The presumption of mainstream economists and business journalists (as well as political and economic elites) is that the capitalist machine is the only possible one, and that it will work. Except it’s not: corporate profits have been growing (the red line in the chart above) but investment has been falling.
Fairer Taxes and Inheritance for all! (tags)
A few people own the majority of the wealth, the rest share what remains. Star economist Thomas Piketty wants to change this. He has developed reform proposals that distribute the wealth of our society more fairly and make our lives more democratic. The most important pillars of his reforms are economic co-determination, fairer taxes and a stronger welfare state.
The Solution is Social Housing (tags)
The Swedish government set a goal of building 1 million new units in the mid-1960s when the population was only 8 million (or about the same size as New York City). Despite a few setbacks and problems, this goal was achieved in less than a decade — We suggest that 10 million new municipal housing units would be a viable ten-year goal.
Capial in the 2020s (with Thomas Piketty) (tags)
Inequality is not an accident. It’s not like the weather. It actually is being driven by the way capitalism is functioning. You know what we need? We need state intervention, we need government action, and we need that to be very, big. He proposes a wealth tax of 2 percent.
Homelessness: Structural Violence in a Rich Country (tags)
People who have no housing and become homeless in such a rich country are handed over to "structural violence." Nowhere does the capitalist economic system fail so blatantly as in the supply of living space since apartments in Germany are treated like sausages.
Pandemic and the Policy Roots of a Steady State Economy (tags)
We are in the midst of a radical disruption and nurturing the roots of a just transition. Whichever way events unfold over the coming years, it’s clear that returning to the pre-pandemic status quo is less realistic and more difficult than embracing the change that’s well underway.
Tax evasion and avoidance and Democracy at a tipping point (tags)
The biggest losses from tax evasion and avoidance are caused by multinational corporations, followed by wealthy individuals. Sums in the triple-digit billions up to one trillion. Euros are evaded annually in the EU. 21-32 trillion US dollars are undeclared via tax havens
Social consequences of the Corona crisis in Austria (tags)
Two million Austrians suffer income losses from the Corona crisis. Good news comes today from New Zealand (half-price transit), Finland (affordable apartments for the homeless) and Great Britain (four-day work with five-day pay). This good news is reported by Scoop.me.
What 2022 is about: eliminating conservatives with progressive economic policies (tags)
A labor shortage that is slowly taking shape and the demand for progressive taxation of high wealth, which is being championed in many countries, will make it possible to change the economy and society in Austria and Europe for the better. They will help us eradicate poverty.
Bidenomics, One Year Later (tags)
The Center for American Progress takes a different approach, examining the successes of President Biden’s bold economic policies and calling for the continuation and expansion of those policies in the years ahead by making permanent expansions to the safety net.
Education neoliberalism disguised as social policy (tags)
The share of the workforce with a college, university or technical college education is rising. The ever-increasing demands on skilled workers and the needs of the labor market are also driving up the cost of education. It is right and necessary to ask questions about financing.
Those who benefit from Corona should pay too (tags)
It's a dangerous trend for a society that is already tending to drift apart and where tensions could become ever greater: Corona has caused the differences between rich and poor to grow, even in Germany. Those who have anyway will become richer in the pandemic.
Corona crisis turns into social crisis and The Taboo in Glasgow (tags)
"We are about to drive the world to the wall at full speed." Glasgow creates only lukewarm symptom therapy The example shows that hardly anyone dares to seriously name and research the basic problems of economic growth and population growth.
Renaissance of the Social Market Economy (tags)
A social market economy is based on two political pillars: (1) taming the market dynamics via regulation and (2) mitigating its consequences in distribution policy. (3) The development and care of an economic culture of moderation and fairness in dealing with one another forms the third, the cultural pillar of taming and civilizing
Collective working-time reduction is long overdue (tags)
The overall economic fact is further that from 1960 to 2019 the volume of work (despite reunification) increased only from 56.2 to 62.6 billion hours (by 11.4%), while the potential labor force grew from 26.3 to 46.5 million persons, i.e. by 76.8%.
Shrinkage means the voluntary downsizing of the national economy, including a reduction in gross domestic product. "Voluntary" here indicates a preference for voluntaristic solutions - though not as individualistic and unplanned where well-to-do opt out of the consumerist market model.
We are all social democrats now. Almost all of us (tags)
A few weeks ago, IMF chief Kristalina Georgieva said rich households should pay higher taxes. Inequality in income and wealth had reached proportions that threatened social peace. The head of the IMF, Alfred Kammer, called on the German government, as in previous years, to increase its investments.
Austerity's Hidden Purpose & From California Economics to Bidenomics (tags)
For governments pursuing austerity, spending cuts mean lower national income and fewer taxes. Unlike a household or a business, if the government cuts its spending during tough times, it is cutting its revenues, too.
Corporate Tax Avoidance in the First Year of the Trump Tax Law (tags)
The tax breaks identified in this report are highly concentrated among a few very large corporations. Just 25 companies claimed $37.1 billion in tax breaks in 2018. That’s almost exactly half the $73.9 billion in tax subsidies claimed by all 379 companies in our study.
Crisis rent instead of debt trap (tags)
Store closings, event cancellations, slumping orders, short-time work and job losses, especially in precarious employment, have left many unable to afford their apartments or rented commercial space. Despite initial easing, there is no end in sight.
How should our economy grow? (tags)
If, on the other hand, the inequality distribution is reduced via increased spending on education, positive growth effects may result. In addition, too much inequality can destabilize the political system through social unrest, creating great uncertainty for investors, for example with regard to the protection of property rights.
The discussion about Corona (tags)
Corona can only become a kairos if we gain the theoretical capacity of recovery and create the conditions for a transformation. Taking the healthcare system away from the markets and obliging large companies to be oriented in the common good would be steps to infrastructure socialism.
US billionaires got $1 trillion richer during Corona (tags)
A recent study by the Institute for Policy Studies determined that the 647 billionaires in the USA have been able to increase their assets by $960 billion since the beginning of the corona crisis in mid-March by the cut-off date of November 17.
A fair and solid crisis financing (tags)
The contrast between the EU and the US in COVID financing could hardly be greater. McDonald's operators, Marathon Oil (over $400 million), Exxon, Chevron and Sea World received relief and will reduce their future tax payments. Tax gifts characterize the US way of corruption and contradict these recommendations.
Los Angeles Rent Relief, Deadline Tomorrow! (tags)
LA County and the City of LA have rental relief programs, and you need to apply to get it.
Extremely Growing Inequality Destroys Democracy (tags)
When one percent have half of the wealth, mistrust and cynicism drown out public spirit and trust between the generations. A fair tax system means ending tax havens, micro-second trading, stock buybacks and insider trading.
The welfare state - anchor of stability in the crisis (tags)
Work, income and wealth must be distributed more fairly, and a number of "rules of the game" in our society must be changed. The upheaval forced by the crisis will hopefully force even hard-boiled defenders of the existing to rethink.
Social Inequality and Universal Basic Income (tags)
The welfare state in Germany is not as efficient as in the Nordic countries. In Germany, more than twice as many persons are at risk of income poverty - particularly children and single parents. We have to make a decision: entrepreneurial paradise or a little less faith in the market.
Sowing Egoism and Harvesting Trump (tags)
Thomas Straubhaar urges rethinking globalization and inequality. "We have believed too long in the theory that free trade, free entrepreneurship and little state automatically lead to balance and that everyone would be rewarded in the end...We need a new reconciliation of social values."
Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren and the Wealth Tax (tags)
Warren's proposal earmarks a 2% tax on wealth between $50 million and a billion dollars and a 3% tax on wealth over a billion. Between 1930 and 1980, top incomes were taxed at 81% and top inherited wealth at 74%. Obviously, this did not destroy American capitalism.
The Crisis of Democracy (tags)
Decisions affecting social development are in the hands of private investors and state policy depends on their actions. The increasingly unequal income and wealth distribution was the result of a strategic government policy that reacted to a capitalist crisis.
Public Good or Private Wealth (tags)
The deep and growing chasm between the rich and the poor is not an accident. This gulf is the result of political decisions. Many rich countries have lowered or abolished property taxes. Governments reduce spending on education and health care.
Capitalism and Worldwide Inequality (tags)
Thomas Piketty's motto "Inequality is always a problem when it is excessive" introduces the new World Inequality Report. Inequalities of income and wealth swell globally and in individual regions and nations.
The Struggle against Aggressive Tax Avoidance (tags)
Experts estimate a fifth of world wealth is hidden from the tax authorities of states and considerable parts of international corporate profits are not taxed. Google and Amazon parked billions in shadow financial centers. Tax avoidance makes a functioning state impossible
Refused sharing and rediscovery of sharing are signs of this time. "This economy kills." So Pope Francis judges socio-economic conditions. Taxing the rich is vital. With additional revenue, workers would not feel threatened by immigrants
Be very careful about tax reform. (tags)
Tax reform might INCREASE YOUR TAXES instead of reducing them. Please be sure that Obamacare individual mandate repeal is in bill before voting for it.
"The Public Trust Doctrine," Wealth Inequality, and Iraq (tags)
"The Public Trust Doctrine" is a fundamental precursor to modern environmental law. The doctrine has often been characterized as an attribute of sovereignty that carries constitutional force.
In Praise of Taxes by Nicola Liebert (tags)
Our tax system p[romotes private wealth and impoverishes the community. Even if no one pays them gladly, most are aware taxes int he interest of the community are sensible. "Taxes are what we pay for a civilized society" (Oliver Wendell Holmes, former Supreme Court justice).
Philippines: Duterte’s gravy TRAIN for the rich (tags)
The tax system in the Philippines is biased towards the rich. The Duterte government’s new tax reform package House Bill (HB) 5636 or the Tax Reform Acceleration and Inclusion Act (TRAIN), recently adopted by the Lower House of Congress, further burdens the poor – the unemployed and under-employed -- and low-income earners.
Economic Stagnation and its Mastery (tags)
Corporate profits explode while investments stagnate.Social housing declines with privatization. According to neoliberal theory, higher profits lead to grater investments and more jobs. In truth, higher profits lead to more use of tax havens and companies buying back their stock.
Trump's "Greatest Tax Reform of History" - A Windfall for Millionaires and Corporations (tags)
Under the Trumpian tax reform, the corporate tax rate could fall from 35 to 15%. The drastic reduction of the corporate tax will lead to lower tax revenues of $2 trillion in 10 years. "This is not fiscal policy but a robbery led by Trump."
Social Security works. Don't let Trump destroy it (tags)
Millions of people count on Social Security for their survival. Over 60 percent of seniors rely on Social Security payments for at least half their income. Approximately one-third of seniors rely on Social Security payments for at least 90 percent of their income.
Poverty Returns with Misguided Policy (tags)
The state should represent the public interest and yet private or special interests are in the driver's seat. Trump's proposed 2018 budget is a sledgehammer with cuts to Meals-on-Wheels, school lunches, WIC food assistance, National Institute for Health, EPA, PBS and Legal Services
Video: Panel Discussion on Income Inequality, 53 min (tags)
Panel Discussion on Income Inequality Kathryn Edin, author of $2.00 a Day: Living on Almost Nothing in America, and Stefanie DeLuca, co-author of Coming of Age in the Other America, talked about income inequality. They spoke at the 15th annual Annapolis Book Festival.
For an Unconditional Basic Income (tags)
The basic income corrects the distribution effects of the labor market. It takes something from the higher paid to give to those who earn little or nothing. A leftist fights for a just social system. Robots and artificial intelligence replace human labor.
Rethinking Economic Policy! (tags)
The economic crisis calls for social-democratic answers. The fading mass purchasing power (in Germany) is due to the increasing inequality of income and wealth. Deregulation promotes social problems like precariousness and greater income inequality.
My letter to JJJ on JJJ (tags)
I wrote this as part of the #PricedOut campaign that's being run as part of a larger push to get JJJ passed. I am leaning toward supporting JJJ, but have these criticisms about the law.
Growth Criticism and Reduced Working Hours (tags)
Today's growth critics speak of the necessity of a post-growth society, a "renunciation society" or at least of a "green" capitalist model... A political transformation process is necessary. The economist John Maynard Keynes dreamt of a time when his grandchildren would only have 15hr wk.
The Unending Story of the Achievers (tags)
All personal and corporate success depended on state investments in roads, schools, hospitals, community centers, airwaves, food safety and water quality. The achievers' myth ignores this, Austrian researcher Bruno Rossmann explains.
Basic Income: 80% of New Jobs are Low Wage (tags)
We must make crucial changes and need new approaches. Soon we willnot crate bad jobs but no jobs if the developments of 3D-printers, autonomous cars and further automation continue. Technical solutions will suddenly make countless people unemployed.
Growing Inequality Harms the Political Economy (tags)
Neoliberalism and finance market capitalism encourage creating money out of thin air, exploding inequality, precarious work and environmental destruction. Wages are not only a cost factor but an important demand factor leading to either investments or social blight.
The Social State Benefits All of Us (tags)
The social state can on ly fulfill expectations when financed on a broad and just basis. The social state must be adjusted to do justice to the pressing challenges.."The social state is the greatest cultural achievement in the 20th century"
Economic Inequality Divides Economics and Society (tags)
An unequal distribution of income paralyzes the whole economy... Redistribution from top to bottom in a national economy ultimately depends on which social groups can enforce their interests more strongly.
Indigenous Hispanic areas also Economic Rights US (tags)
Many Central and South American countries claim to have indigenous populations. This is true and false. Panama, Costa Rica Venezuela and Colombia have rates under 2% each. The substantialsubstantial populations are in
Economic Crises as Sicknesses and Catastrophes (tags)
The 2008 financial crisis is often wrongly described as a "state debt crisis" where cause and effect are inverted and economists and the market are released from responsibility. Sickness and catastrophe metaphors dominate discussion
Unconditional Basic Income Raises the Right Questions (tags)
In the basic income society, work is what one wants, not what one must. Work is the contribution I make, not the obligation I meet to survive..."Alone I can become free but I cannot become free alone. The drama of becoming free is a social drama" (Swiss philosopher Stefan Brotbeck)
Why Should We Support the Idea of Universal Basic Income? (tags)
Work and income have already uncoupled because of automation and the digital world. The basic income will lead to guaranteeing everyone the right to work and to share socially, economically and politically in a less stressful and less authoritarian economy.
SYRIZA Sellout Triggers Internal Party Revolt (tags)
Greece
Wealth is not a Private Affair (tags)
The US faces a revenue- and a war-spending crisis. The top tax rate was over 70% from 1938 to 1982; corporations put trillions in tax havens. Alternative economics emphasize profit maximizing is not profit making. In financial capitalism,Profits explode, not investments.
On the End of Capitalism (tags)
The bridge from capitalism to the new "post-growth economy" is lacking. Hardly anyone reflects about the process of transformation...If the climate should be spared, flying cannot be a human right. The R-word will be unavoidable again: renunciation.
Average wages in the US are lower than 30 years ago. Profits and income inequality explode, not investments. The austerity policy that has always worsened unemployment and economic growth is promoted as without alternative by German chancellor Merkel.
Less Growth and Less Work (tags)
French economist Thomas Piketty described neoliberalism or finance capitalism as an "inequality machine." Profits soar and investments are delayed. Keynes spoke of three phases: investments, surplus and stagnation. Reduced working hours is the only way to full employment.
Growth Criticism and Social-Ecological Transformation (tags)
Unlike a chair, an idea can be shared by a whole people. Words can be like spears breaking frozen souls. (Kafka) Education is the great transformer (John Kenneth Galbraith). Economics as taught today is like brainwashing. (Ulrich Thielemann) Incentives to investing in the real economy are vital after the phase of credit- and bubble prosperity.
Reviving an Explosive Topic: Reducing Work Hours (tags)
In truth, the introduction of the eight-hour day, the free Saturday and the fifth vacation week (in Austria) did not cause economic crises. Reduced working hours means more distribution justice for the general public and more quality of life for workers.
Rebirth of the One-Thousandth Society (tags)
The richest thousandth (0.1%) could increase their share in the total wealth very intensely since the 1980s. Their share is as much as the bottom 90%..While the millionaires increased their wealth enormously, the mass of the population is exposed to the continuing economic crisis.
Thomas Piketty and the Growing Inequality in Capitalism (tags)
"When capital profit is permanently higher than the growth rate for production and income which was the case up to the 19th century, capitalism automatically produces unacceptable and arbitrary inequalities that radically put in question the achievement principle..."
America
Unconditional Basic Income and Solidarity Economies (tags)
Without the social contract, we become wolves to one another. Basic economic, social and cultural human rights include the right to participate. Everyone should share in the wealth and prosperity brought by automation, labor-saving technology and higher productivity.
Economics is Onesided and Reactionary (tags)
The homo oeconomicus cannot be our hope and is not desirable or future-friendly. The economic benefits to the capitalist entrepreneur are in contradiction to nature and to the person..We face completely oversized financial markets that have uncoupled from the real economy creating value.
Video: The long dark shadows of plutocracy - the NYC housing crisis (tags)
Housing as a human right is subverted by the right of speculation, said Arnold Kunzli, emeritus Swiss professor, in 1990. (http://portland.indymedia.org/en/2003/06/266635.shtml)
The empirical-historical analysis of the top incomes and their wealth are in the center with Thomas Piketty's "Capital" (2014). The share of the top 10% was never below 60% from 1917 to 2012. A wealth tax is vital to reverse the exploding inequality.
How Universal Basic Income Will Save Us From the Robot Uprising (tags)
As we head deeper into the 21st century, it's becoming painfully obvious that there are fewer and fewer jobs available. As noted by Marshall Brain, founder of How Stuff Works and author of Manna, there are more working-age people in the U.S. receiving some form of welfare than there are working-age people who do not.
New thoughts on capital in the twenty-first century, 21 min (tags)
Thomas Piketty is the author of the 2014 bestseller "Capital in the 21st Century."
No Redistribution Without the Social State (tags)
In Austria 30 percent of the gross domestic product is spent on social services (not including education spending)...Since the 1990s social security has been increasingly discussed as a financial burden and less as a social achievement
Why a Global Wealth Tax Reduces Inequality (tags)
The distribution of income and assets is one of the most controversial themes today. History teaches us that economic forces press in different directions - either to more equality or away from equality. Which will prevail depends on what political decisions we make.
The wealth of others has become more a problem and less an incentive. Capital is blind, Thomas Piketty says. Capital grows faster than the economy. Differences in wealth are inherent in capitalism but do not represent a natural law. A society can accept them or act against them.
The unconditional basic income - a social concept for Europe (tags)
The time is right for alternative economics after the "money-out-of-nothing" phase. Access could replace excess and enough could replace more. www.basicincome.org and www.freembtranslations.net
A Frenchman Admonishes Americans to Equality (tags)
With his book and the data, Thomas Piketty has shaken the self-understanding of American society.. In 2010 the richest one percent had around 20 percent of the total income. In the 1970s the share was under 10 percent.
Political Myths and Elite Misanthropy (tags)
In his new book "Political Myths and Elite Misanthropy," professor Herbert Schui explains the myth of the achiever, the myth of state indebtedness, the myth of the market and competition and the myth of market conforming democracy.
Tax man's gloomy message: Thomas Piketty (tags)
“In 1900,” he said, “most people would have said a progressive income tax would never happen.” But it happened.
After HUge Tax Cuts for the Rich, Kansas's Economy is Foundering (tags)
Things are also getting worse for the neediest people in the state. Brownback’s official response to the state’s poverty problem was a brief report that advocated fighting poverty by encouraging traditional family structures through eight-hour “pre-marital education” classes for couples
Free Internet Book: All on Board: Making Inclusive Growth Happen, 202pp (tags)
An inclusive, democratic society is a vision of a future of generalized security, community centers, free Internet books, exchanging roles, qualitative growth and soft power. Unlike a chair, an idea can be shared by a whole people. Without a vision, people become bones for Coca Cola.
The Neoliberal Model: Profits without Investments (tags)
According to the neoliberal myth, higher profits would lead to more investments and more jobs. In truth, higher profits lead to corporations buying back their stock and currency speculation. In truth, higher investments lead to higher profits.
