Joe Louis......Hero betrayed?

Question

has anyone seen the HBO special that has the title "Joe Louis, Hero Betrayed" In it they are saying that Joe Louis was betrayed by America because he had to do various things like wrestling and commercials after he got done boxing, and because the IRS hounded him because he owed the IRS around 2 million dollars in taxes he didnt pay. Im sorry, but I dont see how this is America betraying him. He owed the IRS more money in the 50's then I have made currently in my entire life. I have owed the IRS $5,000 before and they hounded my like you would not believe to get there money and that was only $5,000. They were all over me. I did not see the whole show, so did I miss something? Was there another story in the show I missed

Answer 1

I saw the HBO special & it was full of inaccuracies.------ First of all.....Louis owed  & lost so much money for 2 reasons: 1) Mike Jacobs ( Joe's promoter ) made a lot of money on Joe & got Joe involved with unscrupulous accountants who never bothered to see to it that the right taxes were paid on Joe's purses. This resulted in Joe amassing a huge tax bill which the IRS eventually dismissed virtually all of the principal on it.--------- 2) Joe lost a great deal of money when he started playing golf at which time he was hustled by other golfers for 100 dollars per hole & Joe did this for years before he became a decent golfer and lost a fortune doing so.---------The biggest fraud in the HBO special was the way they falsely made Schmeling appear to be a bad guy & n**i who made money ( through Coca-Cola ) at Joe's expense. Nothing could be further from the truth........although Hitler tried to play up Max as an aryan superman.....Max was never a n**i or a n**i sympathizer. Also, Max actually made Millions through real estate investments ( not Coca-Cola ) and helped Joe by giving him a great deal of money for many years when Joe fell on hard times later in life. Joe Louis was a great man & great champion but  Joe Louis.....Hero Betrayed was a joke !

Answer 2

Hmm...sounds like he betrayed his country by not paying his taxes.  They should have hounded him...and threw him in jail if it wasnt paid.  Everyone else in the America gets that treatment, why is he so special?  Sure he was one of the greatest, but even he had to have known that you GOTTA pay your taxes.

Answer 3

OH, you didn't see when he went into the ARMY, thats how they betrayed him. He served his country and they still hunted him for taxes...

Answer 4

He was not betrayed by America.....he was caught on income tax evasion, and had to work to pay off the IRS.

same thing for Willie Nelson, he admitted his mistake and paid it all back to the IRS, he doubled up on his tours and paid off his debt to them....he is a great American

so why do people think Joe Louis was betrayed by America, because he got caught and had to pay it, I don't think so

and had that been me or you, the average person, we would have lost everything and more, and been in jail.

Betrayed, I don't think so....

he betrayed himself by trying not to pay the taxes he owed to America...America just collected on a long overdue debt, with interest.....he forgot I guess, 2 things in life will always get you,   Death and Taxes