Taxes and Inflation – Taxes and Inflation

No tax reform items will make it through Congress if those items touch the very wealthy. Congress is set to drive the middle class further downward, shred the net for the poor (they don’t count raging inflation for food and clothing) , and make the very wealthy much wealthier until at least the 2014 election. If you make less than $500k per year you better pray that the House goes Democrat in 2014.
– – http://news.yahoo.com/obama-pitch-buffett-tax-killing-corporate-tax-breaks-100313227–sector.html

The Wealthy Are Not Job Creators

Entrepreneur and venture capitalist Nick Hanauer demolishes the falsehood that we shouldn’t raise taxes on the rich due to their being “job creators.” Of course, the continuance of the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy has coincided with high unemployment with rates.  Hanauer focuses on the fact that businesses don’t “create jobs”; they fill jobs in response to consumer demand. It is that demand that results in jobs and fuels the economy. Shoveling more cash at the wealthy is misguided and wasteful, he argues; raising taxes on the wealthy will benefit the true job creators, the middle class, and ultimately the rich themselves:

…I’ve never been a “job creator.” I can start a business based on a great idea, and initially hire dozens or hundreds of people. But if no one can afford to buy what I have to sell, my business will soon fail and all those jobs will evaporate.

That’s why I can say with confidence that rich people don’t create jobs, nor do businesses, large or small. What does lead to more employment is the feedback loop between customers and businesses. And only consumers can set in motion a virtuous cycle that allows companies to survive and thrive and business owners to hire. An ordinary middle-class consumer is far more of a job creator than I ever have been or ever will be.

…That’s why our current policies are so upside down. When the American middle class defends a tax system in which the lion’s share of benefits accrues to the richest, all in the name of job creation, all that happens is that the rich get richer.

… It is mathematically impossible to invest enough in our economy and our country to sustain the middle class (our customers) without taxing the top 1 percent at reasonable levels again. Shifting the burden from the 99 percent to the 1 percent is the surest and best way to get our consumer-based economy rolling again.

…We’ve had it backward for the last 30 years. Rich businesspeople like me don’t create jobs. Middle-class consumers do, and when they thrive, U.S. businesses grow and profit. That’s why taxing the rich to pay for investments that benefit all is a great deal for both the middle class and the rich.

So let’s give a break to the true job creators. Let’s tax the rich like we once did and use that money to spur growth by putting purchasing power back in the hands of the middle class. And let’s remember that capitalists without customers are out of business.

How the Banks Stole Trillions – When is Prosecution?

Don’t forget!  The FED and bank/criminal syndicate of UNFREE enterprise/criminal capitalism needs to be prosecuted and more than reformed – maybe shut down. The men in charge make Bernie Madoff look like a 5-cent lemonade stand!!!!! – – http://www.lewrockwell.com/blog/lewrw/archives/99726.html

 

Federal Welfare to Corporations Selling Fossil Energies

Has Washington sold us out to utility corporation lobbyists? – – http://thinkprogress.org/green/2011/11/07/363018/corporate-welfare-for-energy-companies-means-we-paid-24-billion-in-taxes-to-them/

America – Two-Tiered Economy With Ever Widening Gap

This brief film clip explains a few of the reasons America is failing the middle and lower class.  NOTE:  Many of the undercutting regulations imposed by government agencies are supported and sometimes written by large corporate interests, essentially the big corps that don’t want competition.  – – http://www.economicfreedom.org/2012/01/23/economic-freedom-income-equality/

Corporations Regulate Themselves and the Government

Many corporations regulate themselves however they wish and then regulate the governmental regulator as well.  Case in point:  BIG PHARMA.  The FDA along with other agencies, many that make grants, subsidizing favorite projects, are hardly more than bureaucratic rubber stamps for the biggest pharmaceutical corporations.  Having steadily taken control of the medicine market as they consolidated to ever larger mergers, these corporations have become to BIG TO REGULATE.  This trend is found in every industry and seems to be the best way for corporate execs and plutocrats to put the government of the People and the Free Market in their places.  This film clip is one example in one industry, BIG PHARMA.  –  –    http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=jRua3NLg-Z8#!

Unregulated Markets Are Dangerous

I have heard countless times from Republicans about the great, God given right to profit from every single human endeavor. Profit is said to be “necessary” as an incentive to investment, hard work, creativity, risk taking – all said to be necessary to improvement of our culture and strength of our economy. These same capitalist-minded servants to the plutocrat winners of this profit-driven economy complain that governmental regulation for fair competition, product safety, workers’ compensation and rights, fair taxation and responsible returns to investors slow the great profit generating apparatus. But as soon as regulation is lessened we see all these problems come to pass – all these as well as rigged markets, price-fixing, ecology destruction, destructive speculation, tax dodging, national and international fiscal crimes, suppression of all competing technologies. All this for products and services that are not designed to eradicate problems, but in fact allow problems to continue indefinitely and hopefully create new problems – all for cash flow, profits, and expanding criminal control in governments around the globe.

