All of the choices will help in part but so long as campaign financing allows big donations from corporations. Under the guise that a corporation is a person and has first amendment rights to free speech via obscene campaign contributions through PACs we will have pay to play politics. All the taxes on the wealthy will be undone by the next congress bought and paid for by big bucks and we will be back to the same problem again. Of course, as the late great Molly Ivins said on many occasions, campaign finance reform isn’t a one shot deal, it’s an ongoing work in progress. I’m paraphrasing but that was her gist. Campaign finance reform can also be undone, so we have to stay vigilant and also do the long likely slow work of undoing all the factors behind trickle down economics, as Professor Reich has discussed many times elsewhere.
Sioux, Clearly, campaign finance reform initiatives start with taking back the House, holding our 49 Senate seats, flipping at least 1 Republican seat, and holding the White House. This, first, would afford an opportunity to resuscitate “For the People,” legislation that enshrines voting rights and gets big money out of politics. As you might recall, in 2021, the legislation passed in the House and stalled in the Senate. I expect Democratic control of the Senate in 2025, a body that would be more receptive to filibuster reform or a carve-out, could move this legislation to the floor for an up or down majority vote.
Second, because I understand Democratic Senators, overall, are becoming far more receptive to expanding the Court, I foresee a real opportunity for repealing Citizens United.
My point is that our efforts over the next 5 months to hold control of the House, the Senate, and the White House could generate enormous reform, and I’m just getting started.
In Missouri, a bill was passed to ban rank choice voting. It now must be voted on by citizens but the GOP have put that tired, old ballot candy in there. I hope people are not fooled by it. They come for our citizen’s initiative process every chance they get. They come for our right to vote every chance they get.
From Heather Cox Richardson’s recent newsletter;
“In The New Republic, Ken Silverstein reported on a private WhatsApp group started last December by military contractor Erik Prince—founder of Blackwater and brother of Trump’s secretary of education, Betsy DeVos—and including about 650 wealthy and well-connected “right-wing government officials, intelligence operatives, arms traffickers, and journalists,” including Representative Ryan Zinke (R-MT), who served as Trump’s secretary of the interior.
Called “Off Leash,” the group discussed, as Silverstein wrote, “the shortcomings of democracy that invariably resulted from extending the franchise to ordinary citizens, who are easily manipulated by Marxists and populists,…”
Google Kansas Supreme Court on Kansas voting rights. Ap news, guardian, Wichita eagle, yahoo news Canada. The gqp is beyond all reasoning. They will pas whatever they want to keep people from voting because they know they can’t win on their platform
I agree ..... a record Democratic vote in November is key to making real progress. Let us all awaken the passion to reject Citizen's United, the filibuster, Rubio, Scott, and MAGA moron fascism
It is NOT the dems that you have to save them from, its Putin et al , that care nothing for human life, and plunging into others' territory in order to have more control, money an power. America is also on his list of destruction!
I have been following the war in Ukraine since it began. I am absolutely outraged, devastated and appalled that Putin decided to move into an independent country and destroy it and kill people mercilessly! WE all stood by and watched it happen! I was born in 1939 when Hitler was walking thru Europe! We joined the war effort to stop this kind of insanity! People died fighting against this kind effort to take over countries. Our sons died fighting this war. Now we stand by and say, oh well, so one country falls to a crazy man! Too bad! Do you realize that deranged men like Puten do not stop after they control one country? To give him more power only puts us and rest of the free world at horrible risk. I am outraged at the insanity of people running country that think this is OK!!! Gale
It doesn’t matter what the history is. It’s what is happening right now. Russia invaded another country. Can you imagine Mexico saying hey we’re taking back Texas, California, Arizona and New Mexico because that land has been ours forever
I agree that we must keep trying to work the system for our benefit, but I believe the wealthiest will have to come to terms with the fact that they must reverse course and allow the changes we know need to happen or the whole system that serves them so well will crumble. It will either fall due to the dead end of financialization or to the climate calamity on the horizon. It's ultimately up to them at this point. They must see through the fog of accumulating more, that they are working toward their own demise, even if they don't care about their own families.
I experience Kors of insane "wealth living" in Sarasota.FL, where showing it off knows no shame. Most are so used to the financial level they've been born into (or married into) they don't understand their own negative influence on the warpath world. Our Republican "boot licker" Congressmen, Buchanan and Steube, were first in line to say what a travesty Trump's conviction was.
It looks like your god actually favors blacks. I just checked what part of Florida has the most hurricanes and then the demographics of Florida. Most blacks live in Tallahasee, Tampa, and Jackson, those three cities are the less hit by hurricanes
the Tampa Bay area has not had a direct hit from a hurricane in over 100 years! In 1921, a hurricane made landfall in Tarpon Springs packing 115 mph winds and a 12-foot storm surge
The hurricanes hit where the rich and Cubano's live, in the places that hurricanes love the most.
Take money out of politics. Term limits for all politicians and all judges. If more than 8 years for a president, VP, governor and mayor is prevented so they don’t get too powerful - why do we allow fed and state senate and house amass that much power. Get rid of electoral college. Pass rank choice voting and everyone has basic income, rent is 30% of your income period. And no more gated condos - every high rise is 1/3 poor, 1/3 middle income, 1/3 wealthy and everyone pays 30% rent. It’s not money that brings them together but values, respect, cooperation, integrity
The largest crime is that it's unknown whom the donors are. From just that much, more can be known and will be known. Furthermore, we must tame our expectations. We were asleep at the wheel for far too long while others with contrary aims were hard at work, actively convincing others to join them in their information silos. Working, I do mean 'working' to return to law and order has to be in patient steps; focused and limited. It's not my birthday, nor yours (figuratively speaking). We can't achieve an entire wish list at once, no matter how much or many of us wish, hope, and pray otherwise.
But this must be done with a Limited Article V Convention. Such a convention will NOT be a runaway convention if each state resolution has detailed information and a revoke clause when new off-topic amendments are made.
Example. I live in Honolulu, our politicians are addicted to building condos and calling them affordable - 435,000 is not affordable for anything but especially a closet. What is happening is we are losing 12 people everyday, many to Las Vegas(called the 9th island) because they can’t afford to live here. So now we have a shortage of 911 operators, trash collectors, EMT’s, teachers, doctors, nurses - soon there will be no workers left. The wealthy will be living in a ghost town in their gated condos/communities with no services (and most likely a lack of drinking water). They live in a money bubble with no connection to reality
Yes, this election is much more than who will be president. We see how crucial control of congress is for the judiciary and just about everything else. Let’s not forget local governments and school boards.
The suppression of voting, banning of books, silencing of honest history, and dumbing down of the citizens all happens on the local level.
The baggage a President brings in with control of all the Executive levers....the ones we really don't have much knowledge of. That why Trump wants to get rid of the civil service. Ultimately that will be our doom.
Expand the court..this country will continue its guaranteed backslide with the. Corrupt players in majority now.. with control of the legislature and exec it maybe the last ditch opportunity to equalize or democracy
Why isn't Biden talking about this in his campaign? He made one wimpy comment about Trickle Down economics not working... 2 years ago! The Dems are their own worst enemy... can't message... won't fight (Clean or Dirty) ... and reap the benefits of inequality and corruption themselves!
But this must be done with a Limited Article V Convention. Such a convention will NOT be a runaway convention if each state resolution has detailed information and a revoke clause when new off-topic amendments are made.
But this must be done with a Limited Article V Convention. Such a convention will NOT be a runaway convention if each state resolution has detailed information and a revoke clause when new off-topic amendments are made.
Sioux, campaign and finance reform are needed. There is no democrat or republican program to reform the system The first priority should be to establish a law that a corporation is not a person, then eliminate pacs and pass a law that only people can make donations to political campaigns and they must list their names and contact information.
Secondly, eliminate the many tax programs that the wealthy use to not pay taxes and move money to different accounts that pay less taxes.
Since neither political party has a program, it will take a group of the people in the middle to start making these changes, perhaps the American Party!
I am still FULLY CONFIDENT, like 130,000% confident, that Bunkerboy will be in PRISON by 2024, not ruining the chairs in the white house! (Sorry for the lack of capitalization, but I still have a lack of respect for the office after four miserable years.)
But this must be done with a Limited Article V Convention. Such a convention will NOT be a runaway convention if each state resolution has detailed information and a revoke clause when new off-topic amendments are made.
I don't know about wealth doing the job, but Donald Trump is doing his best to make up the difference. I feel basic human ignorance is more destructive than any other element we currently are facing. When 60% of our Republican population still feel the 2020 election was stolen, ask yourself this question: What's the advantage in believing a lie over the truth? Trump is like a bad dream we just can't wake up from.
Trump followers see Trump as the antithesis of the American establishment of the Republo/Dem party. What Ralph Nader has correctly characterized as "two sides of same corporate coin."
Trump followers, not incorrectly see both establishment parties as having ripped them off and abandoned them for the last 20 years since Tip O'Neal and Ted Kennedy passed from the political scene; and they wouldn't be wrong.
Trump is indeed a "bad dream" that is only going to get worse.
But what alternative do Americans have? The two party system forecloses any meaningful challenge to the corporate status quo.
America is a country owned for, of and by the corporate capitalist establishment. The real problem is the American people, gullible, deluded and stupidly clueless, keep thinking they live in a democracy. When it is in fact a plutocracy of the rich. I know, I know, that is terribly uncomfortable to acknowledge. But hiding from the truth because it makes one uncomfortable doesn't help to overcome the problem.
