GoodWitch58
Beach Fanatic
The tragedy of how the richer made us poorer - St. Petersburg Times
Looks like an interesting read...
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War Against the Middle Class?
- Thread starter GoodWitch58
- Start date
Bob
SoWal Insider
The agenda is simple: reduce taxes for the superrich while watering down or defeating regulation that might make the economy operate more fairly. This involves methodically stripping labor and the middle class of its political power.
You didn't know you were in a war? Well, look at your war wounds. We have gone from the 1960s, when most of the nation's income gains were shared by the bottom 90 percent of households, to today's world in which more than half those gains are directed to the richest 1 percent. Those at the tippy-top, the richest 0.01 percent, saw their average aftertax annual income more than quintuple between 1979 and 2005 from just over $4 million to nearly $24.3 million (in inflation adjusted dollars).
Florida's Gov.-elect Rick Scott, a man worth hundreds of millions of dollars, brought in $7.87 million in 2009 and paid federal taxes of just 13 percent ? a lower rate than many bus drivers and teachers. That doesn't happen by accident.....you need to convince the uninformed that government is evil
You didn't know you were in a war? Well, look at your war wounds. We have gone from the 1960s, when most of the nation's income gains were shared by the bottom 90 percent of households, to today's world in which more than half those gains are directed to the richest 1 percent. Those at the tippy-top, the richest 0.01 percent, saw their average aftertax annual income more than quintuple between 1979 and 2005 from just over $4 million to nearly $24.3 million (in inflation adjusted dollars).
Florida's Gov.-elect Rick Scott, a man worth hundreds of millions of dollars, brought in $7.87 million in 2009 and paid federal taxes of just 13 percent ? a lower rate than many bus drivers and teachers. That doesn't happen by accident.....you need to convince the uninformed that government is evil
AlphaCrab
Beach Fanatic
And apparently that is not too difficult to do. So called "Conservatives" are actually very adroit at getting folks most in need to actually vote against their own interest...how DO they do it?
"You say you got a real solution
Well, you know
We'd all love to see the plan
You ask me for a contribution
Well, you know
We're doing what we can....." Lennon/Revolution.
GoodWitch58
Beach Fanatic
This is the question that puzzles me...there is so much fear information put out there, especially targeted to older folks...and they believe it, no matter what the facts are--and they are the ones who are hurt the most by the policies that are put into place. We need to find a way to do a better job with the facts.
and members of the Democratic Party need to learn how to stand up to the fear mongering by the other side.
Bob
SoWal Insider
and you end up with a guy like Scott, elected much like Bush by the slimmest of margins. Fear works. It clings to your psyche like bad cologne, and it appeals to your lowest instincts. Fear does not need reason. with those who live by fear, everything is black and white. shoot first, work it out later.
futurebeachbum
Beach Fanatic
This war has been going on for a while and the middle class has been losing. Its a side effect of 100% of the politicians in DC being 'owned' by their major contributors and most of them being lawyers.
Except, of course for the middle class who work for the federal government. Much like the ruling the class, the enforcers of bureaucracy are protected from the class warfare.
Once the middle class is effectively gone, we'll be done with democracy.
Except, of course for the middle class who work for the federal government. Much like the ruling the class, the enforcers of bureaucracy are protected from the class warfare.
Once the middle class is effectively gone, we'll be done with democracy.
GoodWitch58
Beach Fanatic
yes, and we seem further away from campaign finance reform now than ever before....
futurebeachbum
Beach Fanatic
Seems to me that, given our Constitutional rights, the simplest way to deal with campaign finance would be to:
- Require each donor be a registered (US) voter (sorry no corps or PACs or unions or aliens)
- Make campaign contributions non-deductible (if they are)
- Require a tax-payer ID and report all contributions to the IRS for coordination with income reporting
- Require that all donors and the amount that they donated be publicly reported
- We can't eliminate soft money groups(committees, unions, PACs, etc.), but we could apply the same contributing/reporting rules to soft money organizations as candidates.
Then each donor could contribute as much as they want (that's certainly constitutional) but they couldn't funnel meaningful contributions through other people and they couldn't form committees or groups to hide behind.
It would work for me. I absolutely don't want the government telling me how much money I can contribute to a candidate, but I do want to know who is supporting candidates.
Miss Kitty
Meow
futurebeachbum
Beach Fanatic
There you go with your lawyer hate again! Mr. K thinks quite highly of you!
Awww!
I think pretty highly of Mr. K too.I don't hate lawyers...well not all of them anyway.
I just hate lawyers that hold any legislative position. Its too much of a racket and screws up the separation of powers.