Can Capitalism Be Saved?
The difference between rich and poor is growing ever wider, and those in between are disappearing. There has been much discussion about how this disparity may be closed, yet it is growing faster than ever before. Some have suggested that our economic system can be manipulated to allow for a closure of this chasm, but I do not believe it is possible.
Here are some examples...
"Overall as a country, our output per capita goes up and up and up. Now, how it gets divided in the last 30 years, I'm not happy with. The Forbes 400 in 1982 had $92 or $93 billion. Now they have $2.4 trillion. So they've got 25 times what they had."
"They being the 400 really rich people?"
"The 'trickle down' has not worked. It's all gushed upward, basically, instead."
With regard to business taxes, Buffett said, "To the extent that people think our tax rates make us non-competitive in the world, I think they're wrong."
"What about the argument that you cut corporate taxes, you make it easier to do business, you will grow the economy?"
"American business has done sensationally in recent years. They're awash, generally, in cash; debt is cheap; conditions are terrific for American business. And the country's going to do fine over time. The goal should be to make sure that every one of our 325 million people do reasonably well.
“With great wealth has also come great political power,” he said. “Wealth buys everything from tax breaks, to bailouts, to subsidies, to laws that on their face look to be neutral, but actually help particular companies or industries or wealthy people.”
This is a sorry state of affairs, he suggests, and one that wasn’t inevitable. Democratic presidents could have embraced labor law reform and made it easier to form unions, he said. Politicians, workers and investors could have pushed back against the corporate raiders in the 1980s, who glorified short-term profits and made enormous personal fortunes. And the government could have resisted the push to deregulate Wall Street.
Putting the genie back in the bottle won’t be easy, though. As convincing as he is in making his case against the flaws in our current version of capitalism, Mr. Reich is less so when it comes to prescribing a remedy. He comes prepared with a laundry list of progressive pipe dreams. Get big money out of elections. Stop the revolving door between government and industry groups. End gerrymandering of voting districts. Raise the minimum wage.
"The game is rigged"
I watched the movie last week. While I agree almost entirely with Reich, I wasn't that impressed with the documentary. His last film was better imo.
Agreed. Not sure if it's a lack of focus; or, perhaps he doesn't really believe that capitalism can be saved.
He's two of them? Duplicitous: adjective - (law) containing more than one allegation.
The very first thing we need to do is eradicate every Republican from every political office in the country. The party is literally nothing but a gang of corporate thugs. They don't even try to hide it, and many are so stupid they keep voting for them no matter how much misery they inflict on the American people.
Do you believe then that capitalism can be saved Lenny?
Possibly Larry, but we need to unite for the common good, and speak as one voice. The politicians will all listen then, they'll have to. But we can't even unite against Donald Trump, so, I guess there's not much hope, realistically.
it is precisely attitudes and posts like yours that ensure the GOP will keep on winning.
Thanks.
Do you want to try to lose yet another 1000 seats?
So what would you replace capitalism with Lenny? It looks to be in good shape right now.
Capitalism is in Good shape? In it's present state, the rich are getting richer while the Middle Class and poor are being ground out.
When have the rich ever gotten poorer?
And one person getting rich doesn't mean someone else has to be poor.
No, it doesn't but, it seems to work out that way in the U.S. today.
The middle class is shrinking because more people are moving up the ladder. It's good news.
New research that the upper middle class in the U.S. is larger and richer than it’s ever been. He finds the upper middle class has expanded from about 12% of the population in 1979 to a new record of nearly 30% as of 2014.
So why have poverty rates declined?
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Home > The State of Poverty > Poverty Facts
Poverty Facts
The Population of Poverty USA
In 2015, 43.1 million people lived in Poverty USA. That means the poverty rate for 2015 was 13.5%.
The 2015 poverty rate was 1.0 percentage point higher than in 2007, the year before the 2008 recession.
This is the first year in five years that the number of people in poverty has decreased from the previous year’s poverty estimates.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau; Income and Poverty in the United States: 2015
Many articles claim otherwise...
Since economists first began keeping track in 1970, every decade has ended with fewer people in the middle class than at the start. And 2015 was the first year on record when Americans in the middle-income bracket did not make up the majority of the country: that is, those above and below the middle class — rich and poor combined — make up half the population, according to a Pew Research report from December .
~LINK~
America’s Shrinking Middle Class: A Close Look at Changes Within Metropolitan Areas
The middle class lost ground in nearly nine-in-ten U.S. metropolitan areas examined
~LINK~
https://thenewstalkers.com/community/discussion/36593/11%20Charts That Show Income Inequality Isn’t Getting Better Anytime Soon"> ~LINK~
The American Middle Class Is Losing Ground
No longer the majority and falling behind financially
~LINK~
The Poor and Middle Class are used as cattle to drive the economy for the wealthiest, who then turn around and use said wealth to solidify political power over the lower classes. Most in these classes agree with this summation.
Standing against Trump is the stand that will win in the end, Tex, count on it.
Sure.'
just like how Trump couldn't win the nomination, Trump couldn't beat your beloved Abuela, Trump had absolutely no path to 270, the Blue Wall would hold, the Electoral College would see massive defections---whoops, sorry, y'all got that one 1/2 right--it was a record number, just not going to Abuela like you thought. Like Trump wouldn't last 1 month, then it was 3 months, then 6 months, then a year.
if I were you, I would quit the prediction business because you really, really suck at it.
