An Agonizing Reappraisal

WWH - There needs to be an agonizing reappraisal of many issues confronting this country.
However, since it’s tax time, it’s time to reassess your personal finances and your
massive wealth! OK… your pittance of an income? Whatever your financial status, tax
time for me is an opportunity to reassess how long I have to sit in a lotus position, arms
resting on my arthritic knees and my fingers in the guyan mudra, before I am able to
impart receptivity and calm and attract the kindness of strangers. The tin cup at my
feet waits for the clinking of coins trickling nonchalantly from the hands of the upper
classes, but I fear the wait may be too long and my knees will be forever locked in this
painful position. If I had been practicing my yoga all along, perhaps I would be more
flexible, but alas, I am now paying the price for my negligence.

While I wait for a generous handout, let me tell you a little story. I went to the Senior
Center to have my taxes done. The affable woman who reviewed my finances from the
previous year said, “You don’t have to file any taxes. You don’t make enough!”

I said, “I have never failed to file a tax return and I am in disbelief that I don’t have to
file one now.” She told me to call the IRS myself if I had any doubts.

At three different times during the day, I called the IRS and each time spoke to a
different person. Sure enough, each one asked me to PLEASE not file a return, as I was
below the poverty line and they’d rather I didn’t make their work unnecessarily harder. I
now had confirmation the woman at the Senior Center had not misled me, though being
reminded I live on an income below what is considered the poverty level sort of mashed
up my brains.

I have a roof over my head. I have plenty of clothes, an old truck, food, friends, and fun.
I am wealthy, but what I consider wealth may be far different from what others consider
wealth. Nevertheless, I felt I had to reappraise my financial situation and was wondering
if you do the same this time of year.

How does a person who believes in peace, love, social and economic justice for all, and
respect for the earth, navigate successfully in the waters of a capitalist society? Tax time
is the time for soul searching and to test whether or not your finances are aligned with
your beliefs; whether you really practice what you preach. It is not an easy task. It takes
self-discipline and a strong desire to do the right thing.

The banksters have not made it easy. Remember growing up how saving money was
drummed into your little head. Saving = Good! Debt = Bad! But when my meager
savings account earns 0.25% interest and the piddly money market only 0.35%, I find
the only recourse is extreme frugality.

Well, it’s not quite the only recourse. Another recourse is to be herded by Wall Street
cowboys into the stock market. Be afraid, be very afraid. But if you feel this is the
best way to make a greater return on your money, then you become one of them – a
STOCKHOLDER! Oh, don’t worry. Though you may be in essence chattel, you are not
yet cattle. But if you want to manifest the hippie values, this is the time to reassess
your “portfolio.”

If you own stock in an individual company, do you know the details of its operations?
Do you know to which party or individuals it donates money? Do you know how much
the executives make? Is the company unionized? And what is their product? Where is
it made? Does it harm the earth or any of its inhabitants? Remember, as a stock holder,
your company is intent on increasing profits ad infinitum if it were possible, just to keep
YOU happy. Whether you are a small time investor or a major player, do you ever think
to write the company to warn them that if they lay off people or produce an inferior
product only to cut costs as a way of increasing their profit margin, you will sell your
holdings and boycott its products? You would take the time to do it if you really cared!

Perhaps you are still working for a company which has a voluntary investment program.
Maybe the company matches your contributions up to a certain percent. If this is the
case, more than likely you get to manipulate your investments quarterly among very
general categories: Technology, Industrials, Finance, Consumer Goods, etc. Most
companies which have 401K’s or similar programs do not specify exactly in which
companies they are investing your money. But you can find out if you have the interest.
And you should have the interest! Take the time to investigate to whom your money is
going. That is, if you really care!

If you are retired and rolled over your 401K into an IRA, or if you have a Roth IRA, you
are more than likely investing in mutual funds or ETF’s (electronically traded funds.)
If this financial scenario fits your situation, take the time to find out exactly in which
companies those funds invest. You’d be surprised to find the most innocuously named
funds investing in nasty things like coal, oil, banks, mortgages, etc. Many people buy
funds recommended to them by friends or serious traders. Don’t take anyone’s tips
before investigating the fund. That is, if you really care!

Do you care to which political campaigns the fund managers or companies contribute? A
great site to begin your exploring can begin here:

http://www.goodguide.com/contributions

http://www.opensecrets.org/indivs/index.php.

