'We're being played for chumps'

[Newsjock]

http://www.mercurynews.com/business/ci_18617989
By Mike Cassidy
Mercury News Columnist

The debt ceiling is raised. The deficit-reduction machine is revved up. The uncertainty has been tamed. We no longer need to worry that even talk of higher taxes on the wealthy and corporations will cause the country's most powerful people to cower in the corner when they could be putting Americans to work.

... The problem with rosy thinking is that it requires ignoring one important fact: We're being played for chumps -- by the politicians in Washington and by the wealthy constituents they so vigorously protect.

... But here's the thing: American corporations and those who run them don't care about creating jobs. They care about making money. If they need to hire people to do that, they will. The cheaper the better. Here? Abroad? No matter. Corporations are soulless moneymaking machines. They live for one thing: ever-increasing profits.

... So if you think further fattening corporate coffers with tax breaks will spur hiring, think again. Maybe it's time we turn this job-creation equation on its head. How about we start with higher taxes on the wealthy and corporations to help tame our deficit? They will still be free to create jobs. And if they do? That's when we offer them a tax break.

[Tennessee Gal]

1. In a nutshell: trickle down is a fallacy.

History proves it so.

[malaise]

6. Every fugging piece of empirical evidence shows just that

Neo-liberalism has failed yet they are trying to shove it down our throats across the planet.

[StarsInHerHair]

10. yet Trickle UP works.....for awhile

[rhett o rick]

2. We are powerless. nm

[Lorien]

8. No we aren't. Look to Iceland.

[rhett o rick]

11. Dont think I am giving up, but we have a lot of apathetic people in the USofA.

[stockholmer]

25. Iceland is a great model for many countries, but the US is too ideologically conflicted at it core

It is schizophrenic in it's refusal to take on collective responsibility for the intangible, 'profit/commoditization is not possible' social links in its society, whilst the very forces who trumpet 'rugged individualism' are the biggest sucklings upon the public teet. The multinationals and their bankster overlords utilize crony oligarchic rigged-market capitalism and its evil corrupted version of statism to extort trillions in profits, hide or transfer losses on the chatellized backs of the public, and smash small and mid-tier competition.

The US public is on average obese and getting more obese, sick, fed a steady diet of shit food, GMO's, anti-depressants, drinks fluoridated, mind-numbing water, is subjected to profit-driven disease TREATMENT (rarely cure or prevention) and cares far too much about the inane bread and circuses of star-fucking pop culture and insipid athletic events.

Meanwhile, dissent is stifled, protesters are intimidated, jailed, ridiculed, and the great herd mentality prevails. It is all a grand illusion, containing a false two-party sham political system that guarantees continuity of agenda, an all-pervasive corporate media/public relations industry, a much too common 'me-first, fuck my neighbor' attitude, and an overriding sense of imperial entitlement/hubris, bourne out in the monstrous projections of a war machine that kills millions of people of colour.

When the US people wake up, and realize that empiric battle theatres are not a means to the end of insuring their petrol-driven dreams of grandeur, but is the END itself (ie, profits and endless global instability within which to extract more profits), when they realize that a just and civil society is utterly incompatible with eternal expansion growth modalities, then I will take the Icelandic model into account of the possible.

I am not holding my breath.

[midnight]

34. Thanks for addressing this circus act, but let's give credit to the

sponsors of this dog and pony show-ALEC....

[calimary]

37. Really well-put, stockholmer. Really nicely-put. Sadly just too true.

This phrase in particular:

"...a much too common 'me-first, fuck my neighbor' attitude, and an overriding sense of imperial entitlement/hubris, bourne out in the monstrous projections of a war machine that kills millions of people of colour."

