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As we approach the new year, the clowns will begin dropping out and all begin to take a serious view over who can be our next president. By now a normal trend; it happens every four years.
The reason we have to put up with the clowns is because across all of America, there is gross disenchantment over the way things are. A gross enchantment so huge, that unifies both the extreme right and extreme left into a larger classification.
These two opposite sides actually have a common denominator. Both sides are both unhappy how the needs of real human beings are being trumped by those whom they have elected and trusted to serve them.
On the right it is the tea party types who are erroneously easy to dismiss as primitive forms of intelligence. On the left is its those who exhale in triplicate just to hear themselves breathe, usually with complaints regarding how good programs are not good enough to their liking.
Or so each are characterized by the other side’s talk radio hosts…..
But in reality, both have a deep love of the America they grew up under and see it slipping away by the minute. Both share the same vision that America needs to be great again, but simply differ on the approaches required to achieve that aim which can be characterized as such. The left believes we need to change somethings in our system of governing; the right believes we have to change individual people one by one.
The common enemy in both parties surprisingly is the bloc of moderates spanning both parties who compromise too freely against their parties values and who seem too prone to cater to business at the expense of individual constituent’s wishes and demands. Rather bizarrely, we three parties, if you include this business class in the middle of both and only when two of the three agree, does anything get accomplished.
In Delaware this is played out in the opt out movement where the Governor (business party) used his veto and the head of the House of Representatives (business party) shows no sign of bringing it up to be overturned.. Enough votes (Dems and Repubs) are present to do so, just little procedural matter is all that is now boxing up the two wings wishes…’
Nationally the same scenario is being played out in that all the candidates are the same except one. Only one candidate of either party is taking on corporate America. All the rest are fortressed and supported by Corporate America marking all the differences actually existing between them as petty and insignificant when compared to the pressing needs at hand.
No matter who is elected, we can have no real change over the next four years unless that one who is different and from Vermont, wins.
So despite all the banter our main stream media is giving us, (whose staff is primarily and pathetically reduced to snooping on Twitter and putting that up as “real news”), the real question emerging as voters begin to look seriously, needs to be: who will actually make that change that benefits me?
Only one. Right now only one candidate’s platform can make the huge changes required to wean America off its penchant for developing profits, and turn America back to work on developing its people. Which is what the extremes of both right and left believe need to be done.
Because behind all the arguments about trade, abortions, shootings, and economics, the real solution to making your life better, is to put more money into your pocket as well as the pockets of the rest of the 99%.,…
Because you really aren’t politically free, unless you are also economically free. For unless you can quit that job you don’t like, can’t stand, or hate, and quickly find another one, you are not free. If you have no choice but to work at that crumby job, you simply do not taste freedom.
Only one candidate’s platform will change that now; it requires raising taxes on the one percent.
According to Fortune estimates, on this planet global households together have amassed over $250 trillion in assets. The one percent now owns 50% of that which translates into their ownership of $125 trillion in net worth. If this net worth were conservatively earning 7% per year in interest ($17.5 trillion), and the capital gains tax were raised to 50% marginal levels only on this select group, it would pump a lost $8.5 trillion back into the economy per year.
This is money that could be spent on combating global warming. This is money that could be spent on making normal citizens earn more. This is money that could be spent on ending hunger world wide. This is money that could rejuvenate cities providing great future for ones youth. This is money that could be spent on education.
And this money is absolutely free.
For the $7.5 trillion taxed and reinvested through governments around the world will offer (at minimum) a 2:1 rate of investment, meaning that the $7.5 trillion taxed and spent will generate a yield a $15 trillion return on that investment. Which since the wealthy own one half of all wealth, this means they get to re-pocket $7.5 trillion which they just gave up. And if investment returns are higher, by ratios of 3, 4, 5, even 10, they make out big time. Win, win, win.
Right now, only one person says he will do this.
Compared to this sea change, none of the other little things matter. If that yearly $7.5 trillion dollars through increased economic activity, is averaged out to all the 7.5 billion of this planets dwellers (of course it won’t be), it actually gives every single person a $1000 dollar increase of money they get to keep… They will see it in two ways; one they will see part of it in expenses going down and part of it in salaries going up.
Only one person across both parties fields has the wisdom take on Wall Street now knowing that it gets more expensive to do so by each hour. OUT of all the candidates on both parties… ONLY ONE is not beholden to the interests of the top 1%.
