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Tax the Speculators
Let's start with a fairness point. Why should you pay a 5 to 6 percent sales tax for buying the necessities of life, when tomorrow, some speculator on Wall Street can buy $100 million worth of Exxon derivatives and not pay one penny in sales tax? Let's further add a point of common sense. The basic premise of taxation should be to first tax what society likes the least or dislikes the most, before it taxes honest labor or human needs.
In that way, revenues can be raised at the same time as the taxes discourage those activities which are least valued, such as the most speculative stock market trades, pollution (a carbon tax), gambling, and the addictive industries that sicken or destroy health and amass large costs.
So, your member of Congress, who is grappling these days with gigantic deficits on the backs of your children at the same time as that deep recession and tax cuts reduce revenues and increase torrents of red ink, should be championing such transaction taxes.
Yet apart from a small number of legislators, most notably Congressman Peter Welch (Dem. VT) and Peter DeFazio (Dem. OR), the biggest revenue producer of all-a tax on stock derivative transactions-essentially bets on bets-and other mystifying gambles by casino capitalism-is at best corridor talk on Capitol Hill.
There are differing estimates of how much such Wall Street transaction taxes can raise each year. A transaction tax would, however, certainly raise enough to make the Wall Street crooks and gamblers pay for their own Washington bailout. Lets scan some figures economists put forth.
The most discussed and popular one is a simple sales tax on currency trades across borders. Called the Tobin Tax after its originator, the late James Tobin, a Nobel laureate economist at Yale University, 10 to 25 cents per hundred dollars of the huge amounts of dollars traded each day across bordered would produce from $100 to $300 billion per year.
There are scores of civic, labor, environmental, development, poverty and law groups all over the world pressing for such laws in their countries. (see tobintaxcall.free.fr).
According the University of Massachusetts economist, Robert Pollin, various kinds of securities-trading taxes are on the books in about forty countries, including Japan, the UK and Brazil.
Pollin writes in the current issue of the estimable Boston Review: "A small tax on all financial-market transactions, comparable to a sales tax, would raise the costs on short-term speculative trading while having negligible effect on people who trade infrequently. It would thus discourage speculation and channel funds toward productive investment." He adds that after the 1987 stock market crash, securities-trading taxes "or similar measures" were endorsed by then Senate Minority Leader Bob Dole and even the first President Bush. Professor Pollin estimates that a one-half of one percent tax would raise about $350 billion a year. That seems conservative. The Wall Street Journal once mentioned about $500 trillion in derivatives trades alone in 2008-the most speculative of transactions. A one tenth of one percent tax would raise $500 billion dollars a year, assuming that level of trading.
Economist Dean Baker says a "modest financial transactions tax would be enough to "finance a 10% across-the-board reduction in the income tax on labor.
The stock transaction tax goes back a long way. A version helped fund the Civil War and the imperial Spanish-American War. The famous British economist, John Maynard Keynes, extolled in 1936 a securities transaction tax as having the effect of "mitigating the predominance of speculation over enterprise." The U.S. had some kind of transaction tax from 1914 to 1966.
The corporate history scholar (read his excellent book, Unequal Protection) Thom Hartmann, turned three-hour-a-day talk-show-host on Air America (airamerica.com/thomvision), had discussed the long evolution of what he calls a "securities turnover excise tax" to "tamp down toxic speculation, while encouraging healthy investment."
So, why don't we have such a mega-revenue generator and lighten the income tax load on today and tomorrow's American worker? (It was one of the most popular ideas I campaigned on last year. People got it.) Because American workers need to learn about this proposed tax policy and ram it through Congress. Tell your Senators and Representatives-no ifs, ands or buts. Otherwise, Wall Street will keep rampaging over people's pensions and mutual fund savings, destabilize their jobs and hand them the bailout bill, as is occurring now.
A few minutes spent lobbying members of Congress by millions of Americans (call, write or e-mail, visit or picket) will produce one big Change for the better. Contact your member of Congress. The current financial mess makes this the right time for action.
- Posted in
68 Comments so far
Show AllSioux Rose
RALPH makes more sense that 90% of the Senators and congressmen/women in office now or in past years. This is a call worth making.
Ralph, I think you're such a TRUE public citizen that I had you cloned! (In literature, that is.)
"When a true genius appears in the world, you may know him by this sign; that the dunces are all in confederacy against him." Jonathan Swift
"Most people would sooner die than think, in fact they do so." Bertrand Russell
Yes, a way to slow down the destuctive runaway speculation and to extract some badly needed money out of the filthy rich!