Dang! I found myself talking about this in some rather longwinded posts on my own Facebook page, in the middle of a shitstorm. Blew my mind! I posted that I wished my president a happy birthday and told him to hang in there and asked him not to forget us progressives - who are his base. And I caused a shitstorm! AMAZING microcosm of what's going around us all over the country, especially the ANGER. And in this case it's been rather vile, foul-mouthed, distressingly vicious and insulting on a personal basis. One poster in particular started spewing at EVERYONE on the thread, not just me for being like "most women," who were castrating bitches who suck out your soul and your wallet, and you can't even argue with because they have no mind and they just go on emotion. So I fucked with him a little, opening my posts with "sorry to get all emotional on you but..." and then presenting a series of arguments based on the Preamble to the Constitution, with links and direct quotes, since this individual also claimed all kinds of things supposedly specified in the Constitution, but the positions he took strongly suggested to me that he hadn't really understood the Constitution.

And he called one guy posting there an "asswipe" and "pussy" and he called another one all kinds of gay epithets. A woman friend of mine posted her own comments about points in the overall argument, and was rewarded with demeaning comments about how she should just shut up and go to the mall and buy shoes. Just ugly. Stupid-ugly. Ugly-stupid. Really venting, that one, who probably just hates the world at the oment because maybe he just got dumped or fired or both. But it was insane! Some 87 some-odd posts on there last I looked. I was stunned. And all I did was to wish President Obama a happy birthday.

I should go back and find those various essays of mine because as usual for me, they were Loooooooooooooooooooooooonnnnnnnnggg. But they were good and properly attributed and I think I defended the various points well.

But back to YOUR point, stockholmer. It really must be true if it's being discussed elsewhere. If it isn't just me, there has to be something to it. Your point was SO, well, ON point. It's all "me-first." Remember when the same folks three years ago were bellowing all over television: "Country FIRST!" What happened to that? They're all saying fuck our government - which, um, MAKES OUR COUNTRY OPERATE PRESUMABLY FOR THE GREATER GOOD, ASSHOLES. My father called it "IGMFU," which he thought was ridiculously funny and clever. It stood for "I Go Mine, F-U," and we all know what the "F-U" signifies. But it was a joke of my dad's once upon a time. Now, it's practically a religion! The ayn rand mentality has made it almost a holy quest. It's selfishness, pure and simple, and it's been justified, and indeed nearly sanctified. THAT is all the GOP and the teabaggers and the libertarians mean when they drape themselves all over the word "freedom." "Freedom" from civilized, considerate, and collegial behavior. "Freedom" to be as big a selfish, self-absorbed, self-involved and screw you, as you damn well feel like. The "no one is the boss of me" syndrome, especially as spoken by your average two-year-old anymore. Monica Lewinsky once said she stomped her little feet and told her mother that when she was, seriously, two.

NOTHING about being considerate of others and mindful of the kind of conduct and participation that holds society together - the overarching idea of The Greater Good. Not just Monica Lewinsky but so so so so many others. I'm always interested to see the increasing examples and manifestations of this - well - syndrome. I keep finding more proof of my points. And there's little or NO recognition of, or aggressive and vigorous emphasis on, the ties that bind, the common threads, the connective tissue, the societal collagen and glucosamine, what brings us together MORE THAN what divides or isolates us from each other. The notion of The Greater Good. It impacts everyone directly and personally in one way or other and often in many ways. To feed it feeds us all. To enhance it enhances us all. To protect and maintain it protects and maintains us all. And we all own a piece of that and play a part in that and make a contribution to that. And there's a growing segment of our society, noisy and loutish, closed-minded and stubborn, and all elbows and mouth that doesn't like or accept that as a commonly shared philosophy, and indeed doesn't even believe in it in the first place. For them, it has no merit and makes no sense and if you lean that way you're a pussy or an asswipe and deserving of being trampled over, outshouted, and bullied.

Amazing how this stuff is going around. Everywhere. Just astounding. Sometimes it renders me sincerely worried for our country that there's this much anger - this much VICIOUS anger and just outright SCREW-YOU selfishness, and WILLFUL ignorance. And they're the ones running things now because they're the source of the social toxic sludge from which the teabaggers oozed. Oh yeah, and with the next breath they'll slap you around with their religious talking points too. Mindblowing what I see happening in this country.

[msongs]

3. this fall we can make some politicians unemployed. too bad the parasites will keep their retirement

[Creideiki]

5. Who many congresscritters aren't millionaires?

They can actually vote to remove the pensions and benefits.

