The O'Reilly Factor by Bill O'Reilly

Author:Bill O'Reilly
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2018-12-17T16:00:00+00:00

2. THE MONEY factor

NOTE TO HILLARY CLINTON: Why keep coming up with more government programs to give our tax money away, when you could teach us all how to make a fortune on our own? You invested $5,000 with Robert “Red” Bone, a commodities trader later under investigation for allegedly manipulating the market, and got back profits of $73,000 a few days later. Tell us your secret, Hil, and we might vote you senator for life!

BACKUP STATS: Half of American households have savings of less than $1,200, according to the Census Bureau. Out of a total population of 280 million, some 36 million of us are financially poor. No one is giving these people a sure thing in the commodities markets.

So where is all the money of this hardworking country with its booming economy and skyrocketing stock market? Here’s a clue: Only about 4 million of our fellow citizens, or less than 2 percent of us, have assets of at least $1 million apiece (and in many cases much, much more). And that money doesn’t just sit in the bank. It steadily grows as the real estate market tightens in the big cities or stocks race up the charts because of “consumer confidence.” In other words, the rich get richer because we in the middle class are working harder and spending more than ever.

The story of most of us lies in the middle. According to the National Taxpayers Union, the median income for two-earner families in America is $55,000 a year. That means half take in more than that, and half earn less. The class system as related to race plays a role: Single-income white households have a median income of $39,000, while single-income black households have a median income of $25,000. And the earnings gap between rich and poor is widening . . .

TALKING POINT: These figures are no accident. The powers that be, the establishment, want you to have just enough cash to keep on buying material things and necessities, but not enough money to become independent of the system.

THE PEOPLE’S VOICE: And there’s no defined border between business and politics. In 2000 ninety-year-old great-grandmother Doris Haddock, a retired secretary from southern California, made it to the steps of the Capitol in Washington, D.C., after fourteen months walking across the country to bring attention to the need for campaign finance reform. The feisty Granny D., as she became known nationwide, pulled no punches: “Shame on you, [Senator] Mitch McConnell and those who raise untold millions of dollars in exchange for public policy. Shame on you, Senators and Congressmen, who have turned this headquarters of a great and self-governing people into a bawdy house.”

I’m reminded of conservative humorist P. J. O’Rourke’s definition of the three branches of government: not the legislative, executive, and judicial system we learned about in school, but “money, television, and B.S.”

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