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I wish someone with more energy and skill than I have would find a particular article in Look magazine from the 1960's or 1970's. That article pointed out why America would never have a billionaire. The information in that article would emphasize that we do not need to pass a specific law to that no can accumulate a billion dollars. Such things as a 91% tax rate, pensions are liabilities, enforcing are immigration laws, having reasonable tariffs, etc. serve the purpose.
It seems to me that passing "card check" would enable all the necessary policies to be carried out.
There is a moral case against all taxation. The problem is that too many people drive income from monopoly privilege in the form of Ricardian rents. Rent is a value that accrues to a location or natural asset with in inelastic supply, such as a frequency of the broadcast spectrum. These values are not produced by individuals; they occur as population increase and demand results in scarcity. This was explained in the writings of all the political economists from Adam Smith to Henry George and even Karl Marx. Rents are the appropriate and legitimate source of public revenue. Economists who have studied the role rents play in economies estimate the aggregate rent fund at around one-third of Gross Domestic Product, perhaps more. Only a fraction of this rent fund is today captured to pay for public goods and services. Mason Gaffney, emeritus professor of economics at the University of California has written extensively on this subject and identifies a long list of sources of rent that are privately appropriated when they should be publicly captured. Thus, by failing to capture rents, taxes are imposed on those who actually produce goods and provide services.
Changing the way government at all levels collects public revenue has actually gone in a 180 degree wrong direction, worsened by a dramatic reduction in the gains on the sale of financial assets, gains that are misrepresented as "capital gains." Actual capital goods (i.e., buildings machinery, technologies) never increase in resale value; they are depreciating assets. The gains on financial instruments result from speculation in the casino markets for corporate shares and bonds issued by businesses and governments.
Absent the direct taxation of rents, the best alternatives are a progressive individual income tax and a progressive estate tax (measures embraced by Thomas Paine in his remarkable paper "Agrarian Justice").
If we are to tax individual income, the key is to distinguish between income earned as wages or salaries producing goods or providing services, and income DERIVED from passive and speculative investment. Tax efficiency, tax equity and simplification of compliance and administration can be achieved by a structure that exempts all individual incomes up to some amount (e.g., the national median income), eliminating all other exemptions or deductions. Above the exempt amount, ranges of income would be taxed at an increasing rate of taxation, the ranges and rates determined as part of the legislative process to achieve a balanced budget. The assertion here is that incomes at the highest ranges can be taxed at a very high rate of taxation without materially impacting individual consumption, and that this level of income is largely rent-derived from speculative activity in financial instruments and land.
A similar structure is aguably appropriate for estates. We can exempt all estates up to the national median, then impose an increasing rate of taxation on higher ranges of inherited wealth.
Edward J. Dodson, Director
School of Cooperative Individualism
www.cooperative-individualism.org
Since real news doesn't get reported much I thought I'd post this.
‘The time for reconciliation is over’: South Africa votes to confiscate white-owned land without compensation
http://www.news.com.au/finance/economy/world-economy/the-time-for-reconc...
and more
http://www.newsweek.com/thousands-sign-petition-asking-trump-allow-white...
Venezuela's not the place to be and hasn't been since Chavez took over and run away inflation set in. Politically, it is a dangerous place to be right now. Google Venezuela' crisis explained.....I've been to Cuba, lovely people, lovely place.
My understanding when we visited Cuba a year ago was that Cuba does indeed have some excellent medical doctors but lack the modern equipment. Understandable given the embargo. Maybe defining that piece of the puzzle would be helpful to all concerned.
My understanding when we visited Cuba a year ago was that Cuba does indeed have some excellent medical doctors but lack the modern equipment. Understandable given the embargo. Maybe defining that piece of the puzzle would be helpful to all concerned.
So why Cuba?
Why not go check out Venezuela?
Nice pic..all Patriots and truth tellers!
#4???
"Chuckling"... l thought "Code Pink" was a secret name for"4:20 Floyd"!!
Wow, hope you are going to brag about your trip.
https://www.google.com/search?ei=KZeYWuGeDKjBjwTcz5aABw&q=cuban+medical+...
"Code Pink" Isn't that a cocktail with rum, cream and grenadine? I'll have a double!!!
Suggest to Cuba that they start a "Medical Tourism" business. Hotel/Airline packages. TV and mass media advertising. Rates are so high here and very reasonable in Cuba. Currently Panama gets a lot of medical tourism. One of Cuba's main exports is highly trained Doctors. Also they have some cancer cures not available in USA.
Australian comedian Jim Jeffries on guns...
It pretty much sums up our countries hypocrisy!
https://www.google.com/search?client=ms-android-att-aio-us&source=hp&ei=...
Wow.. Dicks sporting goods is going to stop selling all assault rifles. And also they, along with Walmart will no longer sell any firearms, to anyone under 21.
Just maybe the tide is turning...
https://mobile.nytimes.com/2018/02/28/business/walmart-and-dicks-major-g...
The melancholiest thing is those who are full of hatred, and they have so weak a will that they have to wait for dissertations help Uk others to say that it is okay to become a vicious racist until they feel brave enough to show their illness.
Is the rise of this movement connected with emergence of Islamic terrorism?
The young people from Parkland need to focus on removing Kochpublicans from office. That's the only way a ban on assault weapons will ever happen.
In my opinion if the Dems don't reclaim power this November the Fascism tipping point will be reached and impossible to reverse.....without violence.
Bernie and the Women's March movement are two forces that can still save us.
Trump's psycopathy is ever more evident. He is so erratic that he can pander to his violent alt-right "base" one day and the next decry the "mental illness" of one of his true believers. This guy is has less backbone than slime mold. He is the true, ultimate political pragmatist and will say whatever gets his "base" going in the moment, irrespective of the consequences for our nation. This latest school shooting is a direct result of schools that are too big (3,300!) and result in alienation/expulsion of troubled students, as well as a Dear Leader wannabe dictator-in-chief who'll insight violence anytime he needs confirmation of his leadership of his "base", which is nearly constantly. Without even a smidgen of a conscience, Trump "can shoot somebody on 5th Ave." and still count on the unquestioning loyalty of his "followers". "Z Nation" has become a reality.
The saddest thing are those hate filled people who have such weak wills they have to wait for someone else to say it's okay to be vicious racists before they feel brave enough to act out their sicknesses. Not that they should of course, but such damaged people are pathetic.
The second saddest thing are those people who are sure they can always get away with it, despite overwhelming evidence to the contray. The Madoffs and Enron bosses of the world who lived it up till everything can crashing down. Why was Trump surprised that people looked more closely at his finances when he became president? Perhaps sociopathy leads to its own delusions.
And yes, my company mines coal but only through deep mining. Our coal is used to make steel. The Obama era power plant rules had no effect on us.
So, just like Legend, your life hasn't really changed either. Got it....
When it comes to where your mentality is at!!
Your name says it all...
COAL...AGE!!!
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.vox.com/platform/amp/2017/2/2/14488448/...
So in other words, your life hasn't really been affected by the Trump election. If it had been affected on a personal level, you wouldn't have to post references, would you? You had to search for something to post.
Its okay to admit. Your dislike for Trump is not linked to actual changes in your own life, but just to what you think he represents. I know many people who despise Trump, but their own daily lives are moving right along like usual. No real problems, no real issues. But this whole scenario was also true for the Obama bashers.
Like I said earlier, unless you are an illegal immigrant, i suspect your life hasn't really changed one bit with the election of the Donald.