shakran, your John Dickenson quote, and your apprisal of the corporate owned media, roachboy, speak so well to what I am trying to bring out in this thread.
Aren't we better educated and feel less powerless than the masses in Mexico, as we slide in the direction of those extremely economically, and thus politically, pre-empted neighbors to our south?
Must we fall for the "line" that Dickenson so aptly described for us? Are we really allowing the Walton and Mars families, et al, to use their vast fortunes to purchase away (from our formerly one man, one vote) representative government, to do their bidding, instead of ours, in the hope that when we become "that rich", the lopsided "rules" that they bought into legislation, will favor us, as well, to the continuing disadvantage of the vast number of us who will never be able to afford the lawyers and lobbyists, or the acquisition and maintenance of the "connections" that make permanent elimination of inheritance taxes, for example, even a possibility?
The evidence of the trend toward even more increasingly unequal distribution of wealth in the US that I posted in another recent thread, of the Gini Coefficient, is well explained here:
Quote:
http://www.alienlove.com/modules.php...rder=0&thold=0
.......In an ideal country, there would be a small percentage of wealthy people, say 15 to 20%, a burgeoning middle class of around 60 to 70%, and a poorer class of around 10 to 25%. This is very important from another aspect as well. It is common knowledge that the rich don't pay taxes. That's why they hire all those tax consultants, etc. It is more affordable for the rich to pay $100,000 to $200,000 per year on consultants who will save them, in the end, $10 to $20 million or more. Likewise, the poor don't pay taxes either. THEY CAN'T. They live paycheck to paycheck. It is up to the country's middle class to pay for nearly every aspect of governmental life. The middle class earns enough money to be taxed on, yet lacks the resources to defer payment through legitimate means. In other words, they can't hire the experts to tell them how to avoid paying taxes. The middle class can't afford to spend $100,000 a year to avoid paying $20,000 in taxes. Therefore, what the GINI coefficient tells us is how well off the middle class of a country is.
First world nations are inherently better off than third world nations. Let's look at some contrasting numbers between first world and third world. Recently, Japan scored a 24.9 coefficient, one of the lowest numbers ever recorded. Sweden scored 25, Germany scored 28.3, France scored 32.7 and Canada scored 33.1. Now let's see how the third world nations scored around the same time. Argentina scored 52.2, Mexico scored 54.6, South Africa scored 57.8, and Namibia scored 70.7. This clearly shows us that the standard of living in Japan, at 24.9, is much better than the standard of living in Namibia with a score of 70.7. The distribution of wealth is much more equal in Japan than Namibia, and we can see by the effect on our global society that indeed, Japan plays a much greater role around the world than Namibia.
And this is underlying intent of the GINI factor. It rightfully addresses human conditions on a national basis through a strictly monetary viewpoint......
.......... So this brings us to the United States. Surely we have one of the best GINI factors of all, right? Don't we distribute wealth better than all the other nations?? In 1970, our coefficient was 39.4, a little worse than Canada. But by 2005, our factor had worsened to 46.9, nearly that of Argentina. It is clear that we are slipping more and more into the abyss of third world status. It is predicted that we will attain Mexico's 2000 GINI factor by the year 2046.
What can we do to stop this slide into third-world status? How can we reverse the train of destruction from taking away what our forefathers fought so hard to obtain?
It is clear that we don't need any more tax breaks for the wealthy. After all, they already avoid paying any taxes to begin with, why would we need to give them tax breaks on top of it? We are unique among nations in that we have the currency that everyone else cherishes. We can easily reduce the taxes on the middle class and thus allow them more disposable income. We have a bloated military industrial complex that, when reduced to actually required size, would save the economy over $300 billion dollars yearly. We are not the world's policeman, and therefore, the ills of the world need to be split among all countries, except those areas where we were completely stupid and caused problems to begin with.
<b>But the GINI factor is unforgiving. It is deadly in its precision and shows quite rightly how the wealth is distributed country by country. While France has improved dramatically over the past few decades, from a coefficient of near 50 to a coefficient closer to 30, the US has slackened from a coefficient around 35 in 1945 to a coefficient near 50 in 2005. Canada has seen dramatic improvements from near 35 in 1950 to almost 25 in 2005. In fact, only China has worsened as much as the US.</b>
What is needed is as obvious as it is essential. We need to stop the upscale explosion of the super wealthy. Our corporate CEOs don't need $50 billion or more in order to retire after having screwed tens of thousands of workers.
We have seen that scandal after scandal has left hundreds of thousands of workers without pensions and without retirement income. Now let's stand back a moment and look at this. If a person arrives at an emergency clinic and says that they're ill, will the clinic deny this person medical care?? Of course not. But this person used to work for Enron and no longer has the insurance to pay for their care. So who pays??
The American taxpayer pays, that's who. Because Enron screwed up, we pay. Because WorldCom screwed up, we pay. Because big business screws up, we pay. I'd just like it to be a bit more equal across the board. I don't mind paying, as long as I see the big boys across the table paying their fair share. It is obvious through the GINI factor that the middle class in the US is being shouldered with more of the burden and given fewer resources. Don't let this happen. Don't let this nation fall into a banana republic type nation where 10% or less own virtually everything and can control our daily lives.
That part really sucked about Mexico, trust me.
People, stand and protest the take over of the ubberrich.
-Toeg
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I've read that a Gini number of 60 is a flashpoint for violent revolution....but we're gonna be rich....someday....right??? So....not to worry !!
Meanwhile, the corporate media reliably does it's part to influence our thinking:
<center><img src="http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/images/2006-12-28_MSNBC_Edwards_Multi-Millionaire.jpg"></center>
The page that I lifted the image from displayed a comment from a reader that illustrated why this example of GE/Microsoft propaganda for the economic status quo is relevant for our discussion.....the reader made the point that what John Edwards, highlighted as a multi-millionaire sponsoring an agenda of helping poverty stricken Americans is part of our tradition....not so unusual, not out of the "mainstream".....the reader posted: