Guest Post by Simon Black
In October of 2008, a plumber from Ohio named Joseph Wurzelbacher made national headlines when he confronted US Presidential Candidate (then Senator) Barack Obama at a campaign rally:
“Your tax plan’s going to tax me more,” Joe told Senator Obama.
The confrontation sparked a sensation, and Joe became known nationwide as “Joe the Plumber”.
He was right– his new business would be subject to a tax increase under Obama’s plan to raise income taxes from 36% to 39% on anyone earning over $250,000.
Senator Obama’s response was, “I think when you spread the wealth around, it’s good for everybody.”
Immediately the opposition seized on the quote: that Obama wanted to raise the top tax rate to 39% was proof enough that he was a Socialist.
How times have changed.
Today most candidates have endorsed income tax rates of at least 70%, and some say it should be as high as 90%.
Earlier this month one Presidential candidate, John Hickenlooper, was booed at a campaign rally for saying, “Socialism is not the answer.”
Bernie Sanders, one of the front-runners in the presidential race, openly brags about being a socialist. Elizabeth Warren wants to tax not only your income, but also your assets, through a time-tested completely ineffective wealth tax.
New York Mayor Bill de Blasio said earlier this year that there is plenty of wealth in the country… it’s just in the wrong hands.
In this crowded pack of Bolsheviks, Barack Obama would be considered too moderate and out of touch.
And yet these new Bolsheviks have a very real shot at becoming President of the United States.
The number of socialists is growing in Congress too, led by Rep. AOC. She hates success so much that she deliberately supported a lose / lose deal to chase the new Amazon headquarters out of New York City.
The public doesn’t even see these people as radicals anymore. A recent Gallup poll showed that 43% of Americans now prefer socialism to capitalism.
I said it on Monday— the Bolsheviks aren’t coming. They’ve already arrived.
Here at Sovereign Man we’re commemorating our recent 10 year anniversary by looking back over the past decade and examining how much things have changed.
And this Rise of the Bolsheviks is a MAJOR change.
It’s incredible that countries around the world that have tried some form of Socialism– China, Russia, Vietnam, etc. are running away from it. They understand that it doesn’t lead to prosperity.
Yet North America and Europe continue to embrace it. It seems everyone is doing that old dance– ‘to the left, to the left, to the left. . .’
That’s why it’s more important now than ever to have a solid Plan B.
That means taking sensible steps to ensure that you and your family are in a position of strength no matter what happens next. Or who gets elected.
I wouldn’t be surprised, for example, if the election of a Bolshevik ends up being the straw that breaks the historically long economic expansion and stock market bull run.
You can also imagine that if they cause a severe recession, they’ll only be emboldened to blame capitalism and double down on their confiscatory policies and insane levels of spending.
Bear in mind the government already has a net worth of NEGATIVE $75 TRILLION. Yet they want to spend trillions more (after jacking up your taxes) on guaranteed government jobs and fantasy programs.
These are facts. This isn’t about doom and gloom. Far from it. Smart, thinking people are going to be just fine.
But it’s foolish to witness such an obvious trajectory and pretend like there’s nothing happening.
As part of our 10 year anniversary at Sovereign Man, I’ve asked my team to prepare a lot of free content to help you get started building a Plan B.
We’re starting today with a few samples below, but expect more links next week to help you prepare for what lies ahead:
1) Opportunity Zones allow you to sell your existing assets at all-time highs, and defer paying taxes on those gains until 2026. And any additional gains you make on that money can be tax free FOREVER.
Click here to download a redacted preview of our in-depth Opportunity Zones report.
2) Puerto Rico’s Acts 20 and 22 provide a completely legal way to pay just 4% corporate taxes, and 0% tax on certain types of investment income, by moving to Puerto Rico. These incentives are available to ANY nationality, and it works especially well for US citizens.
To learn more about this opportunity click here to download our case study about an entrepreneurial Californian couple that moved to Puerto Rico and slashed their taxes to just 4%.