You need to send him money, whether you’re a Republican or Democrat. Both party’s networks are thoroughly tainted by corporate money. But one person isn’t…
In 2002 we gave the top one percent a loan from the American people which was to make us all wealthier over time. They got their money, and kept it; we were polite and nice about asking for restitution. Apparently enough time has gone by, they think it is theres. Meaning, it’s now past time we called back our loan which we originally gave to the top 1% via the Bush Tax Cuts. …
What that means is that half of those, 2424 have to make more than $863,734…
Currently everyone making more than $60,000 each year, pays the same marginal rate. … So all these 2424 pay the highest rate of 6%…..
So if all 2424 average above $863,734 then the minimum income available to be taxed would be this product of both.
2525 X $863,734 = $2,093,691,216 That is as in two billion…
Therefore, if we raise tax rates on this group, with each percent, we would raise $20,936,912. ($21 million) Enough to fund all of Delaware’s casino losses for a full year or the average spent on Race To The Top per each of its 5 year cycle; or a one percent raise for all of Delaware’s state employees.
Keep this in light of the startling fact that this group grew incomes at 15%…. 15% of $2 billion is $300 million. So whereas this group of 2424 top 0.5%’rs grew incomes at $300 million yet paid the same rate as someone making $60,000… that person stuck making $60,000 lost income at 1.6% but still paid the same rate as those earning a combined $300 million a year….
Which is why saying we can’t fund seniors credits for school taxes is nothing less than a joke…. Perhaps such might be true, IF WE WERE TAXING THE TOP 0.5% AT ABSURD HIGHLY RIDICULOUS RATES. But we aren’t..
- California charges 13.3%… It’s economy is booming btw.
- Oregon charges 9.9%… Doing well too.
- Minnesota at 8.95%… No harm there.
- Iowa 8.98%… Those corn huskers are quite happy there.
- New York 8.82%… Everyone “Hearts” NY.
- Our neighbor, New Jersey? 8.97%….
Even Republican Scott Walker’s state, Wisconsin charges higher: 7.65%!!!
There is a lot of room to expand….
Here is the recommended rate schedule that Delaware needs to implement.
- Incomes over $400 billion @ 12 %
- Incomes between $400 and $100 billion @ 11%
- Incomes between $100 and $1 billion @ 10%
- incomes between $1 billion and $400 million @ 9%
- incomes between $400 million and $100 million @ 8 %
- incomes between $100 million and 1 million. @ 7%
- No change for incomes under $1 million…
The reason for the above is contingent on how much each level of income impacts the local economy. Those who don’t provide a local benefit with their purchases, should be taxed higher than those who do. And keep in mind this is all taxed marginally… That means the the first million for all of the 2424 is taxed the same, and only those amounts that expand over into the higher brackets will pay out at a higher rate….
For any sacrifices to be borne at all by those losing income at rates of 1.6% without ramping up the donations exculpated from those whose incomes rose 15% over the same identical time frame, is simply unjust, immoral, and positively Un-American.
These people have to be taxed more. No if’s; No and’s; No but’s.
It is so obvious… Like hitting you in the eye with a big Pizza Pie!
Now that we’ve started growing our economy, it has become a persistent theme… “We need money for this”; “we need money for that”; “we need money for both and for other things too”. “We need money”, pure and simple.. Am I not right? Pick up any paper. Listen to any radio newscast; read any internet news source…. (did you notice I completely ignored television entirely? You should ignore them too if you don’t already ).
Now correct me if I’m wrong, but (and this is a theoretical question…): when you want something that you don’t have….a) do you go asking for it among people who don’t have any themselves, or b) among people who have lots of it to spare?
Hmmm. I wonder…. (finger on chin; one eye looking at the sky) Should I ask those who have, … or those who don’t have….
Which makes Markell’s asking our Seniors to forgo their credit on school taxes allegedly to balance the budget, nonsensical.. Especially when the top 1% of Delawareans by simply adding a few lines to the tax code. can cough up $70 million a year… (enough to roughly fund 3 years of casino shortfalls) and not experience any loss of spendable cash,
So why would someone ignore those who COULD give, and threaten those who have NOTHING to give? There are probably many reasons, but none meet the level of good straight forward reasoning… For if you truly want something, asking someone who doesn’t have it is absolutely pointless….