Obamacare
Obama's MyRA Proposal: Hold the Cheers (tags)
class war
NAFTA's Deplorable Legacy (tags)
NAFTA
The unconditional basic income as a postpatriarchal project (tags)
"The unconditional basic income does not provide a readymade solution to the imbalance of genders that has grown over the centuries. Rather it is a postpatriarchal project in a strict sense as it does not present a magic bullet but counts on the freedom and ability of women and men..."
The Soup Kitchen State Grows (tags)
Old age poverty is the result of dismantling the social state...What is lacking for the impacted is justice. Need justice and distribution justice have always existed in the political realm. The task of the social state was to fight poverty and protect citizens.
America's Economic Dark Side (tags)
class war
The United States of Inequality (tags)
class war
Filipino workers challenge to Aquino (tags)
Three years ago, President Aquino promised to substantially reduce poverty, create quality and secure jobs, and end the reign of impunity, among others. He promised “inclusive growth”. Workers have had enough of these broken promises.
Obama's Anti-Populist Agenda (tags)
class war
Less Growth = More Happiness (tags)
The question about alternatives to the dominant western model of life and greowth becomes increasingly urgent together with the looming-or already occurred-surpassing of Peak Oil. New measurements of prosperity include life satisfaction, access to health care and education
class war
Asset Distribution and the Financial Crisis (tags)
A perverse system arose out of the interaction of deregulation of the financial system and polarization of asset distribution. A reform of the financial system can only be part of the repair of the system. When wages grow again with productivity, an economic balance will be possible
Growth Euphoria and Distribution Reality (tags)
The chasm between poor and rich opens even more. The uncoupling of growth and quality of life on one side and productivity and work volumes on the other side make clear that "business-as-usual" leads to growing problems. German GDP grew 300% with 20% fewer workers.
Tax Evasion and the Social State (tags)
The good social state invests in the social, in the education of children of the new lower classes... Taxes is the price we pay for a civilized society (Oliver Wendell Holmes).. The state share must increase in a developed society since ever greater demands are made on the state.
Austerity When Stimulus Is Needed (tags)
class war
The Great Tax-Cut Experiment and Corporate Taxes as % of Profits (tags)
Comparisons with Other Countries: Americans pay a smaller proportion of total income in taxes than do people in any other advanced capitalist economy. as in Western European countries.
America's Deplorable State of the Union (tags)
class war
Social Inequality in America (tags)
injustice
New York Times Wages War on Medicare and Social Security (tags)
class war
Institutionalized Inequality in America (tags)
class war
Fiscal Cliff Postmortems (tags)
class war
Responsible Fiscal Cliff Resolution (tags)
class war
Unconditional Basic Income is not a Wrong Way: Book Review (tags)
Every step at preventing poverty is also a step at strengthening consumer demand. Steps toward basic income can achieve that change of distribution demanded in the book.
Opinion: Independence, Propertylessness, and Basic Income (tags)
author: Karl Widerquist e-mail:e-mail: marc1seed@yahoo.com A free Internet book "Youth and Skills: Putting Education to Work" (October 2012) is available from UNESCO.org. http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0021/002180/218003e.pdf
Economists Argue over Distribution Question (tags)
More and more economists take distribution questions seriously. When inequality becomes too great in a national economy, the economy becomes unstable. Private indebtedness and income inequality massively increased in the US Financial markets uncoupled from real economy
US Election: Electing the "Lesser Evil" Obama or an Alternative to Big Business (tags)
In his contempt for people who think they have a right to state assistance, Romney shows himself to be a reactionary capitalist who slept through or represses a whole epoch of human development. Art 25 of the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights affirms the rights to food and housing.
Financing the Government: Romney Must Get the Message (tags)
The role of the state and the necessity of common action is a main theme in the political debate. Regulation ensures the same rules for everyone in competition. Conservative politicians in the US underrate the importance of publically provided education, technology and infrastructure.
class war
Right to Rent and Social State as Prosperity Motor (tags)
The Scandinavian countries show that more social equality can be combined with more education and economic growth and less unemployment and poverty. Humanity is rich when wealth is shared.
Repaired Shoes or New Shoes (tags)
The economy demonstrates-in the Marxist sense-its primacy over politics. Whose interests are realized? New holes opened up after every bailout action in the last four years. Greece is only the tip of the iceberg. The debtor is not to blame for the disaster.
Inequalities, Taxes, and More Inequalities (tags)
Thanks to Occupy, most working people are well aware of the growing inequalities in wealth. But for those who lack the specifics, former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich provides a useful overview: “…the rich have been getting a larger and larger portion of total income. From 9 percent in 1980, the top 1 percent’s take increased to 23.5 percent by 2007. CEOs who in the 1970s took home 40 times the compensation of average workers now rake in 350 times.” (“Confessions of a Class Warrior,” August 22, 2010).
New Economic Thinking - Turning Away from the Market Fetish (tags)
"New economic thinking" rejects the view of the person as "homo oeconomicus" reduced to maximization of individual benefits and offers a more comprehensive and realistic concept in which justice, norms, routines and emotions appear. "Homo recipocans" is an alternative.
Austerity has never worked (tags)
It’s not just about the current economic environment. History shows that slashing budgets always leads to recession [...]
The Loss of Respect of the Economic Elite is Enormous (tags)
The embedding of the market and the economy in the civil society is the challenge of the 21st century. Tax shelters or havens must be closed. The wealthiest 400 Americans have more wealth than 150 million people. Time for Plan B, alternative economics and reduced working hours!
Predatory Capitalism Failed (tags)
class war
SB 1220, the poverty pimp's affordable housing sham (tags)
Poor people and the public at large are being urged to immediately contact the members of the Senate Appropriations Committee, to tell the Senators that they should not pass "SB 1220 the HOMeS Act," unless nonprofit housing organizations and nonprofit housing developers in California are banned from imposing minimum income requirements against the poor!
Entitled To No Blowback (tags)
The notions that we need to be more aware of how our tax dollars are spent and that we should have more power and control over expenditures where taxes are concerned, have become increasingly popular in recent years. This is especially true since the onset of the recession and the disastrous dual wars that were, up until just recently, paid for out of taxes despite the fact Iraq turned out to be such a billion dollar mess. The idea we shouldn't spend willy nilly and should have more accountability makes sense and one wonders what caused us to so easily take our eye off the ball regarding this. It's regarded as a Republican or conservative value, but Democrats have been incensed by the way stimulus dollars were doled out and are just as concerned about financial accountability, though they may have different ideas about how the money gets spent.
Income Inequality Undermining American Democracy (tags)
This is NOT a study of my own, merely a pointer to a piece published by the New York Times, dealing with growing income inequality, undermining US democracy.
Oligarchy and Democracy (tags)
Jeffrey A. Winters is professor of political science at Northwestern University and author of Oligarchy, published by Cambridge University Press in 2011.
America's Afghanistan Legacy (tags)
anti-war
America's Great Divide Between Rich and Poor (tags)
class war
Obama's Transfer Of The Public's Equity To The 1% (tags)
So they steal your house and will now rent it back to you at outrageous artificially inflated rent while still taking 50% of your deflated income to earn a profit margin off what used to be your equity.
Nonprofit housers mourn the demise of redevelopment agencies (tags)
(This is a repost of this article.)Wealthy so-called 501c3 charity nonprofit developers mourn the demise of California's redevelopment agencies, and are already making plans to lobby the state in an effort to recreate the redevelopment agencies that have made them filthy rich, while exploiting the poor!
Grim Holiday Season Tidings (tags)
class war
Labor Candidate Stewart Alexander Calls for a Basic Income Guaranteed (tags)
Presidential Candidate Stewart Alexander says, “Wall Street has a basic income guaranteed; it is called, too big to fail. The time has now come to introduce a basic income guarantee that will help meet the basic needs of the unemployed, the poor, the elderly, college students, the homeless, the basic needs of veterans, single parents, and the disabled.”
America's Student Loan Debt Bondage (tags)
class war
For a Human Revolution - MDS Statement on the Occupy Movement (tags)
Movement for a Democratic Society (MDS) issues statement of solidarity. Suggests demands that draw on the past, while looking to the future.
Presidential Candidate Alexander Wants Unemployment Benefits Extended Indefinitely (tags)
If elected president in 2012, Alexander says his administration will support the provisions of a livable guaranteed annual income. A Guaranteed Livable Income would be an unconditional and universal income administered by the federal government and granted to individuals to ensure that no person’s income falls below what is necessary for health, life and dignity.
Performance-Oriented Society and Basic Income (tags)
The acquisition and accumulation of wealth are based on many natural and social conditions. Many societies and generations worked so today's possibilities of acquisition exist. The so-called performance justice is often only a veil for great injustices.
AMERICAN ELITE IMITATES THE BRAZILIAN ELITE (tags)
Who looks to Brazil, it thinks that the Brazilians imitated the USA. But the truth is exactly the opposite happened always.
Winner Take All Politics (tags)
Since Ronald Reagan's term in office, the assets of the US have been systematically and massively redistributed from bottom to top. Political scientists Jacob Hacker and Paul Pierson call this a "thirty-year war" in their powerful myth-destroying book "Winner Take All Politics."
Banker Occupation of Greece (tags)
financial terrorism
Working America's Dismal State (tags)
depression
"Beyond Growth" congress in Berlin, May 20-22. 2011 (tags)
A "Beyond Growth" congress will be held in Berlin, May 20-22. 2011. The driving forces of growth, the limits of growth, the crisis of the work society, an economy beyond growth, justice and the globalized world, sharing and the good life will be discussed.
Developing a New Economic System (tags)
The stubborn Basel businessman Georg Hasler has a new economic system in mind. He joins two economic concepts that are often discussed these days: unconditional basic income and a radical change of property rights in ideas called free knowledge.
Phantom Jobs and Economic Recovery in America (tags)
fake recovery
March 19 Anti-War Protesters Target Obama (tags)
The annual anti-war demonstration sponsored by the San Diego Coalition for Peace and Justice (SDCPJ) in mid-March had a markedly different tone this year from the actions in 2009 and 2010. Then the protesters and rally speakers had soft-pedaled criticism of President Obama, still holding out hope that he would fulfill his campaign promise to end the U.S. occupation of Iraq and would come to realize that the war in Afghanistan — already America’s longest-lasting combat — was unwinnable and would withdraw there, too. Instead, Obama chose the eighth anniversary of former President George W. Bush’s attack on Iraq to launch U.S. air raids on Libya, thereby getting us involved in a third war against a Muslim country — and one young man at the rally summed up the attitude of most of the 300 people there by wearing a T-shirt with the famous Shepard Fairey image of Obama, and under it the words “War Criminal.”
Basic Income: The Way out of a Sick Society (tags)
Without the social contract, we become wolves to one another. Without the social contract, the state becomes a trough for the super-rich. Basic income could enable everyone to participate in social, economic and political life. Without vision, the people perish.
For Human Dignity - The Creation of a Citizen Income (tags)
The Arab peoples hold a mirror up to us. The Arab revolution is a helping hand. A citizen income would be a fresh start to rebuild our public services that lie in ruins today. The omnipotence of the state and the omnipotence of the market must be overcome.
North American Basic Income Congress in New York Feb 25-27 (tags)
The 10th North American Basic Income Guarantee Congress is taking place in New York from Feb 25-27. Under the theme "Models for Social Transformation," the US Basic Income Guarantee (USBIG) network and Basic Income Canada conference will survey the debate.
Economists Rediscover the Distrribution Question (tags)
Higher taxes for the rich-traditionally a horror to liberal economists-appear in a new light as state transfers to poorer sectors. Those richer than 95% pocket around 20% of the total income. It was less than half as much at the end of the 70s.
IMF Working Paper: "Inequality, Leverage and Crises" (tags)
"A financial crisis can reduce leverage if it is very large and not accompanied by a real contraction. But restoration of the lower income group's bargaining power is more effective."
America after the Attempted Assasination (tags)
For three decades, incomes and assets were increasingly unequally distributed in the US. While economic output increased 60% from 1990-2008, median income only rose 10%. All governments since Reagan's first term drove this development with their tax cuts, subsidies and neglect of educ.
Dr. Andrew Wakefield: No Fraud. No Hoax. (tags)
Allegations by BMJ journalist Brian Deer against Dr. Andrew Wakefield's '98 research paper showing links between vaccines and autism have no basis in fact and only demonstrate the scientific ignorance of Brian Deer.
U.S. Election 2012: Weak Labor Demands, Bad News for Obama (tags)
Alexander says he has a plan that will create employment for working people; he refers to his plan as “A Better Deal.” Alexander’s plan would create employment in housing restoring existing homes and building low income housing; automobile manufacturing building electric cars and light rail automobiles; building mass transportation; and repairing the nation’s infrastructure. Establishing a Universal Basic Income (UBI) is one unique element of A Better Deal. Alexander is proposing a UBI that will help to relieve poverty and homelessness.
Does Money Buy Happiness? (tags)
A new article in Science Daily says money does not by happiness.
Permanent Debt Bondage from America's Student Loan Racket (tags)
mega-theft
The U.S. social and economic landscape is rapidly changing. Inequalities in wealth, which began an upward ascent back in the 1980s, accelerated in the 1990s. Now they are flying off the charts, thanks first to the tax cuts ushered in by Bush II and second to Obama’s recent continuation of those tax cuts, plus more, which have the effect of taking from the working class and poor in order to give to the rich.
BTL:"Trickle-Down" Economics, Tax Cuts for the Rich Exacerbate Income Inequality (tags)
BETWEEN THE LINES - A four-time winner of the Connecticut Associated Press Broadcast Award for Best Feature in the non-commercial category, this syndicated, half-hour program provides a platform for individuals and spokespersons from progressive organizations generally ignored or marginalized by the mainstream media. Between the Lines covers a wide range of political, economic and social topics.
Rising Poverty in America and Israel (tags)
mostly unreported
Breaking the Vicious Circle of Poverty (tags)
In 2008 in Namibia the Lutheran bishop Zephania Kameeta provided a whole village with an unconditional basic income. BIG (Basic Income Grant) is like a magic word, the code for a bold idea that poverty is not a hopeless fate but an enemy that can be forced to its knees.
Social Injustice in Israel (tags)
the data will surprise most people
Obama Capitulates to Republicans (tags)
Obama betrayal
Incarceration's Effect on Economic Mobility (tags)
harmful incarceration
FREE INTERNET BOOK: "Free Culture" by Lawrence Lessig (tags)
In his free 352-page Internet book "Free Culture: How Big Media used technology and the law to lock down culture and control creativity," Lawrence Lessing discusses the future of ideas, the fate of the commons in a connected world. This book was published by Penguin Press, New York in 2004.
Unconditional Basic Income - More than a Social-Political Concept (tags)
"Revolutions are very hard.. Sometimes holding fast to old structures will lead to the abyss. Then very high risks of a new beginning will be accepted to escape the far worse consequences of the collapse of the old structures." Basic income would prevent death from starvation.
Ruling on Behalf of Wall Street's "Super Rich": The Financial End Time has Arrived (tags)
"Alas, the Obama administration has backed the Geithner-Bernanke policy that “the economy” cannot recover without saving the debt overhead. The reality is that it is the debt overhead that is destroying the economy. So we are dealing with the irreconcilable fact that the Obama position threatens to lower living standards from 10% to 20% over the coming few years – making the United States look more like Greece, Ireland and Latvia than what was promised in the last presidential election. Something has to give politically if the economy is to change course. More to the point, what has to give is favoritism for Wall Street at the expense of the economy at large. What has made the U.S. economy uncompetitive is primarily the degree to which debt service has been built into the cost of living and doing business. Post-classical “junk economics” treats interest and fees as payment for the “service” for providing credit. But interest (like economic rent and monopoly price extraction) is a transfer payment to bankers with the privilege of credit creation. The beneficiaries of providing tax favoritism for debt are the super-rich at the top of the economic pyramid – the 2% whom Mr. Obama’s tax giveaway will benefit by over $700 billion. If the present direction of tax “reform” is not reversed, Mr. Obama will shed crocodile tears for the middle class as he sponsors the Deficit Reduction Commission’s program of cutting back Social Security and revenue sharing to save states and cities from defaulting on their pensions. One third of U.S. real estate already is reported to have sunk into negative equity, squeezing state and local tax collection, forcing a choice to be made between bankruptcy, debt default, or shifting the losses onto the shoulders of labor, off those of the wealthy creditor layer of the economy responsible for loading it down with debt."
Class Warfare Jeopardizing American Workers' Security (tags)
waging war against vital social benefits
Obama Team's Deficit Cutting Proposal: Benefit the Few, Harm the Many (tags)
Obama's Robin Hood economics
Congressional Fleecing the Public Legislation (tags)
congressional fleecing
In the 1960s, JKGalbraith warned of two worlds: private affluence and public squalor. Now after the neoliberal counter-offensive, more than half of US states struggle with deficits. Without the social contract, we become wolves to each other.
Jerry Brown's first time as governor (tags)
Jerry Brown's first time as governor and the taxpayer revolt
Growing Poverty in America (tags)
exponentially rising numbers
U.S. at a Turning Point (tags)
The real income of 90% of US families only increased ten percent since 1973. For many, the American dream has become a nightmare. More than half are even in a worse situation today than 37 years ago. The working class has not shared in the productivity growth.
Social Security for All (tags)
A Christian view of the person that insists on an undeserved right to life opposes a merciless system that produces more and more wealth for a few and forces more and more people into poverty. The narrowing of work to paid work must be broken by the new model of work for all.
PHILIPPINES: New Economics for a New Administration (tags)
The dominant feature of the Arroyo administration was pervasive corruption, but its most destructive legacy in the long term will probably be its policy failures. The ascent to power of a new president, backed by a new Congress, provides the opportunity for a fundamental shift in policy in order to end poverty and re-launch the Philippines on the road to development.
The mainstream band RATM others like them are workers (tags)
The mainstream band RATM others like them are workers
Erich Fromm and His Proposal for a Basic Income (tags)
Philosopher and psychoanalyst Erich Fromm never abandoned his vision of a humanist non-estranged society where persons were not commodified or mere goods producers. His book "Having or Being" was written at age 76.
Like the community centers in Vancouver Canada, the guaranteed basic income could create public spirit and social cohesion cushioning the young, seniors and long-term unemployed facing brutal capitalism.
Overcoming the Dominance of Finance Capital (tags)
Changing power relations means taking up the social and political struggle against finance capital and regaining control over social resources. Reversing the redistribution of income from top to bottom is a prerequisite for containing the money flows in the financial sector.
Citizen Money as a Bold Social Utopia (tags)
"Spring has returned. The earth is like a child that knows poems." (Rainer Maria Rilke) Citizen money would guarantee a reasonable life for all. Citizen money challenges our social and cultural assumptions and uncouples work and income.
Extra Tax Refund for Workers: Sch M: Making Work Pay (tags)
Be sure to complete Schedule M for Line 40 on your 1040 income tax return to get your economic stimulus if your adjusted gross income is less than $95,000 a year ($190,000 on joint return) or you are not a dependent on another return. It is called Making Work Pay and Government Retireee Credits.
The Neoliberal Agenda is Over and The Despised Social State (tags)
Neoliberalism is the political-economic experiment of individualizing social risks and claiming growth and employment will be higher. This claim is refuted convincingly by the global financial crisis destroying enormous assets and causing growth and employment to crash.
Terrorist Joe Stack (1956-2010) (tags)
Right wing extremist Joe Stack finally gets fed up with Republicanism and Capitalist extremism and decides to take a few out with him.
Journalism, Redistribution and Social Generosity (tags)
"The earth does not belong to people; people belong to the earth." (chief Seattle)> Nature is not a free good, external or sink but our living mother and basis for future human life. Alternative economics and community centers could lead us out of the dystopia of imperial wars.
The Neolbieral Restructuring of California State Government (tags)
state budget cuts, the imposition of fee increases at post-K-12 educational institutions and the prospect of the passage of a water bond in November 2010 foreshadow the successful imposition of the neoliberal model on California
Reject Corporate Option for Health Care (tags)
No one, progressive or conservative, would vote for or in any way support Private Insurance Control of the country's health proram if they knew just a bit more about the private insurance industry. Who's in charge here? Not we, the people.
The tax that no one is talking about! (tags)
The tax that no one is talking about!
California to withhold a bigger chunk of paychecks (tags)
The tax that no one is talking about!
Is Growth Only Possible Through Inequality? (tags)
Does capitalism make the rich richer and the poor poorer instead of creating prosperity for everyone as promised? Inequality declined considerably between 1930 and 1970 in western industrial states.
