Just listening to the CEO of Chevron talking on CNBC....

[WCGreen]

He is also a member of the business round table, the nefarious organization that allows legal collusion between competitors to manipulate the economy in their favor.

Anyway, he admitted that there is tons of money on the balance sheets of the largest corporations in this country to start rehiring but they won't until they get more tax breaks from the US Government.

He blatantly said they wouldn't do anything until Obama is out of office so that they can get rid of such pesky items as taxes, regulation of all kind and free rein to exploit workers and put dangerous crap out in the market place.

Makes me want to puke.

They are putting millions of people in dire straights in order to squeeze more money their way.

Makes me sick that there is no one to stand up to the ultra rich.

Makes me feel as if the future ain't too rosy for the likes of us unless something drastic happens in the next few months.

[valerief]

1. They don't care. They don't care. They don't care. They don't care. nt

[WCGreen]

2. and they go to church on Sunday....

[valerief]

3. Chuch doesn't care. Church doesn't care. Chuch doesn't care. Church doesn't care. nt

[gratuitous]

7. Yeah, it does

But too many folks like throwing bricks through our windows while we're housing the homeless, feeding the hungry and clothing the naked. The unrelenting bigotry and hatred is just tiresome after a while.

[valerief]

11. And building megachurches to spread the word of the fascists. That's big and real. nt

[RKP5637]

27. Yeah, I'm waiting for one of them to just name themselves, "Church of the Fascists," or

perhaps, "United Fascism under God, Inc."

[CrispyQ]

13. And, they want it all. They want it all. They want it all.

All of it. They begrudge us any little thing that we have. No matter how small, they want it, too.

[WCGreen]

14. It's the begining of a nightmarish future if we don't step up now...

And we can't rely on the media since they are in on the plan...

Money Money Money Money...

[valerief]

17. Bingo! nt

[RKP5637]

28. It's like driving in traffic and the guy behind you is tailgating you really badly, but

it's not that you're going too slow or he wants to pass you, he just wants your spot, because he has to have it too!

[RKP5637]

4. I've always felt in my lifetime we will see tanks rolling in the streets of

America or equivalent (drones?) to protect the wealth and status quo and to insure the masses are ripped off and persecuted. I fully think they want sweatshops in America and look at China and others cheap subjugated labor as their utopian vision for the future of America.

[WCGreen]

5. That, I guess, is the ultimate capitalism wet dream....

[WingDinger]

6. One in five is employed, protecting the rich from us.

[valerief]

18. I think that's the plan. The middle class experiment is over. nt

[RKP5637]

25. As many have said on DU and other places it was one of the most successful

middle class experiments ever ushered in basically by the end of WWII. I don't think it can be easily replicated here again, at least not in my lifetime.

IMO the concept that everyone can have a job is a fable anymore, because productivity has increased, populations have increased and the need for unskilled labor has decreased, and then comes off-shoring.

There was also trust between management and labor for a few decades, that's a real stretch now and compounding all of this is America is no longer the only game in town. Other countries can do anything we can and often better.

In short, we F'ed it all up and there is no way in hell it's going to be easily replicated again and any saying it just needs this or that are using it as a ploy to get votes IMO. The most laughable are the republicans with their tired out rhetoric of just cut taxes. I have no idea why Americans keep falling for republican crap. I think it's just an easily brainwashed and naive country with a stunning lack of generational memory.

[CrispyQ]

35. I have an old bumper sticker sticker that reads:

Hey George, Tax cuts don't matter when you don't have a job.

I wonder if most Americas get that? Their paychecks are shrinking, so they want to pay less in taxes, to keep more of their money. But that's not the solution. The solution is good paying jobs with wages high enough that you can support a family & have enough left over to save. And also to have leisure time to enjoy your life & not have to work 60+ hours a week.

We are entering a phase where extra income & discretionary time are things only rich people will experience. But hey! We pay some of the lowest taxes of the developed countries. Let's see if we can make it even less! :crazy:

[RKP5637]

37. Paychecks have been flat in this country for I think about 20 years. Yet the

wealth continues to be skewed to a small minority. It's absolutely ridiculous, but yet I'm always consistently surprised by how many I talk to just don't get it. It's a constant WTF to me. And even with the lowest taxes in decades the republican rhetoric is still we need to cut taxes and all will be OK. This is such a F'ed up country I really think there's no hope. People have been breed now to be mindless.

[Initech]

8. I sometimes really wonder what their ultimate end game is.

[CrossChris]

9. I think post #4 hits it pretty spot on. Tanks did roll through New Orleans.

I don't think it will take a hurricane to make that happen the next time.

[RKP5637]

31. I think this is what they want. Just a feel good thing for them to see others as this.

[n2doc]

10. Raising taxes on profits would force them to use them instead of sitting on them

Lowering taxes just encourages these folks to sit on their money, as there is no penalty for doing so.

[WCGreen]

12. Exactly....

Beside that they could spread out the deduction over ten years if they would invest their funds in the expansion of the workforce...