What Seniors don’t have, the 1% does have; (that is why they are in the one percent.)
So, being theoretical again, wouldn’t it make great sense to turn the tables on Markell and actually go forward and spitefully raise the taxes on HIS friends, those in the top one percent, oh… let us say…. about the same percent that his tax hike would have hit Seniors pinching pennies on limited incomes… to around the percentage of a 100% increase….
So it would come out that on incomes over let us say, $100 million dollars, instead of the 6% they are currently assessed, (the exact same percent as someone earning $60,000) we would hit them with a 100% increase (another 6%) and bump that owed amount to 12%… We could then graduate the layers from 6% to 9% over a range of income levels.. and except for the rates on the top echelons, the percentages would still be lower than neighboring New Jersey.
This gives us $70 million in new revenue. Each and every year… We can even blow it on the casino’s if we want….
We need the General Assembly to respond to Markell’s challenge with a tax increase of this nature. Now, the point is really not so much of whether it passes or not.. But the point is that by having a progressive coalition sponsor and at the very least, put it on the floor, (especially those who hail from districts where doing such would make them a cult hero for life, and cost them zero switched votes since no millionaire would ever vote for them anyway), it becomes a bone of contention, and a topic of conversation in letters-to-the-editor pages across this state; on Al Mascitti and Rick Jensen; on WDDE and other WGMD down south, and gets talked about on both sides…
Because there is a funny thing that always happens when good ideas get talked about in the open, and one can hear both sides. They start to get followers. And as more and more followers pile on, as more and more support for this bill becomes apparent.. as more people start supporting what appears to be a very common sensical means of pulling our society back together, of fixing the broken door jambs that have been stepped over too long, of repairing leaking cracks too long ignored across our aged infrastructure (in both physical and human capital), then Jack will rue the day he ever threatened Senior with tax hikes they could never pay…. while ignoring those who can easily pay 10, 15, 20, 30, 40 times the amounts we will be asking of them.
And the idea that we have to cut back now on very essential stuff in what is now a richly growing economy, all because we don’t have money when it is there, right in front of us, dangling for us to take it: is plain stupid. Really… Would YOU not cash in a winning Powerball ticket because you didn’t want Powerball LLC. to lose any money over you? Somethings are smart. Some things are really dumb… Not cashing in a winning Powerball, or not raising the tax rates on the top one percent, are both…. about as equally dumb.
The point of placing this bill on the table, is that if we generate significant conversation and make a run at passing a 12% top state tax rate, or even just get that conversation out there, and get 500,000 Delawarean voter’s hopes up that yes, this legislature might finally do something responsible, and still fail by being one or two votes short… the very fact we did so helps it become far easier to have the General Assembly slip in and vote on the last day of session, a bill that raises the wealthy’s rates by 1%, or 2%, or 3%, or 4%…. And that, would be a godsend to Seniors…..
Society across the board has simply outgrown all this “cut taxes to grow” hype. We tried it; it failed; now we remember the good years back when taxes were a tiny bit higher and we were all, everyone of us, far much happier, far better off, and all of us facing what looked to be a very, very bright future. …
A tidbit upon which historians will agree, was ultimately why the Democrats were not able to capitalize on the phenomenal results of today’s thriving booming American economy.
Republican policies created this imbalance. But it is Obama who as CEO, gets the blame for its residual effects.
How to fix it? A marginally accurate 73% tax on incomes over $73 million would turn the tables nicely with no residual effect to the other 99.9% of the population…..
Came across an amazing chart from the Paris School of Economic’s database. It allows you to customize your search for any time or place over the world.
My area of expertise is within the US and here is what I wanted to see: the percentage of national income earned by the top 0.01%…. not just the top 1%, but the top-tip 0.01%.
This shows the past 100 years of national income percentage earned by the top 0.01%. There are some very striking facts noticed by those looking at this data for the first time.
1) The year 2012 was one of the record highest, beaten only by two years during WWI when the rest of the world was embroiled in war, and our top echelon were selling to both sides…. If one extracts that exception, then in 2012 we gave the top 0.01% (one hundredth of one percent) more of our national income than at any time previously recorded.
2) The Great Depression did little to affect the income percentages (1928-1932); Roosevelt however (1933-onward), did a lot.
