Obviously then the biggest problem with all this is that the OWS crowd AND the pope have it all wrong. Robin Hood didn't steal from capitalists... he didn't steal from crofters, brewers, millers, etc. He stole from nobility which, you might as well say, governed the country, and that rather poorly.
If you steal from capitalists, the capitalists will simply hide their monies and refuse to invest in more innovation, and decide to just sit on what they have. Why be a producer if the government is simply going to steal it?
The lack of critical thought in leftist media and the OWS, in this regard, is astounding. OWS has misplaced their ire, and leftist media (government controlled) are egging them on, anything to divert attention to the truth, that it is government which is to blame for our present woes. OWS and has fallen over its own ignorance and can't get up. On top of which economic ignoramuses like our current president and his 'economic team,' have bungled what was already a fragile economy to begin with. OWS should be protesting in front of the White House and Congress... not Wall Street. But then OWS doesn't want accountability in government, they want handouts, and they want Capitalists to fess up with their fruit of their labor. Wall Street didn't create these 'bubbles'... government-- namely, the Fed --did.
Do you want to solve the problem of market 'bubbles' and instability? I can assure, the president is incapable of doing it, no matter how many bills he threatens and cajoles republicans to pass-- democrats don't want his bill either! But do you really want to solve the problem of market bubbles and instability? How about these suggestions just for starters...
- Eliminate the Fed. It is because of the Fed that bubbles exist at all
- Return to some sort of standard for the dollar. Yes, it'll hurt for a while, but before Nixon took us off the gold standard our currency was stable
- Remove as much regulation and government oversight as possible on business. We need to see lawmakers seizing on the floor of congress, and retching on their fine silk suits before saying 'enough is enough'
- Begin tapping and extracting our own resources of oil and natural gas; this will create hundreds of thousands of jobs
- Eliminate the death tax
- Bring corporate taxes down to 10-15%
- Reduce the capital gains tax to zero for a period of years
America will cease to be great if we lose our reserve currency status. Think things are tough now? Prices on just about everything will increase 25-40%, almost overnight. Without the ability to continue to print money to buy ourselves out of crises after crises (as we're doing now), the cost of just about everything will skyrocket. You think there's unrest now? Imagine what will happen when average Americans have to choose between eating and paying their mortgage, or basic utilities, or gas for their vehicles. Riots on Wall Street? No, riots on Main Street.
If America loses it's reserve currency status, there will be a run on the banks. And the government, in an effort to save what it can will close all markets, and banks. Pensions and social security checks will likely stop as well. What happens when the government food stamp program stops? Riots on Main Street? No, riots on YOUR street. Desperate people resorting to desperate acts. And law enforcement unable to be everywhere at once. Government may even impose martial law. Think it can't happen? You're a fool if you think so.
In light of this, therefore, I propose a Robin Hood Tax on the American government... by kicking it's sorry ass out of the economy altogether (where it has no business being), and forcing it (at gunpoint if necessary) to live within its means. by doing this we just may... may, mind you... save this country from economic destruction in the process, and save untold lives.
It's time for another revolution in this country. Everyone else seems to be throwing their own 'tea parties'... perhaps it's time we had a real tea party of our own, here and now, before our government literally kills tens of thousands of Americans through their reckless fiscal policies that will, if left unchecked, doom thousands of Americans to the loss of the very basic of services; without which most Americans wouldn't know how to survive.
Don't let the government kill you! Join Robin's merry band of men today and together we can bring down the evil Price John (government) and that dastardly Sheriff of Nottingham (the Fed). By doing so we just may be able to save the kingdom for our long absent King Richard....... wherever and whoever he turns out to be.
ALL of your proposals and ideas would INCREASE the federal government's deficits and REDUCE federal revenue. Every single one.
ReplyDeleteWhere will the federal revenue come from when there are no EPA fines, corporate taxes, capital gains taxes, inheritance taxes, state parks, mineral exploration licenses? Where the only place left to get money is from income taxes on the the working class.
