This angers me.

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http://www.alternet.org/blogs/peek/141481/executives_receive_one-third_of_all_pay_in_the_u.s./

..one third of all pay? Really? And they think taxing the top 1% of incomes is a -bad- idea? Bollocks.


M.

The best part is when you consider the ratios of how much they get paid to how much you get paid....you realize just how much millionaires are simply just the new middle class and below $250k/yr is just slavery.

Really, the problem is the tax brackets need to be updated and there needs to be an elimination of "...and up"


...particularly if the "...and up" starts at $250,000 and includes people who make 1,000,000,000,000.


pretty sure 250,000 and 1,000,000,000,000 aren't in the same league.

I'm well in favor raising taxes for the rich and using that money for social programs.

But it's the people and organizations with extremely high incomes that pay the lobbies, that finance the elections, that control the media, and that can hire the very expensive legal procedures that direct the policies of the government. You can be pissed off as much as you please but until you can motivate effective political action nothing can be accomplished.

Agree completely.


M.

This nonsense didn't happen when the Soviet Union was powerful. Now, they like to say that there is no alternative. Many are resigned to the idea that the super-rich should take everything they like, just as long as they don't destroy everything...

I doubt that the accession to power in the USA had much to do with the USSR. They have been in power from the beginning.

The more powerful the USSR was, the more concessions were made in the U.S. and in the West to the workers... when the USSR was disappearing and when it was gone, there was a rollback... and the process is ongoing. They like to say "There is no alternative". Once they feared possible revolution. Not any more.

Plutocratic rule really isn't new. What was different when the USSR was around was that the elite made concessions fearing for its power. Now that "socialism has been discredited", they are making up for lost time and taking it all.

It was not so much the USSR but the pressures of the economic collapse in the 1930s depression that permitted the Roosevelt administration to give labor more of a say in policy. The McCarthy anti-communist forces and the Reagan administration were a couple of the wedges that identified labor advocates with communists and butchered the reforms that gave labor the power to create a middle class. That middle class is now under strong assault from the plutocrats in control.

They're above the law, if they want to drive their Lambo's at 195mph on the highways they can since they can afford to pay the fines. If they do anything worthy of jail time, they bail themselves out and hire lawyers that will get them off in a heartbeat. Look at Paris Hilton, she was caught drunk driving while on probation with a suspended license, they sentenced her to 45 days in jail, and she only had to serve 23 of them. If I got pulled over with a clean record and a valid license but had drank 3 beers before driving, I'd be in jail for a year no questions asked.

I think that bail and fines should be based on income the same way taxes are, that way justice would be equal instead of only applying to those with lower income. If you're a millionaire and you go to prison, you go to what is essentially a hotel room where you can get 5 star room service, massages, digital cable tv, high speed internet, and whatever else you want. I'd be in a shower with 10 other guys all staring at my ass and waiting for me to drop the soap while someone who was convicted of a far worse crime is sitting in a jacuzzi with a bottle of champagne and a couple of hookers, how the hell is that fair?

Where did you get the idea that the world was fair? It's only as fair as you and whoever else are concerned are ready and able to make it fair. Look at the current Gates case under discussion. Do you think a black guy who is merely trying to open up his own front door should be arrested by a dumb cop and the cop gets off scot free? You try arguing with a cop sometimes and see what happens.

I challenge you to name one person who earns such a sum.

You are probably right to challenge that but it's irrelevant to the discussion.

Exactly. The cops can enforce the law for citizens, but who's there to do the same for the cops? Somebody needs to be there to police the police. If only the Black Knights really existed...

The problem is basically psychological. Many times the police have to do unpopular things and since they are not only backed by the law but have the inherent power to execute anybody on the spot for objecting nobody in his right mind would put up much of a fight. But the cops probably feel any challenge to their authority is a threat that, under duress, might turn lethal so the temptation is to exert absolute power. And Burke's comment on that is universal.

Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?

It is very difficult to stand up to police abuse because you would be reporting the failings of a system to the system itself. The people you call in to enforce against an out-of-line cop are that cops friends and co-workers.