The only system I’ve heard that could overturn the 2 party system is rank choice voting. That is probably why the GOP in Missouri is trying to get a law passed to ban rank choice voting.
scared the bejesus out of them. They live off of increasingly extreme rhetoric and positions and RCV would weed out some of the extremism and sheer nuttiness of the Republicans in Jeff City.
In the old European nation-states (I don't know how it works in the EU) third and fourth parties even pulling a mere five or 3 percent of the vote could get a seat in parliament and at least have their views recorded in the parliamentary record. (What we would call the Congressional Record) for posterity to examine for decades to come.
Part of the problem here in The States, at least at the federal level, is that minority views, at the Congressional level at least (sometimes they are in the states individually) are not even voiced.
The "corporate" party (the Democrat/Republicans) presents a remarkable homogeneous view to Americans, a few dissenting voices that occasionally come along like Bernie Sanders or "The Squad" notwithstanding.
Only Maine and Hawaii have it for all elections, including Federal, Florida bans it, the deep south, Ark, LA, MI, AL, GA, SC use it for For military and overseas voters in some state and/or federal election
West coast states and those typically identified as Democrat use ir for local elections not federal or State wide For military and overseas voters in some state and/or federal election
Hawaii doesn’t have it for all elections. We had it for the 2020 presidential election only. I wish we had it for all politicians, we are a blue state but too many crooks everywhere. All political offices should be term limited, decreasing corruption
I agree with you as a practical matter. It is important to recognize that voters can still make a difference. The only rational route to breaking the deadlock is to give control back to democrats who are more likely to enact and enforce progressive laws and regulations. To give such control to Republicans would do the opposite as they would try to privatize SS, eliminate medicare and medicare, decrease funding to public education, reduce voting rights etc etc.
It is certainly true that there is no road to heaven but there is a road to hell. Voting Republican is voting for the road to hell.
Government is and always has been about balancing the interests of the population well enough to prevent famine, revolution, and other mass cataclysms while providing the opportunity for self improvement, adequate income and wealth. Many governments get it wrong. True no matter what form of government.
Democracy demands some level of consent to be governed. Some do it better than others such as in several European countries. It requires an educated and engaged population to keep it from running off the rails. As Tim Snyder observed, the US practices the politics of “inevitability” where we are guaranteed good outcomes. Perhaps that explains low voter turn outs.
Tom--I never drove a Corvair, but I had friends that owned them. Ralph was an odd bird for his time, but his intentions were good. The world is in a mess and money is the force that drives us all to drink.
William--I had a 68 Mustang-2plus2 fastback. $2,200 out the showroom door. I drove it for 70,000 miles without a problem and it had zero computers to tell me that there was nothing wrong. Why can't they build cars like that anymore? Today that same car would run someone $40,000.00, how is that price justified in anyone's eyes?
I paid $2,000 for my 64 1/2, inflation only went up $200 in 2 years and yours was a fastback, mine wasn't. I didn't drive it long, in Feb 1967 I got orders to report to Travis AFB, they gave me 13 days, Westmoreland was ready to launch Operation Junction City and they decided that they needed my skill set. In 1969, a year after I returned I bought a 1970 Maverick, flat head 6 cylinder, cost me $2,500. Vehicles for me are transportation and transportation only, I don't and never have wasted money on muscle cars, horsepower etc.. I drove that car for 113,000 miles, drove it down the Pan American Hiway to Panama, with only a screwdrive and a pair of pliers. Never changed the oil, never changed the breaks. Only problem was that someone stole the nice gas cap on the rear, and rain got into the tank, rust formed, and I had to stop the car periodicially take out the fuel filter, shake it and blow through it.
Eventually in Panama I got hold of some aircraft tank sealant, an epoxy paint, poured into the tank, after I drained it, then let it cure. I drove it another 70,000 miles, eventually the bottom of the tank rusted and fell off, but the epoxy held and you would never know that it was just paint holding the gas. Oh it was stick shift, and I would use the clutch to hold it on hills, still didn't need a brake change.
I have a 2001 PT ccruiser, 22,000 miles, just had it detailed, looks like new, ceramic wax coating, but the electronics are shit. the key fob stopped working, $500 to replace the mother board, the seat belt indicator sometimes work, and the clock is on and off, and the POS takes as much space to turn as a 16 wheeler. I bought it because the wife thought it would be a classic someday, maybe in 100 years when we are dead and it is rotted to the ground.
William--Sadly I never thought that in my lifetime a car would be something I wouldn't be able to afford. In the near future, in order to own a car, you'll have to be able to afford insurance which will be in the ballpark of 3 to 4 hundred a month. then you have the basic payments that rear its ugly head every 30 days. Finally, the repair insurance, which everyone must have because a basic trip to the repair shop will now break the bank. Add those three bills together and roll them into one and in order to afford a car you'll need to be able to absorb a payment around $1,000.00 every month and that is excluding gas. At present, I walk my way to nowhere. 😒
I admire and respect Mr Nader and supported him in his 2000, 2004, and 2008 campaigns (tough I live in CA, a safely blue state). It was an unforgivable disaster that the democrats didn’t allow him to participate in debates (and that they also forced Bernie out).
Ralph sees all sides snd supports the fairest, most honest snd beneficial to all people side with intelligence and compromise . I have seen him cry at a law school when talking about the law, equality and fairness and the honor involved in enforcing the laws of our democracy. A genuinely good person.
Had he been allowed to speak in 2000, I wouldn’t have had to write his name in for 2016. And the day Citizens United was approved by SCOTUS, I call The End of Democracy.
I try to be more pragmatic in my few posts but I really had to let my faith in Ralph be known.
I have always thought that a great democratic country should try to live up to our constitutional ideals (updated for time) and also provide clean water and an education to its citizens. And the citizens should use those two things to help the country live up to those ideals.
A lot of us are trying but a lot of us have given up and a lot of us, let’s face it, have taken the easy way out and gone to the dark side.
I read that our brains have been hard-wired to think one of two ways…….
I agree with you about Joe Biden. I think he has done a remarkable turn around for the American people. He played the establishment game for over 40 years of serving the corporate-capitalist overlords and then when he finally made it to the top he stood up for the American working class.
If not for Joe Manchin and Chritine Sinema President Biden's "Build Back Better " legislation would have been a monumental piece of legislation for the American people on par with the best that FDR was able to accomplish. Truly Remarkable.
But Joe Biden is a one shot anomaly. Let us hope he gets another four years but there is only so much his administration can do.
Are you not aware of the litany of legislative roll-backs from the working class since Reagan was elected 43 years ago? If you're not I can't help you.
As far as "trolls" go try to get your head out of your *ss and outgrow the infantile stupidity that pervades the Internet and much of America in general.
Beyond Joe Biden the system is hopelessly rigged for the capitalist owners.
Tom Herzog: Cool it, Daniel is a good guy, read his posts. As regards his calling you a troll, well as we near the day people show up at the polls, the right wing trolls and bots will be and are logging on in increasing numbers, and out of the gate you came off as dissing the administration, however I share your sentiments. I last voted in 1964 for Goldwater, and registered the day Trump walked down the elevator as Democrat. I had changed, and saw Trump as a threat.
I am not happy with the Democrats or Biden, but am fearful of what will happen if Trump is elected, and Democrats control congress. A Democrat Senate can be a check on Trump, but he will most assuredly appoint acting Secretaries and Acting (Brevetted) Generals in the Pentagon.
I may think Biden is too old, that he isn't progressive enough, but will crawl over broken glass to vote for him. And Daniel is working his ass off with Field Team 6 in Florida to get people to vote Democratic, so of course he is on high alert.
I agree, and I agee with Ralph Nader, but there is a problem here. Trump is indeed a client of the billionaires, and claims to be one himself, he recently sold himself to the oil cabal for 1 billion dollars, so although the MAGAt crows is ostensibly against the billionaire class, it is the billionaire class that funds them, the media, and Trump.
Show me who signs the paycheck and I will tell you what opinions he holds.
We might have the illusion of a Democracy under a Democratic party control, but I put it on a sliding scale with Democracy at 1 and Theocratic Dictatorship at 10
Democratic party is a 4 or 5 and the Republican party is off the charts, past 10.
I often think back to a time when Trump tried to act as our President. Do you have any idea how lucky we all were that there wasn't an issue that required Mr. Trump to act in a Presidential manner similarly to what Kennedy did during the Cuban missile crisis. Trump has no knack for dealing with people or for that matter countries. Just the idea of that man holding the nuclear codes in his hands, to me, is very unsettling. Trump has no mental prowess when it comes to diplomacy, on any level. To give a mental midget like Trump the power to destroy a country is unconscionable. The man has no understanding at all, he is a child in a man's body with a complete lack of judgement to go with it. Keep in mind the nuclear codes and think back to "The Central Park "5." The date was April 20th, Hitler's birthday, 1989 and there was a rape of a 28-year-old investment banker who because of the attack lost 70% of her total blood volume. When Trump learned of the incident, he wanted the death penalty for the boys involved. Trump raved that they should all be executed for the crime they committed. Great judgement Donnie Boy, because they were all found to be innocent and later released. Trump took out a full-page ad requesting that the death penalty be brought back just for the kids that raped and almost beat a woman to death. Mr. Trump's judgment was as usual, flawed and incorrect. What judgement would he render if he was again granted access to this country's button and the occasion presented itself. He would have put the "Central Park 5" to death given the opportunity. The man reacts to stimuli, but he seems to always be wrong. Let's ask Melania.
William --And he has little patience for anything in the Muslim world. All he knows is sand make great glass. An after thought, out of Trump's original cabinet --not one of them thinks Trump should ever be allowed back into the White House, that's scary.
William--What about me? I don't see conservative individuals from this country ever considering themselves anywhere similar to being members of the Muslim community. Radical religious members of the Islamic sect desire the deaths of all infidels, and one of them we currently are.