What you are proposing is dramatically increasing the burden on America's working families and letting the corporations and financial speculators that have driven our economy to the brink of catastrophe off scott-free!
Did you even consider that? Or are you just parroting today's demagoguery from the "thought" leaders of the conservative party.
It is because of the federal reserve and the fiat money of the US that we are the world's reserve currency. If the US dollar was pegged to the gold standard then inflation and the limited supply of US currency would be so small that it would be impractical for the US to be the world's reserve currency.
And because our nation's monetary policy is vested with an independent board like the Federal Reserve instead of directly in the hands of politicians then other countries and corporations feel secure in entrusting their value to our currency.
You have no sense of history of American economics, you have no grasp of the fundamentals of the American economy. Why do you keep writing these posts?
"Remove as much regulation and government oversight as possible on business."
ReplyDeleteI completely agree... ...NOT!
There's a reason there are rules regulating how much visible shit can be on the outside of a cow carcass before it gets slaughtered, or exactly what parts can go into hotdogs.
There's also a reason coal plants have to clean their exhaust so kids in area communities don't get black-lung and die at 25.
And there's a good reason we don't lead toy-makers use lead in gizmos and tinker-toys, because lead causes crime waves twenty years later.
Or should we talk about employers that don't let employees take more than 4 minutes for 1 bathroom break each day. There was a case like that in Mississippi in 1996. But who needs labor laws, not business.
Or perhaps we should go back to letting Wal-Mart steal from employees by forcing them to work after clocking out for the day. Your friend the bussinessman.
And oh yeah that awful business burdensome regulation Obama signed requiring businesses to pay female worker the same as men for doing the same job. That's a tragedy of injustice for American corporations.
I don't want a company or factory in my town if the only thing holding them back are the public health & safety and worker protection laws. Republicans maybe think differently.
"Begin tapping and extracting our own resources of oil and natural gas; this will create hundreds of thousands of jobs"
ReplyDeleteIt might create thousands of jobs over the next two decades if we opened all public lands and repealed all federal and state measures relating to fossil fuel production. Might.
But you idea runs in to quite a few hurdles.
1. States have their own regulations concerning oil and gas development. It isn't just the federal government putting pins in off-shore oil rigs, Florida doesn't want a drop of crude to wash up on its sugar-sand beaches. Should those laws be jettisoned for maybe eventual jobs?
2. There's lots of resources under federal lands, but those lands are protected for a reason. Imagine if the wild western lands around Yellowstone weren't protected and crude and other fossil fuel runoffs polluted the park. Or the Colorado River which provides water to much of the Southwest.
3. Then after you extract it...Ha! Oil and crude are sold on an international market. So cheap oil here gets bought by developing markets in India, China and Brazil, if they're willing to pay more. And America doesn't have a state-run oil company like Saudi Arabia, Iran, Kuwait or Iraq so, all the profits go to foreign companies like BP and Exxon-Mobil.
This conservative, Drill! Drill! Drill! mantra is a Lie! Lie! Lie!
"If you steal from capitalists, the capitalists will simply hide their monies and refuse to invest in more innovation, and decide to just sit on what they have."
ReplyDeleteWhen did this pessimistic view of American innovators and capitalists become part of the conservative outlook? Probably when Gordon Gecko changed capitalism from an emphasis on actual products and increasing wealth through increasing sale to a view of capitalism as a monetary shell game where money comes from shuffling and lieing better than anyone else.
If real American producers have a better idea for a mousetrap they build it and sell it. They don't think, "I'm not going to try this because my taxes will be 5% higher if I make a million dollars." Real entrepreneurs realize that the gains far outweigh the costs. And patriotic entrepreneurs might think, "I owe something back to the country which gave me the education and opportunity for this success."
Profiteers (which the Republican party has been captured by) think, "Mine! What I earn is mine! What do I owe anyone else? Nothing!"
Even in the 1960's when upper-end tax brackets were 80% and up American entrepreneurs still produced and expanded. And that's what we need, because I'm still waiting for my jet pack.