Nobody's Talking About the Silver Bullet That Could Heal the Economy and Cure Most Social Ills

Yes, we would have to tax the rich to shrink the wealth and income gap ... Saint Ronnie Reagan would call this a SIN!

Just look at the chart to see where the wealth and income gap started in earnest, that's right Reagan's Tax Cuts!

We need to demand that we go back to the Pre-Reagan Tax Rates on high income, capital gains, dividends and estates ... Not only will our country be socially healthier but our economy will stabilize ... yes that's right ... when taxes on the already rich get too low the economy starts blowing bubbles that pop from the surplus money chasing yield.

An excerpt from The Great Tax Con Job ...

"Income taxes as the “Great Stabilizer”

Beyond fairness and holding back the Landed Gentry the Founders worried about (America had no billionaires in today’s money until after the Civil War, with John D. Rockefeller being our first), there’s an important reason to increase to top marginal tax rate, and to do so now.

Novelist Larry Beinhart was the first to bring this to my attention. He looked over the history of tax cuts and economic bubbles, and found a clear relationship between the two. High top marginal tax rates (generally well above 60%) on rich people actually stabilize the economy, prevent economic bubbles from forming, prevent economic crashes, and lead to steady and sustained economic growth (and steady and sustained wage growth for working people).

On the other hand, when top marginal rates drop below 50 percent, the opposite happens. As Beinhart noted in a November 17, 2008 post on the Huffington Post, the massive Republican tax cuts of the 1920s (from 73% to 25%) led directly to the Roaring ’20s stock market bubble, temporary boom, and then the crash and Republican Great Depression of 1929.

Rates on the very rich went back up into the 70-90% range from the 1930s to the 1980s. As a result, the economy grew steadily; for the first time in the history of our nation we went 50 years without a crash or major bank failure; and working people’s wages increased enough to produce the strongest middle class this nation has ever seen.

Then came Reaganomics.

Reagan cut top marginal rates on millionaires and billionaires from 74% down to 38% and there was an immediate surge in the markets - followed by the worst crash since the Great Depression and the failure of virtually the entire nation’s savings and loan banking system.

Bush I cut taxes, and the nation fell into a severe recession while debt soared and wages for working people fell.

Things stabilized somewhat when Clinton slightly raised taxes on the very rich, but W. Bush dropped them again - including taking taxes on unearned income (interest and dividends - the “income” that people like W. born with a trust fund “earn” as they sit around the pool waiting for the dividend check to arrive in the mail) down to a top rate of 15%. (That’s right - trust fund babies like Bush and Scaife pay a MAXIMUM 15% federal income tax on their dividend and interest income, thanks to the second Bush tax cut.) The result of this surge in easy money for the wealthy, combined with deregulation in the financial markets, was the “froth” Greenspan worried about and led us straight into the Second Republican Great Depression, ongoing today.

The math is really pretty simple. When the uber-rich are heavily taxed, economies prosper and wages for working people steadily rise. When taxes are cut for the rich, working people suffer and economies turn into casinos."

The Great Tax Con Job

Absolutely must reading to understand how we, the middle class have been hood winked and robbed blind by Reaganomics ...

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Wilkinson and Pickett say that at least 90% of us would be better off in a more equal society (as good ethical scientists, they cannot claim 100%). They also point out that even small improvements show results.

Imagine what a huge improvement in American lives a single payer health care system would provide.

The overprivileged corporation is at the root of almost all social problems. One undeserved privilege (among many) is to be able to make campaign contributions. Abolish that and you will begin to have government for the people instead of for the CEOs.

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Needless to say, the right-wing think tanks will write up some reports proving that, in reality, fair societies are the kiss of death.

But what is a "right-wing think tank," other than a really shallow tank?

This is weird. A right-wing think tank looks and sounds just like a bonafide academic institution--except that the results are always known beforehand. In other words, it's fraudulent science.

Right-wing think tanks are people hired to cherrypick facts and cook stats, in order to make failed right-wing policies look good. They're the ones who grind out stats proving Reagonomics didn;t cause money to hemorrhage out of the country, welfare costs zillions of dollars, having guns under every pillow will make society safer, and liberals are really the enemies of freedom. That sort of thing.

