Free Shelter: Book 2, A Long Days Night by Ira Tabankin Page A

would be paying 380 families $50,000 this year. You personally would have a stake in improving the economy. I really hope he announces something like this.”
     
    Tony looks at Ricky, “Son, do you have any idea what inflation is? Have you ever heard of hyperinflation? Let’s assume that there are 150 million people at or under the poverty line, 150 million times $50,000 equals, $7.5 trillion a year. That’s twice the amount the entire federal government was going to spend this year. You’re proposing tripling the amount of spending. The government’s debt of $20 trillion led to the collapse of the dollar, how is the economy going to cover $11 trillion a year? There’s not enough money in the world to pay that much.”
     
    ”Why $11 trillion? You're making up numbers out of thin air. I thought you said $7.5.”
     
    Tony shakes his head from frustration, “$7.5 plus their normal spending of $3.5 trillion. If you added those two together, you get $11 trillion.”
     
    Ricky sneers at Tony, “There would be enough if the world’s rich were taxed at 75-90% of their incomes, there would be more than enough money to cover the spending. It’s going to take everyone in the world, paying their fair share for us to get out of the mess the Right put us into.”
     
    I look into Ricky’s eyes, “Ricky, if you taxed people at 75-90% you would remove their incentive to create wealth. Without any incentive, people won’t work, people won’t take any risk to form new companies, without the incentive to build wealth, overall tax revenues would actually decline. There wouldn’t have been an Apple Computer without the wealth incentive, nor would there be any venture capitalists who invest in the creation of new ideas and products.  Without new companies, employment will go down. Small companies are the backbone of employment. Anyway, the President already tried that. Don’t you remember just before we had to move down here the feds were taxing income, assets, and bank accounts? The government confiscated personal precious metal holdings, they taxed everything we owned. None of those additional taxes did anything except help accelerate the collapse. They drained people’s disposable incomes, they stopped people from being able to buy things, which only increased the unemployment problem.”
     
    “Honestly Jay, you’re so full of shit. Of course new technologies and products will be developed, that’s what the government does. They fund new developments. They launched the space program didn’t they? They developed all kinds of new and good technologies. The reason why their last round of tax increases didn’t work is they didn’t go far enough. They left you and Tony still very rich, I’m sure the 1% is still the 1% and even richer after the collapse than before. I’m telling you, the answer isn’t less taxes it’s more. The more the government has, the more it can share with those who have less. We need to end poverty once and for all. As to your comment on employment, once the government has your fair share, they can hire the workers. Employment will go up, everyone will have a good paying job with excellent benefits.”
     
    Lacy shakes her head, “Ricky, have you ever read the Bible?”
     
    “Of course, what’s that got to do with anything?”
     
    “Didn’t Jesus himself say, there would always be the poor?”
     
    “That proves he wasn’t God. If he were God, he could have ended poverty. He was nothing more than a wannabe. If there were a God, he wouldn’t allow all of the suffering there is today. This proves there is no God.”
     
    Tony looks at Ricky with disgust on his face, “Ricky, there’s been a lot more suffering in history than there is now. America’s poor are envied by the rest of the world. Our poor have new iPhones, flat screen TVs, gold chains around their necks, most own a car and they eat three meals a day, sometimes at the ‘Golden Arches’ or Fried Chicken establishments, all