What do you think the religious right is about? Then again Ameericans are woefully ignorant, and on purpose, about the threat of the religious right.
Ever hear of Dominionist theology, aka Christian Reconstruction.
Now is your time to learn, it is a transdenominational ideology (Catholics and Protestants).
It believes in Theocratic rule, where the Bible is the law of the land, less than faithful Christians (per there definition) are executed, along with gays, adulterers, juveinille delinquents, in other words the Mosaic laws, that being the 613 Laws of Leviticus and Deuteronomy, except of course the laws they don't like, such as not mixing fabrics, eating pork or shell fish
As regards Muslims, Islamic law requires that anyone living under Islam, be a Muslim, except that Christians and Jews who they call people of the book (Quran) can worship their god, so long as they accept the status of dhimmi's, second class citizens, and pay the jizyah, poll tax.
Atheists and polytheists (Hindus) have to convert (easy just repeat the Shahada.. google it)
However women aren't even second class citizens, Islam practices gender apartheid, Christian and Jew males have more rights and freedoms than Muslim women. Gays are executed, or as in Iran forced into sexual reassignment surgery, fundamentalists (salafists) like ISIS throw them off roofs.
No Islam does not desire the death of all infidels. Some Jews consider me an antisemite, Muslims consider me there worst enemy. I get plenty of hate mail, in response, because I call HAMAS what they are cowardly animals that hide behind women and children, and hostages as human shields, and raple and slaughter Jewish women, babies,infants, elderly , disabled.
Donald, I know your heart is in the right place, but you're the only one of the 14 comments I just read through that didn't address the subject matter in any way. Why not?
Other is an option. I do not believe any comment is incorrect. I love how each person brings other options to the discussion. And Donald is correct. Human ignorance is very destructive and should be considered.
The subject matter is Dynastic Wealth. Concerned because this is a class not a bulletin board. Not trying to be harsh but I'm sure most of us are more interested in that subject rather than the one you went down the side road on. :)
Terry, I assumed Donald chose "other" and believes improving education is important. I feel like we're brainstorming in this format and appreciate what we all contribute, even if I disagree with an opinion. I understand your focus on the problem presented because it is quite serious and may not have a solution. We may be beyond the tipping point where our form of government can't dig us out of our circumstances. We are experiencing late stage capitalism, also known as end stage capitalism. Only the excessively wealthy can turn it around. It is up to them, now.
Yep. I don't disagree. But these sessions are focused for a reason and going down a side road is distractive (and time wasting). It's also somewhat disrespectful to the Prof who's teaching this class, don't you think?
Dynastic wealth is as old as man wearing animal furs.
Humans fear death, and want to take their accumulate goodies with them, they use to bury them in the ground or their goodies were buried with them.
Breeding mini me' is a way, at least in the subconscious, of people keeping the goodies that they acquired while alive, thus inheritance laws, trusts, foundations.
My 14th great grandfather founded a dynasty in the woolen trade, but he also bred too many sons, as did his grandsons, and on down the line, that the dynasty wound up in one family line.
Charlemagne's dynasty was split among his sons, and split again until his descendants started wars, to regain the original inheritance.
The highest court in the land has conservatives too extreme for fox and OAN because these monsters were carefully selected to dismantle any attempts to remove money from politics.
SCOTUS judges are appointed by the president but everyone ignored the multimillion dollar campaigns with generous contributions. Boofing-boy Bret had his debts magically disappear before being appointed.😳
Gratefully, some of them have a moral compass that points left. Don't throw out the baby with the bath water. Robert said about 2/3 lean far right. That leaves about 1/3.
And I think that many of Trump's supporters are cognizant that if Trump's mob, the white supremacists, the Dominion people, etc gain power that they will be targets. Money was not insurance against the Holocaust. In fact, the cultists had an ulterior motive - steal their way to affluence. Musk has an impairment -- Aspergers -- a direct ticket to the ovens. Thiel is queer. Many have DNA that make them "mud people."
Our problem is that we have no way to communicate with them. We have to bring them to the table.
This thread is about the rich controlling the government, correct. How is today any different than hundreds of years ago?When people think about “ovens” and other tribal identity politics? Are we not the problem???
Professor Reich: must we choose just ONE? they ALL are tasks that must be done, and MORE! for example, reverse that ridiculous supreme court ruling that corporations are people, although i'm sure i'll think of more things that must be done if i calm down for a couple minutes.
All of the above, plus reverse Citizens United. Dems need to win the Presidency, the House and the Senate this year. Then increase the Supreme Court to at least 13 members. Then institute SCOTUS enforceable ethics code and term limits (say, lesser of 24 years or age 80). Aspirational? Sure. But let's try like hell to make it happen!
Offshore entities that are just tax cheating scams for super rich individuals and multi national corporations of USA origin should be subjected to Offshore declaration with mandatory reporting under penalty of criminal sanction. This way funneling of money or wealth will have to be accounted for in writing as to its source , (earned income, tax avoidance, etc) . the dodgy lawyers who design these schemes need to be put under the radar.
Wealth accumulation in families creates dynastic wealth. To allow wealth accumulation over generations ends democracy. Analogous is our current refusal to tax the obscene rich. This is all undermining democracy. Why don't Americans "get" it?
I wish to be able to eat all the chocolate I want and not have ill effects. We are literally talking about an impossible accomplishment. Every country, nation, religion has an aristocracy. The members have zero intention to give up any of that luxury and power. Even those of us talking today,, ibe honest, f you had massive wealth and power would you give it up to help the Country?
"I firmly believe that inherited wealth is criminal." Would you care to expand on that? Where does it end? How would a world without inheritance work? Would a "middle-class" child have to earn money to get braces? Would a parent or grandparent be prohibited from paying for the education of a child or grandchild? For their food or a down payment on a house? What would happen to the family farm? To a car, business or painting? Would it all go to the government? In places where that happened (Ukraine in the 1930s), it was a tragic disaster.
You need to learn a bit about inheritance tax laws.
The first half a million dollars or so can be passed to one's heirs mostly tax free. It is above that amount that taxes kick in. One can make one's heirs very comfortable with half a million dollars. Above that amount people begin to build dynasties that undermine a democratic society.
Do you want to live in a somewhat egalitarian, democratic American society or do you want to live in a sub-Saharan African kleptocracy? In which a few dynastic families have all of the wealth?
The federal government doesn't have an inheritance tax. Only six states impose an inheritance tax: Iowa, Kentucky, Maryland, Nebraska, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania.
Generally, the value of the inherited assets has to exceed minimum amount before an inheritance tax is due. As a result, only about 2% of taxpayers ever encounter this tax.
Taxpayers can set up generational shifting devices.
No longer inheritance taxes. Just the title to the section. I used to write "pour over" trusts to avoid the estate taxes that no longer exist. I am aware of gift taxes -- gift up to the exemption amount myself.
When I practiced in Pa, the most important public official was the inheritance tax appraiser.
Even though I live in Virginia, I went through the PA inheritance tax mess when my mother died. I needed a good PA attorney to file the correct forms and pay the money due to keep from screwing up and landing in hot water with the PA government. Don't know how someone who happens to live far away in another country deals with a PA inheritance tax situation. Not fun!
It seems as though you want to live in a world where there is no incentive to achieve material things. What happens to assets beyond the $500k you refer to (the current tax-free limit is almost 28 times this amount in the US https://www.irs.gov/businesses/small-businesses-self-employed/estate-and-gift-taxes)? That is where the true kleptocracy kicks in: the government takes it, and either keeps it for themselves and/or starts wars. Due to carelessness, many family "dynasties" are nearly broke after three generations: see the Vanderbilt and Keiser fortunes in the US. The most successful dynasties that have lasted for hundreds of years are governments that can freely take money from their citizens and colonies. See England and Saudi Arabia for examples.
Most of the people who comment on Roberts' posts seem to think that rich people in the United States get rich by taking money from poor people. This is completely wrong and a fairly stupid thing to think. Poor people don't have money to take in the first place. Most people who get rich create something valuable that others want and will pay a lot of money for. Rich people sell musical experiences, electric cars, books, art, drugs, plumbing services or political influence to people who can afford it.
Wealth in a society is created by the goods and services that the working class creates. The rich DO get rich by appropriating the wealth created by the working class. You are deluded in failing to understand that the wealth the working class creates is stolen from them by the capital class before it is even in the working class' pockets. It is your thinking as misinformed as it is that is stupid.
Capital is needed to create the infrastructure for the working class to create the goods and services. Since most working class live paycheck to paycheck, the capital has to come from the wealthy or government. It is not unreasonable for the wealthy to expect the return of their capital plus a small profit from the wealth created by the working class for risking the loss of their capital on projects. But, as noted in your comment, the problem is that the system has become so corrupt that the wealthy are getting the lion's share of the wealth while the working class is getting peanuts. Mostly the fault of Republican government policies since Reagan became President, in my opinion.
We can trace the system back to the Hanseatic League, an organization founded by north German towns and German merchant communities abroad to protect their mutual trading interests. The league dominated commercial activity in northern Europe from the 13th to the 15th century.
Fast forward to 1600 with England in competition and threat from Spain, a group of business men and lesser nobility got together and formed the British East India Company, a joint stock company, chartered by Elizabeth I to exploit the richness of Asia, discovered by the Portuguese.
In 1607 James I, granted a royal charter to wealthy London Businessmen, and lesser nobility to form a joint stock company, to discover and exploit the gold and silver they believed was in what they called Virginia, the eastern seaboard from the location of Roanoke to Maine, between latitudes 34° and 41° N.[. thus providing income to the Sovereign with no risk, a joint stock adventurer with investors taking all of the risks.