Obamacare Targets Entitlements (tags)
the plan is to make America Guatemala
Health Bill Proposals Could Cause Job-Losses For Non-Health Care Workers (tags)
If Costs Of Forced Private Health Insurance Prevent Home Buyers Qualifying For Home Loans, That Will Hurt Construction and Manufacturing Workers, Financial Institutions And Home Values Dependent On A Stable Housing Market?
Health Bill Raises Economic Concern For Real Estate (tags)
Has Obama discounted the collateral economic damage and costs the current health bill proposals will cause Americans via surcharges and higher taxes?
Census Bureau Confirms Rising Poverty, Falling Incomes, and Growing Numbers of Uninsured (tags)
growing poverty and despair in America
Growing Poverty and Despair in America (tags)
what the dominant media won't tell you
Economic Policy after the Financial Crisis: Keynes (tags)
Keynes saw political control of markets and a distribution and social policy in favor of lower income groups as essential prerequisites of a stable long-term macro-economic development.. Three-hour workdays or a 15-hour week would be enough.
Investments of the state in the infrastructure, in educational- and social services, are urgently necessary. One positive aspect of the crisis is that the financial sector has begun to shrivel. The shriveling of the financial sector must be accompanied and controlled by the state.
How New York Fought the Budget Defecit and Won (tags)
While nearly every state is facing severe budget deficits, New York State showed how to balance the budget without completely destroying the social safety net. New York took a few progressive steps forward in balancing the budget and painted a more sensible picture of “shared sacrifice” than what the average politician has proposed. Instead of sacrificing social programs and increasing taxes that affect primarily workers, two new tax brackets were created for New York’s wealthier citizens, generating 4 billion dollars in state revenue. Prior to the new budget, New York’s highest tax rate was 6.85 percent, for anyone making $20,000 or more. The additional tax brackets are 7.85% and 8.97% for those whose income is more than $300,000 and $500,000. These new rates are temporary and set to expire in 3 years. According to the Times-Union, "In broad strokes, the agreement closes the state's estimated $16.2 billion budget deficit through $6 billion in federal stimulus dollars, $6 billion in cuts to an array of programs, and $4 billion in new revenue through an increase in the personal income tax on affluent New Yorkers." The grassroots movement that pushed this “wealthy tax” forward not only asked that new tax brackets remain permanent but also asked for a third tax bracket on New Yorkers earning $1 million or more annually, which would have raised an additional billion dollars.
Reviewing Ellen Brown's "Web of Debt:" Part II (tags)
Part II of Brown's superb book.
Capitalism's Crisis and our Response (tags)
Walden Bello delivered this speech at the Conference on the Global Criusis in Berlin, Marc h 20-21, 2009.
Unconditional Basic Income for All (tags)
Laziness at everyone's expense is the argument brought by opponents of basic income because they haven't understood the cause.. The work incentive will change. One will work to increase quality of life and for the meaning of work itself.
Alexander: Food Lines Show Signs of National Depression (tags)
According to Reuters, “The previous record for food stamp enrollment was 31.6 million last September, which included “disaster” stamps for states hit by hurricanes and floods.” Today’s disaster, that has increased that number is the U.S. economy; even with the government bailouts totaling close to $3 trillion, the U.S. economy is in freefall and the lines for food stamps and unemployment benefits continue to climb.
Obama's Mistake in Reasoning (tags)
The accumulation of capital in fewer and fewer hands first made possible the worldwide economic crisis. For Obama's economic policy to be successful, he must reverse the assets disparity and force the 10% with two-thirds of the assets to solidarity through higher taxes.
A Simple Solution to the States' Budget Crises (tags)
On February 16, in Salem, Oregon a rally of more than 5,000 students, teachers, parents, and social service workers assembled in front of the state capitol, demanding a solution to the state’s financial crisis. This was but one of many similar protests nationwide; and Oregon is par for the course when it comes to U.S. states neck deep in a budget crisis. It is estimated that, unless other sources of revenue are raised immediately, the state will make $800 million in cuts…by June. The projected deficit for the next two years is $2.5 billion.
The Great Chance: Basic Guaranteed Income (tags)
How else should the economy and society become more sustainable without a partial turning away from the growth society of more and more? The de-acceleration of work and life is necessary. A basic income could initiate both.
Liberal Prof Confronts Socialist Audience (tags)
Grossmont College economics professor Shahrokh Shahrokhi was invited to speak at the January 12 meeting of Activist San Diego, but though he attacked "market fundamentalism" and called for more government regulation of the economy,,public equity purchases iin the major financial firms and an extensive stimulus plan, many in the audience didn't think his proposals went far enough. They also bristled at his contention that homebuyers who took out mortgages beyond their means were partly responsible for the current economic crisis.
Alexander: Schwarzenegger’s Tax Proposal Unfairly Targets Working People (tags)
Stewart Alexander says the “governor’s tax proposal continues to demonstrate that the governor lacks the ability to lead the State of California.” While running as a candidate for California lieutenant governor in 2006, Alexander repeatedly criticized Schwarzenegger on California budget issues. Alexander says, “California’s economy has experienced major set-backs under Schwarzenegger’s leadership.”
Income Distribution is Perverse (tags)
Redistribution of income is central. Another economy is necessary in which people are more important than profit percentages. A shareholder value philosophy ruthlessly downsizes and closes plants in pursuit of maximum profit.
The Demise of Neoliberal Globalization (tags)
The capitalist world economy follows ananti-social logic. The replacement of neoliberalism is necessitated by a cyclical swing. Will the world economy return to a balance or sink in violent chaos? Wallerstein's article could stimulate fruitful academic and political discussions.
Urgent! Sign Bernie Sander's bailout alternative petition! Let the wealthy pay! (tags)
Please sign this petition from Bernie Sanders which outlines an alternative proposal to the Wall Street financial bailout, which taxes the wealthy rather than ordinary working Americans! Please forward and tell your friends! Thank you!! :-)
LA Civic Leaders Announce, "Building Walls Builds Better Communities!!!" (tags)
The civic "leaders" of Los Angeles today announced to the world, their plan to "Build Better Communities By Building Better Walls" at the unveiling of their latest fiscal disaster, the New Rampart Division LAPD Headquarters.
Distribution Justice is the Command of the Hour (tags)
Mass unemployment, low wages, precarious jobs and falling real income strain the social budgets, not demographic development. Something is not right when poverty grows while the super-wealthy receive more benefits and subsidies.
California budget compromise takes from the poor, gives to the rich (tags)
Finally an article about California. Reprint from www.wsws.org. It is good somebody somewhere is writing something about here.
V.P. Candidate Alexander Wants Common U.S.-Mexican Currency (tags)
During a decade when border issues between the U.S. and Mexico have intensified and the Democrats and Republicans have gone on the attack against immigrants, Vice Presidential Candidate Stewart A. Alexander is proposing a common U.S.-Mexican currency and establishing a Basic Income Guarantee (BIG) for working people on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border.
Theses on the Basic Income Discussion (tags)
Poverty can only be overcome globally. A change in perspective is necessary where social assistance is seen as positive and not negative. Without a committment to human dignity and a human future, barbarism seems inevitable.
For an Unconditional Basic Income (tags)
Martin Luther King called us to a radical revolution of values, from a thing-oriented to a person-oriented society. Like community centers, a basic income could have multiplier effects. The price of oil rose three-fold in four years. Lifestyles and priorities must change for an open future.
Working people relying on stimulus checks, coins and lotto (tags)
The platforms of the Socialist Party USA and Peace and Freedom Party outline fundamental approaches that will promote economic policy that will benefit working people. Both socialist parties are rejecting the economic strategies of the Democrats, Republicans, and their candidates; advancing U.S. imperialism and waging war is not the answer for our economy that is now in economic free fall.
6/6 Los Angeles Teachers Strike; General Strike Needed (tags)
Los Angeles teachers are finally striking for the first hour of today's school day against the budget cuts to education; the rest of labor needs to join them in a statewide general strike not only against budget cuts but also against the refusal of the state legislature to raise the income taxes on the rich, the 5% that makes over $200,000 a year, including the millionaires and billionaires who live in California.
Socialists: Working people don’t need stimulus checks (tags)
The recent action taken by President Bush and the Feds, to reduce the time that 130 million Americans will need to wait before receiving their welfare checks, is another indication of the critical state the U.S. economy is now experiencing. Socialists believe it is necessary to create good paying jobs for working people rather than mailing millions of people a one time welfare check. Socialists have called for higher minimum wages and developing socially useful jobs for all working people.
23 Theses on the Unconditional Basic Income (tags)
Without vision the people perish. Basic unconditional income like community centers could restore public spirit and interdependence. The anti-social or capital offensive leaves people mere consumers or cogs in the machine and represses our gifts, talents, desires and health.
Federal Tax Relief Package is Welfare for Billionaires (tags)
President Franklin Roosevelt introduced the New Deal that began to release the nation from the grips of the Great Depression. America is now in the Bush Recession, and to implement effective economic solutions it will be necessary to take a page from the socialists' book. One-time checks are not the answer, and the federal stimulus package is already doomed to failure.
The FairTax Campaign Rocks the Boat! (tags)
Every day sees a new letter to the editor or web posting defining the 67,500 pages of income tax regulations, the effects of the current tax system on the “Made in America” label and the benefits of a fair, simple and transparent national tax system.
Presidential Candidate Frank Moore’s “Web Work Of Caring” (tags)
2008 Presidential Candidate Frank Moore dialogs on Indymedia forum about taxes and a “Guaranteed Minimum Income”
On the Anti-Democratic Character of Neoliberalism (tags)
Privatization, deregulation and cuts in social spending is the trinity of the free market, Naomi Klein explains. The consciou8s production of unemployment is anti-democratic. The conscious worsening of income- and assets distribution is anti-democratic.
Socialists Emerging as Democrats, Republicans Lose Voter Confidence (tags)
The socialist parties are emerging as a political force in American politics, addressing those issues that are important to millions of Americans and working people; ending the Iraq War, solving the nation’s health care needs, free education for college students, providing benefits for all veterans, protecting homeowners, creating affordable housing and providing for the needs of all working class people.