3) During America’s most prosperous times ever, after WWII made us the sole global economy, the incomes of the top 0.01% stayed under 1% of national income across the next 43 years. (1943-1986)
4) The Reagan Tax Cut of 1986 caused a doubling of the top 1%’s income in just 2 years. from 1% in 1986 to 1.99% in 1988.
5) The percentage again dropped under 2% after Clinton’s tax hike in 1992 causing a robust expansion, but passed that 2% mark in 1997 never to return.
6) During the “w” Bush years, the percentage continuously climbed peaking in 2007 and would have peaked higher in 2008 but the recession clipped the last two months off that year. Despite that, 2008 was the 2nd highest grossing percentage up to that time (discounting the WWI anomaly) across almost 100 years of data.
7) The Great Recession (2008-9) as did the Great Depression (1929-32), had little effect on the top 0.01% percentage of national income. At no point did their yearly take dip below 3%, a mark first crossed in 2005 (if one continues disregarding the anomaly of the First World War).
8) The rebound ability of an economy at large is hampered when more money collects at the top and is not returned as investment to the bottom. Though small in percentage points, those difference of those 3 percentage points ( from under 1.0 to 4.0) translates to $500 billion that did not impact our economy because it went to less than 31,000 Americans. Considering our TARP was passed only for $800 billion, we only saw $300 billion net running through our economy. because $500 billion of the $800 billion was handed over to less than 31,000 people then quickly whisked away to foreign bank accounts beyond the reach of the IRS.
9) Although difficult to state through all the multiple influences that impact economies daily, the extensive overview shown by this chart makes it clear that were we to have another great recession, we should first use the incomes of our top 0.01% to first rebuild our national economy as did Roosevelt, and not assume that those wealthy will do so voluntarily as did our creators and negotiators behind this current rebound.
10) Data from 2013 will be most interesting. The Bush Tax Cuts for the top 0.05% were rescinded that year, and at that point, our economy took off ( at least when Republicans weren’t threatening to shut it all down). If it does indeed show a drop in the top 1%’s income, then we will know that in order to have robust recoveries, those at the top need to be taxed more, not less.
As for politics, this needs to be taken to heart. Anyone who argues for less taxes on the top 1%, be they Democrat or Republican, needs to be shown the door…. We now have sufficient data to know with certainty, and from it, we can see all evidence points that higher marginal tax rates do benefit the middle class and subsequently the economy at large…..
This historical chart rings that out, clear as a bell at the end of a day’s trading…..
Having just returned from a Gates sponsored seminar “ to further hardwire the Common Core curriculum ” (Gate’s words; not mine; notice he said “curriculum“) Mr. White opines us on what he learned. He was most taken with a story from Deborah Ball, now dean of education at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, who was teaching her third grade students about odd and even numbers, when one student, Sean, said that he thought some numbers were both odd and even.
It is obvious this was an exercise at the conference. For Mr. White asks us how we should respond…. We are given three options.
Ok, those were almost the same, so you know the Common Core set up is coming up in …. C
Obviously I’m not a Common Core enthusiast. Did you see the part that the teacher “suspends” her lesson plan to cover something totally ridiculous as naming numbers “Sean numbers”? The immediate question is…….. when will they cover what they were supposed to do THAT DAY? Tomorrow? If so, what will be missed on the test because the Smarter Balanced Assessment is tightly wound so everything covered in class, is used on the test… Will each of these children lose 150 points because they missed a most important element of multiplication, because they were kept behind by talking about “Sean numbers”? Remember the test examples we showed you, so complicated that adults cannot even figure out what is being asked?
This is ruining children… Remember where we said the child’s brain is growing and must get a certain amount of knowledge in on a timely fashion, or it is lost forever? How does spending a full day on Sean numbers, probably something everyone in the class except Sean had already grasped, help a child in this race against time?
Most of all, this is an example of taking something really simple…. and making it really complicated…. This is exactly why Common Core is so rotten at it’s core….
Remember in high school where certain cliques made up certain rules, and everyone in-the-know had to follow them, and those not in-the-know, were ostracized and put down? I want you to keep this in mind as we go through the rest of Mr. White’s essay…..
