Excuse my bluntness, but the most basic moral principle in a civilized society is to tax the rich. US society, which was never perfect, began to unravel 40 years ago when Reagan announced tax cuts on the wealthy. It accelerated with the busting of unions. As the 0.01 percent became wealthier, they became more powerful. They pushed NAFTA and became yet wealthier, as American jobs were shipped to Mexico. Their wealth began to influence SCOTUS, which gave "free speech" to corporations, and denied Gore victory in 2000. They persuaded Clinton to dissolve Glass-Steagall, while donating to the Clinton Foundation. Corporations began to form oligopolies. Pharmaceutical corporations, in particular, were able to lobby for fixed pricing, thereby destroying Adam Smith's market. Now we have the richest man in the world in charge of the largest and most important information corporation in the world.
This "trickle down" experiment is over.
Smith was right, there must be progressive taxation, or the wealthy have too much power, and all the rules of capitalism are violated.
We are living in a dystopian type of capitalism, for sure, and it’s heartbreaking. My humble family members of yore are rolling in their graves, from those who fought in the American Revolution to those who believed we stood for working person rights, and equality for everyone...everyone. We need tactical momentum to dig out every vote, before it’s too late, really too late and we are living The Handmaid’s Tale.
Omg Michael, you have said it ALL. Geez, I watched a guy named Donald Regan, a muckety-muck from Wall Street ascend to become Reagan's Secretary of the Treasury first, then White House Chief of Staff, and somewhere deep down I knew we were screwed. The rich, powerful elites gave us "Reaganomics." Trickle down bull____. For the life of me I can't imagine how we're getting out of it. I will never forget what Henry Kravis did to millions of working Americans and blazing a path for all the other corporate raiders that contributed to destroying our middle class. The nation is now littered with tent cities with nary a word from anyone. "Barbarians at the Gate" is America's norm. You can see from how fearful Biden is of the rich Democratic donor class, to make even simple changes, like cancelling student debt. Also his inability to use executive privilege to roll back some of Trump's most awful abuses tells you how controlled he is by the rich and the GOP. I have never forgotten what Biden said when he campaigned, "nothing will fundamentally change." And it won't. This is no longer a Democracy. Period.
Michael, You are not being blunt, you are simply stating the very obvious. Years and years ago, my Father (a tax accountant for a cpa by occupation) declared quite simply: "This (trickle-down economics) will never work. Nothing's ever going to trickle down as the wealthier love their money and are at pains to part with a penny of it. They have nothing to spare for those down the chain, no matter how much money they have. And they will just attack those with less and call them out as undeserving or unworthy or lazy or whatever. The way to improve the economy does not entail giving breaks to the already wealthy but taxing those wealthy in order to level the playing field. Tax the rich heavily and things will even out." My Father was not a graduate of any fancy business school anywhere; he was a simple tax accountant who saw what taxes meant for ordinary people. He was right then and anyone who says "tax the wealthy heavily" is right now. It's simple, really, but we have created a perversion of the tax system, a kind of regressive system that results in tax loopholes, breaks, write-offs for the wealthy and demands that ordinary working-class people pay their (unfair) share for the rest of us. All the breaks are given the wealthiest, the rest of us (lazy, do-nothings as we are assumed to be) are expected to pay all the bills and bear all the burdens for programs we desperately need but will see ended at the insistence of those with the funds. Money talks with the loudest voice and, what with Biden's hesitancy to do what he can in a timely fashion, money will continue to talk. Unless, of course, workers begin to demand a say in the matter--which might be happening.
We remember the numerous rich people who invested with Bernie Madoff, seeking ever more money — when they had plenty to begin with. Greed is, as the medieval philosophers attest, a mortal sin. If we allow greed to stand as our basic moral principle, we are doomed.
As a youth, my family owned and operated a small heating oil company in the shadow of Lady Liberty. My grandather, an Irish immigrant started it in 1917 as a coal and ice company. Somewhat of a real American success story. It was a small, tightly knit community with other similar fuel oil companies. Not an absolute but, we kinda took care of the Irish folk. The Italian guy took care of the Italian families, the Polish guy, the Polish folk and the Jewish guy, the Jewish folk. We all had a mutual respect, friendliness and comradery with one another. Indeed, we lent tools and materials to one another without question. Also in the town was The Eastern Standard Oil Company's tank farm. A huge employer and hub for local conmerce. As a 13 year old, I clearly recall the brass plack on my grandfather's office wall; "65 years of cordial business relations with The Eastern Standard Oil Company". They would regularly use our trucks and drivers to move their products to ships, airplanes, manufacturers etc . They too delivered heating oil and serviced and installed heat systems. Sometime in the 60's, anti-trust & anti-monopoly legislation kicked in forcing them to divest out of the home heating oil/repair & installation business. This to "level the playing field" for smaller businesses and "share the wealth" with we smaller concerns. We still sold their products. Where are such laws now-a-days ? Corporate access, coercion and corruption of congress and our elected officials has all but ended such laws. This luring our government away from THE WORK OF THE PEOPLE . It has morphed our democracy into a corptocracy and the oligarchy under which we now live . Corporate citizenship NEEDS recinded. Lobbyism NEEDS abolished. Corporate access to and free reign over our elected officials NEEDS to be outlawed ! UNFETTERED CAPITALISM DOES NOT WORK ! !
