Segami
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
|
Fri Mar-04-11 08:05 AM
Original message |
TAX THE RICH!! " Reframing The FAKE Battles " |
|
:smoke: Tax the Rich!
The surge of pro-union activism in Wisconsin is exciting and inspiring, especially coming on the heels of liberation movements in the Middle East. But the struggle there is also frightening. The assault on public-sector unions by Republicans and the billionaires who fund them is not just an assault on public-sector unions; it’s an assault on unions in general. And it’s not just an assault on unions in general; it’s an assault on the working class. The struggle in Madison and beyond is starting to look like the culmination of decades of class struggle from above, with the ruling class aiming now to deal a final death-blow to what remains of an organized working class in the United States.
Building a movement to resist these assaults will be the work of years, even decades. A good place to start is to reframe the fake battles around budgets and deficits to reveal them for what they are: class warfare from above. A recent discussion on the email list of the United Association for Labor Educators provides a great starting point for such a reframing. Steve Schnapp, a veteran popular economics organizer with our neighbors, United for a Fair Economy, had this to say:
There is plenty of money in the United States, and in Wisconsin. It is at the top. The disparity in financial assets is what is hurting us—the top 1% has more financial assets than the bottom 95%. Middle-class wages have been flat for 30 years, while the wealth has floated to the top. It was conservative values that caused the global economic collapse: lack of regulation and a greed-is-good ethic; massive military spending (projected cost of Iraq: $3 trillion, projected cost of Afghanistan: $1 trillion); a systematic shift of taxes off of wealth and onto work; and a privatized, for-profit health-care industry. All the sacrifices in this economic downturn are being borne by the bottom 80%, while the top 1% live like kings.
And from Fred Glass of the California Federation of Teachers:
In putting the target back on the 1%, the best arguments are to point out that the top 1% has doubled its share of the national income in the past twenty years, while receiving massive tax cuts. The 1% took all this new money and instead of investing it in productive enterprises in the United States, took it 1) offshore and 2) into financial speculation, which ultimately crashed the economy. State and local public budget deficits are due in the short term to the recession, but in the long term because the money that used to fund our services has been redirected into the pockets of the rich. (Example from my state: the top 1%’s share in California from Congress and Obama’s extension of the Bush tax cuts is $9 billion per year, or one-third of the state’s budget deficit over the next 18 months.) When Walker and the other conservatives say “we’re broke,” they’re lying. “We” have plenty of money in this country. It’s just in the wrong pockets.
cont'
http://dissentingdemocrat.wordpress.com/2011/03/04/tax-the-rich/
.
|
xchrom
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
|
Fri Mar-04-11 08:06 AM
Response to Original message |
Poboy
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
|
Fri Mar-04-11 08:08 AM
Response to Original message |
reformist2
(998 posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
|
Fri Mar-04-11 08:12 AM
Response to Original message |
3. It can't be said enough: "We are broke" is the Big Lie. |
Hannah Bell
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
|
Sat Mar-05-11 02:46 AM
Response to Reply #3 |
elocs
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
|
Fri Mar-04-11 08:17 AM
Response to Original message |
4. From what I have heard businesses are holding 1 trillion in cash, but are not hiring. |
|
With the Bush tax cuts the rich got the biggest tax cut in history, so where were/are the jobs? Not here in the U.S.
|
socialist_n_TN
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
|
Fri Mar-04-11 02:44 PM
Response to Reply #4 |
15. The figure I've heard, from several different sources,......... |
|
is 2 Trillion. TWO TRILLION DOLLARS! They're not hiring because there's profit in unemployment.
|
vi5
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
|
Fri Mar-04-11 08:22 AM
Response to Original message |
5. Recommended, but good luck with that... |
|
These are now the Obama tax cuts for the wealthy. Sorry, but he owns them. He signed them, he didn't veto them and he was o.k. with them. So if anyone thinks he's going to reverse course, or even slightly advocate or nudge in the direction of reversing course.....not going to happen.
|
Raksha
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
|
Fri Mar-04-11 08:26 AM
Response to Original message |
dkf
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
|
Fri Mar-04-11 08:35 AM
Response to Original message |
7. The biggest tax on work above wealth is the social security tax. |
|
Personally I think Ronald Reagan engineered the Social Security tax surplus to dellberately make the working class pay more of the taxes that run this country. What a scam on us.
|
boston bean
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
|
Fri Mar-04-11 08:37 AM
Response to Original message |
Bosso 63
(759 posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
|
Fri Mar-04-11 08:43 AM
Response to Original message |
9. Death penalty for Wall Street criminals, |
|
then compromise with just taxing the rich.
