Once
Upon A Terrible Time....
 Today's
Rant is the first few paragraphs of a column by Robert
Reich called "The
Fable of the Century":
Imagine a country in which the very richest people
get all the economic gains. They eventually accumulate
so much of the nation's total income and wealth that
the middle class no longer has the purchasing power
to keep the economy going full speed. Most of the middle
class's wages keep falling and their major asset -
their home - keeps shrinking in value.
Imagine that the richest people in this country use
some of their vast wealth to routinely bribe politicians.
They get the politicians to cut their taxes so low
there's no money to finance important public investments
that the middle class depends on - such as schools
and roads, or safety nets such as health care for the
elderly and poor.
Imagine further that among the richest of these rich
are financiers. These financiers have so much power
over the rest of the economy they get average taxpayers
to bail them out when their bets in the casino called
the stock market go bad. They have so much power they
even shred regulations intended to limit their power.
These financiers have so much power they force businesses
to lay off millions of workers and to reduce the wages
and benefits of millions of others, in order to maximize
profits and raise share prices - all of which make
the financiers even richer, because they own so many
of shares of stock and run the casino.
Now, imagine that among the richest of these financiers
are people called private-equity managers who buy up
companies in order to squeeze even more money out of
them by loading them up with debt and firing even more
of their employees, and then selling the companies
for a fat profit.
Although these private-equity managers don't even risk
their own money - they round up investors to buy the
target companies - they nonetheless pocket 20 percent
of those fat profits.
And because of a loophole in the tax laws, which they
created with their political bribes, these private
equity managers are allowed to treat their whopping
earnings as capital gains, taxed at only 15 percent
- even though they themselves made no investment and
didn't risk a dime.
Finally, imagine there is a presidential election.
One party, called the Republican Party, nominates as
its candidate a private-equity manager who has raked
in more than $20 million a year and paid only 13.9
percent in taxes - a lower tax rate than many in the
middle class.
Read the rest of the story here.
-------------
4-10-2012: The eagle-eyed among you
might notice that I made a slight edit to the art in
this
cartoon.
I don't
do this often but in this case it was perfectly warranted. For
the curious here is
the original version.
=Lefty=
----------------
Note 1: Ever wondered what the top
five regrets
of the dying might be? Hint: It's not
that they should have worked harder.
Note 2: More bad
news for meat eaters. If
the meat is processed you're asking for trouble. BIG
trouble.
Note 3: There
is no longer a functioning
democracy in Michigan.
Note 4: The War On Drugs is great...
if you're a sadistic
bastard working for the police department.
Note 5: Who needs a $30,000
watch?
Why, a priest, naturally. Musn't miss vespers.
Note 6: Say "Hello!" to Rick
Santorum!
------------
And now our Chart of the
Day: Deficit
Projections since 2001.
Vastly
more massive
version
available here.
------------
Republican Job Creation Update
 4-9-2012: The
House has scheduled a series
hearings for the next two weeks. No jobs will be
created.
------------
Fox News Lies. Dump
Fox News
 Vice
President Joe Biden told a group of firemen and policemen
to ignore thr emergencies of rich people. Actually,
he
didn't. Fox News just made that shit up.
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Fox from your cable system. |
