Spooky Obama

[thatmariolover]

Looking at past tax percentages is not enough. If we were already in a good economy, those numbers might work great. But we're in a heavy recession and the working class is in no way capable of buying its way out of it. A progressive flat tax rate sounds great. But if that's the case, why aren't we doing it?

The bottom 40% of Americans control 0.2% of America's wealth. The top 1% control 40% of America's wealth. A larger wealth disparity than many third world countries.

Corporations can't continue to push for lower wages or higher productivity from fewer workers. Americans already work disproportionately harder than their European counterparts (in terms of hours works per capita employed). We still have no purchasing power, so how are we supposed to bring the economy out of Recession? Some of the mega wealthy pay less taxes than middle class Americans. When people are hurting this bad, it makes sense that some level of wealth distribution (via taxes) is necessary.

How do we raise the GDP if we can't sell anything? How do we raise the GDP when corporations continue to send every industry overseas? We have to start somewhere. Right now, big businesses are ruining America (Apple may be an exception). Several big name Republicans are in favor of getting rid of the minimum wage at the same time they'd like to cut public services.

It's amazing how much stigma Socialism has, and yet we see Capitalism fail us every single day. Maybe we need to reevaluate our balance of the two.

[Bond]

Originally Posted by thatmariolover

Corporations can't continue to push for lower wages or higher productivity from fewer workers. Americans already work disproportionately harder than their European counterparts (in terms of hours works per capita employed). We still have no purchasing power, so how are we supposed to bring the economy out of Recession? Some of the mega wealthy pay less taxes than middle class Americans. When people are hurting this bad, it makes sense that some level of wealth distribution (via taxes) is necessary.

Well, I do think you can make a legitimate argument that the wealthiest Americans should pay more in taxes. But, that won't fix any of our long term economic problems or raise revenue by a meaningful amount.

I agree that income disparity is / will be a defining issue of our time. How that is fixed is a complex and problematic question.

How do we raise the GDP if we can't sell anything? How do we raise the GDP when corporations continue to send every industry overseas? We have to start somewhere. Right now, big businesses are ruining America (Apple may be an exception). Several big name Republicans are in favor of getting rid of the minimum wage at the same time they'd like to cut public services.

It's amazing how much stigma Socialism has, and yet we see Capitalism fail us every single day. Maybe we need to reevaluate our balance of the two.

Certain industries are being sent overseas for a variety of reasons, one of those being that our corporate tax rates are too high in comparison to other countries. If you look at a lot of these countries though, like China and India, they have major systemic problems that will prohibit them from becoming the world super power any time soon. As long as we remain the reserve currency of the world (which is truly a hidden tax on all other countries except us), we will remain the economic super power.

[Professor S]

Originally Posted by thatmariolover

It's amazing how much stigma Socialism has, and yet we see Capitalism fail us every single day. Maybe we need to reevaluate our balance of the two.

Ours is not a capitalist economy and it hasn't been since the early 20th century. Your difficulties are with corporatism, not capitalism.