Don't think they will, but they *could*.

[IndictW]

4. raise their taxes, close ALL loop holes.

They will invest those profits, being taxed at a higher rate, rather than give them up in taxes.

[humbled_opinion]

32. OR

They will move their business and investment overseas and now that America has been downgraded that may happen anyway....

So I agree lets tax the crap out of them before they get away with hiding their money...

DOH !!!! The rich are rich because....... THEY AREN'T STUPID...........

Every time Obama gets up there and says "rich people don't need these tax breaks, they can afford to pay more"..... I am always waiting for someone to shout out then Mr. President which one of your tax deductions did you refuse to take, can you show us any returns where you chose the altruistic path?

Bottom line unless we completely redo the tax code in the USA it will never be fair... It all comes back down to the middle class paying in one form or another.

[nashville_brook]

7. k and r!

[chill_wind]

9. "Well, then can we at least agree it's time to retire the term "job-creator"?

Dead on! K & R.

[tomp]

12. so what else is new?

this has been going on for a century. the dems and repubs are exposed thoroughly.

now tell us what can be done. that is the ONLY issue that remains.

[Fire1]

14. As I've said before, there will be no profits if people don't

buy goods and services. No jobs? Can't afford to buy goods and services. Maybe they're fine with that b/c the populace in China will purchase those goods. :shrug:

[stockholmer]

28. bingo! the American consumer is becoming more and more irrelevant each month, each year

The median income in the US is around $25,000 a year. There are 315,000,000 consumers in the US, and they are steadily losing purchasing power as the fiat dollar is being being destroyed in real time. If you have India, China, and Indonesia (soon to be a total of 3 billion people ie. consumers), raised up to just $8,000 a year median income, then you have a total purchasing power utterly dwarfing the US. This doesn't even take into account the other 4 billion consumers on the planet, hundreds of millions of which who make more or the same as than the median US citizen.

[SmittynMo]

13. I blame all 3

Part of this issue with job creation issue started with Clinton and approving NAFTA. Then Bush drove the country in the ground for which we are still paying. Obama tried to jump start the economy, and it was partially successful. Most of the monies have been repayed. Of course republicans then used this as a tactic to destroy him. Spend Spend Spend. Never mind how we got here (8 years of mis-appropriated funds). Millions lost with no audit trail for accountability. Getting into wars we had no business in doing. It is now speculated that our credit rating drop was due to the fact that the republicans held out til the last minute, and got 98 % of what they wanted. This should have been a no brainer and approved weeks ahead of time. The republicans put the country in a hostage situation to get their way. Screw the middle class. Most of the job losses are due to NAFTA and our inability to fix it. The only thing I see us doing now is to tax the crap out of imports, and get the jobs back over here. Will that ever happen? Not with the republicans in charge (It's all about me, me me). God help us all.

[Fire1]

15. Correct on all points. n/t

[bertman]

16. "So if you think further fattening corporate coffers with tax breaks will spur hiring, think again.

Maybe it's time we turn this job-creation equation on its head. How about we start with higher taxes on the wealthy and corporations to help tame our deficit? They will still be free to create jobs. And if they do? That's when we offer them a tax break."


That is the 'theme' that President Obama and the Democrats should be putting forward EVERY SINGLE DAY until it happens. Fat chance that will happen with the DLC in charge.

REC.

[Laelth]

17. True. k&r n/t

-Laelth

[seabeyond]

18. send jobs away. raise SS age. take away safety nets. WHERE ARE THE JOBS

to be able to go to increase age in ss and not need safety nets.

the simplest, most basic, 1+1=.... and we all pretend we dont see it.

[truth2power]

19. As Chris Hedges says, Corporations support systems of death...

They're pathological. They turn everything into a commodity. Human beings are a commodity. The natural world is a commodity. And they exploit these commodities until exhaustion or collapse.

They've lost the capacity for the sacred. They support systems of death, practicing a kind of necrophilia. The brilliant thing about corporations is that they disperse responsibility. BP is no one.

