Monday money: The playing field
The ignorance among many North Carolinians about corporate influence in politics is surpassed only by the ignorance about economics, with Republican policy makers among the most deluded. Blinded by fantasies of American exceptionalism, GOTP lawmakers craft policies to cure problems that don't exist, while ignorance the elephants in our collective living room.
One of their most destructive fantasies is the level playing field.
Americans are much more likely than citizens of other nations to believe that they live in a meritocracy. But this self-image is a fantasy: as a report in The Times last week pointed out, America actually stands out as the advanced country in which it matters most who your parents were, the country in which those born on one of society’s lower rungs have the least chance of climbing to the top or even to the middle.
And if you ask why America is more class-bound in practice than the rest of the Western world, a large part of the reason is that our government falls down on the job of creating equal opportunity.
Here in North Carolina, Republicans are continuing to push the playing field off balance, with policies that favor wealth and corporate interest and punish middle class workers like teachers. This strategy, masterminded by Art Pope, intentionally preys on the poor, who are nothing more than dispensable pawns in a perverted business model.
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We do have a problem.
Our federal government is spending more than it can afford. It sounds like Krugman is avocating socialism. That's not popular with the American people.
What is socialism?
Is it a social safety net that helps break your fall when bankers wreck the economy beneath your feet? Pretty damned popular in my neck of the woods since a good chunk of my neighbors and I would have starved or frozen last winter without it.
Socialism is plenty popular when Wall Street investors screw themselves into a corner and threaten us global economic meltdown if we don't bail out the result of their reckless behavior.
Socialism has been given a bad reputation by those who corrupted it last century and turned it into yet another form of class tyranny. We've got plenty of socialism in this country, for millionaires and corporations. The problem as I see it is in who's benefitting and who's not benefitting from our taxes. Not to mention who's NOT been paying their fair share of said taxes.
"Money doesn't talk, it swears." ~ R. Zimmerman
Safety net Thurman?
I don't mind a safety net but does it need to be double walled, 5 layers thick?
The oppression of people is bad. Oppression by big government is just as oppressive on the people as reckless wall street business practises.
We have created a monster of Big Brother getting into our business with agencies and sub agencies all having their say to make theselves all feel important at our expense.
We do have a problem.
Big corporations are not paying their fair share of taxes. Neither are millionaires like me. We get what we pay for. Americans want more fairness.
James Protzman
Yes and closing loopholes on corporate is part of the solution.
I agree the corporate loopholes should be removed all companies should pay taxes but the corporate rate should be lowered compared to world wide rates. We need to keep ourselves competetive.
If millionaires like yourself want to pay more taxes, you have that freedom to send in a check.
We also need to cut the spending.
I send in plenty of checks.
I send in plenty of checks. But one person doing the right thing doesn't make up for an entire system that's rigged to exploit poor people. I could give every penny I have to help and it would not be enough. You're not stupid, Frank, so stop behaving like you are.
Take time to read the article I linked to and set aside your knee-jerk reactions for at least sixty seconds.
America has the lowest level of upward mobility among industrialized nations in the world. Our economic system is designed to keep poor people poor.
More to the point, the things you propose and advocate every time you open you mouth serve only to make that situation worse. We have been following your anti-socialist agenda ever since Ronald Reagan dreamed up his trickle-down nonsense. It doesn't fucking work, Frank. Never has, never will.
I did read the article
and I consider Krugman a clown. He has zero credibility with me, I'm sure the NY Times likes his stories, many people don't. The system is not rigged against poor people and contrary to what Krugman was saying, everybody has an opportunity to succeed. Do you think the poor people in Red China have better opportunities?
The dumbing down of America is from socialistic policies supported by Krugman. It destroys creativity, initiative and productivity.
Look how our federal spending keeps going up and up and up. There isn't enough revenue to support the appetite of the federal government. They continue to create more and more agencies and more and more rules and additional fees. It is out of control and needs to be reigned in.