Did you get that? Teacher C embodies Common Core’s rules the best… Whoo Hoo… Give him/her a prize!… No comment or discussion if those rules are even good for children … It is a blind-set: these are the rules and we must follow them…. Now if you like this example of creative thinking, it is because you are only thinking of Sean. You are ignoring its impact on all the other students… In the opposite approach to Common Core, where you would have an 11:1 student teacher ratio, a teacher could take such time with Sean and then cover her other 10 people. But in a class of 20, 22, 24, 28, 30? Most of the children are sitting through this discussion going: “this is really stupid; I hate school….”
Now, in Mr. White’s essay, since we are starting with the premise that Common Core is good for children, notice the evaluations given to Teachers A-C.
Forgive me. They all sound good to me… Read them over again….
But that would not cause this post to be written. Mr. White completely disagrees…..
And this is deemed good for education? As a standard it sounds noble, especially when italicized. But in the example provided, it is completely ridiculous… And that is why Common Core is going to so confuse children, especially children in the inner cities who don’t get meals, who can’t do homework, who don’t have parents involved with their education because their night job gets them home at 11:50 pm… 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, are even… 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, are odd… any questions? Let’s practice counting by evens… let’s practice counting by odds… everybody got it? Recess.
I learned fine that way. So did you. So did our whole generation. So did the generation before them…. But now, we are encouraged to have a discussion about “Sean numbers” which to be honest, I couldn’t even follow because I had nothing to write with and draw a little map as to how Mr. White was explaining it….
Huh? Could you have handled that in 3rd Grade?
So we have confusion, instead of simplicity… For in Mr. White’s terminology, simplicity shows us:
If simplicity undermines the larger goal of the Common Core and preserves the status quo, isn’t that now deemed by every parent of a student, to be a good thing?
Flat out, here is what is going on here….
Common Core is a very bad program that is impossible to teach, and impossible to grasp. IT FAILS 70% OF ITS STUDENTS IN EVERY CLASS! It is losing support with parents.
So what Bill Gates did, was whisk educators off to a green world where there was only one set of alternatives, an alternative universe so to speak… In that alternative universe, Common Core is spun as the most awesome thing that every happened… Mr. White descends back to reality… And suddenly, his ideas plop down in a real world where there are 30 students in a class, all going WTF is wrong with this teacher? Please, STFU and lets learn something real.
The Real world… not Gates’ville… the real world…
This is an example of not being in the “real world”….
Wait a minute…. Did he just say that some numbers can be both odd… and even? I think he did… How is that going to go over when tested to see if one is college or career ready? “Sure, some numbers can be both odd and even.”
This is exactly what is wrong with Common Core… It is stupid. It is made-up bullshit. It is fantasy. it does not correspond to reality. It has as much relationship to reality as does your attractiveness to the opposite sex being based solely on your beer which is the same as is in a commercial with attractive models… “Hey, slut! Go out with me, I drink Coors Lite.”
By failing 70% of Delawares children… Why? Because they don’t know that numbers can be both odd and even….
This, ladies and gentlemen, is why there is considerable pushback on Common Core. it is farcical. The chickens are running the farm and the real teachers, are being called ridiculous… They aren’t ridiculous. Common Core is what is ridiculous and anyone who tries to rank teachers according to Common Core, will set learning back greatly…
Just remember, that in its effort to resell Common Core to the masses, this op-ed of Mr. White was its high point: “stating that number can be both odd and even…. “
That is Common Core. That is why all parents are against it.
You should be making $18,000 more a year right now. And would, except for the inequality put in place beginning with the trickle down policies of Ronald Reagan… now more appropriately called “tinkle” down economics…
The bottom get pissed on.
The heavy line shows where you would be if the average rate of growth from across the years ’79 to ’10 were applied evenly. The lighter line shows the reality….
99% of us are all earning an average of $18,000 less than we should be… So how does this break down?
Average household incomes grew by 53.4 percent from 1979 to 2007. But that didn’t break down equally:
- The bottom fifth of households saw their income go up by 29.2 percent, well below the 53.4 percent average.
- Income for the middle fifth of households grew by a measly 19.7 percent.
- But how did people a little higher up, but not at the very top, do? A little better, but still below average: households between the 81st and 90th percentiles—so in the bottom half of the top fifth of the income ladder—had just 39.1 percent income growth. Again, well below that average of 53.4.
- So how far up do you have to go before you hit the average? The 91st to the 95th percentile almost got there, with 53 percent average growth. But they fell just short. Households between the 96th and 99th percentile seriously exceeded 53.4 percent, though. They had average income growth of 78.1 percent.