Welfare State in the Market Trap (tags)
"The crisis of the welfare state is a crisis in the heads of the economic and political elites. The welfare state is a political barrier against the marketing of human labor. The welfare state can be regained through democratic solidarity.. Today one farmer feeds 88 non-farmers."
Another Economy is Possible (tags)
The world economy increasingly has the character of a plutonomy, a wealth economy where the rich appropriate an ever larger share of the social wealth. Imagine an economy that serves justice, peace and creation, where competition and cooperation coexist and the future is safeguarded
Reviewing James Petras and Henry Veltmeyer's "Multinationals on Trial" (tags)
How corporate giants plunder developing nations.
The immiseration of the working class – Marx was right! (tags)
Just a couple of weeks ago, America's government tax collectors, the Internal Revenue Service, issued a new report. The IRS found that the richest 1% of Americans earned a record 21.2% of all income in 2005, up from 19% the year before. At the same time, the bottom 50% earned just 12.8% of all income in 2005, down from 13.4%. This was a record. IRS data only go back to 1986, but other academic research suggests that the last time wealthy Americans had such a high percentage of the national income was in the 1920s. And there's more. The IRS data show that the incomes of people right in the middle of all the income brackets (where half earn less and half earn more) fell 2% between 2000 and 2005 when adjusted for inflation, to $30,881. At the same time, the income level for the top 1% grew 3% to $364,657, or over ten times as much! This shows that capitalism is not only a breeder of economic crisis, war and waste, but is also a system of grotesque exploitation and injustice. When Marx wrote Das Kapital around 150 years ago, he argued that "pauperism (poverty) forms the condition of capitalist production and of the capitalist development of wealth... in proportion as capital accumulates, the situation of the worker, be his payment high or low, must grow worse".
Local: Habitat for Humanity Partners With OHA To Displace Oakland's Poor (tags)
Locals Struggle To Save 75 Families From Being Evicted From Their Public Housing Complex!
The Plight of American Veterans (tags)
Socialist Party USA, and Peace and Freedom Party are asking all U.S. veterans to join their efforts to obtain more for U.S. veterans and to end the Iraq War. The two political parties are also demanding an immediate withdrawal of all U.S. and allied forces from Iraq and Afghanistan. Stewart Alexander says, “The Democrats, Republicans and Bush are already past the deadlines to get out; and that was before March, 2003.
Greenspan's Dark Legacy Unmasked (tags)
Alan Greenspan's true record of public disservice.
The Abolition of the Unemployed (tags)
Researchers urge freedom instead of full employment. With a bsic income, the unemployed would have the freedom to seek for employment that suits them. No one would force them to accept any work. Basic income is a way to solve the dilemma of jobs destroyed by higher productivity.
Interstate Bakeries Withdrawal a Blow to Low and Middle Income Residents (tags)
Closing of Outlet Stores Means Higher Prices
The War on Working Americans - Part II (tags)
Part II of how American workers are losing out.
When Ireland announced last spring that it would sharply curtail a lucrative tax break for musicians, painters, writers and sculptors, the shift posed a financial threat to U2, which has made the Emerald Isle its financial power base for nearly three decades.
The Underrated Power of Economists (tags)
During the Great Depression between the two world wars, the Brit John Maynard Keynes came to an insight that was implemented in the 1960s. The state must guide the economy by its spending to avert the danger of depression.
Basic Income Creates Trust (tags)
No life of luxury would be possible with the basic income. People in paid work would always be financially privileged by the promotion prospects..The protestant work ethic does not aim at persons only motivated by material reward.
Do We Need a New Social System? (tags)
Only half of all employees today (in Germany) enjoy the old standard job.. The erosion of normal working conditions has been underway since the middle of the 1970s.. The basic income is the answer to the precariousness of working conditions.
"We Have an Upper Class Problem" (tags)
The unconditional basic income is a revolutionary idea but can only be realized in an evolutionary way.. We have long been in a foreign-provision economy. No one can provide for himself.. The state should offer people a basic income so they can live a modest humane life.
Working Without Coercion (tags)
Basic income is not a plant-closing bonus. Labor productivity will continue growing if the tax burden on the factor labor is reduced. The belief that full employment could return through economic growth is wishful thinking. Ecologically it could prove a horror.
Presidential Candidate Wants to Supplement Social Security (tags)
The Social Security Administration was established in 1937 under the administration of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, it was an important part of Roosevelt’s New Deal to America; now 70 years since the system was introduced, Stewart Alexander, Candidate for President, wants to give more to an aging America.
Basic Income: Freedom for Every Individual (tags)
Katya Kipping rightly characterizes basic income as a democracy package. Solving a material question and strengthening civil rights and personal autonomy are joined.
Guaranteed Income, Guaranteed Dignity: War on Poverty (tags)
Part of what's holding back a guaranteed annual income is perception and language. All people should share in increasedc productivity. In Germany, the GDP rose 300% from 1950-2000 with 20% fewer workers.
30-Year IRS Agent Arrested for Tax Fraud (tags)
Harry Willner, an IRS agent for over 30 years, was arrested yesterday on tax fraud charges. Prosecutors allege that he and others dodged taxes by claiming that their income was offset by deductions belonging to a company he operated out of his home.
How much should the wealthy give to the poor?
Freedom to Fascism: Outing the Constitutional Criminals (tags)
The purpose of the personal income tax is to redistribute wealth upward and to control the civil society. The purpose of the Federal Reserve is to redistribute the wealth upward and to control the civil society. The receivers of the redistributed wealth and the controllers of the society are the private owners of the Federal Reserve -- not the government.
Global Social Rights versus Neoliberalism (tags)
Building community centers, limiting the power of corporations and reflecting on a basic citizen income are steps to democratization and a positive public spirit.
"Unemployment is a Victory" (tags)
Higher productivity allows a maximum in prosperity to be realized with a minimum in human labor. Freedom, not full employment, is the alternative today.
Formaldegate, Perjury, Income Tax Fraud and Bush (tags)
Nobody in the country cares about Bush's perjury or income tax fraud.
Understanding Jurisdiction (tags)
In all of history there has been but one successful protest against an income tax. It is little understood in that light, primarily because the remnants of protest groups still exist, but no longer wish to appear to be "anti-government." They don’t talk much about these roots. Few even know them. We need to go back in time about 400 years to find this success. It succeeded only because the term "jurisdiction" was still well understood at that time as meaning "oath spoken." "Juris," in the original Latin meaning, is "oath." "Diction" as everyone knows, means "spoken." The protest obviously didn’t happen here. It occurred in England. Given that the origins of our law are traced there, most of the relevant facts in this matter are still applicable in this nation. Here’s what happened.
Basic Income Strengthens Workers' Negotiating Power (tags)
Basic income would be an effective instrument against the growing poverty, a kind of democracy package and a good vehicle for self-determined reduced working hours..Some leftists have a hard time because they follow a certain work fetishism
How the Rich Become Richer and the Poor Poorer (tags)
The rich become richer by taking more from the poorer and the poor.. How long will humanity fall to capitalism and the asocial drives of a small clique of beneficiaries?.. We can't afford the rich.
More Employment through a Different Distribution (tags)
More employment comes through reduced working hours and public investments more than tax subsidies. The state has destroyed jobs. The global attack of neoliberalism has gravely damaged the democratic welfare state.
Basic income would revolutionize today's work society. Workers would gain negotiating power and employers would have to pay more for onerous work. Everyone would receive a basic income without being tested for neediness or beingforced to a return favor.
Outing the Constitutional Criminals (tags)
The purpose of the personal income tax is to redistribute wealth upward and to control the civil society. The purpose of the Federal Reserve is to redistribute the wealth upward and to control the civil society. The receivers of the redistributed wealth and the controllers of the society are the private owners of the Federal Reserve -- not the government.
Monthly Pay for Everyone (tags)
A basic income means an income-securing existence allowing participation in social life. The basic income would do away with work coercion and tests of neediness.
Social Cuts Cause Suffering (tags)
"Nothing is stronger than an idea whose time has come" (Victor Hugo).. Liberated from their existential worries, people could develop their talents.. A basic income could expand the efficiency of our society.
NGO of the Week: Basic Income Network (tags)
The internationally practiced social cuts sold as combating unemployment have terrible social and economic effects. A grave psychic depression has already seized society. Since the world economy becomes ever more efficient, what will become of 80% w/o work?
An Australian corporate director who FAILED to perform was recently relieved of his position; he nevertheless was able to walk with a $30 million severance package. This case is not uncommon, directors who fail to perform ensure they win regardless of other factors. Public companies are milk cows for these unscrupulous types.
Measure H is Not a Magic Bullet (tags)
If I could wave my magic wand, Proposition H—the billion-dollar “affordable” housing bond measure--would disappear from the November 7th stage, and the Prop H supporters would be revealed as illusionists.
CDC's Pelican Bay abuse of prisoners, rural community (tags)
Calling for shutting down of CDC's Pelican Bay State Prison for human rights abuses of prisoners, economic exploitation of disadvantaged rural community during construction and CDC's exploitation of low income prisoners detained into coerced slave labor for corporations..
Capitalist at the start of the 21st century set out to realize the utopia of a life without work-and cannot face this fact-because of its own inner pressures. Reducing working hours is crucial for lowering unemployemnt. Creating a social net is a precondition for sharing work
Future Prospects for the Young Generation (tags)
The social contract of modern times based on lifelong full-employment in paid work is broken.. We produce with Bill Gates and dis-tribute with Bismarck..After 200 years, we need a new social contract, a new reconciliation of work and income.
How Much Poverty Can a Society Endure? (tags)
Pretending that justice is possible with growing inequality is pure ideology. Distribu-tive justice is the key for a peaceful future.. Spending for the welfare state has not grown in Germany.
Alexander Wants Student Tips Tax Exempted (tags)
Stewart Alexander, Candidate for California Lieutenant Governor, want college students to be tax exempted for tips received in service related jobs; such as restaurants, food delivery, pet grooming, and other services where tips are traditionally paid. Many college students work minimum wage jobs and rely on tips as an additional source of income to pay there way through college.
surviving the bush democracy (tags)
oped
Frank Moore Announces Run for Presidency in 2008! (tags)
Frank Moore, avante-garde artist and unrelenting defender of free speech, is running for President. Candidate of the Just Makes Sense Party, Frank's tagline is "I Get Results!" His Presidential Platform follows. For more information, go to the Frank Moore for President website and blog: http://www.frankmooreforpresident08.com/ & http://www.frankmooreforpresident08.com/blog/ .