When the venture fails, as did the Virginia Company in1622, when Jemes revoked the charter, The only persons who take the hit are the investors, not their heirs, any liabilities of a corporation are taken out of the proceeds and property of the corporation, not the investors property or heirs. What is lost is the investment, nothing more,nothing less.
By the same token, the investors children should not benefit from the investment
Why should some dude or dudess, just because his parent was king or queen, inherit a throne wth all of it’s wealth and power? Why should a person inherit the parents wealth and power.? Regardless of their talents, energy and inclination.
I realized that I should watch my lack of civility when it gets thrown back at me. Thank you for the reminder.
If you are a worker in the United States in 2024, do you feel exploited? I'm sure some people do. $15-$20 an hour for work in a restaurant? A union auto worker? Those seem like a pretty good deal.
Exploited workers were an issue in the United States over 100 years ago, but these problems have generally been solved. If you want to see true exploitation, you'd have to look at cobalt mining in Africa, where slavery is unfortunately still alive and well.
I have never felt exploited in the jobs that I have chosen. When I worked for a moving company and moved furniture, I was paid appropriately. When I was a teacher, I was paid appropriately. Now that I am a software developer, I am paid appropriately. I invented a product and sold it in the marketplace. I made a good amount of money, but not a great amount of money. The marketplace let me know the value of my product. I tried to work as an independent person. I was not good at it. I didn't make any money. Again, the marketplace determined my value.
The times that I haven't felt as though I have been compensated, I have left. Sometimes, I have been wrong, but other times, I have been worth more in the marketplace than I was being paid at the time.
There are a few major categories of people in a society. There are the workers, the creators, the bankers, the healers/helpers/teachers, and the government. They're all necessary for civilized society, but there's a lot of disagreement over who should get the most credit.
The creator class that knows how to build a construction business or ice cream business or create a successful movie or railroad is the type of person that creates wealth in a society. If the workers truly created wealth, why wouldn't a socialist society be wealthier than a capitalist society?
In my life experience, I have come to understand and respect what it takes to build a company large enough to employ other people. I have not been able to do it myself. These companies take large risks and have big goals. They hire other people to fulfill their vision. The less differentiated your skills are, the less value you provide, and the more replaceable you are.
It is because of the visions of creative people combined with a combination of government support and workers that create what most people would consider a wealthy society: buildings, roads, other infrastructure, entertainment, and most of what is available to people in the United States today. Poor people in the US have access to things that were not even science-fiction 100 years ago.
There are many variations of rich people who got there in different ways. Sometimes, it is the same person. You can get rich by inheritance, creating something valuable, working hard, or stealing from others. They should not all be treated the same.
$15 an hour Chris is not a living wage,not today. In some cities and states, $30 is not a living wage, when renting a cockroach infested room takes half of your income. When you don't have health insurance and HAVE to work off the books and injure your self and have no workmen's comp.
My mother raised three children, by herself, as a waitress and then in a bank, first for tips and then for $1 an hour. I thought that she was being paid what the market place dictated, but when the men she worked with got raises and she didn't because they had families, and she could find a husband, the whole scam about the marketplace went out the window.
The market place is not a determinant of anything, despite the brainwashing we have received. It is all a lie, and the public has bought it.
Read Pierre-Joseph Proudhon's "What Is Property?" to understand my views on why inherited wealth is criminal.
Also, this:
"Rugged individualism' has meant all the 'individualism' for the masters, while the people are regimented into a slave caste to serve a handful of self-seeking 'supermen.' America is perhaps the best representative of this kind of individualism, in whose name political tyranny and social oppression are defended and held up as virtues; while every aspiration and attempt of man to gain freedom and social opportunity to live is denounced as 'un-American' and evil in the name of that same individuality." -- Emma Goldman
Whilst we're getting big wealth out of politics, why not consider overcoming our addiction to being awestruck by the 'celebrity cult' that dominates our social spaces as well?
yes, there should be a limit: No one should be allowed to donate less than 1 million dollars/ year. At the moment there are too many poor people donating pittances to political campaigns.
All of the choices will help in part but so long as campaign financing allows big donations from corporations. Under the guise that a corporation is a person and has first amendment rights to free speech via obscene campaign contributions through PACs we will have pay to play politics. All the taxes on the wealthy will be undone by the next congress bought and paid for by big bucks and we will be back to the same problem again. Of course, as the late great Molly Ivins said on many occasions, campaign finance reform isn’t a one shot deal, it’s an ongoing work in progress. I’m paraphrasing but that was her gist. Campaign finance reform can also be undone, so we have to stay vigilant and also do the long likely slow work of undoing all the factors behind trickle down economics, as Professor Reich has discussed many times elsewhere.
Sioux, Clearly, campaign finance reform initiatives start with taking back the House, holding our 49 Senate seats, flipping at least 1 Republican seat, and holding the White House. This, first, would afford an opportunity to resuscitate “For the People,” legislation that enshrines voting rights and gets big money out of politics. As you might recall, in 2021, the legislation passed in the House and stalled in the Senate. I expect Democratic control of the Senate in 2025, a body that would be more receptive to filibuster reform or a carve-out, could move this legislation to the floor for an up or down majority vote.
Second, because I understand Democratic Senators, overall, are becoming far more receptive to expanding the Court, I foresee a real opportunity for repealing Citizens United.
My point is that our efforts over the next 5 months to hold control of the House, the Senate, and the White House could generate enormous reform, and I’m just getting started.
I wish Robert and Heather would say... everything else is BS unless we win. Concentrate. Register Democrats to save us from barbarians.
https://www.fieldteam6.org/
Yes, Daniel, we must vote while we still can.
In Missouri, a bill was passed to ban rank choice voting. It now must be voted on by citizens but the GOP have put that tired, old ballot candy in there. I hope people are not fooled by it. They come for our citizen’s initiative process every chance they get. They come for our right to vote every chance they get.
From Heather Cox Richardson’s recent newsletter;
“In The New Republic, Ken Silverstein reported on a private WhatsApp group started last December by military contractor Erik Prince—founder of Blackwater and brother of Trump’s secretary of education, Betsy DeVos—and including about 650 wealthy and well-connected “right-wing government officials, intelligence operatives, arms traffickers, and journalists,” including Representative Ryan Zinke (R-MT), who served as Trump’s secretary of the interior.
Called “Off Leash,” the group discussed, as Silverstein wrote, “the shortcomings of democracy that invariably resulted from extending the franchise to ordinary citizens, who are easily manipulated by Marxists and populists,…”
We must get out the vote or we may lose it.
https://missouriindependent.com/briefs/ranked-choice-voting-missouri-ballot/
Thank you Missouri Democrats for defending our citizen’s initiative process!
Exactly while we still can.
The Kansas Supreme Court just ruled that Kansans don’t have a right to vote under the state constitution. Twilight zone on steroids
WHAT? Can you supply a link, please, newspaper or otherwise? Thank you! How the hell could they even pass such an absurd, UNdemocratic ruling?
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/government/2024/05/31/kansas-supreme-court-rules-voters-have-no-fundamental-right-to-vote/73921194007/
Google Kansas Supreme Court on Kansas voting rights. Ap news, guardian, Wichita eagle, yahoo news Canada. The gqp is beyond all reasoning. They will pas whatever they want to keep people from voting because they know they can’t win on their platform
Agreed! Btw, have you tried FT6’s gerrymandered chocolate bars?
What, Barbara? chocolate?
? More info Barb... ?
Barbara Jo Krieger: They are rare and delicious:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/876422217/unfair-share-the-gerrymandered-chocolate-bar
I agree ..... a record Democratic vote in November is key to making real progress. Let us all awaken the passion to reject Citizen's United, the filibuster, Rubio, Scott, and MAGA moron fascism
and who is going to save Palestine and Ukraine from the Dems?
Putin speaks.
It certainly won't be the Republicans, who are even more pro-Netanyahu & will succumb to whatever Putin wants!
Go away.....you speak nonsense.
It is NOT the dems that you have to save them from, its Putin et al , that care nothing for human life, and plunging into others' territory in order to have more control, money an power. America is also on his list of destruction!
gale you might want to see what the history of the war in Ukraine is - Profs S Cohen and J Mearsheimer etc.
I have been following the war in Ukraine since it began. I am absolutely outraged, devastated and appalled that Putin decided to move into an independent country and destroy it and kill people mercilessly! WE all stood by and watched it happen! I was born in 1939 when Hitler was walking thru Europe! We joined the war effort to stop this kind of insanity! People died fighting against this kind effort to take over countries. Our sons died fighting this war. Now we stand by and say, oh well, so one country falls to a crazy man! Too bad! Do you realize that deranged men like Puten do not stop after they control one country? To give him more power only puts us and rest of the free world at horrible risk. I am outraged at the insanity of people running country that think this is OK!!! Gale
It doesn’t matter what the history is. It’s what is happening right now. Russia invaded another country. Can you imagine Mexico saying hey we’re taking back Texas, California, Arizona and New Mexico because that land has been ours forever
Probably not Trump
I agree that we must keep trying to work the system for our benefit, but I believe the wealthiest will have to come to terms with the fact that they must reverse course and allow the changes we know need to happen or the whole system that serves them so well will crumble. It will either fall due to the dead end of financialization or to the climate calamity on the horizon. It's ultimately up to them at this point. They must see through the fog of accumulating more, that they are working toward their own demise, even if they don't care about their own families.