- That’s nothing compared to the top 1 percent, though: Their income grew by 244.7 percent, close to five times the average.
Ways To Share More Broadly.
A. Raise the Minimum Wage: $10.10 is a start.
B. Organize More (and throw out ineffective current bosses) Unions. Override All State Laws Outlawing Unions.
C. Reduce Wage Theft: charging workers for uniforms, drinks, food, supplies. Cheating on overtime.
D. Tax the top 1% appropriately… Include Capital Gains as income. Tax Corporations at the same rate as individuals. Raise the top marginal percents to these levels…
- Over $1 billion in income… tax rate of 60%
- $500 million to $1 billion in income = 55%
- $100 million to $500 million in income = 50%
- $50 million to $100 million in income = 45%
- All the rest: no change….
On top of this, allow all money put into capital improvements, to be deducted dollar for dollar. (Capital improvements require building things). The rational is that if you put that money into capital improvements, you are improving this nation as much as if you were directly paying taxes to it. Perhaps more so.
This can be done, but it must be done with a Democratic Executive, and over 60 Democrats in the Senate (or change the filibuster rules), and a fully Democratic House. That is what has to happen for any change. If it doesn’t happen then Americans rightly get what they deserve for being stupid. Because we all know that Republicans are quite happy with the very fact that you ARE making $18,000 less than you should and quite happy that they are the ones receiving it, not you…….
It wasn’t supposed to go that way. And it shouldn’t go that way…..
Delaware’s Unions, particularly the Building and Trades, have over-stepped. In a world where the one percent owns 45% of America’s assets, where billions are being spent to destroy unions in every capacity, where the middle class has succumbed to its worst level since 1880, the rat-demon that the Building and Trades chose to blacken, was Delaware’s biggest friend of labor, John Kowalko.
There is something very sick in Delaware’s unions… That this was ever allowed shows complicity with the 1%.
The only people hurt by not putting the power plant inside the University of Delaware, were those investors who spent $800,000 and got nothing. It would be safe to say none of them were of the 99%. When something else goes in, those jobs will be there as well. Labor did not lose one job…
Instead, we just got further proof that in Delaware, labor has been coerced, infiltrated, and is being run by the 1%… No normal working man would want to poison 30,000 people into cancer by his efforts. We all know the 1% have no qualms with killing people as long as they make over 5%…..
Organized labor is no longer working for its members. Whether it is the DSEA, AFSCME, or the Building Trades, the lack of new jobs here in Delaware is due to only one thing. Their coziness with those with money… the big 5 developers and their friend, the governor.
I know the details of why there is a history behind it this coziness.. But there was also a history behind Colonial America and Great Britain… But at some point a split had to occur.
When you have Quisling leaders telling their members that “yeah, they are doing everything they can”, and at the same time telling the Delaware Way that they “got their people handled”, it is their members who are getting royally screwed…..
It is past time to scrap old leaders. It is past time for new aggressive leadership, someone in their 30’s.. It is time for work stoppages again. It is time for muscle… When you have our ex-heroes, “organized labor”, those who built the America we had (at least up through 2000), attacking their most ardent legislative supporter in the General Assembly because he wouldn’t go along and maliciously kill 30,000 of his constituents with cancer, you have a corrupt and poorly lead organization…. They are not working for their members; they are working for Charlie Copeland!
I hereby pull my support for prevailing wage…. and urge John Kowalko and every legislator elected from the Greater Newark Area up through Hockessin to do so as well. …
Until unions get new aggressive leadership who will daringly take on the Delaware Way and grind it up and crush it, forget it, I won’t reconsider.
This will be a brief teaser for labor day… Why, is the middle class (labor) suffering so much today…..
US Corporations get around the US’s high tax rate of 35% by stashing money offshore. The average corporation pays 12.6% according to the GAO in 2010…. This means that half of America’s corporations pay higher, and half of America’s corporations pay lower… HALF OF AMERICA’S CORPORATIONS PAY LOWER THAN 12.6%? REALLY?
During America’s boom times, when the middle class was almost guaranteed a job for life with a pension plan and a gold watch, corporate taxes were set as high as 52.8 percent. Later rates were lowered to 48 percent and then 46 percent. It was only after 1986 when they were lowered to 35% that the middle class problem begin to emerge….
