The system will fall

Post Reply New Topic

Some interesting figures for you here, Sweetleaf:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internatio ... stribution

In particular, that "A study by the World Institute for Development Economics Research at United Nations University reports that the richest 1% of adults alone owned 40% of global assets in the year 2000, and that the richest 10% of adults accounted for 85% of the world total. The bottom half of the world adult population owned barely 1% of global wealth."

My view is that reforming the system that is this broken is not any sort of solution. Even if you're wrong, and the system is not of the verge of imminent collapse (I wouldn't make any bets either way, but I'm pretty sure t won't continue in its current form in my natural lifetime) we need to work out an alternative.

Actually, a lot of the work has been done. There is good work on sustainability coming out of the Worldwatch Institute. People are experimenting with Transition societies. You have Schumacher's work, and so on. I suspect it may be about working out a synthesis, and then sussing out how to get from here to there, possibly in the midst of worsening climate change, without too much environmental damage and too many people getting hurt.

The aspie in me, who loves these complex systems, actually relishes this kind of challenge.

JWC: "pure capitalism" is as much a joke as "pure socialism" (i.e. utopian communism).

We were closest to "pure capitalism" in the 19th century, yet people these days have such a short memory. The vast majority of people weren't too happy with that system. Conditions were so bad that labor conflicts frequently lead to disruptive strikes and violence, even to the point of threatening stability. The fact that organized labor persuaded government to regulate labor relations saved the system from becoming the complete dystopia that Marx predicted and ultimately saved capitalism in the 20th century.

To provide for the Common Welfare.

At some time that meant not dying in the streets,

Rome gave out bread.

The Pest House, Poor Farm, Asylum, Orphanage, were hellholes, but still better than dying on the street. Compared to the General Welfare of the time, a place to laydown, one meal a day, was better than dying.

Disposal of the dead on the street was a Public Service, people with no other means could bring out their dead, to be carted away for burial.

The Pest House had an ever open trench grave behind, but the dying were given shelter and food, not just used for fill. Some even recovered.

It kept the Pestilence from spreading.

Orphan children were gathered, fed, clothed, educated, they were at least prepared to start in life on their own at eighteen. They were seen as future workers, worth some investment from the Public Purse.

Such was the meaning of Common Welfare when our country was founded.

A hundred years later the education of poor children was added. Their parents could not afford education, had none, only the educated paid from the Public Purse could teach, and the result was considered worth the expense. Civil War times, less than a quarter could read and write, and most of them badly. Education was marked by being able to sign your name, where most before had made their X.

More than a generation later it got radical, having a job at the mill was no longer an excuse to skip school, which lead to Child Labor Laws, and Mandatory Education.

Public Health got activist, went after the source of disease, mostly through pure water for all.

About this time during the Yellow Fever that struck the Gulf Coast, The whole town of St. Joe Florida died, and in New Orleans, those who showed symptoms, were rolled from bed to coffin, and then from coffin into the mass grave.

Mandatory education was extended, at least to fifteen, where labor laws said they could work in a factory.

In the mass testing of World War II, everyone drafted, the common education level was half way through Eighth Grade with a C-. That is still the standard for the GED.

The three in four that finish high school we take with pride. one in four some University. Public Universities, the Land Grant Colleges, making education available to the many.

Clean water was followed by ending hunger, not just feeding orphans, but seeing that every child had food. It was found to be the main limiting factor in education. Even then many refused Food Stamps, or had income, but did not feed their children. So school lunch programs filled the need and empty bellies.

It all falls under Provide for the Common Welfare.

Seeing to it that children have pure water, food, education, shelter, is the main role of Government. Our goal has always been a better future for the next generation, all of them.

The other function of Government, Defense, the Founding Fathers were against a standing army, but gave Congress the right to fund one, for less than two years. Armies had a police function in Europe, rule of the people for the government, that was forbidden. They would also use up more than half of the funds provided for the less fortunate.

We are there again, more than half spent on a standing army, cuts to the aged, widows and orphans, the ill. No cost of living adjustment for the old, but increases in all Government Departments.

Banks have always been Chartered and Regulated by the State. Savings and Loan were limited to local loans they held to maturity. Deregulated they were looted.

Banks were allowed to sell mortgages to Fanny and Freddie, but not sell scurities based on mortgages. Deregulated they were looted, from the inside, and allowed to buy insurance on mortgages they no longer owned. AIG was the result. the Bailout.

Banks and Brokers are regulated by the government, and granted powers not available to the people. The Federal Reserve, the SEC, they are part of the Government.

The same people work in all industries, being Government employes, elected officals, who cycle through jobs in banks and brokers, and this group is the ones that looted the economy and became very wealthy doing so.

This is not The Capitalist System, just common theft, fraud, from a small group that has bribed and worse their way to power.

This is not the first time this has happened, it always ends badly.

This is what lead to Anti Trust, 90% tax rates, strict regulation of banks and markets, twice in the last hundred years.

The People need to elect a Congress to pass the laws that protect the people, again.

Each generation must water the Tree of Liberty.

It is a tree that grows best when the manure is the deepest.

Practical, electing just fifty people to Washington from the Nancy Regan Party, Just Say NO! It is enough to block either party from doing anything.

The Government never did have any money. The Clinton surplus that is mentioned was $22.15 left in the desk in the Oval Office, and $7 Trillion in national debt. Most of that was the Social Security Trust Fund, that was looted. That was owed to the war babies in a decade.

Now it is $14 Trillion, but they could not pay at $7.

The Federal Reserve also printed $16 Trillion in our name and gave it to banks and brokers. Call that loan, they are all bankrupt, We The People own them. Only a National Banking system is going to clear up that mess.

The problem is government income. They are in debt for five years income. They spend more than income, they need a second job.

Mortgages and banks are hopeless, and we are paying for them, just take them over and cut mortgages principal and interest. Bankers deserve what Real Estate Agents got, Food Stamps. Not even Goldman Sachs can make money. 90+% of all stock is owned by institutional investors, retirement programs. The workers own the stock market, the companies.

The only thing to cut is banks, brokers, and government.

The People still own their money in the bank, their stocks, but that is a computer program now. Paypal does better.

The big issue is explaining to the war babies how they are going to get their Social Security. Saying you lost it is going to involve rope. The oldest hit 65 this year.

So we only need to come up with the Gross National Product, twice, once to cover the Federal Reserve loans, which nationalizing the banks would do, the other could be raised from income tax.

We need $14 Trillion, 14,000 billion, over the next twenty years. Taxes have to go up $2 Trillion a year.

Since a top tax rate of 35% brings in $3.5 trillion, that has to go to 55%. That is still historically low, 60% was normal, 90% during times of war, and we are at war. The tax rate has to be high enough that we do not borrow at interest. 90% then declining as the debt is paid down.

That still leaves an inequality of income problem, which could best be solved by a one time tax on assets above $100 Million, of 25%. Consider it a claw back of ill gotten gains. Those who object can also get jail time.

There is no offshore in a global economy, all assets, anywhere, are subject to tax.

This puts us back to an Ike to Nixon tax rate. A Real Radical solution.

The Government fears making weed legal, because of what they think when they hear the word Hemp.