I experience Kors of insane "wealth living" in Sarasota.FL, where showing it off knows no shame. Most are so used to the financial level they've been born into (or married into) they don't understand their own negative influence on the warpath world. Our Republican "boot licker" Congressmen, Buchanan and Steube, were first in line to say what a travesty Trump's conviction was.
and God in his inimitable sense of humor called forth a hurricane and flooded them all away.....
Thus when hurricanes hit the beaches and the homes of the wealthy? I'm OK with it, but sadly they can afford full insurance....
Sadly, I do not understand that God smites the poor who lose their jobs, homes and vehicles and have no coverage.
It looks like your god actually favors blacks. I just checked what part of Florida has the most hurricanes and then the demographics of Florida. Most blacks live in Tallahasee, Tampa, and Jackson, those three cities are the less hit by hurricanes
the Tampa Bay area has not had a direct hit from a hurricane in over 100 years! In 1921, a hurricane made landfall in Tarpon Springs packing 115 mph winds and a 12-foot storm surge
The hurricanes hit where the rich and Cubano's live, in the places that hurricanes love the most.
My program, Gloria, would be something like this:
1. Put a legal limit to donations;
2. Change the electoral system;
3. Restructure the financing of the media.
Capitalism can be objectionable, but unlimited searching for profit, is not a crime. But it is the ethics that is missing.
What it leads to is Boeing going broke, because of the quality incidents and losing the world market for airliners to Airbus.
How about the John Lewis Voting Rights Act?
https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/analysis-opinion/john-lewis-voting-rights-advancement-act-introduced-senate-brennan-0
Take money out of politics. Term limits for all politicians and all judges. If more than 8 years for a president, VP, governor and mayor is prevented so they don’t get too powerful - why do we allow fed and state senate and house amass that much power. Get rid of electoral college. Pass rank choice voting and everyone has basic income, rent is 30% of your income period. And no more gated condos - every high rise is 1/3 poor, 1/3 middle income, 1/3 wealthy and everyone pays 30% rent. It’s not money that brings them together but values, respect, cooperation, integrity
The crime is that it is unlimited.
The largest crime is that it's unknown whom the donors are. From just that much, more can be known and will be known. Furthermore, we must tame our expectations. We were asleep at the wheel for far too long while others with contrary aims were hard at work, actively convincing others to join them in their information silos. Working, I do mean 'working' to return to law and order has to be in patient steps; focused and limited. It's not my birthday, nor yours (figuratively speaking). We can't achieve an entire wish list at once, no matter how much or many of us wish, hope, and pray otherwise.
All on your list plus constant vigilance. Repeal Citizens, no one gets more that a billion! Plenty for all and planet health
Ain’t gonna happen but this is a good dream. They cut Antoinette’s head off. That worked.
Exactly. Tsar Nicholas also.
Wasn't Marie originally Austrian?
Good luck hoping people like Musk want their taxes raised
A Constitutional Amendment is needed to limit campaign finances. Nonprofits working on this include Wolf-Pac.com, FreeSpeechForPeople.org, and FixDemocracyFirst.org.
But this must be done with a Limited Article V Convention. Such a convention will NOT be a runaway convention if each state resolution has detailed information and a revoke clause when new off-topic amendments are made.
They think their obscene wealth will protect them.
Example. I live in Honolulu, our politicians are addicted to building condos and calling them affordable - 435,000 is not affordable for anything but especially a closet. What is happening is we are losing 12 people everyday, many to Las Vegas(called the 9th island) because they can’t afford to live here. So now we have a shortage of 911 operators, trash collectors, EMT’s, teachers, doctors, nurses - soon there will be no workers left. The wealthy will be living in a ghost town in their gated condos/communities with no services (and most likely a lack of drinking water). They live in a money bubble with no connection to reality
that is not going to happen, coming to terms I mean.
Probably not.
Just as with Godot that enlightenment will not come!
On behalf of Texas, we willingly offer up Ted’s seat in the Senate for the flip. He has never done a damn thing for anyone here.
Yes, this election is much more than who will be president. We see how crucial control of congress is for the judiciary and just about everything else. Let’s not forget local governments and school boards.
The suppression of voting, banning of books, silencing of honest history, and dumbing down of the citizens all happens on the local level.
VOTE BLUE.
The baggage a President brings in with control of all the Executive levers....the ones we really don't have much knowledge of. That why Trump wants to get rid of the civil service. Ultimately that will be our doom.
Expand the court..this country will continue its guaranteed backslide with the. Corrupt players in majority now.. with control of the legislature and exec it maybe the last ditch opportunity to equalize or democracy
Why isn't Biden talking about this in his campaign? He made one wimpy comment about Trickle Down economics not working... 2 years ago! The Dems are their own worst enemy... can't message... won't fight (Clean or Dirty) ... and reap the benefits of inequality and corruption themselves!
Even if Dems win the Senate, the House is a do nothing reality drama.
A Constitutional Amendment is needed to limit campaign finances. Nonprofits working on this include Wolf-Pac.com, FreeSpeechForPeople.org, and FixDemocracyFirst.org.
But this must be done with a Limited Article V Convention. Such a convention will NOT be a runaway convention if each state resolution has detailed information and a revoke clause when new off-topic amendments are made.
Add to that a prohibition on contributions by entities not based on DNA, i.e. overturning of Citizens United.
Yes. Even my Republican friends agree on the need to undo Citizens United
In the sense that that they prefer ruffled potato chips to unruffled. Not a real priority.
A Constitutional Amendment is needed to limit campaign finances. Nonprofits working on this include Wolf-Pac.com, FreeSpeechForPeople.org, and FixDemocracyFirst.org.
But this must be done with a Limited Article V Convention. Such a convention will NOT be a runaway convention if each state resolution has detailed information and a revoke clause when new off-topic amendments are made.
Sioux, campaign and finance reform are needed. There is no democrat or republican program to reform the system The first priority should be to establish a law that a corporation is not a person, then eliminate pacs and pass a law that only people can make donations to political campaigns and they must list their names and contact information.
Secondly, eliminate the many tax programs that the wealthy use to not pay taxes and move money to different accounts that pay less taxes.
Since neither political party has a program, it will take a group of the people in the middle to start making these changes, perhaps the American Party!
That's the problem in a nutshell. We are asking the wolves to guard the sheep.
Anyone remember McCain-Feingold?
And bring back the FCC
I am still FULLY CONFIDENT, like 130,000% confident, that Bunkerboy will be in PRISON by 2024, not ruining the chairs in the white house! (Sorry for the lack of capitalization, but I still have a lack of respect for the office after four miserable years.)
What makes you convinced orange jello head will be in prison? I LOVE YOUR 130,000% CONFIDENCE! PLEASE KEEP FUNNELING IT TO THE REST OF IT! TY!
Write how you like . . . I think most people understand that using lowercase letters indicates disrespect!! Funny!
right on
A Constitutional Amendment is needed to limit campaign finances. Nonprofits working on this include Wolf-Pac.com, FreeSpeechForPeople.org, and FixDemocracyFirst.org.
But this must be done with a Limited Article V Convention. Such a convention will NOT be a runaway convention if each state resolution has detailed information and a revoke clause when new off-topic amendments are made.
There isn’t a best. They are all imperative
This is the correct answer, every one of the options in the poll needs to happen, even if it isn’t all of them at once.
🤣🤣🤣
I agree. Although I thought I had to pick only one so went for the taxation option🐾
I don't know about wealth doing the job, but Donald Trump is doing his best to make up the difference. I feel basic human ignorance is more destructive than any other element we currently are facing. When 60% of our Republican population still feel the 2020 election was stolen, ask yourself this question: What's the advantage in believing a lie over the truth? Trump is like a bad dream we just can't wake up from.
Trump followers see Trump as the antithesis of the American establishment of the Republo/Dem party. What Ralph Nader has correctly characterized as "two sides of same corporate coin."
Trump followers, not incorrectly see both establishment parties as having ripped them off and abandoned them for the last 20 years since Tip O'Neal and Ted Kennedy passed from the political scene; and they wouldn't be wrong.
Trump is indeed a "bad dream" that is only going to get worse.
But what alternative do Americans have? The two party system forecloses any meaningful challenge to the corporate status quo.
America is a country owned for, of and by the corporate capitalist establishment. The real problem is the American people, gullible, deluded and stupidly clueless, keep thinking they live in a democracy. When it is in fact a plutocracy of the rich. I know, I know, that is terribly uncomfortable to acknowledge. But hiding from the truth because it makes one uncomfortable doesn't help to overcome the problem.
The only system I’ve heard that could overturn the 2 party system is rank choice voting. That is probably why the GOP in Missouri is trying to get a law passed to ban rank choice voting.
scared the bejesus out of them. They live off of increasingly extreme rhetoric and positions and RCV would weed out some of the extremism and sheer nuttiness of the Republicans in Jeff City.
Parliamentarianism. Which is about as likely as an informed populace, but is still worth trying for.
Get rid of the politicians and let the people vote directly on the issues, this ‘forces’ Informed citizens. Save us a lot of money, a lot
In the old European nation-states (I don't know how it works in the EU) third and fourth parties even pulling a mere five or 3 percent of the vote could get a seat in parliament and at least have their views recorded in the parliamentary record. (What we would call the Congressional Record) for posterity to examine for decades to come.
Part of the problem here in The States, at least at the federal level, is that minority views, at the Congressional level at least (sometimes they are in the states individually) are not even voiced.
The "corporate" party (the Democrat/Republicans) presents a remarkable homogeneous view to Americans, a few dissenting voices that occasionally come along like Bernie Sanders or "The Squad" notwithstanding.