Across history there is a direct relationship between higher taxes and higher wages… When tax rates are high, wage rates are high. When tax rates are low, wage rates are low. (As an additional benefit, the higher the taxes, the higher the employment level goes as well.) In fact there is such public good in charging the wealthy higher taxes with no downside, that is is literally amazing we aren’t doing it. Everyone benefits out the gazoo!)
The way America’s corporations get around this 35% rate, is by stashing cash abroad. There is $2 trillion of America’s money kept overseas, and not brought home to keep it from being taxed… You pay taxes. I pay taxes, yet corporations think they shouldn’t… How fair is that?
Keep in mind. This is by their own volition. They are not forced to keep that money offshore. They could bring it back anytime they wished. They choose not to do so… And that money is what funds campaigns for cutting taxes. That money is what buys both Democrat and Republican allegiance to no-tax pledges. I would bet that some of that foreign money is in Tom Carper’s, Chris Coons’, and John Carney’s campaign slush funds right now..
$2 trillion at 35% is $700 billion that should have already been in our treasury… That is money we borrowed unnecessarily to cover our expenses which if a proper administration had been in the executive branch would have already been there, from corporations… The balance, $1.3 trillion would have then been available here and could have been invested in our nation in the form of jobs…
There was some discussion, primarily from Michelle Bachmann, as to give a blanket amnesty on these taxes to get this money back, But that is like saying you won’t prosecute a bank robber if he comes back and spends his money in your home town… What bank will he rob next? And what about all those people who had their money stolen from them? Michelle and her Republican cohorts seem not to care.
So why are corporations really renouncing their “citizenship?” Simple answer, is they are doing this so they can pocket hoards of “deferred” offshore profits without ever paying the taxes they owe on these profits….
Dave Johnson explains. “Here is how the deferral scam works. An American company sets up a non-U.S. “subsidiary” in a tax haven. That non-U.S. company gets or produces goods, services, patents, whatever, at a low price. (This often involves shifting paper (and copyrights, patents) around to make it look like profits are not made in the U.S., but in too many cases this means the U.S. company actually moves U.S. jobs, factories, production, call centers and other assets out of the country.) The subsidiary sells to the U.S. company at a high price. Most or all of the profit is therefore made by the non-U.S. subsidiary, so the profits are considered to be non-U.S. and taxes on those profits are “deferred.” This still counts as profits for the U.S. owner of that subsidiary, but the U.S. company does not have to pay taxes (they are “deferred”) until they “bring the profit home.””
These corporations see that if they renounce their citizenship before the U.S. fixes this loophole, they can just keep the money….
But does this money REALLY stay offshore??? As you would certainly expect, of course not…. The non-U.S. subsidiary company “loans” money to the U.S. parent. So all of the non-U.S. cash actually is available to the U.S. parent. But wait, there’s more. The U.S. parent pays interest to the subsidiary, which is deducted from taxes and reduces the U.S. tax bill even more. ..
If complicated, it isn’t. I hire you as my buddy in crime. I give you all my money… I say, look, I’m broke, I can’t pay any taxes! You lend me my money back to me… I spend it tax free and the money I do make, I write off as interest I give back to you… So I keep everything I make here … No taxes…
Ways to fight this… very important on this Labor Day…
A. Hold Democrats accountable. Don’t let them (Tom Carper, Chris Coons, John Carney) get away with helping corporations rob the American workers, who do pay all their taxes and who are subsidizing these corporations money-making schemes.
B. Support proposals by President Obama to use executive action to stop “income stripping” and to keep “inverted” companies from getting government contracts
C. Support the Stop Corporate Inversions Act of 2014 in the Congress… Obviously obstructed by Republicans.
D. Support a proposal to tax companies based on their percentage of sales that occur in the U.S.,..
One must wonder, why is this even in the tax code? The reason is so U.S. companies can use “offshore” profits to invest in growth. This is a win-win because we want U.S. companies to do well, and because the U.S. is supposed to benefit when profits are brought home and taxes are paid….
A very simple way to fight abuse of deferral is to charge a fee of, say, 7 percent a year on all deferred profits. The full amount of taxes is to still be paid when profits are finally brought home, but we collect an additional 7 percent a year until they are….
So enjoy your Labor Day. We’ve got some real work to begin tomorrow…..
When riots happen in Wilmington, which i’m sure they will, I hope they will learn from Ferguson Missouri’s mistake.