Hey Frank
I was hoping you'd turned over a new leaf this week, but it's clear you are going to continue to assert that black is white ... and that you are smarter than all the rest of us put together.
From what I've learned about you over the past few weeks, you are an uninformed blowhard with a massive inferiority complex.
I'm done talking with you. Have a nice life.
Not at all James.
I never claimed to be smarter than everybody else. You have made that claim, just like you make the claim above.
This is what I see from the intolerant left, that they claim to have all the answers and only their point of view is legitamate. The intolerant left wants to force the rest of us to live like they want us to. Many like myself won't go along with that.
Look in a mirror
You come here with the express purpose of wrestling people over to your viewpoint, you sling insults around like candy, accuse us of being a closed-minded echo-chamber, and yet you're still allowed to continue posting.
That is the definition of tolerance, Frank.
You either want us to agree with your views, in which case it's you who are looking for your own echo-chamber. Or you don't want us to agree with your views (the most likely choice), in which case you're feeding a seriously unhealthy personality disorder that centers around being the "lone voice of reason" in an otherwise insane world.
Either way, some form of therapy should be pursued.
Wrong Steve.
I'm intent on presenting my own point of view and have no problem with people disagreeing with me. Where have a I slinged insults? I am the one being insulted just as you do here and I haven't returned the favor. This is what I mean by the intolerant left.
How else are people going to understand opposing viewpoints without hearing from the other side? Are you only wanting to hear from others who sing to the same choir book as you do? Do you think we get to understand other points of view by watching tv? It's all biased and we never get other points of view without the give and take.
Anti-matter
Frank is the center of his own universe, where he can be right and wrong at the same time. He doesn't so much have principles as he has tantrums. One day he was opposed to ethanol subsidies, and a week later he complained about rising gas prices due to the removal of an ethanol subsidy. He believes in ghosts, but not global warming. He's in the roofing business but has trouble with the concept of black body radiation. Maybe the Rhine Education Center has a CE course on the difference between black and white. "He has zero credibility with me".
Are you trying to impress me with your detective work?
It doesn't. I'm pleased that you have the time to search the internet on other people, but I promise I won't do the same on you, due to my lack of interest.
There is no inconsistency in being against ethanol subsidies and against higher taxes. I'm a consumer.
Thankyou for again demonstrating how the intolerant left behaves. You know, you guys should really keep an open mind. A closed mind is a terrible thing to waste.
I couldn't impress you
...even if if was floating inside a glowing orb in front of your eyes like Tinkerbell. More than half of the gas tax "increase" was due to the expiration of an ethanol credit. The failure of Republicans to cap the tax led to a 3.9 cents per gallon increase. The expiration of the ethanol tax credit led to a 4.5 cents increase.
Thank you for the history.
But I'm still against the increased taxes and I don't care whose fault it is, I just want our taxes cut. I don't think it appropriate that NC has the 5th highest gas taxes. We should make a law that NC gas taxes never exceed the 50% percentile of what the other states pay. I think that's fair, don't you?
You're immune to facts
We have more state maintained roads than comparable states, so no, I don't think it's fair. Compounding this is the fact that tax revenues have declined as fuel efficiency increases. We're getting less revenue per mile traveled but the roads still wear out. Most progressive have argued for a broadening of the tax base and lowering of the rates. There's always some caveat to high/low rate comparisons, like the TN sales tax for example, or comparing tax rates to countries with high rates of valued added tax for goods and services.
Krugman is a clown?
Would you care to expound on that? What is the basis for your opinion? Can you cite three specific examples of Krugman statements that you have studied and found to be untrue?
Can you explain, with national debt nearly equal to 100% of GDP, that yields on ten-year treasury bills are at an all-time low? Can you explain the zero lower bound? Perhaps you can share with us why, with zero percent interest rates, businesses aren't borrowing money to expand -- even when those same businesses are carrying huge cash balances on their books?
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Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted. -- sign on Einstein's office wall.
Can we get a "LIKE" button?
I keep wanting to click one.
"Money doesn't talk, it swears." ~ R. Zimmerman