We need to make the idea of a truly free market for real. Don't get me wrong. I do believe in stopping those rascal speculators in their tracks but especially on the issue of oil, we need to put those alternatives on the market and let them actually compete with oil. That will put a fail proof damper on the greedy speculators.
>>yohocoma wrote: I'm usually conflicted about idiot taxes - i.e. on smoking, lotteries, etc. They're social ills which should be eliminated rather than be easing my personal tax burden......I'm usually conflicted about idiot taxes - i.e. on smoking, lotteries, etc. They're social ills which should be eliminated rather than be easing my personal tax burden.
I would go with the libertarian approach here (I know some here are suspicious of libertarians - I am not a libertarian, I just see the logic in some of their arguments - that's all):
You cannot really 'outlaw' idiotic activities. What you can and should try to do is to limit or avoid the negative effects on the broader society. Derivatives are shady financial 'products' to start with - but they are part of a larger problem with the financial system, and people like Ron Paul have talked about it extensively. As for these taxes forming a significant part of a government's budget, that is something to be tackled. Revenue from 'idiot taxes' as you call them, should never be part of the overall budgeting process - they should be clearly earmarked for mitigating the effects of such activities, by way of education, providing alternatives, removing the incentives for such activities in the first place.
On a different note, the mainstream media 'successfully' ignored people like Ron Paul and Ralph Nader during the campaign season. And Democrats still carry this notion that Ralph Nader was responsible for Al Gore's 'defeat' in 2000 - personally, I think that's childish, and comes from a poor understanding of what democracy is about. A majority of the population that chooses to ignore or ridicule people like Ron Paul and Ralph Nader has only itself to blame for its problems. You don't have to agree with everything that one stands for - in fact, that would be dangerous - it's a clear sign that someone is leading you on, saying things that you want to hear anyway - but you should be intelligent enough to see the logic and genuineness of what someone says.
Highintel: Can we do better?
Your last paragraph is exactly wrong. I happen to agree with 100% of what Ralph Nader says, and he's not "leading us on." I also disagree with at least two-thirds of what Ron Paul says. Yes, corporate media ignored them both, but that's about all they have in common.
>>Naturally wrote: I happen to agree with 100% of what Ralph Nader says, and he's not "leading us on."
You should read my last paragraph again, this time slowly :) May be I wrote that comment in a hurry. What I meant was there are many people who do not agree with Ralph Nader (and also Ron Paul. Personally, I happen to think both have important things to say). You may agree 100% with Ralph Nader, but obviously you are in a minority - otherwise Nader would be President. My point was, it is extremely rare to find someone with whom you can agree completely, and that if someone happens to say all the right things that appeal to you, then he is possibly leading you on. Obama has obviously said all the right things, and avoided or skirted around tricky issues. I picked Ralph Nader and Ron Paul to represent the 'left' and 'right' within the country.
Tell me: what chance of survival does a system have that preys upon the workers and the consumers for its existence? I think we know.
Thank you once again Ralph Nader.
Folks, the economic system of the whole world is largely geared to advantage the rich and take from the poor also known as the sheeple.
Politicians, in the main, are part of the rich so they are not going to upset the apple cart.
Only the sheeple can upset the golden apple cart and the only way that can happen is for them to start thinking then start rebelling.
Perhaps the pain that is coming will start the thinking, start the questioning about why so few have so much.
Let the revolution begin!
www.dangerouscreation.com
While I agree with Raplh Nader on his proposal, I would make a somewhat different argument. I disagree that "speculation" should be taxed because it is "disliked." I agree with his first argument that such speculation should be subject to the same taxes as other transactions in the interest of "fairness." Second, I agree speculation has negative effects and costs which should be borne by those who reap the benefits rather than "externalized" to those of us who do not.
The collapse of the financial market due to excessive speculation threw the entire financial system into crisis. The effects rippled throughout the economy so everyone, even the most "prudent" consumers, employees and businesspeople are suffering. Those costs should be borne more proportionately by those who engaged in the risky behavior. We needn't overthrow capitalism to demand the risks be privatized at least as much as the benefits.
Third, the laws and policies of our society, including those which govern the economy, are not a "natural" feature of the world, as the neo-liberal, laissez faire propagandists would have us believe. They are the result of "unnatural" market conditions: government subsidies, IP protections, tax policies, trade policies, etc.. Human beings have a right to modify the social institutions and incentive systems which govern our behavior. The hothead reactionary screams "No!" The hothead revolutionary screams "Yes!" And the prudent citizen weighs the advantages and disadvantages, applying socially negotiated concepts of fairness and efficiency.
Other societies, today, in other places and ourselves, in the recent past, have had different tax rates, property relations, etc. Sometimes these worked well; sometimes they worked less well. When the benefits of our social arrangements go out of balance, as indicated by the growing inequality of income and the resultant economic crisis, we have a right, in fact, a NEED, to put things back into balance. When the economy goes into a nose dive, as it has, and when some people continue to make high incomes while others suffer and that suffering is projected to increase, it is not unreasonable that the system of rewards be adjusted so the wealthy are receiving less of the benefits and those losing receive a larger share.
Yes, increase the taxes on the wealthy. Yes, tax economic activities which increase instability in the system, partly to dampen them and partly to recapture the benefits from those reaping high rewards.
Frankly, those for whom the system is "working" should bear a larger share of the costs of that system than those for whom the system is working quite poorly.
Do not "Eat the Rich." Do not "Cut off their heads and put them on pikes." But tax them fairly and take from them the disproportionate share of the national income which has been stolen for them during the last few decades. Let's restore a bit of balance in the economy so it doesn't wobble erratically.
Sioux Rose
SHILIAP: Excellent post. Thank you for sharing it.
Being fair to the rich and powerful is a fools trap. They don't reciprocate to "fairness" because the rich and powerful see it as weakness.
Once the people get the upper hand on the rich, they must be dealt with in a ruthless cruel manner. Their wealth should be stripped from them so there are no more wealthy. This is exactly the way the wealthy have treated the "common people" throughout the ages. The wealthy have stolen, robbed, cheated, imprisoned and manipulated us far too long. Today, we see two economic realities, one for the rich (too big to fail), and another for the working class (keep us in debt servitude).
Make them economically like us. This way would stop wars, poverty, hunger and disease. We are at the technological stage where we must jump to the new way of co-operation. The way of the capitalist is destructive, greedy and exploitative. Children die every day in this country because they cannot get health care which the rich take for granted.
Look at Mr. Obama. He lied to us, to get into office to serve his masters. And he is serving his masters, the rich and powerful. He is going to keep the wars going, bailout the criminal banks and wall street shysters. I have not heard one syllable about health care. Indeed, he appointed two ruling elite tax cheats to run Treasury and HHS. He has said he will not investigate, never mind prosecute, war criminals or financial criminals.
What more proof do you need? Open your eyes and see the truth. It is time we get really mad. It is time we stop taking this crap.
I wager I understand the class structure of American society at least as well as you do and have probably been much more effective at battling the excessives of capitalism.
Your language and style expose you as a pampered child of privilege, perhaps playing at being proletarian, though more likely bohemian with your infantile "revolutionism." You speak with the arrogance of a convert, still adjusting to your recognition the world is not fair, but at a loss over what to do about it, except loud kvetching, as if your rudeness and intemperance are proof of your rejection of this capitalist system. Instead, they prove your facile understanding. Working people, especially people of color, especially working women of color, understand the nature of this society much better than you ever will.
If you feel anger or guilt over your life of relative privilege, there is plenty of useful work to be done, beyond complaining on a blog or conspiring over a beer. Do some work, learn some humility, gain understanding and patience. You might, after all that, learn how to listen and then, learn how to speak in a vocabulary, and a tone, which connects with other people. Frankly, that is more important than your revolutionary posturing. And much more effective.
Really?
How can you know me, and speak for the working men and women of this society.
You sound arrogant and foolish.
My guess is that you are a shill for the Obama administration. "Change we can believe in?"
I am pissed off at the obvious criminality of this government. And you only want to "tax em a little more?" Ha,ha,ha. You deserve to be laughed at for such tepid solutions. What else? Maybe people like Mr. Madoff should be fined a few hundred dollars and given 1000 hours of community service?
Wake up.
I'm with you, Shliapnikov. Concrete proposals that are within the realm of the possible are constructive and welcome. Your ideas are not Obama-style flattery, as someone has suggested. They are indeed more akin to the proposals (and solutions) of Ralph Nader, and they are worthy indeed.