Oh, and appealing to the power centers is useless. For the reasons stated above.

[hayrow]

20. We are being played for chumps because we are chumps

That is, per all definitions, the Capitalist system. The fact of the matter is workers in any system are "Chumps". That is the universal human condition. Workers in other parts of the world are much better educated than American workers, so are less obvious, comprehensive, and outrageously chumps than the U.S. workers.

[animato]

21. So US workers are now gaining consciousness of their place

in the class struggle? I guess that for many years things weren't so bad so US workers were in denial.

[inna]

22. many (probably, the majority) are still in denial; things are changing fast, though

[animato]

23. so a glimmer of hope there at least! n/t

[russspeakeasy]

24. In their search for more and more profits, large corporations

will willingly use slave labor.:grr:

[truedelphi]

26. Only thing wrong with Cassidy's OP is that there are already a multitude of laws

That enable a corproation or a fat cat to have some fabulous tax breaks if they create jobs.

And even more tax breaks if they do that in economically depressed areas in the urban ghettos.

We don't need to create any laws at all - they are already there.

[truedelphi]

27. K & R. n/t

[sfpcjock]

29. ...maybe just look at some more prison labor

for now in the U.S.. Nothing is asked of them by their Congressional whores, so why not?

[The Wizard]

30. With all the benefits front loaded

there's no incentive to do anything other than hoard money in off shore tax havens where the money never circulates into the economy. Trickle down means the wealthy elites get golden parachutes and the working class gets golden showers.
If they get tax cuts for creating jobs the wealthy elites will create jobs.

[Butch350]

31. Hello from Corporate America and...your beloved Politicians...

"Sticks and stones may break ours bones - but fo sure - YOUR WORDS WILL NEVER HURT US"!

Now since you want to rebel. I will just raise the prices of everything you need and use
while us corporate guys create more jobs alright. We'll hire people who specialize in saving us
money buy getting rid of you and ship your job elsehwere out of the country.

Have a Nice Day. We sure the hell are.

[HowHasItComeToThis]

33. I JUST SAW AN IMPEACH OBAMA BUMPERSTICKER

WHAT IS THE SOURCE?????????????????????

[lib2DaBone]

35. Sooner or later.. the chumps who do the actual work.. are going to get fed up...

The people who load the trucks. The ones who mop the floors, the teachers who man the classrooms, the nurses who lift heavy patients and stand on their feet for hours at a time, the cashiers who check our groceries and put up with endless insults..... the bus drivers who fight traffic and weather to get people to their destination on time... only to have their wages cut and work ever increasing hours...

The workers are SICK AND TIRED of the wealthy/privileged who make crazy laws and make life ever more complicated and miserable...

The workers are SICK AND TIRED of working harder just to survive.. while Mr. Obama defines "Middle Class" as those "Majority" of families that make $250,000 per year.

$250,000 per year? In what universe?

[hayrow]

36. The chumps did get fed up, remember

In 2008 we worked hard and elected Barack Obama, a hard working black American with a working class background. Not only that, we elected a big majority in both houses of Congress for the party that supposedly wants to assist the workers. It hasn't worked out real well, has it? So much for Plan A.

[lib2DaBone]

40. The Chumps will be heard... I am confident....

[Raine]

41. Exactly right

for all the good it did! :argh:

[patrice]

38. Every time I hear "job creators" I want to spit. I should make a list of stuff I CREATED that was

given to someone who either didn't or couldn't solve the problems I solved with my own tools and I was laid off, to try to get on somewhere else at the bottom of the totem pole and have the whole process repeat itself.

In my experience I AM THE JOB CREATOR.

[DeSwiss]

39. K&R

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/chump">chump  

Origin: 1695–1705; perhaps blend of chunk and lump

chump - noun

1. Informal . a stupid person; dolt: Don't be a chump—she's kidding you along.
2. a short, thick piece of wood.
3. the thick, blunt end of anything.
4. Slang . the head.
Idiom
5. off one's chump, British Slang . crazy.

- One of those sounds about right......