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“America Has the Wealth to End the Despair”
Nurses come face-to-face with the fallout of the financial crisis every day. Now they've joined the worldwide movement for a tax that would curb financial speculation—and help fill public needs.
Sandy Falwell, who has worked in a neonatal intensive care unit for some 20 years, could tell plenty of stories about the impact of the Great Recession on the lives of her patients. One of the most painful: After a woman gave birth to a 2-pound baby, she told Falwell that she blamed herself for her baby’s premature birth. During her pregnancy she had been unable to afford insulin treatments for her diabetes—in part because she was taking care of her elderly parents. 
Photo by Jason
Falwell is a member of National Nurses United, a union whose members come face-to-face with the fallout of the financial crisis every day. On Tuesday, they rallied on Wall Street with the message that “America has the wealth to end the despair and deprivation.”
Rose Ann DeMoro, the union’s executive director, explained: “There’s a financial transaction fee that we’re going to have Wall Street pay—they’ve paid it here in the past—it’s very American. These yo-yos who buy and sell and buy and sell our country should have to pay a tax on that.”
Such taxes place a small fee on each trade of stocks, derivatives, foreign exchange, and other financial instruments, with the goal of raising massive revenues for public needs while also discouraging reckless speculation.
The United States had a transactions tax from 1914 to 1966, which levied a 0.20 percent tax on all sales or transfers of stock. In 1932, Congress more than doubled the tax to help financial recovery and job creation during the Great Depression.
The nurses’ rally was part of a global day of action during which people in more than 35 countries demanded a tax on financial transactions. The actions were timed for the eve of a meeting of leaders of European Union nations, where the debate over such taxes is much further along than in the United States. There are high hopes that Europe will implement them in the near future, which would give a big boost to U.S. advocates.
Here are a few highlights from other countries, where many of the campaigns have taken on a “Robin Hood” theme:
- In Berlin, Robin Hoods rolled giant Euro coins down the street to Chancellor Angela Merkel’s residence, where someone who looked an awful lot like her (except with a head four times as large as a normal human) received the money as she prepared to depart for the European Council meeting.
- In Lebanon, the League of Independent Activists opened opening a banner reading “Big Day for a Tiny Tax” in English and Arabic on the Central Bank before delivering a statement to government officials.
- In Brussels, activists met with the Belgian Prime Minister Yves Leterme, who assured them that his government will support a Europe-wide transaction tax.
- In Nepal, activists met with their Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister and delivered a lobby letter before taking their message to various historical sites in Kathmandu.
- In Norway, a casino/stock exchange installation was set up alongside a “Robin Hood forest” in the center of Oslo.
- In New Zealand, activists with 350.org and Oxfam did an action at a shopping mall, resulting in this not-to-be-missed short video of a break-dancing Robin Hood.
For more on these actions and continued coverage of the global day of action, click here.
Back on Wall Street, Karen Higgins, a Co-President of National Nurses United told the crowd, “Around the world, we’re calling for a more fair and just economy. The finance tax we’re talking about comes from the trillions of trade of stocks and bonds sold here every day. The revenue is badly needed in our communities.”
The nurses’ union was joined on the street by a long list of other unions and organizations, including the Amalgamated Transit Union, Vocal NY, AFSCME, UNITE HERE Local 100, Community Voices Heard, Transport Workers Union Local 100, United Steam Workers, and PSC-CUNY.
A big theme of the day was that the New York rally was just the beginning of what they're hoping to be a growing movement. Minnesota nurse Jean Ross, clearly angered by the role of the financial industry in creating the current crisis, said, “Wall Street should be happy that we’re just talking about a financial transaction tax. We could be talking about restitution.”
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Show All“America Has the Wealth to End the Despair”
YES!!!!
America is a family, not a feudal state. Yes we can. No, not you Obama.
We, Americans can.
I wish I could agree. But if the US is a family, we're certainly a most dysfuntional one. The daddies are sociopaths, and they certainly don't give a sheet about the "children." What's the answer? We need to grow up. Let's become adults.
I'm there. I think our Corporate, MIC Govt."We Want You!" Big Daddy has a gambling problem and wants to control the pursestrings and keep the family on the edge. Children go hungry as our inheritance is gambled away ~ in the halls of the other powerful sociopath mommies & daddies.
While the Giant sleeps, we climb back down the beanstalk, chop it down.
Become adults.