Whether or not the intended target of your post understand its meaning, I certainly do, and I applaud you for it. I recognize my flaws and foibles and that may not be the same as correcting them, but I do try. Its just that some make it so damn hard.
"Most people would sooner die than think, in fact they do so." Bertrand Russell
We should treat them according to the laws. Prosecute them for their criminal activity under RICO statutes and then take all the illegal gains they have enjoyed.
And we should not be bailing out the bankrupt banking system and Wall Street. We could have bought Bank of America and Citigroup for 52 billion. We have put in how much? 300 billion. That is criminal and someone should pay.
You are a fool or a shill of the ruling elite.
Two reasons why Ralph Nader is NOT currently President:
1. He's of Lebanese descent. Lebanon is NOT favored by boobus americanus, the US government, or Israel.
2. He's RIGHT!
In the face of who WAS elected President I find your proposal a bit silly, sorry.So this nation rejected Nader because he was of Lebanese extraction but accepted Obama???
Nader lost because the system excludes all but the two parties, Nader lost because Obama could raise 700 million dollars to wage a propaganda campaign of two years duration and great magnitude. Nader lost because the American people have been deceived for so long they have become completely unaware of the deception, not because they are stupid, why work to save those for whom you have contempt?
Nader never ran to win, only to ensure that a progressive agenda was made available to the people. It was about the only way to get that agenda before the people.
"Most people would sooner die than think, in fact they do so." Bertrand Russell
In hopes that Ralph Nader would approve, I have taken the libery of condensing the article, reducing the $500 trillion equation to $300t, into an letter to elected officials if anyone is interested:
The Friends Committee on National Legislation has a zip code access to your reps and a 'compose your own letter' option
http://capwiz.com/fconl/home/
***
Why do we pay a 5 to 6 percent sales tax for buying the necessities of life, when a speculator on Wall Street can buy $100 million worth of XX derivatives and not pay one penny in sales tax?
A Transaction Tax on currency trades across borders, a "Tobin Tax" is named after its originator, the late James Tobin, a Nobel laureate economist at Yale University. It is estimated that 10 to 25 cents per hundred dollars would produce from $100 to $300 billion per year.
A transaction tax is supported by civic, labor, environmental, development, poverty and law groups all over the world pressing for such laws in their countries. (see tobintaxcall.free.fr).
According the University of Massachusetts economist, Robert Pollin, securities-trading taxes exist in about forty countries, including Japan, the UK and Brazil. Professor Pollin estimates that a one-half of one percent tax would raise about $350 billion a year.
In a year of trading, $300 trillion in derivatives taxed at one tenth of one percent tax would raise $300 billion dollars.
John Maynard Keynes felt a securities transaction would have the effect of "mitigating the predominance of speculation over enterprise." The U.S. had some kind of transaction tax from 1914 to 1966.
Looks good..but who should I write to, since I now live in DC and technically don't have any Congressional representatives? I suppose I could contact my previous reps.
If everyone who reads this article would send it to 10 more people and ask them to pass the idea on to 10 more we may be able to start something. If a joke can crisscross the country in twenty four hours, why not a good idea? If every progressive blog got this idea out to the public we may be able to embarrass a few politicians into supporting it. Obviously it will take a lot to embarrass a politician so our job is immense.The only people I imagine would be against this idea would be the fatcats and their stooges. Anyone who fails to send 10 E-mails will of course suffer for another 8 years.
This is as cogent today as when Nader first proposed it some time ago. Why is it that the simplest and most direct ideas do not seem to gain traction? Nader makes the point that if I must pay taxes on a gallon of milk then a speculator should certainly have to pay such on his transactions.
We will, of course, see no further mention of this brilliantly simple idea, not from Obama, the progressives wet dream, not from any elected politico. Instead we will continue to see billions sucked out of our treasury in welfare for the wealthy, those who first destroyed our economy while reaping billions in profits ( untaxed profits). At the same time we will certainly see cuts in welfare to the poorest among us, cuts in the education of our children, cuts in services to the people (police and fire), and cuts in the maintenance of our infrastructure.
Soon, on this very thread, we shall see comments about Nader's sexuality, his living arrangements and who knows what other irrelevancies.....While our politicians look the other way and pretend not to notice..But what can one expect from folks who dont even seem able to pay their own taxes?
"Most people would sooner die than think, in fact they do so. Bertrand Russell
Pan
WHY WHY WHY, well because you see...UMMM well it`s because because because AHH if we didn`t weren`t here in India you see : Well you just couln`t run India without us and so thats why we must AAHH you can`t do without us.