Rank choice voting in some states that have it, has led to Republicans coming in first and second place. Here is a link Ranked Choice Voting (RCV), Where, what, why and why not https://www.csg.org/2023/03/21/ranked-choice-voting-what-where-why-why-not/
Only Maine and Hawaii have it for all elections, including Federal, Florida bans it, the deep south, Ark, LA, MI, AL, GA, SC use it for For military and overseas voters in some state and/or federal election
West coast states and those typically identified as Democrat use ir for local elections not federal or State wide For military and overseas voters in some state and/or federal election
Hawaii doesn’t have it for all elections. We had it for the 2020 presidential election only. I wish we had it for all politicians, we are a blue state but too many crooks everywhere. All political offices should be term limited, decreasing corruption
I agree with you as a practical matter. It is important to recognize that voters can still make a difference. The only rational route to breaking the deadlock is to give control back to democrats who are more likely to enact and enforce progressive laws and regulations. To give such control to Republicans would do the opposite as they would try to privatize SS, eliminate medicare and medicare, decrease funding to public education, reduce voting rights etc etc.
It is certainly true that there is no road to heaven but there is a road to hell. Voting Republican is voting for the road to hell.
Government is and always has been about balancing the interests of the population well enough to prevent famine, revolution, and other mass cataclysms while providing the opportunity for self improvement, adequate income and wealth. Many governments get it wrong. True no matter what form of government.
Democracy demands some level of consent to be governed. Some do it better than others such as in several European countries. It requires an educated and engaged population to keep it from running off the rails. As Tim Snyder observed, the US practices the politics of “inevitability” where we are guaranteed good outcomes. Perhaps that explains low voter turn outs.
Tom--I never drove a Corvair, but I had friends that owned them. Ralph was an odd bird for his time, but his intentions were good. The world is in a mess and money is the force that drives us all to drink.
I owned a Corvair, it spun 180 degrees on wet road, and when it spun on a long flat curve I sold it and bought a 64 1/2 New Mustang.
Because of the Nader vote in Florida we wound up with Dubya.
William--I had a 68 Mustang-2plus2 fastback. $2,200 out the showroom door. I drove it for 70,000 miles without a problem and it had zero computers to tell me that there was nothing wrong. Why can't they build cars like that anymore? Today that same car would run someone $40,000.00, how is that price justified in anyone's eyes?
I paid $2,000 for my 64 1/2, inflation only went up $200 in 2 years and yours was a fastback, mine wasn't. I didn't drive it long, in Feb 1967 I got orders to report to Travis AFB, they gave me 13 days, Westmoreland was ready to launch Operation Junction City and they decided that they needed my skill set. In 1969, a year after I returned I bought a 1970 Maverick, flat head 6 cylinder, cost me $2,500. Vehicles for me are transportation and transportation only, I don't and never have wasted money on muscle cars, horsepower etc.. I drove that car for 113,000 miles, drove it down the Pan American Hiway to Panama, with only a screwdrive and a pair of pliers. Never changed the oil, never changed the breaks. Only problem was that someone stole the nice gas cap on the rear, and rain got into the tank, rust formed, and I had to stop the car periodicially take out the fuel filter, shake it and blow through it.
Eventually in Panama I got hold of some aircraft tank sealant, an epoxy paint, poured into the tank, after I drained it, then let it cure. I drove it another 70,000 miles, eventually the bottom of the tank rusted and fell off, but the epoxy held and you would never know that it was just paint holding the gas. Oh it was stick shift, and I would use the clutch to hold it on hills, still didn't need a brake change.
I have a 2001 PT ccruiser, 22,000 miles, just had it detailed, looks like new, ceramic wax coating, but the electronics are shit. the key fob stopped working, $500 to replace the mother board, the seat belt indicator sometimes work, and the clock is on and off, and the POS takes as much space to turn as a 16 wheeler. I bought it because the wife thought it would be a classic someday, maybe in 100 years when we are dead and it is rotted to the ground.
William--Sadly I never thought that in my lifetime a car would be something I wouldn't be able to afford. In the near future, in order to own a car, you'll have to be able to afford insurance which will be in the ballpark of 3 to 4 hundred a month. then you have the basic payments that rear its ugly head every 30 days. Finally, the repair insurance, which everyone must have because a basic trip to the repair shop will now break the bank. Add those three bills together and roll them into one and in order to afford a car you'll need to be able to absorb a payment around $1,000.00 every month and that is excluding gas. At present, I walk my way to nowhere. 😒
I admire and respect Mr Nader and supported him in his 2000, 2004, and 2008 campaigns (tough I live in CA, a safely blue state). It was an unforgivable disaster that the democrats didn’t allow him to participate in debates (and that they also forced Bernie out).
Ralph sees all sides snd supports the fairest, most honest snd beneficial to all people side with intelligence and compromise . I have seen him cry at a law school when talking about the law, equality and fairness and the honor involved in enforcing the laws of our democracy. A genuinely good person.
Had he been allowed to speak in 2000, I wouldn’t have had to write his name in for 2016. And the day Citizens United was approved by SCOTUS, I call The End of Democracy.
I try to be more pragmatic in my few posts but I really had to let my faith in Ralph be known.
I have always thought that a great democratic country should try to live up to our constitutional ideals (updated for time) and also provide clean water and an education to its citizens. And the citizens should use those two things to help the country live up to those ideals.
A lot of us are trying but a lot of us have given up and a lot of us, let’s face it, have taken the easy way out and gone to the dark side.
I read that our brains have been hard-wired to think one of two ways…….
I guess you didn't hear that Biden is on OUR SIDE! Are you a troll?
I agree with you about Joe Biden. I think he has done a remarkable turn around for the American people. He played the establishment game for over 40 years of serving the corporate-capitalist overlords and then when he finally made it to the top he stood up for the American working class.
If not for Joe Manchin and Chritine Sinema President Biden's "Build Back Better " legislation would have been a monumental piece of legislation for the American people on par with the best that FDR was able to accomplish. Truly Remarkable.
But Joe Biden is a one shot anomaly. Let us hope he gets another four years but there is only so much his administration can do.
Are you not aware of the litany of legislative roll-backs from the working class since Reagan was elected 43 years ago? If you're not I can't help you.
As far as "trolls" go try to get your head out of your *ss and outgrow the infantile stupidity that pervades the Internet and much of America in general.
Beyond Joe Biden the system is hopelessly rigged for the capitalist owners.
Tom Herzog: Cool it, Daniel is a good guy, read his posts. As regards his calling you a troll, well as we near the day people show up at the polls, the right wing trolls and bots will be and are logging on in increasing numbers, and out of the gate you came off as dissing the administration, however I share your sentiments. I last voted in 1964 for Goldwater, and registered the day Trump walked down the elevator as Democrat. I had changed, and saw Trump as a threat.
I am not happy with the Democrats or Biden, but am fearful of what will happen if Trump is elected, and Democrats control congress. A Democrat Senate can be a check on Trump, but he will most assuredly appoint acting Secretaries and Acting (Brevetted) Generals in the Pentagon.
I may think Biden is too old, that he isn't progressive enough, but will crawl over broken glass to vote for him. And Daniel is working his ass off with Field Team 6 in Florida to get people to vote Democratic, so of course he is on high alert.
Back off the snark, please.
we do not know that he is a one shot anomaly
Fair enough.
When you divide us you're either an asset or a willing idiot for the enemy.
The two party system divided us. Bi-partisanship won't unite us. We need to think outside the box.
Only 2 choices and the default is Fascism.
Daniel, to whom was your comment directed?
I agree, and I agee with Ralph Nader, but there is a problem here. Trump is indeed a client of the billionaires, and claims to be one himself, he recently sold himself to the oil cabal for 1 billion dollars, so although the MAGAt crows is ostensibly against the billionaire class, it is the billionaire class that funds them, the media, and Trump.
Show me who signs the paycheck and I will tell you what opinions he holds.
We might have the illusion of a Democracy under a Democratic party control, but I put it on a sliding scale with Democracy at 1 and Theocratic Dictatorship at 10
Democratic party is a 4 or 5 and the Republican party is off the charts, past 10.
The button--
Donald Hodgins <silencenotbad@gmail.com>
10:10 AM (0 minutes ago)
I often think back to a time when Trump tried to act as our President. Do you have any idea how lucky we all were that there wasn't an issue that required Mr. Trump to act in a Presidential manner similarly to what Kennedy did during the Cuban missile crisis. Trump has no knack for dealing with people or for that matter countries. Just the idea of that man holding the nuclear codes in his hands, to me, is very unsettling. Trump has no mental prowess when it comes to diplomacy, on any level. To give a mental midget like Trump the power to destroy a country is unconscionable. The man has no understanding at all, he is a child in a man's body with a complete lack of judgement to go with it. Keep in mind the nuclear codes and think back to "The Central Park "5." The date was April 20th, Hitler's birthday, 1989 and there was a rape of a 28-year-old investment banker who because of the attack lost 70% of her total blood volume. When Trump learned of the incident, he wanted the death penalty for the boys involved. Trump raved that they should all be executed for the crime they committed. Great judgement Donnie Boy, because they were all found to be innocent and later released. Trump took out a full-page ad requesting that the death penalty be brought back just for the kids that raped and almost beat a woman to death. Mr. Trump's judgment was as usual, flawed and incorrect. What judgement would he render if he was again granted access to this country's button and the occasion presented itself. He would have put the "Central Park 5" to death given the opportunity. The man reacts to stimuli, but he seems to always be wrong. Let's ask Melania.
Presidents are not omnescient, they have advisers who actually make the descisions.
If Trump had tried to launch nukes in his last days in office, recall that Gen Milley, had told his subordinates to check with him first.
If Trump is elected there will be no Gen Milley, then again Trump will never nuke his lovers, and benefactors.
