Joe Louis: America's Hero Betrayed

Now you went and hurt my feelings by typing in capitals and calling me an idiot.:|

Do you feel that Joe could have avoided this whole mess had he handled his money better, or do you think the government woke up one morning and decided to screw Louis over?

 

In a vacuum, B, I agree, but most people that that applies to have had some education. Fighters, for the most, have been gym rats, with little or no education, and normal considerations, like rent, insurance 'n taxes are alien. If they're not lucky enough to be hooked-up with honest advisors, they wind-up broke 'n livin' in the street.

 

Sadly this much is true. Many fighters end up broke and have little to show for their boxing career.

 

Guys, guys, it's not like the government is ever at fault for deliberately screwing over certain specific people.

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Joe was caught up in the rules, they had to do what they had to do. No betrayal there. Couldn't be avoided.

 

Louis would still be in the same mess even if Louis gave no money to the army/navy.

Louis was going though it like no tomorrow.

 

This may seem simplistic, D, but how would Joe -- so ill-equipped to deal with money -- understand that? Should he be penalized for not being smart?

What bothers me on this thread is that people take for granted that what they know Joe should know.

Anyone that's been around the game knows being a gym rat isolates a kid from the real world: The only thing that exists is the gym 'n boxing.

Trained a 16-year-old Golden Gloves Champion who left school in the third grade. Flew to Sweden for a tournament. He wanted to know what part of the United States was Sweden? When you're that uneducated, you haven't a clue about money or anything else...you just get older.

 

Yes he could, but that's not the point. If someone came round your house and stole all your food for the month, and you had no more money out of this month's wages, and your kids starved to death, you "could have avoided the whole mess" if you hadn't spent some of your money on going down the pub, but that doesn't make it your fault. Yeah, Louis could have avoided ruin if he'd saved some money. It doesn't mean that it was his fault for what the government did to him. They were taxing him on money he never earned - money that should never been taxed. Their fault.

 

Im of the opinion that Louis should have been cut some slack BUT i can fully understand where some of the other guys are coming from as they put there point across well. I dont think anyone is seeking to,nor will, win this debate and id like to go on a tangent regarding joes finances. Does anyone think that the money that Louis had to pay Braddock could have contributed a little to his financial mess? Was it smart business to get a shot or a catastrophic financial mismanagement? Would joe still have had the problems regardless? It was a hell of a lot of money after all.
Remember this is only for the sake of debate, so dont anyone be going and tearing me a 'new one' .

 

I think that they woke up one morning and thought "this guy has deep pockets, lets see what we can squeeze out of him".

 

It is not irrrelevant because he was a sergeant in the US army and therfore barred from earning any income from his purses. He would not even have been alowed to keep one cent for himself as part of the deal. The only circumstance unde which he was even alowed to fight was if the purse went to another party.

Now how exactly does that constitute income?

 

If anybody wants to Watch it... Sorry Cant embed megavideo Links

http://www.megavideo.com/?d=T78NY76M

 

How is this so difficult for him to understand?

 

"The fighter had always been above board in his dealings with the government, although actually he had never done more than sign the tax returns prepared for him by his accountants.
The intricacies of finances and taxes mystified and bored him; the concept of saving was foreign to him. Mike Jacobs deserves some considerable criticism for not shutting off Joe's easy credit or at least attempting to tutor him in the rudimentaries of personal finance.

The tax strategies that Jacobs, Strauss and Joe's Chicago accountant, Ted Jones, made on his behalf often were poorly thought out or flat wrong." - Joe Louis, the Great Black Hope.

 

I'm not suggesting that Joe had some sort of right, based on his status, to be exempt from taxes or that he had some divine right not to pay back, but the entire way the whole thing unfolded left me disgusted.

Joe was a simple man (though not unintelliegent) who should have been better advised by those he employed.

 

He already said it. I'm a "****ing idiot."