Can`t get a GOOD SAHIB without paying HMM Million AND MILLION AND MILLIONS , the Grey Matter juices just will not flow.
Dah Mark Twain Knew That.
Crisp, fair, and undeniably do-able: all reasons why we will never see such a transaction tax implemented.
I admire Mr. Nader and share his sentiments but, as is the case with Dean Baker's article on this site, "Rationalize the Banks," advocating common sense responses to our financial crises which would undoubtedly threaten the protected interests and the venal politicians they've bought and paid for will lead nowhere. Why in the world should any of us expect legislation from the cesspool that D.C. has become which would acknowledge this government's obligation to its working class? Obama has managed to nominate THREE cabinet-level appointees with histories of tax trouble—and one of them will be serving as our Secretary of the Treasury!
Lest any readers envy those of us living in Vermont, I would have you know that the redoubtable Congressman Welch was against the original $750 billion bailout—until he was for it. Finger bravely held windward, he divined the mood of the populace and stated firmly that he was, uh, you know, not really enthused, er, about the three-page Paulson power-grab. By week's end, however, sensing that the public's mood hadn't shifted at all, Welch quietly voted FOR the first round of give-aways citing—as if this passed for wisdom or political insight—the need to do "something." And just look at how much more stable our economy is now!
Ironically, I believe that the GOP obstructionistas may actually be on to something this time, should they succeed in stopping the latest "stimulus." Our inefficient and corrupt government and our iniquitous, class-based economy might just have to fall to the point of near collapse before we all—government and governed alike—face up to some difficult realities and begin the grown-up work of reshaping this country into the better, nobler nation it could have been all along. Of course, I don't mean to suggest that right-wing ideologues wish, in any way, to improve the lot of our fellow citizens. A party for which the solution to every problem is corporate tax cuts has the depth of a puddle and the legitimacy of a Madoff prospectus. No, in spite of their worst intentions the Republican appetite for destruction could usher in a brighter era. Sadly, there will be many painful fits and starts before we get there.
"fall to the point of near collapse before we all—government and governed alike—face up to some difficult realities and begin the grown-up work of reshaping this country into the better, nobler nation"
We need the collapse, we need to experience the pain to learn the lesson. Sure, the people will suffer more than the elites. Sure this will be unfair. BUT take a closer look: A temporary pain that transitions into a lasting gain for the people. All of the progressive platform is for long term stability.
Law !!! Are you kidding. Our legal system is permitting illegal warrant less surveillance.
Our Department of Justice is ignoring thousands of complaints from people all over the country that are being terrorized by Stazi police gang stalking community watch groups.
We are the next Natzi Germany in making. Our Government has known very well over the last 7 years which way the market was headed and our financial system, but instead of trying to halt or correct the financial disaster , they have been building the largest spy network in the world and preparing for martial law to head off civil disobedience and food riots.
Wake up America, restore our Constitution and our checks and balances before they steal our country from us.
The nation wide spy network headed by the Bush/Cheney National Security fear mongering good old boy DHS is way out of control. They are torturing us with gang stalking surveillance tactics and are growing in numbers from county to county.Lots of people out of work have no choice but to join there ranks. We need to put these people to work in real jobs or pay them not to join the Stazi police.
BornFreeMen
American patriot, not a SPYmerican , Not a TORTUREmerican.
Here we have a man who has saved countless lives with his advocacy for the public. What the hell is Obama doing naming Repugs and crooks to his cabinet when he could employ Nader, the most knowledgeable person with the most experience? Why is Obama trying to placate the enemy when he has the upper hand? Repugs want him to fail. Why is he sabotaging his administration by trying to appease Repugs?
This is why:
MALCOLM X: THE HOUSE NEGRO AND THE FIELD NEGRO
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=znQe9nUKzvQ
Yeah. Everyone who disagrees with your revolutionary "off with their heads" views is either a "house negro" or a "bourgeois". You would have been right at home in Stalin's USSR.
Maybe you should wake up. The USA is changing into a top down "Stalinist" totalitarian nation. FISA-Mr. Obama voted for it; bailout of the Wall Street Banksters-Mr. Obama is directing the bailout; the war in Afgahistan-Mr. Obama is doubling the number of troops and attacking, without permission, inside Pakistan. I can go on.