In "1984," George Orwell warned that war would become a domestic necessity to divert the people from economic contradictions. Inequality may promote productivity but also undermines public spirit and social ochesion
futures markets controling America
Pension cuts and inequality wiping out retirement for American workers (tags)
For a growing number of US workers, dreams of a decent retirement are quickly evaporating as companies shift retirement costs onto workers, in the form of deductions from already declining wages, in order to maintain profits in a competitive global economy. In the wake of the post-World War II business boom, US workers were granted certain limited concessions in a three-legged system of retirement security that included individual savings, government programs and private employer pensions. Between the 1940s and the 1980s, private pensions with a guaranteed payout (also known as defined-benefit pensions), became a standard component of compensation for a large section of the American workforce.
Psychology of a Guaranteed Income (tags)
The main obstacle to a guaranteed income seems to be psychological, the envy triggered by another's good fortune.. People will always work since boredom becomes overwhelming.
A Guaranteed Minimum Income as a Constitutional Right (tags)
A guaranteed minimum income could be seen as a constitutional right like the franchise and equal protection before the law This 1986 essay shows us the human alternative to the dystopia of permanent war. I apologize for the errors in translation.
Lack of job stability, future, basic social income and freedom (tags)
Some ideas about lack of job stability, future, basic social income and freedom.
Memorandum 2005: Alternative Economic Policy (tags)
In Germany and the US, the corporation is often stylized as the suffering servant. The market is made sacrosanct; all problems are defined as interferencs with the market. Profits soar and investments fall. Corporations pay increasingly less tax.
Can the State Save Us from Work? (tags)
Whenever more profits are produced with fewer and fewer workers, income should be separated from work. Every citizen should automatically receive a part of the money cake to buy goods produced without his help and find his or her own fujlfillment.
Bonoff is a fake and it time he stopped or did something right.
IRS Free income tax software (tags)
Per IRS web site, List and links to Free software for preparing Form 1040 and other tax forms. Most of the software listed by the IRS allows Electronic Filing (E-File) of your income tax return. Some of the software listed will prepare your State income tax return. Where is my Refund?
Irwin Schiff Railroaded Right to Slammer by Two-Bit Federal Judge Running Kanagaroo Court (tags)
The 77-year-old tax protestor being held without bond and in chains after being convicted on 14 counts, including conspiracy and income tax evasion. Trial observers say court proceedings looked like an episode of the "Three Stooges" with "Moe, Curly and Larry" prosecuting the case. 6 Nov 2005
Only the Rich Profit from US Growth (tags)
"The same Congress since 1997 has consistently rerfused to raise the minimum wage from $5.15.. The founding fathers defined their new form of government as government by the people for the people. In the meantime US democracy has become government by the rich for the rich.."
Competition is not a Natural Law (tags)
Instead of working out and overcoming the causal problems, people put a veil of the fun society over the whole-as in the times of Rome..Ideologues elevate the principle of competition into a natural law to immunize the market econmy from all criticism.
Potemkin Village Chief dines in luxury in New Orleans (tags)
While large portions of New Orleans remain unlivable, the clueless Coward from Crawford 'got a taste of one of New Orleans' finest restaurant last night in the French Quarter & stayed in the luxury hotel Windsor Court.' Marie Antoinette would have died in envy of such imperial decadence.
CAPITALISM AND SOCIALISM (tags)
Every year since 1990, the United Nations publishes its Human Development Report. It contains the most authoritative data on the state of the world. These reports are available online: hdr.undp.org/reports/view_reports.cfm?type=1. Based on those reports (referred to by year, followed by page), what does our world look like?
Time Autonomy for Everyone (tags)
Given the enormous advances in productivity, radical reduction of working hours is an overdue demand. However working hours are actually lengthened.. Power relations are hidden behind the distribution structures.
More Time for Life, Laughter and Love (tags)
"Fewer and fewer persons produce more and more goods in an ever shorter time through increasingly efficient technology, better training and growing labor intensity." Growth cannot solve mass unemployment.
Working Three Hours a Day is Enough (tags)
"Keynes predicted 60 years ago that three hours work per day would be enough. Instead more than seven million (in Germany) are in a desperate situation.. The system logic is obviously exhausted.."
"How can the state finance itself in times of worldwide competition without damaging the national econmy? How can it find the old strength without creating new poverty?.. There is no system-conforming way out of this vicious circle.."
"Rebuilding the social state is imperative.. Leftist feminists never wanted half of the mouldy cake but sought to change the bakery completely.. An alliance against education- and social cuts is vital.."
Former IRS CID Special Agent Joseph Banister Acquitted of Tax Fraud And Conspiracy (tags)
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Capital and Labor: Deeds Must Follow Criticism (tags)
A new balance between capital- and labor income is necessary. Unfortunately the opposite is happening. The constant lowering of capital taxation in Germany fans the European tax lowering competition. The public infrastructure deteriorates.
Eleven Arguments for a Basic Income (tags)
Social logic is more future-friendly than profit logic. With the end of cheap oil and the dollar crash on the horizon, a basic income would make the future human rather than predatory Social Darwinism, winner-takes-all, hire-and fire and right of stronger could be dinosaurs.
The demand for a basic income attacks one of the basic pillars of the capitalist society:the notion that only persons who work may eat. Every person on this earth has a right to share in socvial life and wealth only because he or she exists as a person.
Economism, Economic Ethics and Donations (tags)
Economism is the great ideology of our time. It claims that (1) resisting the market is impossible and (2) submitting to the market is best for everyone. Both are not true. Embedding the market in principles of useful-ness to life has a priority as an ordering task.
Fluoride, uranium X, cancer in workers (tags)
Fluoride and uranium based nuclear weapons manufacture in the 1950's exposed many North American citizens of African descent to radiation and fluoride exposure..
Basic Income as a Democratic Civil Right (tags)
The ecnomic conditions in which the utopia of Aristotle or John M Keynes could become a real utopia objectively exist. We live under our real economic possibilities.The end of the work society is not the end of work but the transition to a really free society of citizens.
The Crisis of Work and its Future (tags)
"Producing more with less labor, distributing the fruits of technical progress better, crea-ting a new balance between required work and freely disposable time and giving every-one the possibility for a more relaxed life and more varied jobs are the new goals.."
The Unconditional Basic Income (tags)
Alternatives to the work society are necessary. A political movement is only credible today if it positions itself to the changes of the world of work and presents alternatives to the crisis of the work society. Basic income is a first step to freedom.
Is the Social State Ending? (tags)
Socially just means people have comparable chances to develop in their lives, may have work, are protected against the great risks of life and can age with dignity. To that end, social systems and personal effort are necessary.
Bush Has Grasped the Third Rail; It's Time to Turn on the Juice (tags)
Now that Bush has admitted his plan is to cut Social Security for the middle class, it’s time for progressives to take him down. No compromises, no cutbacks, and a call for the rich to pay Social Security taxes on all income, not just the first $90,000. ---------------------
Five Reasons for an Unconditional Basic Income for All (tags)
Participation in modern societies is only possible when one has an income.. The pro-posal to grant a basic income to every person independent of gainful work results from human rights and from pragmatic-economic considerations.
Industry without Happiness: On the Guaranteed Minimum Income (tags)
A basic income could heal our fragmented society caught in work fanaticism and work fetishism while work disappears..A basic income could change social attitudes and goals and give real meaning to the human rights to life and participation.
10 Reasons Why a Basic Income is Necessary Today (tags)
A basic income could heal our fragmented society caught in work fanaticism and work fetishism.. A basic income could change social attitudes and goals and give real meaning to the human rights to life and participation.
Forget Compromising on Social Security; First Let's End Employer Theft of Worker Pensions (tags)
Compromise approaches to “saving” Social Security that involve voluntary private accounts on top of the current program are not going to help low-income workers. If Congress and the President really wanted to help protect low-income retirees, they’d end the legal theft of pension “vesting” so workers got pension contributions for every working day of their lives.
Bush's secret journalistic payroll keeps getting longer (tags)
Word that the Bush administration has been paying journalistic shills to pimp for its programs tells us something about the state of the media, but also about those programs: they don’t stand up to genuine scrutiny and need paid propaganda to sell them to the public.
Groups charge Bush is lying: Social Security ‘crisis’ is phony (tags)
Huge coalition moves to stop privatization
Social Security and Modern Society (tags)
Social security is not a mere burden but a benefit of productivity. Countries with comfortable social security systems are internationally very competitive. Social security supports economic growth and employment.
Paid Work and Basic Income (tags)
The goal of basic income advocates is to neutralize capitalism in one of its central premises: the generalziation of paid labor as the only or at least dominant path of securing existence. The future would be brighter if this were on the agenda.
Psst!~ Hey buddy, did you hear how great the Iraq war is going? (tags)
Corporate mind-controllers, having taken over the media, are now going after that last bastion of free communication: the grapevine. Can the Pentagon and White House be far behind?
The President Plays Poker (tags)
The past tax cuts tore holes of billions in the federal Washington budget.. The ambitious reformer GWBush puts all his eggs in one basket, that his society of owners will not soon be mocked as a society of debtors.
A Forgotten Day & a Forgotten Country
BTL:Growing Income Inequality in U.S. All But Ignored in Presidential Campaign (tags)
Interview with Ellen Frank, senior economist, Poverty Institute at Rhode Island College conducted by Between the Lines' Scott Harris
Beyond State and Paid Labor (tags)
"Basic security is the positive answer to the crisis of the capitalist work society. The far-reaching uncoupling of labor and income contradicts essential premises of the capitalist exploitation logic and contains a dynamic that points beyond the system.."
Social Collapse through Privatization (tags)
"A view of the person underlying the reforms should be opposed by the peace movement: the person as an isolated being competing unscrupulously for better living conditions in a state that sees its task more in establishing peace from above.."
Another Weapon for the Revolution! (tags)
Female emcee DAYZE returns with ‘TruthSeeker’ a hard-hitting protest album.
