellers together for 
the purpose of exchanging or trading something 
of value. The term marketing refers to an entire 
process of strategic planning, implementing and 
managing all of the activities available to make 
this happen. The overall goal of marketing is to 
promote goods or services to increase sales.

The marketing strategy for AARP to sell its 
services is going to be dramatically different 
from the strategy developed for a new line of 
skateboards. Why? First of all, the customer 
groups are very different, not only in age, but in 
terms of how and where a business will be able to 
reach them. Telling a group of seniors to follow 
your company on Twitter is probably not a good 
idea. By the same token, sending hard copy letters 
to teenagers with instructions for them to call or 
write in for information on skateboards is likely a 
waste of time and money. A sound marketing plan 
takes key factors like this into consideration to be 
sure that the mix of activities is appropriate for 
your target audience.

Advertising is defined as any paid form of 
nonpersonal presentation and promotion of 
ideas, goods, or services by an identified sponsor. 
Advertising is a single component in the marketing 
process and it has three primary goals: to inform, 
persuade and remind. Due to the expense, it is 
important to have a plan for how to incorporate 
advertising into your marketing mix. The major 
types of advertising are television, newspapers, 
direct mail, radio, magazines, billboards, 
newsletters, brochures, telephone and the ever-
growing internet. 

Large corporations spend billions on advertising, 
and most commonly, in the form of an advertising 
campaign that can be repeated and sustained to 
ensure that it will have an impact. One memorable 
example is from 1997 with the launch of a series of 
television commercials that featured a little brown 
Chichihuahua uttering, “Yo Quiero Taco Bell!” 
Due to the sustained use of the concept, including 
new commercials with the same dog, this would 
be considered an advertising campaign.

Owners of small businesses don’t have the deep 
pockets for advertising on this scale, so they must 
be savvy about how, where and when to expend 
resources for advertising. Let’s take the case of a 
local restaurant. Investing time and resources to 
develop an advertising campaign to place in a 
local community publication or for online e-ads 
that reach specific target groups will be much 
more cost effective than regional media that may 
reach an impressive 1,000,000 readers. What 
good will that do for your restaurant if 900,000 
of those readers reside 50 miles or more from 
your location? However, if you’re promoting a 
new cookbook or some type of services that can 
be ordered or used online, then the large-scale 
publication with the broader reach may be a good 
fit.

Ready to determine the most appropriate 
marketing mix for your business? Need to figure 
out how to get started or how to bring in more 
customers and increase sales in the face of having 
limited staff and financial resources? Then, join 
us next week for some step-by-step instructions 
and a reference to more free online resources to 
help you make some decisions and plans about 
what you need to do to market and advertise your 
business.


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