How is your vote doing to change the "system" of privilege? Looks to me like the good ol' boy system tricked you again.
Mr. Obama is looting the Treasury right under your nose and you can't do anything about it. You, as citizen, are impotent to stop or change the corruption and plunder.
Yelling at me, only "kills the messenger." You can't handle the truth.
AMEN!
As one at least as feisty as are you I would note that the "message" must be received to be heard. Nothing wrong with nice packaging...
"Most people would sooner die than think, in fact they do so." Bertrand Russell
Wow that is quite the video and the speaker (is that MalcomX?) He reminds me of Obama in his presentation and looks, except for his vision of what was going on.
I get it. It's simple. I suppose today we could say we are either house humans or field humans or maybe even a third type of human...... a heild human?
What happens when snowflakes stick together?...............friends come together and have snow ball fights. :)
Leea
Because, Obama and the "Repugs" play for the same team. The rhetoric of his campaign was exactly that - rhetoric. He doesn't mean any of the things he campaigned on. He has no intention of carrying them out - and he never did. And you know how I know this? Because I'm watching the same events as you!
Exactly. One Corporate Party with two faces. No matter what, the OCP wins, always. Until we break free from mentality that there are only two (actually only one) viable options (Rep and Dem), nothing will ever change. It's amazing, isn't it, that we are only two weeks into the "Change we can count on" administration and the cookie is already crumbling. But, heh. We told you so.
Let's start a "Draft Ralph Nader for Senator Dodd's Seat", Dodd has to go,
and Ralph should have a seat in the Senate and a Bully Pulpit to better
express his views and maybe expose the present corrupt group in power.
Wouldn't that scare the bejesus out of this crowd?
Better yet, replace LIEberNAZI in 2012 although Dodd's getting worse these days I can see. A Nader vs LIEberNAZI race would really be a real hit to watch because we could all get a chance to watch Nader pound that son of a gun to the ground. Isn't CT progressive these days anyway?
If I may
Electing Nader to any office is not effective. As one who voted for him three times now I must say that he runs, not to win, but to promote his (and my) agenda. In Congress he would be an independent in a room full of partisan politics, would receive no meaningful committee appointments, would get no hearing, fail to bring any bills to the floor and be lost.
Ralph Nader is best where he is, on the outside educating, explaining and criticizing.
"Most people would sooner die than think, in fact they do so." Bertrand Russell
It's a shame all the people who swallowed Obama's empty promises,didn't vote for Nader instead. I believe the American people have been hoodwinked for so long by the politicians and the shadow corporate government,that they don't have the courage to vote for real change. Anyone who bothered to look at Nader's proposals for change, have to see he was the "real" candidate for that change. Once again America settled for less. I have voted for Nader every time he ran. I believe in him, I fear when he has passed on there is no one on the horizon to take his place. We will all be the poorer for it. I saw some hope for change back in the Sixties,but they snuffed it out,when Dr. King was killed.They knew how dangerous he was to their control.Even those who didn't agree with his methods,like the Black Panthers and the SDS,respected his commitment to justice and peace. I am very worried the collapse of the economy will set in motion events no one except the corporatocracy wants.
Lewb, you're a man (or woman) after my own heart. I, too, have voted for Nader in the past 4 presidential elections. I agree, people have become (have always been?) too scared to vote for change. They have completely been brainwashed into the lie spread by the MSM that certain people are "not electable." I hate that word, electable. It is just a myth fed to people to get them to avoid voting their conscience. The entire political scene is now simply theatre. A show to create the sense that there are different parties, with different goals and objectives.
We both know that's not true. As my college PolySci professor once said, "Democrats, Republicans -- there's only ONE party - and WE'RE NOT INVITED!"
But most people are unable or unwilling to see that. ALL of my "progressive" friends (some of who are intelligent human beings) are so ecstatic about Obama's election. They will not look with the slightest bit of critical thinking at the actual DEEDS of Mr. Obama, as opposed to his rhetoric. And they are quick to defend whatever decisions he makes. It makes me extremely sad - and angry - but I don't see things improving. In fact, I see the same outcome you allude too. We are absolutely headed to another depression. I fear this one will be far more calamitous than the last.
