Maher: “If I had to pick a phrase that encapsulates the American economy in the last decade, it surely would be, “I’ve already got your money dude.”
“I’ve already got your money dude.”
That’s what Charlie Sheen said to a heckler in Detroit while his crummy stage show was getting more and more crummy.
The audience got angry and walked out.
Just like me, Mayer can’t make sense of why the heck they bought tickets to see Sheen, but he says they came to their senses when they got mad and left.
So Maher asks you and I- When are we going to come to our senses, and get just as angry that corporations like GM can make 18 billion in profit and not pay taxes?
I’d like to cosign onto his video but add that it is also time to think about walking out. Well, unless, you all can turn this Charlie Sheen economy bomb into a hit.
Frankly, I’m already just standing in the back of the theater with my arms crossed and the usher’s giving me the evil eye.
If you pay taxes into a system that won’t deliver public education to your kids, keeps on threatening to screw you out of your social security, that funds wars built on fabrications like WMDs in Iraq…it is time for you average Joes and Janes to aggressively reduce taxable income with the GM-level playbook.
Here’s where my son would break in and say you really think that people are paying their taxes right now? You think people aren’t already stealing, running whatever they can on the side that’s illegal and definitely tax free? You think everyone is white? (and we could digress for an hour on what “white” now means…)
A lot of people follow the law not only because they have to, but because they want to. They want to play it respectable and they are expecting in return some services and guarantees that are more than what one person can do on his/her own. That’s how I was raised.
I’m taking a fresh look at anything that is not tied to a “job”: non-profit cooperatives or non-profit corporations for communities of choice or…_________fill in blank. But not as a lone wolf. I’d like to have you along.
The fake “people” that are corporations have absolutely no obligation to you or I and their highly educated representatives will fight us all to the grave BECAUSE our descent into that grave (gutter? prison? ) is profitable for somebody in the “free market economy”(It’s not personal. Just business!)
In the eyes of the Ayn Rand-obsessed Paul Ryan set, your loss IS a product, and the lords who won at your expense are “producers” to be revered.
Count me not a product, but an authentic person–one step from the way out of this system.
Your comments are welcome.
blue cheddar 
I always struggle with this. On the one hand the siren song of our present state of affairs is strong – which is probably why so many people put so much on credit cards when their take home pay diminished in order to continue on maintaining things like houses and medical care.
On the other hand, I also feel a bit pulled by the no-growth economy types. I wonder how sustainable the current worship of economic growth is (especially in light of the current discussions about public employees and union employees). I don’t know that we’d ever be able to get our society to make the switch and yet I know another world is possible because there are other countries out there that have a marginally better way of life than we do.
I appreciate your lack of answers only because I find the answers more difficult to come by myself.
Hi Sandraw. I’m glad you had a little trouble getting a clear cut message. It’s more of an exploration–an invitation for you to share where you might be. I don’t feel comfortable yet telling you all what to do-and where this all is going. The most clear-cut thing I do say is ”I’m taking a fresh look at anything that is not tied to a “job”: non-profit cooperatives or non-profit corporations for communities of choice or…_________fill in blank. But not as a lone wolf. I’d like to have you along.”
Definitely-be angry. Definitely, question everything you knew about money, the economy, the guarantees we get, the wars. I know that 99% of the people who visit this blog and comment are very smart–the open dialog brings their ideas to the surface.
Like yours—the National War Tax Resistance Movement sounds like a fantastic idea…can’t say as I’ve read or seen much that’s current on it. I’ll look it up.
So I am wondering exactly what you are saying in this article? When are we going to get mad enough to quit paying into the system and adding to the money that they can and do take from us?
Well there is a growing group of us that have already reached this point. I have signed onto the National War Tax Resistance Movement where I have promised to stop getting taxes taken out of my paycheck and then when its time to pay my taxes at the end of the year I will take that money that the IRS wants me to give to them and instead I will donate that money and send the receipt for the donation to the IRS with a letter telling them what I did and why and I will also send a letter to the local newspaper telling them what I did and why.
I am tired of them using my hard earned money to kill other people in other countries and I refuse to be a part of that anymore. I don’t want to go to jail but I will if that’s what it takes to keep from being a party to murder and mayhem.