Your Very Survival at Stake

Published: Fri, 02/24/12

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In This Issue:
Part B—Are You on the Right Survival Security List? Probably Not By Richard C. Young
Dollar Unstable: Obama’s Answer—Taxes By E.J. Smith
Your Very Survival at Stake By Richard C. Young
The Budget Bandwagon By Steve Schneider
Obama’s Dividend Tax on the “Wealthy” By E.J. Smith
Tired, Timid, Troubling—Dump Orrin Hatch The Editors

Young Investments Client Letter: Sign up to get the letter mailed directly to you by clicking here.

JANUARY YOUNG INVESTMENTS CLIENT LETTER:
What to Expect in 2012 One of the more common mistakes individual and even professional investors make is ignoring or underestimating future events. During the past three years, both the Dow and the S&P 500 posted positive returns. While 2012 could certainly be another favorable year, investors would be well advised to expect continued periods of high volatility. Read more here!

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Part B—Are You on the Right Survival Security List? Probably Not!

You may be terrified or just simply shocked. Your personal concern for your family’s security and wellbeing has to be a function of how much time you have put into reading about the vulnerability of America’s citizens. Quite honestly, I have found few who have the remotest idea about personal security and vulnerability. Our country is not prepared to deal with the long-range damage caused, for example, by an EMP attack or by a solar flare. Critical systems could be out for many months. I analyze the critical timeline for such an event to kick in is on day number one, never mind many months. Those not prepared before such a potential crisis will have zero chance to make up lost ground.

For most, the bad news is too grizzly to comprehend. America has become an increasingly urban, consumer-based society driven by technology. It is exactly this threesome that has led to our mass vulnerability. Americans no longer live on self-sufficient, low-tech farms or ranches. Debbie and I recently revisited Monticello, home base for Thomas Jefferson. Talk about doing things right. How is it that a man from the 1800s could be better positioned than most 21st century Americans? Knock out the electric power that drives today’s technology, and the big city apparatus grinds to a complete halt in a flash. Millions of citizens become instantly vulnerable with no idea what to do next or even how to begin. Sound like a problem to you?

The easy and comfortable approach is to brush off my analysis and concerns and go on about your merry way. But wait a minute. How far along with your daily activities will you get with no elevator, car, or running water? For openers, give such a triad a mental rundown. Each of these three daily necessities would come off the books in a heartbeat, not to return for perhaps an extended period. And the more of a target city you live in, the greater the potential risk, chaos and carnage. OK then, if I have your attention here, how do you get going without rocking the boat too much? You can make a lot of progress fast if you are so inclined.

To get off on the right foot, click to my updated Liberty & Freedom map, and spend a few minutes going over it. I have put a lot of time into the L&F map as a way to help you get started with an all-in-one resource. The most vulnerable among you live in a big city, blue state lacking castle doctrine status. Over two decades ago, Debbie and I relocated to a point as far away as we could possibly get from such a position. My strongest advice for you, if you are a qualifier, is to discuss with your family the positive ramifications of relocation. Check on my L&F map for the right to work/castle doctrine red states and, even better, those states with zero state income tax. States like my home state of Florida receive my highest approval rating.

If cold weather is right up your alley, you will be looking at the Jackson Hole area of Wyoming and the Black Hills country in South Dakota. Debbie and I have ridden our Harleys extensively through both areas, and, if your fam is up for long winters unlike our blood-thinned selves, you will be off to a great start. A little family vacation to both would make a lot of sense, don’t you think? Both could be done on a single quick trip. And oh yes, do not roll in to either any time close to the Sturgis (S.D.) Harley event. We have been in Sturgis for bike week twice and had a lot of fun with our big gang and the hogs, but I am pretty certain that you and the fam would be a little less enamored.

Great, you have made some progress fast. I will have a lot more personal security intelligence for you in upcoming chapters, so check in regularly at www.Richardcyoung.com to continue your progress on family personal security. And remember here, Debbie and I have first-hand experience in what I write about. I also am candid in what we are lacking in specific areas, most of which we hope to improve upon.

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Dollar Unstable: Obama’s Answer—Taxes

Do you remember how much a Hershey bar cost when you were a kid? You could have bought one for a nickel back in 1965 and eaten it while watching the Celtics beat the Lakers in the NBA finals. In 1980, it was the Lakers over the Sixers in six. And a Hershey bar cost you a quarter—five times as much as it did 15 years earlier. That’s what currency debasement feels like. Not that I need to tell you.

When President Obama talks about “fairness,” think about the “middle class” he is supposedly catering to. Record debt, deficits, and digital money creation can only be described as currency debasement. Meaning the so-called rich—individuals making over $200,000 or families making over $250,000—will be caught by his “fairness” net literally overnight.

How long will it take for inflation to turn $50,000 into $200,000—but have it still feel like $50,000? Fifteen years, like the Hershey bar? I don’t know, but if history is a lesson, it could be even sooner than that.