Another good site that rates the “greenness” of products can be found at http://www.goodguide.com/

From this article you may think me a great financier. Sorry to disappoint. I have
dabbled, I admit it, but quite frankly, I don’t belong in the stock market at all. In fact,
everyone who knows me tells me to stay out of the market because I don’t have a clue
as to what I am doing. I can talk about different economic systems, the history of the
American corporation, and the foibles of corporate capitalism that seems to be turning
our country fascist. So please do not think I can advise anyone about anything regarding
making money, only what systems seem to work for the greater good.

What I do know is that it is very difficult for a hippie with compassionate socialist
leanings (OK, I am leaning so far I am practically tipping over!) But I do know right
from wrong, or at least what may be more right than wrong.

How can we right some of the wrongs? Many people thing boycotting a company’s
products are a viable tactic. In the 1980’ anti-corporate activism seemed at its height. A
consumer boycott of the Nestle Corporation, which was accused of making Third World
women dependent on baby food they couldn’t afford (nor was it the healthiest thing to
feed the child,) turned out to be successful. Nestle pulled their infant formula from store
shelves. It worked because there was unity of purpose and the boycott was not against
an entire industry, but one specific company.

Since then, there have been similar efforts, but most were directed at a sector of the
economy, rather than one company. Most of these efforts sprang from dissent on
college campuses. Maybe you remember the WTO protests in Seattle in 1999. For all
the clubbed heads and arrests, the protests did very little to change the ways of the
uberwealthy ruling class.

When a recent event occurred in which everyone was asked not to buy gas for one day,
it seemed a noble and painless action to take. However, I think it is more effective to
pick one company, oh say ExxonMobil and its subsidiaries, and boycott them for a
whole month! Boycotting a product works best when you let the company in question
know what you are planning to do. And as with all forms of protest, it only works when
everyone who is like-minded pledges to be part of the boycott for the entire time.

Some people say the day of the boycott is over. But I say it has just begun. However you
know as well as I that it only works when there are large numbers of people NOT buying
a product or switching to a similar product made by a more “enlightened” company.

Another very simple thing you can do is withdraw all your money from any big bank.
Yes, this has been suggested many times, but have you done it? Citigroup, B of A, Wells
Fargo, Chase, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Barclays, HSBC, et al. Take your money
out! All of it! Let them know why! In case you forgot, they robbed us, they owe us, and
we want our money back! Take out what you have left and put it in a Credit Union.
These days, Credit Unions are open to the public and are non-profit. Sure, the interest
rates suck, but they do everywhere else, and they usually don’t hit you up with hidden
fees for things like “inactivity,” meaning you have just let your money sit there and have
made no transactions.

I know of an elderly woman who started a bank account 40 years ago for one of her
sons. She deposited $50 and forgot about it. She recently decided to withdraw all the
money thinking it must have earned something over the previous decades. Turns out,
because of her “inactivity” the fees they charged were greater than any interest the
savings account had earned. She asked to close the account and withdraw the little that
remained. She was told there would be a five dollar fee for closing the account! Ah,
American Capitalism. What a system!

Well, I have decided to file a tax return anyway. Who knows? Maybe one day some long
lost uncle will leave me a bundle and I will have kept all the receipts that are deductible
should such a day ever arrive. And no IRS agent will be able to tell me the deductions
don’t count because I never filed a return. So if you’ll excuse me, I need to fill in the
blanks. It shouldn’t take too long because there is so little to fill in. Afterwards, I will
resume my lotus position, arms resting on my arthritic knees and my fingers forming
the mudra of receptivity and calm. Perhaps I will attract the kindness of strangers and
hear the small change trickling from someone’s bejeweled fingers into my little tin cup.

As I sit there waiting for a clinking sound, I will meditate on the GDP of Bhutan, who
measures not only their GDP, but their GNH, their Gross National Happiness! Now
there’s a metric worth adopting! Maybe it’s time to learn from Asia’s happiest country
or from the other nine happiest countries in the world. To find out which they are, visit
http://images.businessweek.com/ss/06/10/happiest_countries/index_01.htm

In the meantime, all I can say is, “Baksheesh, Sahib?”

To contact Phil or find out more: check out his website and blog For a copy of HUNGA DUNGA
Phil Polizatto – Worldwide Hippies Bureau Chief – West Coast USA, is a graduate of The School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University. He was a feature writer for the overseas division of UPI, a copywriter for CBS, and an award-winning corporate film producer. Mr. Polizatto is a published poet and a regular contributor to Worldwide Hippies as well as a variety of other arts and literary journals. Hunga Dunga is his first published novel. He resides in the Pacific Northwest.