I am a tax accountant and I am always at odds with my profession.

[RKP5637]

32. To sit on their money or invest it globally... Most would prefer not to have to

deal with labor. It's far more profitable to invest zillions and have more with fewer people than to have herds of labor to share the wealth with. This country is sooooo duped, but yet many remain clueless including TPTB other than those that are part of the ripoff of the citizenry.

[CrispyQ]

15. I have democratic friends

who think we shouldn't charge the corporations any taxes. The arguments range from 'they provide jobs' to 'they'll just raise their prices.'

We need to revoke corporate personhood, but I fear our political system is so corrupt & compromised that we no longer have the ability to change the system within the system. We have Citizen's United, electronic voting & our biggest population is the non-voters.

[WCGreen]

16. It's a veil they hide behind that encourages bad behavior...

[RKP5637]

34. IMO we really do have a shadow gov. of sorts doing all of this because politicians

come and go as window dressing, but the real wealth and power remain behind the scene pulling all of the strings.

[taught_me_patience]

19. They don't understand micro-economics

and the impact of taxes on supply and demand. The costs of taxes are borne by both the consumer and companies. When demand is inelastic, it is borne more by the consumer and when it is more inelastic (most products and goods), it's borne mostly by supplying company.

[Rex]

20. And yet the WH will throw us all under the bus for Chevron

if they ask. What makes me sick is the pseudo-pretending to care about Americans, when we see with our own lying eyes the truth is Wall Street owns Washington and the politicians couldn't be happier! When everything turns to a world of shit THEN our politicians will say, 'golly, I could have never imagined the evils of Chevron...forgive me?!' They get to yuck it up at 50k dinners, while we all pay with our own blood.

[WCGreen]

21. Bingo!

[RKP5637]

36. This caring about citizens is a bunch of BS rhetoric IMO. I'm sure some do, but if

the WH "really" cared about citizens more than large corporations, banksters and wall street things would be far different. IMO the truth is in what we see, not in what is said. The WH needs big bucks and they know where that is coming from, hence the selling out of America to the highest bidder. Give America a few more years and one won't even recognize what America once was IMO.

[moondust]

22. Psychopathic greed.

They're perfectly willing to watch other people suffer and even die in the name of more excess piled on top of their already obscene excess.

[hifiguy]

40. They're not just "willing to watch."

That is what gives them the deepest of satisfactions. They are sadistic sociopaths.

[OneGrassRoot]

23. Here's the video (w/transcript to the right of video)

http://video.cnbc.com/gallery/?video=3000027360


He talks about $19 billion profits but says they'll invest $26 billion -- but WHERE? It's around the world...how much of the corporate welfare from the US that Chevron specifically has received actually benefits US citizens in any way? He talks about employing 200 people on a rig, with 1000 jobs created as an offshoot.

I don't think that's meaningful, not considering the amount of money being funneled to them, that they're making, and that they are sitting on.

:puke:

[WCGreen]

24. And more chances to screw up the environment...

[Dawson Leery]

26. This is called a Capital Strike

[Harmony Blue]

42. Indeed as the other poster pointed out

extortion.

The only way to push back against a Capital Strike is to raise taxes.

[spanone]

29. i believe it's called extortion

[Enrique]

30. Obama should try to convince him he's not "anti-business"

then he'll start hiring, right? :sarcasm:

[TBF]

33. Obama should tax their asses off and hire folks to work on infrastructure

:D

[WCGreen]

38. Yep...

[hifiguy]

39. The French revolutionaries knew what to do with

parasitic aristocrats. We need a National Razor and in a just society it would be busy 24/7 for a long, long while.

[xphile]

41. He's also painfully full of shit.

They're not going to hire a damn soul even if they had their taxes cut down to zero. He's full of shit.

Besides which companies only hire when demand ticks up for their product which will not happen unless the government does something to stimulate demand. Instead they're talking about cutting programs that go to people who would actually spend the money while giving money to those who don't need any more of it. The economy will further shrink and Obama will end up losing in 2012 because people won't reelect the president if unemployment continues to be in the shitter.

But as he's listening to Geithner and his ilk I have not expectation that the smart economic moves will be made and this sack of shit of whom you speak will continue to be the voice the administration listens to when it comes to economic policy.

[KeepItReal]

43. +1

You're right.

[entanglement]

44. The corporate cash hoard was a cool $1.93 TRILLION last December and it's probably grown even larger

since. Two important things must be noted. First, these colossal profits are the spoils of a relentless and brutal war on the jobs, wages and working conditions of workers at a time when the working class is confused and demoralized.

Second, this money could be used to relieve the immense social suffering caused by the recession if put to productive use. Instead, it is mostly hoarded away unproductively in offshore tax havens or used by the finance parasite class to speculate on food and essential commodities to swell their already swollen money bags and inflict more pain on already suffering ordinary people everywhere.

[Lorien]

45. Nothing drastic will come from any of our current politicians

we need some new players. The status quo is only making things much worse for those of us in the bottom 98%.