So here are some of the taxes the “rich” will pay under proposed Obama rules for an economy “built to last”:

Corporations will be taxed at 35%.
Dividends will be taxed at 39.6%.
Capital gains will be taxed at 20%.
Obamacare/Medicare tax of 3.8% kicks in next year on “unearned income,” which is capital gains, dividends, interest annuities, royalties, and rents.
Medicare payroll tax will be 3.8% next year.
The Buffett rule, or the new AMT, will tax income over $1 million at least 30%.
The top estate tax rate will be 45%.

Contrast all of that with Ron Paul. He will support a Liberty Amendment to the Constitution to abolish the income and death taxes and will turn off the lights at the IRS. He would immediately repeal capital gains taxes, which he says “punish you for success” and “interfere with your efforts to hedge against inflation by purchasing gold and silver coins.”

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Your Very Survival at Stake

Congressman Ron Paul correctly writes “Tyrants from Hitler to Mao to Stalin have sought to disarm their own citizens, for the simple reason that unarmed people are easier to control.” Paul rightly concludes that, “Only armed citizens can ultimately resist tyrannical government.”

President Obama has appointed two Supreme Court justices, Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor, with whose support of the second amendment I am uncomfortable. They join wildly out of touch and scary justice Breyer on the bench.

Ron Paul is the only current candidate for president in 2012 who offers a platform of Federal Republic thinking, including a strict interpretation of the constitution and powerful support of the second amendment. Read the excellent summation from The New Yorker of the Federal Republic thinking of Dr.Paul.

The New Yorker lays out Dr. Paul’s long support for states’ rights and constitutional government in an article titled “Party Crasher” by Kelefa Sanneh. Sanneh notes that Paul was the godfather of the Tea Party, but that the movement has drifted away from Paul and become subsumed by the Republican Party apparatus.

For his part, Paul has remained true to his small government message, calling for the dissolution of the Departments of Education, Energy, Commerce, Housing and Urban Development, and Interior. Sanneh also points out Paul’s consistent support of a strong dollar since Nixon’s decision in 1971to take the dollar off the gold standard for good. Perhaps the most poignant passage in Sanneh’s article is his comparison of Paul to his colleagues in the House of Representatives. Sanneh writes:

Unlike many of his Republican colleagues in the House, Paul cares more about cutting spending than about cutting taxes, because he knows that tax cuts don’t necessarily make government smaller—sometimes they just make the deficit bigger.

Spending cuts are direct reductions in the power of the federal government. A proper federal republic can only be achieved with a constitutionally sized federal government, and strong sovereign states. Read more about Congressman Ron Paul in Kelefa Sanneh’s, Party Crasher.

Warm regards,

Dick

P.S. Check out “Why Ron Paul Matters” from my friend Ed Crane, cofounder and CEO of the Cato Institute.

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The Budget Bandwagon

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Obama’s Dividend Tax on the “Wealthy”

Orrin Hatch started his career with a quip about his primary opponent, Senator Frank Moss, saying “What do you call a Senator who’s served in office for 18 years? You call him home.” This year is Hatch’s 36^th in the Senate—twice what Moss served. Sen. Hatch started his career as a strong conservative, and on many issues, like the Second Amendment, he is still a friend of the constitution. But his time in Washington seems to have changed the Senator when it comes to fiscal responsibility.

Hatch’s voting record is full of bad votes. The Senator voted for TARP, increases of the debt ceiling 16 times, the automaker bailout, the original creation of the Department of Education (that’s how long he has been in Washington), No Child Left Behind, the Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac bailouts, and the massive Bush-era expansion of Medicare. The worst part of Sen. Hatch’s record, however, is his abandonment of conservatives in the fight for the Supreme Court. Hatch recommended Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer to the court and voted to confirm each.

Utah has already replaced former Senator Bob Bennett with perhaps one of today’s best Senators, Mike Lee. Voters have a second chance in 2012 to replace a barnacled Washington insider with a fresh face—a constitutional conservative. State Senator Dan Liljenquist is running against Sen. Hatch. Liljenquist has strong private sector experience and a proven track record in the Utah Senate. Liljenquist was named Taxpayer Advocate of the Year in 2010 and 2011 by the Utah Taxpayer’s Association, Public Official of the Year by Governing Magazine, and Legislative Entrepreneur of the Year by FreedomWorks.

Liljenquist also has a strong record on pension reform. Liljenquist essentially fired the first shot of a revolution in public pensions by bringing the 401(k) to Utah’s state employees. The model has since attracted attention around the country, with other states copying the idea. It would be great to have Liljenquist’s pension ingenuity sitting on the other side of the Capitol from Congressman Paul Ryan and his proposed reforms to Medicare and Medicaid. The effect the two could have on the solvency of Social Security and the medical programs could be massive. The Senate needs idea generators like Dan Liljenquist, not ossified big-spenders like Orrin Hatch. Out with old, in with the new.