|
Segami
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
|
Fri Mar-04-11 12:00 PM
Response to Reply #9 |
12. Yet, we haven't seen a single wall street crook charged to date. |
Bosso 63
(759 posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
|
Fri Mar-04-11 08:45 PM
Response to Reply #12 |
24. Steal a little and they call you a thief; |
|
Steal a lot and they call you King! -Bob Dylan
|
Segami
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
|
Sat Mar-05-11 12:49 AM
Response to Reply #24 |
25. And they ALL want to be KING! |
malaise
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
|
Fri Mar-04-11 08:50 AM
Original message |
|
Obama should have let that Bush tax cut sunset.
|
Segami
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
|
Fri Mar-04-11 09:00 AM
Response to Original message |
11. That should be on the lips of every Democratic politician in the coming 2011 elections. |
|
Commitments should be given that THEY WILL VOTE TO ALLOW THE BUSH TAX CUTS FOR THE RICH TO SUNSET. That would single a beginning in the right direction for the middle class and poor.
|
livvy
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
|
Fri Mar-04-11 08:50 AM
Response to Original message |
10. Share the Wealth... and a few other frames |
|
Edited on Fri Mar-04-11 08:52 AM by livvy
Wage Equality, End "Class" Bullying, Share the Profits Website for articles http://www.dollarsandsense.org/I thought this was interesting State Workers Face a Compensation Penalty (great graph included) http://dollarsandsense.org/archives/2011/0311pollack.htmledited to add some thoughts
|
maxrandb
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
|
Fri Mar-04-11 12:12 PM
Response to Original message |
|
I've said it before and I'll say it again...by punishing and denegrating labor unions, the Wingnuts are doing what they accuse the folks who demand "reasonable" taxation of the wealthy are doing. THEY ARE PUNISHING SUCCESS.
Average American Middle-class workers have teamed together and have been "successful" in negotiating better wages, benefits, the 40 hour work week and paid vacation. BUT, the Wingnuts don't acknowledge that kind of success.
They need to stop "Punishing the Success" of the Average American Middle-class worker!
|
snot
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
|
Fri Mar-04-11 02:30 PM
Response to Original message |
14. K&R'd. Back in the 1970's, people were predicting that because of productivity gains expected |
|
Edited on Fri Mar-04-11 02:34 PM by snot
. . . to take place because of automation, computerization and other technological advances, the average person would have a choice between either working many fewer hours or enjoying a much higher standard of living.
Well, the productivity gains certainly came to pass, but the average person's hours worked are HIGHER, yet we're receiving fewer inflation-adjusted dollars for our efforts. At ever-increasing rates over the last four decades, massive amounts of the additional wealth that WE created has gone into the pockets of the top few percent.
|
Hannah Bell
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
|
Sat Mar-05-11 02:45 AM
Response to Reply #14 |
Hannah Bell
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
|
Fri Mar-04-11 03:00 PM
Response to Original message |
leftstreet
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
|
Fri Mar-04-11 03:06 PM
Response to Original message |
Initech
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
|
Fri Mar-04-11 03:09 PM
Response to Original message |
18. This is destroying our economy, do you get that teabagger fucknuts??? |
Segami
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
|
Fri Mar-04-11 04:00 PM
Response to Reply #18 |
19. I think we should be directing some of that vitriol to those who voted in favor of extending |
|
The Bush Tax Cuts for the RICH!
|
Initech
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
|
Fri Mar-04-11 04:58 PM
Response to Reply #19 |
20. Oh I completely agree! |
|
They vote against tax cuts for the rich but take all their anger out on people who barely make a living as it is. I was watching the Daily Show the other day and Jon was playing a bunch of clips from Fux Business attacking teachers and all I could think was "Man these guys have fucking balls to say this shit." :wow:
|
Drahthaardogs
(482 posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
|
Fri Mar-04-11 06:05 PM
Response to Original message |
21. There used to be folks here who made Bumper Stickers. |
|
I would really like one that said "TAX THE RICH"
Are those guys still around?
|
Electric Monk
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
|
Sat Mar-05-11 03:07 AM
Response to Reply #21 |
|
Edited on Sat Mar-05-11 03:08 AM by Electric Monk
|
Imagevision
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
|
Fri Mar-04-11 06:07 PM
Response to Original message |
22. Tax cuts to rich add how much to deficit? |
tblue37
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
|
Fri Mar-04-11 06:53 PM
Response to Original message |
23. The writer forgot to mention that some of that excess money at the top |
|
went into paying for propaganda and buying off politicians.
|
DU
AdBot (1000+ posts) |
Mon May 13th 2024, 03:10 AM
Response to Original message |