A quick survey of everything every right-wing think tank has ever produced reveals that the right has always been right about everything. Ain't science great?

And, as corollary, the left has always been wrong. Who woulda thought?

Right-wing think tanks produce intellectual turds that look just like academic papers--except not one of them could ever pass peer review at a real university. It is science suborned to provide the fraudulent intellectual underpinnings of modern conservatism

Even as we speak, the Heritage Foundation is preparing its report, proving the entire Bush II Administration was Bill Clinton's fault.

This idea will play very well at HuffPo, by the way.

Video: Holes in History

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his slick and smooth plans to gut social security for good which even Dubya couldn't accomplish, why would he bother pushing to tax the rich let alone get the spending priorities straight? Besides, Obama grew up with Raygunomics embedded in his slick mind with just slick talk on "spreading the wealth". And it's not like his Obamabots will oppose Raygunomics either. Whoever did fine in Dubya's time is doing even better now whereas those who got crushed within Dubya's tenure are going to be subject to more changes for the worse. Yeah, "change you can believe in" if you're rich !

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I think the fact that so many jobs have been outsourced to other countries is what is making our economy weak.

Giving billions of dollars to Goldman Sacks didn't help much either.

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I only pray that there is a HELL and that Ronald Reagan is suffering for the disaster he visited upon this country . He was the ultimate snake oil salesmen
The odd thing is he was originally a Democrat . I understand he grew angry about the high taxes he had to pay during WWII when he "worked" in the safety of Hollywood , Yes , while others were spilling their blood for their country Ron was upset about paying taxes

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www.discussrace.com

Recommended Reading Lists

Discussion Forums

Additionally , please Google , "Born With a Skin Disease?!:A Mother's Whitewash" , and have a GO at the eleven questions posed at the end of the narrative . Peace .

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The author of this article needs to review the concept of a logical fallacy. This also leads to the need to remind the author, and everyone else here for that matter, that a statistical association is not the same thing as causation. File this under Lies, damned lies and statistics.

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Research by 2 Swedish economists showed that the maximum tax rate people will tolerate is about 48%. As a Californian living in Norway I have seen two sides of the complicated financial reality. Last week one of Norway's richest men moved his financial assets to Switzerland. He didn't mind the income taxes, corporation or other taxes he paid, but the 1.1% tax on his fortune was the straw that broke the camel's back. Ship owners commonly register their ships in countries like Cyprus or Panama to avoid taxes. And of course there are a number of tax havens where the rich can hide their piggy banks.
Equalizing income has some advantages to a degree, but it is not a panacea. In Norway, as in the Netherlands and other social welfare countries, the same greed that makes some work hard to amass a fortune is found in those who won't work but accept the state's monthly unemployment or health benefits and move to an island paradise, like the Canaries.
Maybe we need to equalize human nature before we tax the rich to support us all.

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I come here and read things I think might have some good info. I scroll down to the comments and - there it is, every single day, day after day - pointless political squabbling. My side, no mine, he did it, they're responsible, uh uh...What's in it for you? Where's the fix? How do people become addicted to political team sports. It happens with adoration of celebrities too. The psyche evaluation types it as a ego identity crisis. If you "need" a team, why not the team of reason? We might survive a fixation with evidence based decision making but the emotional worship of politics? Are you lonely? It's a form of the "Savior Complex". Is that really what you want to be?

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taxes? According to both the Bush and Obama supporters, raising taxes on the wealthiest is somehow "unpatriotic" and "political suicide". Privatization and keeping you fucked is somehow "American". Some pols are talking about it but when push comes to shove, the same old "tax cuts for the rich" poison with the deluded public thinking they'll fucking fly like Peter Pan and be rich as Donald fucking Trump ! In the meantime, more borrowing from China to finance giving more tax breaks to the wealthiest even though they don't need 'em. China needs to flip the foreclosure switch asap.