That mistake is to riot in your own neighborhood… That is just plain silly. Did we attack ourselves when the Japs bombed Pearl Harbor? Or did we wage war with Japan?
Why people would loot and burn in their own neighborhood, is beyond me. I write this now, so when the opportunity to riot does occur, those with above average intelligence will have a plan to move the crowd out of their impoverished neighborhood, and instead riot in neighborhoods where the a) the loot is much better, and b) those responsible for the policy that has kept you down since Clinton left office, are directly affected. If you are going to riot, you should do in on the enemies home turf. Republican Country.
A riot has a purpose. It is to change things. To make things better by creating a situation that is worse than doing nothing, therefore something has to be done. Blacks didn’t protest on the back seat of the bus. They sat in the white section. Black students didn’t do their sit-in at the black counter. They did it at the white. Black students didn’t march into Tuskegee Institute with the National Guard. They marched into the all white University of Alabama. Martin Luther King didn’t do his marches within all black neighborhoods. He marched across the bridge into downtown white Selma….
So battling police in your own neighborhood, looting your own corner store, burning out yours and your neighbor’s houses, kind of double hurts you. Not only are you being oppressed by Republican Policies, but you are also setting those who support you, back even more….
So I’m writing this to tell you where to protest so it will do you some good.
It is called Westover Hills. There aren’t many people living there, but those that do are rich and very old and feeble. They couldn’t stop a crowd breaking into their house if they tried. Plus, when you loot, you could actually get something you could sell. Whose going to buy all the banana flavored Laffy Taffy you stole from the corner market? But you could easily swipe a Bose Stereo, or maybe find a safe with a couple of hundred thousand in it.
And instead of hurting mom and pop, or Uncle Joe and Aunt Alice, you would be hurting those whose money is directly responsible for you not having a good job, a good house, a good future. Those in Westover Hills vote Republican and it is Republicans who have allowed all the money to go to the top 1%… and none to you…
If you remember the Clinton Democratic years, it was different. You, or your mom and dad, did get richer every year and if that had only continued, you would have been doing rather well by now. But you got lazy and enough of you didn’t vote for Democrats in 2000 and now, we are stuck with the rich getting richer, and you and your neighbors, getting poorer…
So take the number 20 bus from 10th and Market side of Rodney Square and in 8 minutes and 15 stops later, you will be just north of the riot zone. Do your peaceful protests there, in the middle of the streets, and shout how Republicans have ruined everyone’s lives but those of themselves… When the riot police arrive with their single tank and tear gas, make them fire it at you so all those rich billionaires have to breath it too. Then when all hell breaks loose, break into the houses and rob yourselves silly. Don’t even worry. Unlike those corner stores, everything you take here is fully insured… Destroying their property, will in days, put all Delaware’s construction workers back to work. These guys are rich. They don’t dilly-dally around.
The main point is this? When you riot in your own neighborhoods which these Republicans never venture into, it only serves to reinforce their notion of you as a sub-human race. “Look at those pathetic people”, they will say over their Maker’s Mark and Hennessey, “they’re tearing up their own neighborhood. Maybe we should keep them doing it so they move and haul their sorry asses elsewhere.”
They will not be in any hurry to lift one finger… “make them suffer more” will be their outcry. But … if you do it in THEIR neighborhood, they will at least wonder why? In their asking around, what’s the real cause of these people rioting, they will come to the conclusion that they, with all the money, need to invest more, need to hire more, need to pay more, and that if they had previously invested more in our people, this riot would never have happened. That is your key… Getting them to call their out-of-pocket legislators and say, “raise my taxes; we can’t afford any more riots like these, even if we are insured. It’s the third time this year. I’m too tired for another round of tax free shopping!”…
You can even walk there. So forget the bus. Just send the coordinates out on social media, and anyone with a phone app can get there…. It is pointless for you to have to bear the cost and trauma of what THEY caused. It makes such great sense for them to bear that cost, and after doing so, quickly create the changes you need to pull yourselves out of poverty…
So pastors and neighborhood watch leaders. Start talking your kids to riot in Westover Hills, instead of your own street. Isn’t it about time, the real criminals get to feel the heat?
They are the ones who put you there…. Make THEM pay, not those who are poor like you. And pick up something nice for me while you are there… A nice oriental carpet would be cool… blue and white if you find one.
kavips 