In faith,
MariusP
What makes Ralph Nader and the rest of the pundits ignore that the vast majority of people haven't a clue and/or don't care why things are the way they are? If people cared, they'd get a clue, and before you can say who-done-it the chimps in Washington will produce a culprit for the gallows and the problem will cease. It's been extremely rare for a pundit to admit that the real problem behind all problems is the people's disengagement, which has been a goal of the elites, to shift the people away from civic engagement, and away from owning production and away from local self-sufficiency and toward a singular role in society: to consume the fodder like cattle. Enough! Enlighten the people, and put them TO WORK ON WASHINGTON.
By the way, speculation is totally counter-productive. Ralph knows this but he doesn't bother to explain why. The only rationalization of speculation offered by the chimps is easily dismissed. They say it can smooth out market transients, since speculators look ahead. This maybe convincing to typical USans, but when we are required to stop consuming for a microsecond and THINK, then we learn that the transients are caused by none other than the chimps themselves. The people do not produce market transients because their actions are dispersed. Speculation is purely for elite fun and games at the people's expense. Ban the friggin casinos, all of them. And change the K-12 civics curriculum to teach the kids they have to acquire enlightenment and responsibility! Flatten the hierarchy!
"The basic premise of taxation should be to first tax what society likes the least"
A tax on Republicans!!
"The only means of strengthening one's intellect is to make up one's mind about nothing, to let the mind be a thoroughfare for all thoughts." - John Keats
I blame Nader.
I blame him for Obama's presidency. This Nader guy is an egocentric dreamer. Who the hell wants profits taxed when we can tax the poor. And those who complain we'll send of to Afghanistan to fight for ... What was it? Oh yeah, liberty and those terrorists who hate our freedoms, our freedom to drop bombs on their head without any repercussion or guilt.
I blame Nader because all these years of warning us against what actually came to pass was actually the root cause of the problem. It isn't the fault of the wall street CEOs getting millions of dollars while running the financial institutions into the ground. If Nader wouldn't have warned us, it wouldn't have happened.
I blame Nader for putting the idea of Universal Health Care into the mind of radicals who now think that health care is a right, as opposed to a privilege to be enjoyed only by the corporate elite.
The only good thing about running this Nader article is that Common Dreams had the foresight and presence of mind not to publish Nader drivel when he was running for president. Publishing him now is as good as spitting into the wind.
Thank you Common Dreams, thank you Obama supporters for ensuring that the American Dream that we have enjoyed for the past 200 years will continue (with just a little slavery eradication of Indian thrown in for good measure).
God Bless only the corporate elite America, the rest can go to hell.
Yeah. That Nader. What nerve. Now he's telling us how to raise our kids (_The Seventeen Traditions_). Does he think we are uncultured brutes? We are educated! We are trained! We BELEIVE in, (Uhhh, Now let's see, what was it again?)
Let me also join the 'tongue-in-cheek' brigade here:
I'm sick and tired of this Nader guy. I cannot believe his egotistical behavior. Just because he has been taking up public causes and been fighting for and winning consumer-rights battles, now he wants to be the president? A guy who cannot do the kind of fund-raising it takes, someone who cannot suck up to the powerful lobbies, heck, someone who cannot even throw about high-sounding platitudes that all true-blooded Americans want to hear, now wants to be the president just because there are some wackos out there who think he is genuine and cannot be bought? And he doesn't even know that democracy is all about choosing between the lesser of the two evils at any given time - or choosing the guy who talks better, or the guy you would have a beer with. What gall!
Highintel: Can we do better?
I LOVE YOU GUYS!!!
As someone who's voted for Nader for president in every election since '96 --- its nice to see a few people on CD who aren't apologists for Obama and the DNC (Do Nothing Crowd).
I'm still left with --- how the F@*& do we wake people up to the reality of what's going. We've been sold a bill of goods about our political and economic system. And UNDERSTANDING reality TAKES WORK. You can't simply read the NYTimes and watch Katie Couric and think you're informed.
But, "it's so complicated," and "my brain hurts," are two of the most frequent replies I get when I try to talk about this stuff with my "Progressive" friends. Actually, the most common one is, "we have to give Obama a chance ... he's working in a constrained system."
People don't want to see what is right in front of them -- he IS the system. And until enough people wake up to that fact ... things are only going to get worse.
A crash course to understand taxation:
You have two working people (a) private sector teacher and public sector teacher. The market value of the former is being added to the GNP while the market value of the latter is subtracted from it by being paid through taxes which are already in economic sense repetitive reduction of the market instead of using government's own expenditure currency. Now even the public sector economically is the Mecca for the private one.
edweg
I hope you're not a paid teacher.