Christian Debt Recovery

Illinois State Tax Debt Relief

June 18th, 2010 |

Author: Gavin

Genuine “hope” not desperate “change”

The old saying goes, “Those who do not remember history are doomed to repeat it.” If there were ever a time when a review of history was appropriate it is now. Let’s take a broad look at a couple of interesting…coincidences?

First, think about how one of the oldest countries in the world, Germany, elected a tyrant the magnitude of Hitler? What were the circumstances of the times? In the 1930′s Germany decided to print more money to keep their economy going. They had developed into a nation of intellect and service versus industry and producers of goods. The unemployment rate was double digits and the middle class was being buried by taxes and entitlement programs.

OK, so what? You get it…it sounds familiar. Let’s look a little deeper. As the above was happening Hitler was planning to become their leader, restore economic stability AND implement his secret agenda of creating a super race. First he had to gain power. The plan was to take advantage of a society in economic desperation and chaos by promoting radical thoughts among the masses, blaming it all on “the formula of democracy”. Then when they are on the verge of anarchy…run for election promise everything they hunger for, saying you are the savior who will resurrect their long forgotten stable lives. As they say, the rest is history…bad history.

Of course as Americans we would never fall for such a scam. We are too intelligent, too savvy, and too rich to lose hope and become so naïve as to believe such ridiculous things. Well, in 2008 we elected a President, who had no executive experience, no record to evaluate, had never made a payroll, never ran a company or a state or a city or a town, whose campaign was based upon a multitude of unaffordable if not undeliverable promises.

After gaining power, he promptly jammed health care reform down our throats despite our collective majority of opposition. He immediately passed a stimulus package which created more debt than our nation has ever seen. We have been printing money like it is tissue paper, we have become a service based economy while our production jobs are sent overseas, our unemployment rate is double digits in reality and the middle class is under attack from every side both socially and economically. If not for the 2010 elections as a result of Americans waking up finally, we would all be facing a tax increase as well.

Entitlement programs have effectively bankrupted California and Illinois. Several other states are operating in the red as well. California alone accounts for 13% of our nation’s economy and it independently is the 8th largest economy in the world! And it is teetering on economic implosion. If it fails the Federal Government will have no choice but to bail them out. If they don’t the entire country will implode. Who will pay for that? The middle class across all 50 states, that’s who; so what happens when the middle class in the other 49 states get tired of working more and keeping less because they are paying for the folks who were irresponsible and went bankrupt? You have an environment fertile for a radical movement of the masses. When taxes become so burdensome that the middle class has no incentive to start businesses and create jobs because it is not worth the effort, risk and energy (because they are supporting more and more people who have learned how to live doing nothing but filling out forms)…they lose hope and faith.

This is exactly what happened in Germany in the 30′s…morals went out the window as people decided any sort of order was baseless and they wanted to be distracted from their undesirable reality. Perversion became tolerable and prevalent. Inflation was so rampant that one dollar equaled a TRILLION Marks. Yes, trillion with a T.

How far are we from that? Consider that methamphetamines (developed by the Nazi’s by the way) and prescription opiate pain medications are a cancer in our society which is digging into the heart of the middle class as they look for relief from their respective realities. It is not a lower class problem. It is an American problem. Are we far from being in the same circumstances as Germany in the 30′s? Germany isn’t Uganda, where we heard of tyrannical conditions and we discounted it. How could anything have been so bad that it would make a proud people desperate enough to grab onto “hope” through a tyrant like Hitler? All in a matter of a few years, not decades! Let’s consider a simple analogy.

Think about being in a swimming pool in your back yard. You are successful and have become comfortable in the life you have. The pool is an amenity you have come to take for granted. You read, go to church, do charity work, have a family, a business etc. in other words your life is about as full as you can imagine. Then you have a severe cramp, the pain is intense and your leg draws up. You gasp for air, but get a mouth full of water…you panic, no one is around. You flail at the water as you gasp for air and again take in more water. You begin to doubt your chances of surviving. At that moment nothing else in the world matters except that next breath. You don’t think about your car, your family, your dog, your business, your church…NOTHING is being processed by your brain but your desperation for a breath of air! The will to survive is driving the bus.

Suddenly out of nowhere you feel something hit your arm and side, it is hard…you grab it…it is metal…a pole of some sort…you pull with all you have and arrive at the surface coughing and spitting up water. You are pulled out onto the concrete and someone is on top of you pounding your chest, sticking fingers in your mouth, turning your head. You are still panicked as you are disoriented and desperate. You cough up water and begin to get some air. It is the best breath of air you have ever had.