It is just that we used to sing, This Land is my land this land is your land. There was a solidarity when I was growing up. We visited Yosemite and all the beautiful places and loved and wanted to respect this land.
If this were an episode of Gilligan's Island and the wealthy could end our despair, ~ then Thurston Howell the 3rd and Lovey would have to learn how to share to stay alive.
Gee, a measly tax and to pay for the roads, bridges, firemen, children eating breakfast, old people staying warm and affording their medicine. That is America. We are beautiful and we are great. Just a tax and all that - is paid for.
People that make a spectacle of their privilege like Paris Hilton should be aware how not paying taxes is Un- American.
All those corporations like GE that didn't pay taxes like normal Americans, yet benefitted immensely from America are actually ~ Un- American.
That is the close company our( P)resident keeps.
Actions speak louder than words.
Hunger Statistics on Food Insecurity and Very Low Food Security ii
In 2009, 50.2 million Americans lived in food insecure households, 33 million adults and 17.2 million children
In 2009, 14.7 percent of households (17.4 million households) were food insecure.
In 2009, 5.7 percent of households (6.8 million households) experienced very low food security.
In 2009, households with children reported food insecurity at almost double the rate for those without children, 21.3 percent compared to 11.4 percent.
In 2009, households that had higher rates of food insecurity than the national average included households with children (21.3 percent), especially households with children headed by single women (36.6 percent) or single men (27.8 percent), Black non-Hispanic households (24.9 percent) and Hispanic households (26.9 percent).
In 2009, 7.8 percent of seniors living alone (884,000 households) were food insecure.
http://feedingamerica.org/hunger-in-america/hunger-facts/hunger-and-poverty-statistics.aspx
just when the US started wasting serious money and lives in Vietnam they axed this tax?
go figure.
Tax the rich when they make the laws?
Direct democracy
It was Anton Chekov who observed that “Money, like vodka can make people do the strangest things”.
What can be stranger than a whole society whose leaders are fanatical believers in the creed that greed is good? They steadfastly continue to embrace this creed even as thousands of their fellow human beings fall in to hunger and poverty.
They even profess to follow a teacher from two thousand years ago who argued persuasively against such a philosophy and preached instead a gentle gospel of sharing, love, and peace which was the opposite of hoarding. This teacher was poor. He never tried to rise above the ranks of the poor, and continually sided with the poor, and against the aggressively rich.
The rich of Jesus' day were quite well off enough, but not one of them could have dreamed of the wealth which billionaires of today enjoy. But, as it turns out, the more such people get the more they want. Even when the practices by which they make money promise to destroy nearly all if not all life on earth they cannot stop.
Almost all climatologists agree that the human contribution to climate change is irrefutable, but many cannot bring themselves to see the obvious. They argue instead that there are two sides to everything, and even as the great planetary icecaps melt, no solid proof of climate change is available. They argue anything to defend the predatory capitalism which has made them so rich. It is in fact money that is their god, even if they will not admit it.
Nietzsche: Your post was so beautifully stated!!!!!!
Great post
This essay is so on the mark, why don't the vast majority of Americans get it? That is the million dollar question. The powers that be control the mass media. A deep introspection of American culture and a new national conversation of what we have become as a nation needs to start in our churches, synagogues, mosques, and UNIVERSITIES, by- passing the national corporate news media.
I think it was Ralph Nader who said that a 1/4 of 1 percent tax on all financial transactions would yield 500B dollars per year worldwide. This would certainly take care of the worlds financial problems in a few years but the idea is rejected by world banks and gov'ts. It is almost as if they would rather see the majority of us suffer than solve the problem and make themselves richer.
These financial austerity programs are beginning to look like the lynching of blacks where the whole white (replace white with banker) community turned out to support "justice". The lynching was an "event" that punished the individual for false transgressions (S.S., Medicare, Teachers Unions) but was most important in that it reinforced the idea that certain people were in control and others were not.
Remember: A simple solution that benefits the Banksters and gov'ts and it is rejected instantly. Suddenly making more money takes a back seat to austerity?
I wonder if Obama realizes he's aiding the financial lynching of people?
I agree. For whatever reason they just want us to be destitute---quite apart from doing themselves any good.
I believe the issue is one of control just as it was for the white communities in the south.