Remember he is transactional he rewards his friends and punishes those that don't love him.
William --And he has little patience for anything in the Muslim world. All he knows is sand make great glass. An after thought, out of Trump's original cabinet --not one of them thinks Trump should ever be allowed back into the White House, that's scary.
Donald Hiodgins neither do I have any patience with the Muslim world, Gender Apartheid is just one reason, and it is serious enough https://www.google.com/search?q=may+31%2C+2024+new+rules+bill+maher&sca_esv=32d6cf92b92a2b7e&sca_upv=1&rlz=1C1GGRV_enUS751US751&ei=cWJbZrrnKoaB5OMPl7O50Ao&ved=0ahUKEwj6443X_rqGAxWGAHkGHZdZDqoQ4dUDCBE&uact=5&oq=may+31%2C+2024+new+rules+bill+maher&gs_lp=Egxnd3Mtd2l6LXNlcnAiIW1heSAzMSwgMjAyNCBuZXcgcnVsZXMgYmlsbCBtYWhlcjIFECEYqwIyBRAhGKsCSNUhUOgLWOYfcAF4AJABAJgB3gGgAfEPqgEFMC40Lja4AQPIAQD4AQGYAgugAvcQwgILEAAYgAQYsAMYogTCAgsQABiwAxiiBBiJBZgDAIgGAZAGBJIHBTEuMi44oAe-Ew&sclient=gws-wiz-serp#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:2e5e837c,vid:uRzv0HgatRc,st:0
Click watch and you will understand.. What I don't get is why Campus idiots and leftists do't get it.
Amazingly when itcomes to gender apartheid and homo (LGBT) Phobia, the Christian Right and Muslims are on the same page.
William--What about me? I don't see conservative individuals from this country ever considering themselves anywhere similar to being members of the Muslim community. Radical religious members of the Islamic sect desire the deaths of all infidels, and one of them we currently are.
What do you think the religious right is about? Then again Ameericans are woefully ignorant, and on purpose, about the threat of the religious right.
Ever hear of Dominionist theology, aka Christian Reconstruction.
Now is your time to learn, it is a transdenominational ideology (Catholics and Protestants).
It believes in Theocratic rule, where the Bible is the law of the land, less than faithful Christians (per there definition) are executed, along with gays, adulterers, juveinille delinquents, in other words the Mosaic laws, that being the 613 Laws of Leviticus and Deuteronomy, except of course the laws they don't like, such as not mixing fabrics, eating pork or shell fish
Start here: https://www.sullivan-county.com/nf0/fundienazis/royal_race.htm
As regards Muslims, Islamic law requires that anyone living under Islam, be a Muslim, except that Christians and Jews who they call people of the book (Quran) can worship their god, so long as they accept the status of dhimmi's, second class citizens, and pay the jizyah, poll tax.
Atheists and polytheists (Hindus) have to convert (easy just repeat the Shahada.. google it)
However women aren't even second class citizens, Islam practices gender apartheid, Christian and Jew males have more rights and freedoms than Muslim women. Gays are executed, or as in Iran forced into sexual reassignment surgery, fundamentalists (salafists) like ISIS throw them off roofs.
No Islam does not desire the death of all infidels. Some Jews consider me an antisemite, Muslims consider me there worst enemy. I get plenty of hate mail, in response, because I call HAMAS what they are cowardly animals that hide behind women and children, and hostages as human shields, and raple and slaughter Jewish women, babies,infants, elderly , disabled.
@Donald. " 60% of our Republican population still feel the 2020 election was stolen," but under oath, virtually none of them will swear to it!
Daniel--They only want to please their King.
At a sentence hearing, they get religion -- and it ain't the orange antichrist.
Daniel--But that orange jump suit would look so nice on Mr. Trump.
Donald, I know your heart is in the right place, but you're the only one of the 14 comments I just read through that didn't address the subject matter in any way. Why not?
Other is an option. I do not believe any comment is incorrect. I love how each person brings other options to the discussion. And Donald is correct. Human ignorance is very destructive and should be considered.
Very diplomatic. :)
Terry notice how your criticism of Donald Hodgkins has actually spun off a different conversation, and moved further away from your original critique.
Terry --The subject matter was centered around what is destroying this country. WE did that. Why the concern?
The subject matter is Dynastic Wealth. Concerned because this is a class not a bulletin board. Not trying to be harsh but I'm sure most of us are more interested in that subject rather than the one you went down the side road on. :)
Terry, I assumed Donald chose "other" and believes improving education is important. I feel like we're brainstorming in this format and appreciate what we all contribute, even if I disagree with an opinion. I understand your focus on the problem presented because it is quite serious and may not have a solution. We may be beyond the tipping point where our form of government can't dig us out of our circumstances. We are experiencing late stage capitalism, also known as end stage capitalism. Only the excessively wealthy can turn it around. It is up to them, now.
Yep. I don't disagree. But these sessions are focused for a reason and going down a side road is distractive (and time wasting). It's also somewhat disrespectful to the Prof who's teaching this class, don't you think?
Dynastic wealth is as old as man wearing animal furs.
Humans fear death, and want to take their accumulate goodies with them, they use to bury them in the ground or their goodies were buried with them.
Breeding mini me' is a way, at least in the subconscious, of people keeping the goodies that they acquired while alive, thus inheritance laws, trusts, foundations.
My 14th great grandfather founded a dynasty in the woolen trade, but he also bred too many sons, as did his grandsons, and on down the line, that the dynasty wound up in one family line.
Charlemagne's dynasty was split among his sons, and split again until his descendants started wars, to regain the original inheritance.
Donald wasted space bringing up silly stuff like orange jumpsuit. People don’t have time for joke answers.
People like you wasting money and time not Robert. He got brain.
Perhaps Donald could suggest to Prof Reich that he might conduct a session on "what is destroying this country" ?
Terry--There many forks in the road of life.
You still do’t get it!
Rob--I know, I gave up sex 30 years ago.
How is that working out for you?
Rob --Just wonderful, I haven't needed an abortion in all that time.
Rob--Great--We have the legal system on our side. You seem to be attracting the criminal element.
Exactly
All of the choices are necessary, but if big money isn't pulled out of politics, none of the other things will be possible in any effective way.
All of the above.
When the RICH get richer, the Poor get poorer!!! Citizens United is destroying our democracy.
Destroyed, Unfortunately 🤦🏿♂️🤦♀️
The highest court in the land has conservatives too extreme for fox and OAN because these monsters were carefully selected to dismantle any attempts to remove money from politics.
SCOTUS judges are appointed by the president but everyone ignored the multimillion dollar campaigns with generous contributions. Boofing-boy Bret had his debts magically disappear before being appointed.😳
How do we change the upward movement of capital when the wealthiest own and control the system?
Gratefully, some of them have a moral compass that points left. Don't throw out the baby with the bath water. Robert said about 2/3 lean far right. That leaves about 1/3.
And I think that many of Trump's supporters are cognizant that if Trump's mob, the white supremacists, the Dominion people, etc gain power that they will be targets. Money was not insurance against the Holocaust. In fact, the cultists had an ulterior motive - steal their way to affluence. Musk has an impairment -- Aspergers -- a direct ticket to the ovens. Thiel is queer. Many have DNA that make them "mud people."
Our problem is that we have no way to communicate with them. We have to bring them to the table.
This thread is about the rich controlling the government, correct. How is today any different than hundreds of years ago?When people think about “ovens” and other tribal identity politics? Are we not the problem???
His supporters can’t be given credit for being cognizant of anything. They lost credibility as soon as they declared allegiance.
Professor Reich: must we choose just ONE? they ALL are tasks that must be done, and MORE! for example, reverse that ridiculous supreme court ruling that corporations are people, although i'm sure i'll think of more things that must be done if i calm down for a couple minutes.
Bringing Lennie Leo to a grand jury might start the ball rolling.
All of the above, plus reverse Citizens United. Dems need to win the Presidency, the House and the Senate this year. Then increase the Supreme Court to at least 13 members. Then institute SCOTUS enforceable ethics code and term limits (say, lesser of 24 years or age 80). Aspirational? Sure. But let's try like hell to make it happen!
Yes, let us reverse Citizens United! I have some fairy dust you can sprinkle around to make that happen.
We're singing "Kumbaya" by the fire tonight also. Good luck with all that.
We can sweep.
Also, it may be that the decision was rendered illegally -- bribery of justices.
Offshore entities that are just tax cheating scams for super rich individuals and multi national corporations of USA origin should be subjected to Offshore declaration with mandatory reporting under penalty of criminal sanction. This way funneling of money or wealth will have to be accounted for in writing as to its source , (earned income, tax avoidance, etc) . the dodgy lawyers who design these schemes need to be put under the radar.
Don't you mean ON the radar?
I'm not taking the poll because I agree with all of the choices, and more.
I firmly believe that inherited wealth is criminal. All men may be created equal, but being born into a wealthy family certainly gives some a leg up.
America shouldn't have an aristocracy.
There's my insomniac two cents.
Wealth accumulation in families creates dynastic wealth. To allow wealth accumulation over generations ends democracy. Analogous is our current refusal to tax the obscene rich. This is all undermining democracy. Why don't Americans "get" it?
hail Herzohg,
Wouldst thou injure thy betters?
I wish to be able to eat all the chocolate I want and not have ill effects. We are literally talking about an impossible accomplishment. Every country, nation, religion has an aristocracy. The members have zero intention to give up any of that luxury and power. Even those of us talking today,, ibe honest, f you had massive wealth and power would you give it up to help the Country?
I would. I would use it to make the world a better place.
As a Zen Buddhist I don't believe in possessions, property, or wealth.