Do you care who was on the other end of that pole? Do you care what religion they are? What race, political affiliation, or social status they are? Of course not; if somehow they could have communicated with you in a split second during your crisis and said, “I have a pole, I will pull you out but I want your house, your car, your dog, your business and all your money…sign here and I will pull you out.” I promise you any one of us would sign it. Put anyone in an airtight room, suck all the air out and see if they won’t agree to anything for just their next breath.

The number one human physical need is air. Nothing trumps it. Water and food are meaningless without air. Our number one emotional need is being understood or heard. It is the emotional equivalent of air. When government stops listening to the people who pay their freight, the taxpayers become disgruntled. Eventually, they will rise up and rebel at the risk of great cost and peril; because at some point, not being understood trumps fear. If humans could satisfy their fundamental emotional need being “standardized units in a monolithic society”, this country would have never been born. There becomes a time when the human spirit becomes so disgruntled with being used, manipulated and muted by corrupt and narcissistic tyrants that they rise up.

It is at this time they thirst for a new leader…and when driven to the level of despair the Germans were in the 30′s; they don’t care who offers them a pole or what the conditions are…they just need a breath. What is imperative today is for Americans to recognize that we are not at that level of despair yet… hopefully; but we are vulnerable. We appeared desperate in 2008, in my opinion, electing a man of little ability and substance but with a nice smile and a great promise of “change”. As a country we MUST take action now to recognize the quick growth of the Tea Party as a wakeup call of sorts. The reason this movement has garnered so much support is because the masses are thirsting for genuine hope based upon fiscal realities, not desperate and radical change in our country’s fundamental values!

The status quo of government without accountability has run its course and “the people” want to be heard, they want to be understood. No more acceptance of being patronized by politicians who listen without hearing…show up but don’t care…make promises with no real plan…and basically practice “politics without principle”.

Whether at the Federal, State or Local levels, this is the reality. This is where we are as a county, a state and a country. I pray we are approaching the beginning of another resurgence of the American way of life that we saw when Ronald Reagan reinvented our economy based upon the founding fathers’ principles of less government, fiscal responsibility and lower taxes. Our country’s middle class made a stand in 2010 and we accomplished turning the tide, now we have to remain vigilant in shoring up the levies of fiscal responsibility and accountability at every level of government.

The best way to avoid being so desperate that you will agree to anything for a breath of air, is to make sure you don’t get in the water without a way to get out on your own in case of emergency. My hope is that we never get into a situation as a country where we will pay any price just to get our next breath.

Mr. Loy is President of Construction Plus Inc., holds degrees in both Architecture and Engineering from the University of Tennessee and is a Certified Construction Manager. He can be reached at sloy@constructionplus.com

About the Author

Sandy was the first building contractor in East Tennessee to be accredited as a Certified Construction Manager (CCM) by the Construction Management Association of America, and has supervised more than $1 billion in projects. His experience includes virtually every type of construction – educational, industrial, religious centers, office buildings, medical facilities, renovation and preservation.

Sandy’s career began in 1976 as a structural engineer. By age 29 he advanced to director of engineering services for TVA. Prior to 1988 he served as regional engineer for the American Institute of Steel Construction as well as project manager for a top 100 construction firm, where he managed the completion of several multi-million dollar projects. In 1988, after advancing to Director of development and construction for Belz Enterprises in Memphis, Tenn. he came home to Knoxville and founded Construction Plus.

Education

Bachelor of Architecture, with Honors – University of Tennessee, Knoxville, 1976
Master of Science in Civil Engineering – University of Tennessee, Knoxville, 1982

Memberships and Associations

Construction Management Association of America
The American Society of Civil Engineers
Associated Builders & Contractors
Trustee, Boys & Girls Clubs of the Tenn. Valley
Former Board of Director; Boys & Girls Clubs of the Tenn. Valley
2002, 2003 and 2004 Chairman, Phillip Fulmer “Auction for the Kids”

Credits

Published, Construction Management, Definitions effect how money will be spent and lost, Knoxville News Sentinel, 2008
Sponsored State Bill 2048 requiring workers on occupied school sites to be fingerprint screened against national sex offender registry, through State Senator Jamie Woodson, 2007
Published, Insidious Invader, Mold in construction, Knoxville News Sentinel, 2006
2010 National Blue Ribbon Award from the US Chamber of Commerce
Pinnacle Award for Business Excellence
Three TSBA School of the Year Awards
EXCEL Award as one of the 25 fastest growing companies in East Tennessee
Enterpriser Award for innovation
Lecturer: Pellissippi State Community College; Topic: Land Use and Development
Lecturer: American Institute of Steel Construction’s Steel Design; Current Practice Lecture Series at numerous sites throughout the Southeast
Lecturer: Tenn. Association of Building Inspectors; Topic: Steel Framing Inspection Techniques