I have never forgotten what Chomsky once said that pertains to the financial situation we are going through today. He said that the masters of the universe are interested in total control because without total control they cannot have absolute power and without absolute power they fear that their assets are in jeopardy. That of course is not all that plays into this matter but I believe the issue of "control" is a fundamental factor in their decision making process.
Good point.
And Wall Street should pay a high tax on transactions related to the war machine.
And of course offshore tax loopholes for war private contractors like Halliburton , and many others, should be closed. Halliburton can also avoid criminal prosecution by incorporating in a place like Dubai.
http://www.halliburtonwatch.org/news/dubai.html
"WASHINGTON, March 12 (HalliburtonWatch.org) -- With various ongoing investigations, Halliburton's sale of KBR and the move to UAE are tantamount to fleeing the scene of a crime, said Jim Donahue, co-director of Halliburton Watch, in response to the companys announcement today that it will move its headquarters to Dubai, UAE.
Halliburton is moving to UAE at a time when it is being investigated in the U.S. for bribery, bid rigging, defrauding the military and illegally profiting in Iran. It is currently in the process of divesting all of its ownership interest in the scandal-plagued KBR subsidiary, notorious for overcharging the military and serving contaminated food and water to the troops in Iraq."
Like a dentist, drill for the decay: DEREGULATION.
In that process, tax the corporations that CAUSED THE PROBLEM!
A small tax on every Wall Street trade and financial transaction is a great idea.
Wall Street would barely notice this tax -- and those firms that DID notice it, SHOULD notice it, because it means they're doing way too much worthless trading, and way too little worthwhile "investing". For examples those companies recently featured on 60 Minutes that make millions by buying and selling stocks over nanoseconds with with computers that are slightly faster than other Wall Street computers, thereby scoring millions in profits -- while generating absolutely NOTHING of value. Absolutely nothing.
Let the fatbellies pay their fair share.
Here I was mourning because Robin Hood was dead... these ingenuitive folks are bringing him back. Applause.
Donny-Don wrote:
"...that make millions by buying and selling stocks over nanoseconds with with computers that are slightly faster than other Wall Street computers, thereby scoring millions in profits -- while generating absolutely NOTHING of value. Absolutely nothing."
It is actually worse than that. Untold thousands of parasites show up five days a week seeking to suck fees and stock options, etc. from those "useless" transactions so they can support their corrupt families in the manner to which they have become accustomed. Nor is maintaining extravagant wealth all that easy, usually requiring a little fiefdom of CPAs, secretaries, lawyers and paralegals, computer people, repair people, big buildings wired for the electromagnetic spectrum, huge parking garages, the two hour daily commute, a home in the Hamptons (conspicuous consumption---Thorstein Veblen), a never-ending cycle of capitalist one-upsmanship. A massive infrastructure the primary purpose of which is to support parasites. A massive diversion of resources better deployed elsewhere, if at all.
Pol Pot may have had a good idea. Close 'em down, stomp their glasses (and contact lenses) and send them to the truck farms of Long Island and New Jersey to weed the crops as a replacement for the pesticides they so heavily promoted. Back to the land, so to speak. We don't need no damn illegal immigrants picking our veggies: we have an army of parasites among us who could probably benefit from productive labor. (You don't need a high-tech gym to work out: a hoe, a rake, a good knife, a pair of scissors, some legacy seeds---if you preserved them, or your know-nothing drop-out cousin in upstate still has some!---and if you can remember what your grandparents showed you instead of some bloviating business school professor, we may make a grower of you instead of a killer.)
Time is short. Buy long. 'If we do not hang together, we shall all hang separately,' said Ben or it is said Ben said, but he knew that not all would hang. Or be beheaded, as were so many in France. (Funny, how Ben spent so much time in France---mostly before 1789? Had a good time with the Ladies, I hear, as he relaxed their tensions with Amerindian herbs, while drinking their Cognac and realizing that the lyrical nature of the French language whispering in your ear made English sound harsh. Yet, what evidence is there that Ben ever wrote IN French?)
Meanwhile, again, as I asked at a related site, where are the doctors supporting the nurses? They need to support the nurses. Their failure to do so would demonstrate the psychopathy of our "health system."?
Many if not most doctors are financial speculators. Most nurses cannot afford that. Many doctors speculate in drug companies, with virtual impunity. Most nurses do not.
Time to grow a new nerve between what you KNOW to be true and what you need to do about it. Support the nurses and all those supporting them. NOW.
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