INVASION OF SOCIAL SECURITY (tags)
BUSH DECLARES"OWNERSHIP SOCIETY"TELLS CONVENTION HE’S ORDERED INVASION OF SOCIAL SECURITY TRUST FUND
Litmus Test: Time for Kerry and Democrats to Take a Stand for Our Votes (tags)
Alan Greenspan, a banker who stands to retire on over $140,000 a year, has called for cutting the Social Security retirement benefits for Baby Boomers. It’s high time for John Kerry and the Democrats to admit that there is no such “crisis” in Social Security. All that’s needed is full Social Security taxation on the rich and the employers who pay their salaries.
"The Young Must Have a Chance" (tags)
"The whole financial regime between the country, territories and communities is out of order. The communes were sacrificed on the altar of tax reform. Enough money is there.. Lengthening working hours in a time of weak growth and high unemployment is absurd.."
"Wars are Good for the Economy": The Global Free Trade System (tags)
"The international free market was created artificially in the 18th and 19th centuries with the force of the English colonial state and did not develop naturally from the free exchange of goods as neoliberals constantly claim.."
Sweden: Poorer Than You Think (tags)
Building Bridges Radio- Class War with Bill Moyers, Meizhu Lui, and Chuck Collins (tags)
Building Bridges: Your Community and Labor Reports brings you this 28 minute radio program. TO LISTEN CLICK ON LA INDYMEDIA LINK
IRS has become a subsidy system for super-wealthy Americans IRS winks at rich deadbeats
Newsweek Misses Tax Freedom Day (tags)
Kerry isn't as ignorant on economic matters as he sounds.... (tags)
Speaking out on the issues
Convicted for Alleging Israel's Involvement in 9-11! (tags)
NH Man Who Alleged that Israel and Others Orchestrated 9-11 Convicted of Trumped-Up Tax Charges!
In their own ways, Jefferson, Lincoln, and Roosevelt, provided the institutional frameworks for middle-class growth. Now, radical ideas are necessary to prevent a return to feudalism.
THIS IS WHAT YOUR 'FEAR' IS PROTECTING (tags)
Millions of Americans have read the Joseph Banister story. For those who may not know of this courageous individual, a short refresher is in order. Joseph was an IRS CID agent (Criminal Investigation Division) for a little over five years. In late 1996, he happened to hear some information about the nature of the income tax on a radio show. After two years of trying to prove the so-called "tax protesters" wrong regarding their beliefs, he finally concluded that the "tax honesty" individuals were indeed correct in their analysis of the income tax and its voluntary nature.
Gov't Prosecutes Man for Alleging that Israel and the Neo-Cons Conducted 9-11! (tags)
The Justice Department is prosecuting a New Hampshire man for alleging that Israel and the Neo-Cons of the Bush Administration orchestrated the September 11th terrorist attacks as a way to drag the U.S. into wars with all of Israel's enemies!
34.6 Million In US In Poverty In 2002 (tags)
The wonders of Bushonomics unfold for all. Reverse Robin Hood Syndrome - take from the poor and give to the rich. Of course the Dems haven't a clue either - afterall they share the same bed. Buncha Whores.
Let the rich pay, Camejo says (tags)
Green Party candidate Peter Camejo has unveiled a budget proposal which calls for strikingly higher income tax rates on Californians who earn more than $500,000 a year, changing Proposition 13 to allow reappraisals of many corporate properties and tax cuts for low-wage earners.
On the Human Right to Laziness (tags)
"Paul Lafargue spoke satirically about the first sinister acceleration thrusts of early industry: "All individual and social misery comes from a passion for work. O laziness, be merciful with your endless misery!: O laziness, you are the balm for the pains!"
Taxes for Revenue Are Obsolete (tags)
Taxes are NOT collected for revenue, but for redistribution of wealth to the wealthy, for the social control of YOU!
More State Intervention (tags)
"The German economy has skidded into a recession.. In a recession, the state must take a leadership role in solving the main problem, inadequate demand.." Translated from the German
Bush's Fiscal Policy Not Creating New Jobs (tags)
How about that "jobs and growth" plan from the $350 billion in tax cuts that President Bush proposed and Congress signed?
Bush tax cut leaves 16 million kids behind (tags)
CHICAGO – With eyes as big as headlights, Tatiana Graves is the center of the world to her doting family. It’s hard to imagine anyone leaving this chubby-cheeked cherub behind.
Economic Fascism and Tax Slavery (tags)
"Words mean what I say they mean, Alice," said the Mad Hatter
'Class War' and the Bush tax cut (tags)
Chris Edwards, director of fiscal policy at the libertarian Cato Institute defended Bush's tax cuts, "though the lower income earners pay a high burden in payroll tax for social security and Medicare, they get a higher proportion of their wages in retirement benefits than do the wealthy"
Youth outreach program seeking mentors and financial assistance in West Los Angeles...
From Whence Comes Income? (tags)
Much of the ignorance on the left comes from the false perception that income is distributed rather than earned.
SO MUCH FOR THE PATRIOT ACT (tags)
Hmmm.. So much for Big Brother. I guess we still have some privacy left. Let's hope PA II has more to get up in arms about.
Countdown to Recall Gray Davis (tags)
The Countdown to Recall Gray Davis has begun as 6% or 55,357 out of 898,157 petitions have been completed and the desired deadline is the 4th of July while the legal deadline is Sept 2, the day after Labor Day.
Tax Protester Provided a Prime Opportunity to Finally End the Federal Income Tax (tags)
The Justice Department has provided a New Hampshire tax protester with a prime opportunity to finally end the federal income tax by indicting him on 18 felony counts of violating the internal revenue laws.
War Tax Resistance Made Simple (tags)
Regardless of the specifics, the basic truth is about half of your income tax is going to the military. For all the millions of people who've taken to the streets in the past four months to prevent or oppose this war, this is like a kidney punch from behind: You may spend your days, nights and/or weekends working to preserve peace, but everyone who pays taxes is financially helping to support the war.
Former Income Tax Protester Realizes He Was Wrong (tags)
A former follower and promoter of the theories of nationally-known income tax protester Irwin Schiff now realizes that those theories are incorrect and he has set up a Web site refuting them one-by-one.
Arizona Attorney Alleges Conspiracy Between IRS and Justice Department (tags)
An Arizona attorney alleges that there is a criminal conspiracy between employees of the IRS and the Justice Department to allow big-time promoters of tax schemes to remain in business so that they have more common Americans to go after.
After reading Indymedia and listening to Pacifica Radio, I soon realized that activists have their own jargon and vocabulary. They use common words that have different meanings to them. In an effort to help new readers get up to speed, I've prepared an English translation.
Which Direction is the US Heading? (tags)
For non-economists, income millionaires obviously have much less reason to spend this extra money than households keeping their heads above water with several jobs.. When Bush began his term of office, the Budget Office forecast surplus of $3 trillion..
First Annual 1K Race to the Bottom (tags)
The Mobilization for Global Justice and the National Campaign for Jobs and Income Support join forces to fight corporate greed at home and abroad in the First Annual 1K "Race to the Bottom." (Part 1 of 3 / 16 mins)
A brief look at who is paying taxes
Oil coup-strike-lockout is for the rich. Help President Chavez! Search Venezuela news. (tags)
In 1974 80% of oil income went to the state. Today 80% of Venezuelan oil income goes to the rich, and to "operating costs." Only 20% goes to the state. Chavez reforms will help reverse this in January 2003. This is why the coup-plotters, "strike"-promoters, and corporate media are in such a hurry to overthrow the fairly-ELECTED Chavez government. They want to prevent these reforms, and reverse others already-implemented. Reforms that help the poor and lower middle class. Massive corporate-media disinformation, destabilization campaign going on inside Venezuela. Support President Chavez! Please forward widely.
Taxes, taxes, taxes: High on the Bush agenda (tags)
It has been written that the more things change, the more they are the same. And that certainly holds true when it comes to battles over taxes. True, the powdered wigs of James Madison’s time are gone. And yes, George Bush has replaced "Teddy" Roosevelt. But the issues are the same – who pays and how much.
In know you hate it, but things are getting better. Once again, thank you Walter E. Williams. We are so lucky to have you around.
The economy: Nothing to remain silent about (tags)
Nearly two months have passed since President Bush hosted an “economic summit” – a flop the People’s Weekly World headlined as “all show and no go.” As events have since shown, we may have understated the case:
Maxine Waters Town Hall Meeting and Speakout (tags)
October 5, 2002 First Church of God
Maxine Waters Town Hall Meeting and Speakout (tags)
October 5, 2002 First Church of God Inglewood, CA
WHAT ABOUT THE REST OF US? Activists to Rally Outside Gubernatorial Candidate’s Forum 10/7 (tags)
Women on welfare and their children, low wage workers, and supporters of the Los Angeles Chapter of the National Campaign for Jobs and Income Support will rally outside the gubernatorial candidate's forum hosted by the LA Times at 11:30 AM on Monday, October 7, 2002. They will arrive with picket signs, banners, and costumes for guerrilla theater demanding that Governor Gray Davis and Republican candidate Bill Simon answer the following question: What About the Rest of Us?
Saving and improving Social Security: The Communist Party’s solution (tags)
Marx’s observation that the task of a movement goes beyond mere interpretation of events was never more apt than when it comes to the struggle to defend – and improve – the Social Security system.
The housing crisis – built into the system (tags)
According to the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), some 5.3 million households have “worst case” rental housing needs, defined as having a family income less than half the median income in their area and paying more than half of it for rent. Most live in severely substandard housing and receive no federal housing assistance.
Equal distribution and good economy belong together! (tags)
If a lie is repeated often enough it turns into truth. Neoliberal economists with Nobel Prizes in their knapsacks have hammered into our policymakers’ heads that we need widened income gaps (“a more flexible income spread”) in the developed world as well as in the developing world. A simple but powerful analysis shows that they are wrong and that we should not increase gaps for better economic performance.
Now.....Who Wants To Date A Millionaire? (tags)
Millionaire Mates - Rich & Famous Matchmaking..... Now a woman can seriously meet her "Prince Charming" through Millionaire Mates an exclusive dating club for Millionaires seeking their soul mate. Millionaire members include 2 Royal Prince's, a Duke and several celebrities!
Tax Rebate? Give it Back! (tags)
Getting a tax rebate? The Monkeyfist Collective suggests you give it to those who should be getting it in the first place.