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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region Forums4 Infuriating and Unfair Things About Our Economic System
http://www.alternet.org/economy/4-infuriating-and-unfair-things-about-our-economic-system1. For Every BILLION DOLLARS of New Stock Market Wealth, Most of Us Averaged ONE DOLLAR in Stock Gains
In the six years since the recession the stock market has risen by $8 trillion, the great majority of it going to the richest 10%. In 2013 alone it rose by $5 trillion. On average, each of us in the bottom 90% earned a dollar every time the market went up another billion. (Details here.)
2. Each Year Since the Recession, the "Upper Class" (Richest 10%) Has Accumulated Enough New Wealth to Pay the Total Cost of Social Security Four Times Over
3. Two Top Polluters, Four Welfare Kings, and a Long-Term Tax Avoider Took Enough National Wealth Last Year to Pay for ALL the School Lunch and Women/Infant Nutrition Programs
That would be the seven individuals heading up Koch Industries, Walmart, and Berkshire Hathaway. In addition to their corporate profits, the seven moneymakers had personal investment gains that totaled $28 billion last year, about the same as the total cost for nutrition programs for over 40 million kids (Child Nutrition and WIC). They made even more the year before, and the year before that.
4. Then: Workers Paid 33 Cents, Corporations Paid a Dollar. Now: Workers Pay 33 Cents, Corporations Pay 7 Cents
Workers and their pensions get blamed for budget shortfalls. But relative to workers' payroll tax, corporate taxes have dropped from $1.00 to 7 cents since the 1950s. Meanwhile, corporate profits have reached record highs, more than doubling in just the past ten years.
Major Nikon
(36,827 posts)Had you been smart enough to buy stocks, you wouldn't be crying about this now.
And how many jobs did those on Social Security create?
How many jobs did babies, toddlers, and grammar school kids create?
Obviously you don't understand how the Horse and Sparrow theory works.
winter is coming
(11,785 posts)Most politicians are too chickenshit to admit that trickle-down economics is horseshit.
PatrickforO
(14,594 posts)Major Nikon
(36,827 posts)The idea is that if you feed a horse enough oats it will shit some of them out and the sparrows can sift through it.
PatrickforO
(14,594 posts)Major Nikon
(36,827 posts)...which is no different other than it's been repackaged to be more palatable to the useful idiots.
hifiguy
(33,688 posts)How right he was.
Dark n Stormy Knight
(9,771 posts)illustration of Trickle Down in this The Word segment:
And here is a transcript of the best/worst part, (The words from the screen next to Colbert a re shown in parentheses after the related script text.) But, watch the video. It's hilarious.
So, arguing to add $1 trillion to the deficit to give these tax cuts to the wealthy makes it look hypocritical and heartless. (Instead of just hypocritical) Well, here's why they're not. Economists know tax cuts for wealthy Americans benefit everyone. It's even got a name. ("Self-serving rationalization"
It's called the "trickle down theory". Here's how it works. Let's say I'm in the top 3% of wage earners. Because I am. And this Bud Light Lime is a refreshing tax cut. With lime. (Tastes great, less filing) Now, the bigger my tax cut is, the more money I can pour into the system.
Then, very soon, the benefits will work their way through the system, and trickle down. I mean, like a racehorse. Then, the other 97% of poorer Americans are welcome to have as much of that as they can collect. (Transcript courtesy of [link:http://www.dailykos.com/story/2010/07/29/888672/-MUST-SEE-Stephen-Colbert-destroys-deficit-hawks-and-Reaganomics-too|this Daily Kos Diary.)
gregcrawford
(2,382 posts)... burns hotter than the surface of the Sun. The sociopaths that perpetrate such outrages are evil down to their DNA.
Cryptoad
(8,254 posts)the GOP has given the Corps a Right to own it all. Taking this Right back will not be an easy task!
Enthusiast
(50,983 posts)Thank you, xchrom.
This one is especially irritating. 4. Then: Workers Paid 33 Cents, Corporations Paid a Dollar. Now: Workers Pay 33 Cents, Corporations Pay 7 Cents.
The President says the US corporate tax rate is the highest in the world. But the truth is, the effective tax rate is no where near the stated tax rate.
Autumn
(45,120 posts)Rex
(65,616 posts)to lecture you on how that is a good thing.
RadiationTherapy
(5,818 posts)Enablers gonna enable.