So I've been thinking of this proposal to tax the top 1% to pay down sovereign debt

[dkf]

It kind of makes sense to do this for the 1% because it makes a whole bunch of governments, and their financial institutions solvent, keeping the system from collapsing.

This would really be a bailout of the system by the super rich so instead of govts coming up with the funds, because really they don't have the wherewithal to do it, the 1% do but they get a payback of not seeing destabilizing defaults and the resulting financial Armageddon.

And the super rich probably own a lot of the bonds that get paid down or the institutions that will get paid. It's a feedback loop.

[Scuba]

1. The 1% would also benefit in that we would not eat them. n/t

[pinboy3niner]

2. Yeah--there is that downside for us :(

[theoldman]

3. Nor cut off their heads.

[rfranklin]

4. Vive la revolution! Off with their heads!

Madame LaFarge where are you?

[JDPriestly]

5. You are so right!

It's the super-rich who have the most interest in saving the system. They should simply take their medicine and stop complaining.

They profited from the mess they made. The rest of us did not.

It strikes me as so foolish for people to actually believe that millions of homeowners went to banks and mortgage companies and somehow forced those banks and mortgages companies to give loans that the homeowners would never be able to repay.

No. That's not how things work. A person, homeowner or whoever, goes to the bank and requests a loan. The bank verifies that the person has the means to pay down the mortgage. It's a judgment call for the bank. The person requesting the loan just waits for the bank's decision. Loan applications are turned down all the time.

As for government requiring banks to make risky loans. Nonsense. The government answers to the banks, not the other way around.

Besides, a lot of banks including a lot of credit unions, did not make these foolish loans.

The bankers and their wealthy investors caused the mess we are in. They need to get us (the whole world) out of it.

If I drop the Thanksgiving turkey on the floor, it's my responsibility to pick it up and find a way to save what I can. Same for the rich. They drop the turkey. They pick it up and make sure everyone has something clean to eat.

[unblock]

6. first we need to buy ourselves quite a lot of congresscritters

i mean, great idea, but how does it become law?

[dkf]

7. That was a proposal for a worldwide tax. What we need is for the Europeans to do this.

[socialist_n_TN]

8. Tax the wealthy at 99% of their wealth........

They'd still have MILLIONS of dollars to live on.