If 23 dollars an hour is financial abuse then please abuse me Meg Whitman. Have your way with me for 23 bucks an hour, unlike the illegal suing you I promise to suffer your abuse without question. Friggin world is upside down.
Latest feel good thing is to tax the rich bastards for all we can get. Trouble is, that's been tried many times before and it always backfires. The Maryland "millionaire tax" cost that state 257 million dollars. The luxury tax on yachts pretty much put the East Coast boat building business out of business. The bad mouthing of corporate jets has put 2700 gulfstream workers out of work. Like it or not the rich spend their money on things that provide many thousands of jobs in this country. Try to treat them unfairly and they will spend it elsewhere. The government is very good at killing the goose which lays the golden eggs. You see, the very rich, in general, are not stupid. They employ tax specialists and accountants who are much better than the government accountants. They are mobile. Tax havens exist all around the world and their private jets are welcome in all those places. Lake Geneva is a lovely place year round. The short-sighted liberals are using this class warfare to get votes. I don't know if it's on purpose or if they are just ignorant. They love to blather on about how unfair the flat tax is with their very deceptive commercials. A consumption tax is obviously the only fair tax possible. You spend half a million for a car and a boat, you pay $100,000 in tax. You spend 100,000 on a car and a boat, you pay 20,000 in tax. The average dude paying 30,000 or so on a car and whatever else they need that year pays 6,000 in taxes. You say, Whoa! that's more than we pay now. Remember, with the consumer tax there is no income tax. If you add your income tax and all the sales taxes, etc. that we now pay, it's a good deal. The great thing is, it would virtually eliminate tax cheating and all money obtained illegally would be taxed as soon as it's spent. Give it some thought, it's a no-brainer.
It's a crime to lie to congress yet they can lie to us with impunity. How the hell did that come about? You can be charged with contempt. Good God, any sane person can't help but have contempt for those smarmy people.
Two things to rember: The law of unintended consequences and when approached by someon e saying "I'm from the government and I'm here to help you.", run as fast as you can.

European culture

Forunately for the United States the Europeans who came to the northern part of this continent were the individualistic and enterprising type, rebellious and distrustful of authority, they were true visionaries who saw a society that had never existed before. As many of those arrivng were fleeing from something as much as going to something but somehow they managed to form a democratic republic. Political corruption and human greed conspired against them but as the years turned to centuries they prevailed. Only in countries with similar personal freedoms can a person with nothing reach almost limitless heights. Thanks to the now denigrated "old dead white guys", we have opportunities afforded in few other places in the world. Why do the Mexicans risk their lives to come here? Their own country is corrupt and repressive. If you are not born into the right economic class, you have very little chance of advancing. Mexico was also conquered by the Europeans but these Europeans primarily came from Spain and Portugal and even after eventually securing their independence they did not have the good fortune to adopt a form of government which would provide for individual rights and freedoms and checks and balances to insure these freedoms and rights. As decades and centuries passed, Mexico became a land of super wealthy aristocrats with land grants from Spain and a huge poplulation of peasants. The only real middle class were the funtionaries and military there to protect the rich and control the poor. The U.S., due to its' government system allowing so much freedom evolved into a country with a huge middle class. The huge middle class is and always has been our strength. Someday, soon I hope, government will get out of the way and free the people with entprenaurial skills and ingenuity to again create a huge middle class. Probably not gonna' happen.