Worldview of the U.S.

Europeans have perceived the average American as rich, self-made, and self-confident, able to improve social status by diligence, know-how, and luck. The average American, for example, rises from rags to riches, growing up poor and making it to the top as a respected individual.

Europeans see Americans as able to afford anything, including a nice car, a beautiful home, and expensive entertainment. They are not deeply concerned about illness and old age, medical care, or hospital stays. Retirement funds are not necessary because Americans are rich. They are independent, self-assured, and completely free. Money is not an issue, and “the American Way of Life” is a natural state of being. 

A Divided Country - The Real Reason

“The biggest divide in this country is not between Democrats and Republicans, it’s between people who care and people who don’t care”

Rachel Maddow

Republicans for Obama

Taxes

The tax code for U.S. corporations contains some peculiarities that the general public hardly knows about. Henkel[1] added that if profits are made by these companies but earned abroad, and the money, as cash, is not returned to the United States, it cannot be taxed in the U.S. system. This is an invitation for internationally active companies to use this legal loophole and stash their profits abroad; thereby reducing tax revenue in the United States.

Regulations do not come more peculiar than this incentive to move production to Europe or the Far East. In fact, regional offices of U.S. corporations are mushrooming overseas – in Ireland, Great Britain, The Netherlands, Luxembourg, Switzerland, and Singapore. The arguments of the defenders of this policy are oddly alienating; they promote business outside the United States, which is detrimental to the U.S. economy and, therefore, the American people. Allan Sloane, a reporter for Fortune magazine, wrote in 2014 how U.S. corporations buy companies in Europe and move their headquarters there to avoid paying U.S. taxes. These moves are called “inversions.”[2]

In my view, U.S. tax laws favor large U.S. corporations in contrast to small or medium-sized companies and individual citizens. Companies with branches around the globe are taxed for their U.S. profit only. But, U.S. citizens living abroad are taxed around the globe for their income. Why the difference? Is it based on powerful and influential lobbying in Washington that only corporations can afford? 

According to Jilani,[3] thirty U.S. corporations from 2008 to 2010 spent more on lobbying than what they paid in income taxes. 

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[1] Christiane H. Henkel, “US Konzerne horten Geld” [US Corporations Hoard Cash], Neue Zürcher Zeitung, October 11, 2011.

[2]   Allan Sloan, “Positively un-American Tax Dodges”, Fortune, July 7, 2014

[3]   Zaid Jilani, “Between 2008 And 2010, 30 Big Corporations Spent More Lobbying Washington Than They Paid In Income Taxes,“ Think Progress Economy, December 7, 2011, (with full list of these companies).

Divided Country

·         A recent report by the Pew Research Center found that Americans are more politically polarized today than they were 20 years ago.[1] Twenty-one percent of Americans consider themselves to be consistently liberal or consistently conservative. “You have more than a third of Republicans saying the Democratic Party is a threat to the nation, more than a quarter of Democrats saying the same thing about the Republicans,” said Michael Dimock, Vice President of Research at the Pew Research Center.[2] Compromise doesn’t appear to be the goal anymore. Instead, people seem to prefer to be around those with the same values for living and working, and are tired of hearing a different opinion. 

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[1] “Pew study finds more polarized Americans increasingly resistant to political compromise”, Rocky Mountain PBS, The Newshour, June 12, 2014, Gwen Ifill discusses with Michael Dimock

[2]   Michael Dimock, ibid.

Gridlock

The present gridlock in Congress has a lot to do with the reinstallation of strict party discipline 20 years ago. Implementations of the parties’ policies were seen as the only viable solutions. In the 90s, Newt Gingrich[1] was a strong proponent of towing the party line and has enforced this behavior in the Republican Party. The voter is led to believe that the party line has already been established as a national solution and any compromise would have to be interpreted as defeat.

Every two years, citizens of the United States participate in elections for the U.S. House of Representatives and one-third of the U.S. Senate. The President is elected every four years. Power manifests itself by the changing party colors of the president and the party majorities in the House or Senate. This is the ideal situation and constitutes the stability and effectiveness of the American brand of democracy. But, today‘s reality is different.

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[1]   U. S. Representative 1979 – 1999, 1995 – 1999 House speaker