In competition, whether high school basketball or trading derivatives, regulation is necessary and desirable.  Deregulation corrupts, absolute deregulation corrupts absolutely.  Hypothetical Situation:  Basketball referees stop calling fouls.  Worse Hypothetical Situation:  No refs are present.  Question:  Have you ever witnessed violence?

Off the Grid – Easy and Better for Many

     We have waited many years for clean, cost-effective solutions in producing energy.   We need solutions to replace oil, coal, gas and nuclear as much as possible.  These solutions would help the USA and the world, strategically improving economies and security by circumventing oil, coal, gas and nuclear energy problems.  We would need far less defense of oil fields, pipelines, mines, shipping lanes, radiation controls.  Our very expensive and over-extended military could be brought home.  A good solution would also stop some of our cultural and economic movement to big, centrally controlled solutions offered by big corporations that are “too big to fail.”   These corporations are so big they criminally overcharge consumers then stand in line for subsidies and bailouts to enrich unethical executives for unconcerned shareholders. What I would like to see is a simple, safe, economical approach to energy production. I would like to see a solution that incorporates decentralized energy production of electricity for most of our country’s needs, a big step for our country’s security. Energy production should be available to anyone to use, give to neighbors or sell to energy companies. I believe a small component system for electricity production could be designed to provide this kind of better solution.

What this country needs is an energy revolution. We do not need another decade of war over fossil fuels. We do not need corporate price-fixing, subsidies, gross profiteering, tax dodging. What we need is a home-based 12-volt Direct Current electrical generation and storage system capable of running appliances and powering cars used by families. The system should be as low-cost, low-tech, low maintenance and safe as possible. It should be based on a simple direct current circuits, wire, amp-meter, voltage regulator, alternator or generator. It should be easily assembled, stored, shipped, displayed, retailed, purchased, installed, and serviced. It should draw energy from a flexible array of sources including any or all of the following: photovoltaic, thermovoltaic, wind and kinetic generation. Available components should include windmill, solar panel with mirror, thermovoltaic with mirror, windmill, and a belt or chain driven generator. The kinetic generator components should use a large mass lifted against gravity to store kinetic energy from other sources for low-light, low-heat or low-wind weather conditions. Another kinetic method could employ a large spring.  When batteries run low, the huge mass or spring would be released by electric switch to lower slowly on cables, chain or gears to drive a generator. The mass could be composed of any combination of cheap materials including rubble or collected rain water. The mass would be suspended in a sturdy, short, cheaply constructed tower shaped frame, garage or shed.  The spring could be housed indoors or outdoors.

Then with a large mass or spring driven kinetic generator, electricity could be produced as needed.  The mass could be lifted again simply with exercise machines, wind, solar,  or by a jack that an automobile can drive over or a person could walk over.  Yes, electric companies would have to be dealt with as well as city and county codes, but this is a much better solution for all the right reasons.

QUESTION OF THE WEEK: Can the Digital Revolution Alleviate Oppression?

Many cultural prognostications site the progress of digital  communication as a tool for progress out of the cold war, out of oppression of peoples by small groups, out of the New World Order.  Here is one viewpoint from a published ex-CIA officer.  – –   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7r-pbD1kIUE&feature=related

It Costs to Work in America

Wages, benefits, health insurance?  Many jobs in America, especially those “good middle class jobs” that Republicans talk about, could keep a couple or small family below the poverty line. But there are also costs in working – quite a few.  These costs are the major reason that many unemployed and underemployed  workers cannot “just take any job now, but keep looking for a better job.”  By the way, how much does it cost to look for work?  This calculator helps get a better picture of the real costs, but it does not mention taxes, social security or medicare deductions.  Transportation for much of America is tenuous with few public transportation options – and it’s expensive to own and insure an automobile, very necessary for many commutes.  There are also costs in the loss of time, not only for your work but travel time, breaks (mandatory or non-existent), preparation time for dressing and grooming, cosmetics for women.  These costs of time and transportation are particularly trying for workers in jobs with changing schedules, being sent home early, told to stay home or prone to further cuts in part-time daily hours.  And how about those employers who enforce an “on-call” schedule or mandatory overtime or split shifts or rotating shifts?  If you have ever had to work these kinds of jobs you are also probably afraid to join a union, if there is one, even though unions and minimum wage levels have crossed your mind.