3) Having a second passport, which many people qualify for through ancestry, is one of the most unique insurance policies you could ever have; it provides more options and more freedom. And you might be qualified for one without even knowing it.
Here’s a preview of our report on how you could get a valuable Italian passport and here’s one on how you can get a German passport.
These are a few ideas that will get you started. We’ll share more soon.
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With everything imploding I believe that there really is no where to go. We are being out bred and those who are doing the breeding are being fed and housed by us. Stupid people will never realize that they are responsible for destroying that which allowed them to propagate their idiocy. Things will come to a grinding, screeching halt. How long that will ultimately take is just a guess on anyone’s part.
Telling us what we already know. Socialism is never the answer but it’s practically an inevitability.
Trump was never a true conservative or even a liberal in the classic sense. If you can get past his rhetoric and populist achievements, look at his financial philosophy. It supports the easy money policy and aggravates the debt.
Trump-ism isn’t a cure, it’s a temporary anomaly.
The socialists are coming. Bet on it, and prep accordingly.
Agree 100%!
Some prep I have done, which may help others think about their stratgy.
1a) Get out of US $$$ – 401/IRA can become ‘gold backed’.
1b) Get our of too big to trust banks – there is a BAIL-IN law and your deposit is not your money.
2) Diversify into real property (land/housing)and commodities (Like gold or silver).
3) Get out of the stock market now! It is over valued and most have made a decent return already.
4) Although the whole establishment is hell-bent on making us all debtors, try and clean up your balance sheet ans reduce you debt.
No one’s going to save money moving from the US to Italy. High property taxes, garbage taxes (you pay based on the square-footage of your house), TV taxes (even if you don’t own a TV but just a computer) and an ever-increasing VAT (has now reached a whopping 22% max) on everything you buy, including food and services. If you don’t see it broken out, it’s still there. Gasoline is $7/gallon or something like that (all taxes). There’s also a R.E. transfer tax on top of the “normal” (6%) broker fees.
Plus, in Italy there are real communists and real socialists. There isn’t even the concept of “freedom of speech”. You can’t distribute a parish newsletter or a daily-shopper type publication without the imprimatur of a Licensed Journalist. Yes, the Italian State licenses journalists. The little rock-band fan mag you printed at home to hand out at the festival? It will be confiscated and destroyed if found (at least, this was the case 20 years ago). You can hand out publicity flyers, but they are supposed to have a printed indicia saying you paid the publicity tax. If you want to put a sign up for your business, you pay a publicity tax for that, too, based on area, I believe.
“More freedom..”?? I don’t know where Simon gets his brilliant ideas.. really, I don’t.
You can’t even hold a yard sale in Italy.. I’m serious! NO garage sales allowed. The State wouldn’t get its cut of sales tax, is the rationale (never mind that you are essentially selling things at a loss).
In Germany there is a religion tax. If you were baptised or n8minated by your parents into a religion, you pay a tax. No kidding. And the churches actively scour records to make sure their members pay up. It is possible to pay an exit fee, but it means you have to renounce your religion.
The guys is just – very poorly – hawking his company’s services. I agree with you on how bad his advice is. We are toast with the RINOS as well, who are more in line with the democrats than they are with main stream america.!
The Puerto Rico idea sounds pretty good.
You ever been to Puerto Rico? It makes shitholes seem like paradise.
I agree with Mr. Old Guy. And, BTW, all of us have a majority of our savings in IRAs or 401ks. Anything the author proposes would be for new $$ investments. Or take a bath by cashing our your IRA/401, then reinvest, which does not make sense.
Thank you Fed reserve and A HUGE POINT the author misses, WE HAVE NOT HAD FREE MARKETS IN THE USA FOR 85 YEARS, AS THE PROGRESSIVES (AUTHOR CALLS THEM BOLSHEVIKS) HAVE BEEN AROUND SINCE BEFORE WOODROW WILSON. Creation of central banks (FED), regulation on any and everything, trade deals, and fiat currency.
“Scholarly” business pundits wax breathlessly about the FED cutting rates 0.25%!! On my! How about we cut the damn fed to pieces instead???