Last night the wife said, "Oh boy, when you're dead, you don't take nothing with you, but your soul. THINK!"
https://youtu.be/v-1OgNqBkVE?si=3Mn0FYSWXZV0HZEh
"I firmly believe that inherited wealth is criminal." Would you care to expand on that? Where does it end? How would a world without inheritance work? Would a "middle-class" child have to earn money to get braces? Would a parent or grandparent be prohibited from paying for the education of a child or grandchild? For their food or a down payment on a house? What would happen to the family farm? To a car, business or painting? Would it all go to the government? In places where that happened (Ukraine in the 1930s), it was a tragic disaster.
You need to learn a bit about inheritance tax laws.
The first half a million dollars or so can be passed to one's heirs mostly tax free. It is above that amount that taxes kick in. One can make one's heirs very comfortable with half a million dollars. Above that amount people begin to build dynasties that undermine a democratic society.
Do you want to live in a somewhat egalitarian, democratic American society or do you want to live in a sub-Saharan African kleptocracy? In which a few dynastic families have all of the wealth?
The federal government doesn't have an inheritance tax. Only six states impose an inheritance tax: Iowa, Kentucky, Maryland, Nebraska, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania.
Generally, the value of the inherited assets has to exceed minimum amount before an inheritance tax is due. As a result, only about 2% of taxpayers ever encounter this tax.
Taxpayers can set up generational shifting devices.
The US federal government does have an estate tax: https://www.irs.gov/businesses/small-businesses-self-employed/estate-and-gift-taxes
No longer inheritance taxes. Just the title to the section. I used to write "pour over" trusts to avoid the estate taxes that no longer exist. I am aware of gift taxes -- gift up to the exemption amount myself.
When I practiced in Pa, the most important public official was the inheritance tax appraiser.
Thanks for the information!
Even though I live in Virginia, I went through the PA inheritance tax mess when my mother died. I needed a good PA attorney to file the correct forms and pay the money due to keep from screwing up and landing in hot water with the PA government. Don't know how someone who happens to live far away in another country deals with a PA inheritance tax situation. Not fun!
It seems as though you want to live in a world where there is no incentive to achieve material things. What happens to assets beyond the $500k you refer to (the current tax-free limit is almost 28 times this amount in the US https://www.irs.gov/businesses/small-businesses-self-employed/estate-and-gift-taxes)? That is where the true kleptocracy kicks in: the government takes it, and either keeps it for themselves and/or starts wars. Due to carelessness, many family "dynasties" are nearly broke after three generations: see the Vanderbilt and Keiser fortunes in the US. The most successful dynasties that have lasted for hundreds of years are governments that can freely take money from their citizens and colonies. See England and Saudi Arabia for examples.
Most of the people who comment on Roberts' posts seem to think that rich people in the United States get rich by taking money from poor people. This is completely wrong and a fairly stupid thing to think. Poor people don't have money to take in the first place. Most people who get rich create something valuable that others want and will pay a lot of money for. Rich people sell musical experiences, electric cars, books, art, drugs, plumbing services or political influence to people who can afford it.
Wealth in a society is created by the goods and services that the working class creates. The rich DO get rich by appropriating the wealth created by the working class. You are deluded in failing to understand that the wealth the working class creates is stolen from them by the capital class before it is even in the working class' pockets. It is your thinking as misinformed as it is that is stupid.
Capital is needed to create the infrastructure for the working class to create the goods and services. Since most working class live paycheck to paycheck, the capital has to come from the wealthy or government. It is not unreasonable for the wealthy to expect the return of their capital plus a small profit from the wealth created by the working class for risking the loss of their capital on projects. But, as noted in your comment, the problem is that the system has become so corrupt that the wealthy are getting the lion's share of the wealth while the working class is getting peanuts. Mostly the fault of Republican government policies since Reagan became President, in my opinion.
It’s important to address the imbalance between the wealthy and the working class. The system definitely needs to be reevaluated.
We can trace the system back to the Hanseatic League, an organization founded by north German towns and German merchant communities abroad to protect their mutual trading interests. The league dominated commercial activity in northern Europe from the 13th to the 15th century.
Fast forward to 1600 with England in competition and threat from Spain, a group of business men and lesser nobility got together and formed the British East India Company, a joint stock company, chartered by Elizabeth I to exploit the richness of Asia, discovered by the Portuguese.
In 1607 James I, granted a royal charter to wealthy London Businessmen, and lesser nobility to form a joint stock company, to discover and exploit the gold and silver they believed was in what they called Virginia, the eastern seaboard from the location of Roanoke to Maine, between latitudes 34° and 41° N.[. thus providing income to the Sovereign with no risk, a joint stock adventurer with investors taking all of the risks.
When the venture fails, as did the Virginia Company in1622, when Jemes revoked the charter, The only persons who take the hit are the investors, not their heirs, any liabilities of a corporation are taken out of the proceeds and property of the corporation, not the investors property or heirs. What is lost is the investment, nothing more,nothing less.
By the same token, the investors children should not benefit from the investment
Why should some dude or dudess, just because his parent was king or queen, inherit a throne wth all of it’s wealth and power? Why should a person inherit the parents wealth and power.? Regardless of their talents, energy and inclination.
Another source of capital is pension plans including Social Security.
That is owned by the "working class"
I realized that I should watch my lack of civility when it gets thrown back at me. Thank you for the reminder.
If you are a worker in the United States in 2024, do you feel exploited? I'm sure some people do. $15-$20 an hour for work in a restaurant? A union auto worker? Those seem like a pretty good deal.
Exploited workers were an issue in the United States over 100 years ago, but these problems have generally been solved. If you want to see true exploitation, you'd have to look at cobalt mining in Africa, where slavery is unfortunately still alive and well.
I have never felt exploited in the jobs that I have chosen. When I worked for a moving company and moved furniture, I was paid appropriately. When I was a teacher, I was paid appropriately. Now that I am a software developer, I am paid appropriately. I invented a product and sold it in the marketplace. I made a good amount of money, but not a great amount of money. The marketplace let me know the value of my product. I tried to work as an independent person. I was not good at it. I didn't make any money. Again, the marketplace determined my value.
The times that I haven't felt as though I have been compensated, I have left. Sometimes, I have been wrong, but other times, I have been worth more in the marketplace than I was being paid at the time.
There are a few major categories of people in a society. There are the workers, the creators, the bankers, the healers/helpers/teachers, and the government. They're all necessary for civilized society, but there's a lot of disagreement over who should get the most credit.
The creator class that knows how to build a construction business or ice cream business or create a successful movie or railroad is the type of person that creates wealth in a society. If the workers truly created wealth, why wouldn't a socialist society be wealthier than a capitalist society?
In my life experience, I have come to understand and respect what it takes to build a company large enough to employ other people. I have not been able to do it myself. These companies take large risks and have big goals. They hire other people to fulfill their vision. The less differentiated your skills are, the less value you provide, and the more replaceable you are.
It is because of the visions of creative people combined with a combination of government support and workers that create what most people would consider a wealthy society: buildings, roads, other infrastructure, entertainment, and most of what is available to people in the United States today. Poor people in the US have access to things that were not even science-fiction 100 years ago.
There are many variations of rich people who got there in different ways. Sometimes, it is the same person. You can get rich by inheritance, creating something valuable, working hard, or stealing from others. They should not all be treated the same.
$15 an hour Chris is not a living wage,not today. In some cities and states, $30 is not a living wage, when renting a cockroach infested room takes half of your income. When you don't have health insurance and HAVE to work off the books and injure your self and have no workmen's comp.
My mother raised three children, by herself, as a waitress and then in a bank, first for tips and then for $1 an hour. I thought that she was being paid what the market place dictated, but when the men she worked with got raises and she didn't because they had families, and she could find a husband, the whole scam about the marketplace went out the window.
The market place is not a determinant of anything, despite the brainwashing we have received. It is all a lie, and the public has bought it.
Read Pierre-Joseph Proudhon's "What Is Property?" to understand my views on why inherited wealth is criminal.
Also, this:
"Rugged individualism' has meant all the 'individualism' for the masters, while the people are regimented into a slave caste to serve a handful of self-seeking 'supermen.' America is perhaps the best representative of this kind of individualism, in whose name political tyranny and social oppression are defended and held up as virtues; while every aspiration and attempt of man to gain freedom and social opportunity to live is denounced as 'un-American' and evil in the name of that same individuality." -- Emma Goldman
Interesting perspective, thanks for sharing.
Whilst we're getting big wealth out of politics, why not consider overcoming our addiction to being awestruck by the 'celebrity cult' that dominates our social spaces as well?
Hail Miriam!
Wouldst thou deniest our social spaces our bejeweled celebrities?
yeah Miriam talk to us in good, plusgood, and doubleplusgood language so we can understand you. "Whilst" -how dare you Miriam!
WTF?
"Whilst" is what English people say. It's not pretentious in the UK.
Whilst amongst us let us pontificate even more pretentiously, shall we?
WTF, you also?
I would place a limit on individual and corporate donations.
Need Congress. Get the ducks in line. .
yes, there should be a limit: No one should be allowed to donate less than 1 million dollars/ year. At the moment there are too many poor people donating pittances to political campaigns.
You are talking about MAGAts on Social Security.
Won’t the cheater elite just find more ways to get around any rules? How can that be avoided?
All those mentioned, tax them ban stock buybacks, cap CEO pay, properly tax corporations, stop price gouging by corporations!!
Having more money should not mean pay less tax than those who have less money or wealth.
Money changes everything.
Citizens United favors the corporate state.
All of the above is my answer. But getting big money out of politics is crucial.