Standing against Trump sounds like a losing proposition right now. Apparently liberals don't stand for anything
If we had Capitalism could it be saved, you mean. We haven't had a truly Capitalist economic system since 1913 with the creation of the Fed and the legalization of the income tax. The Fed spends too much of its time trying to manipulate the currency market and the income tax actually punishes people trying to improve their lot in life by earning more as it taxes income not actual spending. If we enacted a 22% National Sales Tax in place of all the Federal taxes and fees at this point in time, there would be over a $4 trillion inflow of funds to the Federal government which more than covers the $3.98 trillion in spending the government has currently. Remember, a sales tax is a tax on what is spent not on what is earned.
The income tax doesn't punish anyone. It requires more from the people who have benefited the most from the economic system.
Just another way to redistribute wealth in a vain attempt to make equal results instead of equal oppurtunities.
Nope, those that have benefitted most from the economic system made their money long ago for the most part; plus they can afford tax lawyers to find every single loophole in the tax code. Meanwhile, people trying to increase their wealth by earning more, opening a business, or even selling an idea are punished for trying to be upwardly mobile. Why do you think we don't have a flat income tax rate? Because, in truth, we do not treat people equally regarding taxes. A person earning more under a 15% flat income tax will still pay more than someone earning less, particularly if there are ZERO deductions. Right now, we have on paper a system that seems to tax the rich, but in reality it doesn't as they already have their money. It actually taxes those people who cannot afford to pay millions in CPA and tax lawyer fees to have their taxes prepared to minimize their taxes. If we went to a National Sales Tax, only certain items would be tax free and the rest would be taxed only if they were purchased as they could be considered luxury items beyond the basic necessities to live. Cigarettes would be taxed as they are not necessary to live on. TVs would be taxed as they are luxury entertainment devices. Basic food items and or pre-made meals for a small family would not be taxed. Caviar would be taxed as it is a luxury item. Government contracts with vendors would be taxed as they are not necessities for people to live on, but are included in the GDP as the GDP is most often calculated via the spending methodology, which includes government spending. Are you finally starting to get the picture?
I could create a fair tax system in about a half an hour. Everyone gets taxed on their income according to a minutely adjusted sliding scale. Someone making 50,010 dollars a year would pay a minutely higher percentage of their income in taxes than someone making 50,000. etc etc etc. There would be a different rate for every additional dollar of income. People would not be pushed potentially into a a much higher tax rate just because they got a thousand dollar a year raise. In the computer age everyone's individual tax rate could be calculated in an instant. There would be no more deductions for anyone with the one exception of deductions for child dependents.
I wrote up a true progressive income tax system (for every $1000 in income the tax rate went up 0.5%) in 1990, during when I was a Senior in high school during my Economics class. Then, I realized how evil that type of tax system was when Alan Keyes ran for President the first time and pointed out how it punishes the person trying to improve their lot in life. Plus, you forget that a Sales Tax would reduce the size of the IRS as they would not have to investigate PERSONAL FINANCES and instead focus only on the returns made by businesses or on any sales made. You wouldn't have the legalized theft inherit in the withholding system we have today as you wouldn't have to have any of the FICA or income taxes removed from your paycheck as they would be part of the sales tax.
Wrong. Capitalism was poisoned in 1982. It took about 15 years for it to die. SSE is now the lord in the dank halls of the money pit.
You really don't know your history do you? In 1982, the income tax was slashed to a top rate of 25%, just like Calvin Coolidge proposed and got enacted in the 1920s. The Fed has been manipulating the economy since 1913 by controlling the rate every bank bases their interest rates on.
There is a hell of a lot more to that than that. The concentration of wealth is the issue. SSE was designed for that sole purpose and it has and continues to deliver.
Controlling/manipulating the rates? LOL. Something has to set the rules, doesn't it? Or not? And don't come back with 'natural market forces.'
When one hedge fund manager makes more money in one year than a thousand $20 per hour people will make in a hundred years---something is out of whack.
In 2009, former Secretary of Treasury Hank Paulson and his brother made slightly over $15 Billion in the commodity markets. Natural Market Forces my arse.
Do you think the Fed is controlled by the government? No, the Fed is controlled by the banks and is in charge of printing the money that Congress is supposed to be in charge of. The Fed controls the economy 3 ways, by manipulating interest rates, printing money, and creating rules for electronic currency usage. If you look at the boards of each of the Federal Reserve Banks, their members are almost all members of the big banks.
There. You finally have it. The Banks and the Federal Reserve. I believe we agree more than we disagree.
Except I should have said ten years and not a hundred years.
Item 1: Capitalism does not need saving.
Item 2: Just because people don't understand something does not mean it is "rigged". It is also not "witchcraft"...no matter how many extremists are willing to pander to the contrary.
Capitalism is dead. Murdered by Supply Side Economics. Concentration of wealth, overpopulation, labor relegated to commodity status-------the oligarchy is real. Oligarchy is successful in Russia and it is coming here. Prepare. Mnuchin, Ross are pawns.