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he's busy spreading around poverty and blame around to everyone but himself. Obama and his Congress are doing a great job of spreading the wealth to the uber wealthy just like Reagan and Bush did with a few crumbs to the rest. Like Clinton, he's betraying the working class with lies and broken promises but unlike Clinton who promised and postponed, Obama and his supporters are telling everyone to shut up and live with it. The elites couldn't have picked a better man to slip and slide all that wealth away.

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"Man don't believe in fair play, he wants it all, and he wants it his way..."


Bob Dylan

License to Kill...

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It's not to suggest that we all have equal amounts of everything. But we have sunk to the point of creating a growing population of poor people who can never even think about being anything else. Opportunities have been destroyed. Hope has vanished. There comes a point when the people no longer contribute in any way to the economy or anything else for that matter. They are simply there. They get angry and become liabilities. So they get pushed further out of the way. Along with that, their spirits are crushed. A country without hope is in serious trouble. The top 1% have to get their money somewhere and they are killing their golden goose. No matter how they chose to rob the population, sooner or later all wells run dry. Treating people fairly, educationg the young and providing jobs is not an act of kindness. It's necessary to our survival. ANNA

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We must develop a sustainable eco-economic non-growth vision for our finite planet's future. We must get away from the failed toxic nuclear family of over-consumption and living in isolated pill boxes of stress and psychological pain. We must develop a vision of interdependence in the global village. We must get away from the paradigm of war in all of our institutional forms!!

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In England The Entire Fucking Lot Of Us Turn Up at The Free Festivals, and The Ones You Have To Pay To Get In - Or Tunnel Under The Fence - or Jump Over -If You Have No Money...

Dressed Exactly The Same

It Is Impossible To Tell The Difference Between Rich and Poor

And It Doesn't Fucking Matter

Because We Have All Got In

And are Jumping Around

To The House of Pain

We are all the same

we are all human beings

we are all equal

except some of us can jump higher

what the fuck is wrong with you

you are behaving like the world's smash and grab bank robbers and we all think you are pathetic

we like your musicans though

just find a great big hole

and bury all the fascist cunts in control of you

in England we would tell them to BEHAVE

Tony

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France sounds lovely. Even the UK has a vastly better system than our own. We need a system where people are treated equally.

I especially liked that bit about trust and cooperation. In our current system, the rich private jet guy doesn't want to hold hands and sing kumbaya with the minivan class family, the same way the minivan class family doesn't want to hold hands with the cardboard box house guy.

We have a stratified system, and the lower classes (as well as the middle class) suffer from it. It breeds depression, it breeds inequality. It breeds sloth and privilege. When everyone or most everyone makes relatively the same amount of money, people are more apt to see each other as equals rather than "grr, grumble grumble, that guy over there makes more than I do. I'm jealous... grrr..."

Instead, it's, "hey, we're in the same boat. Let's work together, ya ya ya."

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It doesn't matter if you have risked your life from an obscure African country paddling here in a primative boat

If you land on our beaches we will look after YOU

We will take you to hospital if you are ill and will do our best to welcome you

We will make sure you do not go hungry and have shelter

THIS IS WHY WE LIVE IN THE BEST COUNTRY IN THE WORLD

ENGLAND

And The World Loves Us

Tony

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I suggest you start with Cheney and then move on to Monsanto and reclaim your land and grow proper food on it

I think the most likely reason for your most weird behaviour is not just all the drugs you are all on which has sent you mad and horrible its also down to the shit they are poisoning you with which you call fast food

You are much better off with slow food that you know has been grown by yourself or a local farmer you can trust

There has already been an enormous collapse - stop pretending it might happen it already has or have you been too busy to notice that Millions of Americans are close to starving to death?

In the land of plenty?

You Americans really are disgusting

Sort Yourselves Out For Fucks Sake

Tony

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This is an AD for heaven's sake. Is nobody at the alternet website watching for this kind of sleazy commercialism invading our discussions? I'm not reading this list anymore.

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'The Modern Conservative is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness'.
—John Kenneth Galbraith

Because most right wingers screaming SOCIALISM believe they have found their 'moral justification', won't they all have to be exterminated before this Fairness plan can ever save us? Just askin'.

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Endorsed by Thomas Paine and Martin Luther King, Jr. and Richard Nixon.

Yes, Nixon wanted to have a Guaranteed Minimum Income for all Americans, but opponents claimed that American wage-slaves would never accept giving "money" to "undeserving, able-bodied" citizens.

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Here in the good ol' U s of A, because that magic bullet is SOCIALISM.This has been made into a curseword by the rich rat bastards we so love to worship.
Read Dr. Einstein's papers on socialism. Einstein was so much more than a scientist, and his other works have the same beautiful clarity as everything else he put to the pen. They reveal him as the humanitarian he was.
Bertrand Russell is worth a mention here, as well.

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Wanna manage iPhone video and music files freely? Try iPhone manager.
Also transfer iPod to iTunes

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The UN Human Development Index contains two "Inequality of Consumption and Expenditure" measures, one compares top 10% with bottom ten, and the other the top 20% with the top 20"%. Of all developed nations, U.S.A. ranks below them all, only Singapore, Hong Kong, Argentina, Uruguay, Chile and Costa Rica ranked lower. There is also the Gini coefficient rankings. Singapore and Denmark have close to the same GDP per capita, but Denmark ranks 14th to Singapore's 25th on the composite index because of greater equality. The web page TooMuch.org deals with this question also. See http://benL8.blogspot.com for full essay.See U.C Berkeley professor Emmanuel Saez' essay "Striking It Richer" for a description of income distribution since 1913, our top 10% "take home" approximately 50% of all the nation's income each year.

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Thank you Jeff! I strongly agree that we need to go for transformational solutions that not only address the ecological and economic crises we face but also reduce inequity at the same time. One question I have is how do we deal with the sense of entitlement that I see in many of my friends who are financially successful. The pushback I get from them is that they have worked hard and made the right choices to obtain wealth, why shouldn't they be able to enjoy it. After all, anyone can succeed in America (or so the argument goes). I guess what I am saying is that many folks are still clinging to the inequitable society as it enables them to enjoy the good life (or enables the possibility that that they will one day enjoy the good life). A perfect example is health care. One of my good friends was lamenting about Obama's health care plans and how it is going to be a personal disaster for his family. I personally have not been following the debate closely, but I would not expect the best solution to be delivered with our political system. In any case, my friend was concerned about the possibility that his family's care may be jeopardized and emotionally oblivious to the plight of the millions of people who do not have health care now. He has no compassion for these people if it means that it might affect the level of care his family receives.

How does this change? How do we create a movement for equity? Can it change without collapse?

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The graphs need a little more explanation but other than that this should be shown to everyone in the U.S.

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should be required reading for every educated person. I have been reccommending it to anyone that would listen.

One of the above commentators suggested that 48 percent was the maximum taxation people would tolerate. I would remind this person that the left and the right in the U. S. differ by by only one percent on the amount of money now passing through government right here. They say either 43 or 44 cents of every dollar passes through government. Then we pass 15 cents through "the health delivery" system. I'm now at 58 or 59 cents.

I would then argue that there are no Scandinavians getting jacked around like we get jacked around. It makes 50 cents on the dollar look like a bargain. Its clear that we have at least 8 or 9 cents per dollar to gain from reform. We have a long way to go. We now stand at 30th place in the world for quality of life.

Personally I suggest to young peole preparing themselves for life that they not rely on the United States getting it right. I suggest 4 languages and at least 2 to converstaional beyond English. Perhaps the only thing that Henry Kissinger and I might agree on is that the United States is in decline. Young people should prepare for the worst and hope for the best. They may have to spend some or all of their lives outside of the United States.

My little brother read my copy and had an interesting take on what he read. He said that it debunked everything the republican party states it is in favor of. This really clarifies their hatred of science. Science does not support either their opinion or their politics. It leaves the republican point of view without a leg to stand on. The republican party has no reason to even exist. They are smart enough to be afraid.

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