I believe there are a few things we can do to fight the super-rich monopolies that have taken over so much of our commerce and business: 1. The workers at such corporations need to gain and exercise more power and that means....strong unions that help increase workers' participation in making policies, ensuring equitable and safe work environments and dealing with customers and management on a more level and shared field. 2. Customers need to return to local small business and family-run businesses in their neighborhoods. Instead of dealing with big box stores at the mall, we should focus on neighborhood businesses that offer better products and services, generally at reasonable prices. Malls should be re-purposed into housing and social service centers, libraries and schools, care homes, and hospitals. Large corporations also need to devote more resources to employee housing, public transportation, and health service centers for their workers. 3. Currently, corporations do a poor job securing the transactions and credit cards issued by their companies, especially when it comes to online and telephone sales. Traditional in-store shopping reduces the many frauds and scams that run on the name and brand of large impersonal corporations. Such corporations currently do nothing to protect their customers and employees from frauds run by in-store grifters or grifters just using the corporation products. 4. No corporation should run an unpaid internship program for workers in training; if a worker is good enough to qualify for an internship with a corporation, that individual should be paid for the relevant time and effort needed to learn the job, and all workers should be as capable of performing an intern's job as the intern at the end of training. Hiring should be merit-driven, with no special sweet deals for family at the expense of qualified workers unrelated to the ceo in any way. That is: no nepotism and all work should be respected and valued and all workers similarly respected and paid in full for their services and time. I see a trend towards unionization of work forces as a good way of restoring the health, safety, rights, and future for workers and reducing the negative impacts that large corporations bring with them. Early on in our history, we were a nation of shop-keepers and family-run businesses; certain areas of the country still run family concerns with some success. While it is probably impossible to eliminate all large and environmental-destroying malls and business campuses, I do believe that greater discretion should be brought to bear; we do not need the many ugly malls, business parks, and corporate offices that have been built; this is especially true with the growth of work-at-home practices. Work is changing and we need to change with it. We might also be looking at a future with UBI in the picture as AI takes over tasks once done by people.
I agree with all except the last part of#2. Expecting employers to provide housing, transportation and especially health care immunes and exempts them from higher taxes whereby the government can provide housing, trans and health care. Mulholland did this to the point of creating his own money until the project was completed. Corporations , if they did fulfill these expectations, would widen the gap of equality for all and corner the market for employees on health care as they are often now, making employees more dependent than ever.
I believe you are overlooking the fact that corporations, ceos of large companies, high income heads of things, pay very low taxes if they pay taxes at all. They are able to declare losses, garner tax write-offs, take all kinds of deals and deductions that translate into tax rates that are considerably lower than those of ordinary working people, the little people of the country. (For example, in 2016 & 2017 Donald J Trump paid $750 per year in taxes on an income of ++++++++++++ (who knows!) and during the debate with Hillary Clinton, he bragged and winked at the clever way he had managed to evade taxes; for the very same years, (We were supposed to think him clever and smart, which was his aim, I guess. I thought of him as a tax cheat and criminal but he has a way of confessing to his crimes openly and cheerfully--after the fact.) I paid $3500 on a 2016 income of $30,000 and $2100 on a 2017 income of $27,000. I did not make enough to take losses or qualify for tax write-offs or any of the schemes that gave Trump a tax burden of $750 per year. I did get refunds but only because I had a maximum withheld and exceeded my tax burden. But let's think about this. The vast income that Trump and his ilk receive would (in a just world) be used to pay taxes which would provide people of lower income the housing, the transportation, the health care they need; by not paying his fair share of taxes, Trump was not being clever or smart; he was depriving the govt of the revenue it needs to function as an advanced (and humane) society. Trump's gain comes at the cost to those of us who pay our (unfair) share of taxes. The system is a progressive one for Trump and he and his cronies thrive on the benefits and lower taxes and write-offs, it's a kind of socialism for the wealthy. For the rest of us (the 99% of us), the tax system is sadly regressive...the lower our incomes, the higher our tax rates and the tighter the squeeze on us. When the wealthy and their cronies in Congress game the system, our govt loses revenue and this translates into poorer infrastructure, less efficient and effective health care, greater homelessness. That's how the deal works, I may have put it a bit too bluntly for you but the facts remain: if the wealthy cheat on taxes, the govt will not be able to pay for what ordinary people need. I guess that's how I view the bottom line.
Yes, I make it a point to shop at local small businesses, but even the local Ace Hardware is a franchise. The day of the mom-and-pop retail business is almost extinct despite our efforts to keep them alive.
Absolutely. I believe it was Bernie who said there shouldn't be billionaires. I think, though, that progressives need to be more strategic in our thinking, by which I mean that we need a plan, a sequential approach, so that the reforms we do initially open the door to others. For example, I think that if all progressives focused on and pushed as hard as we could for campaign finance and lobbying reform, we could make the system more responsive and likely to do other things we desperately need and want, including taxing the rich. But getting progressives to focus our collective energies on any one thing, even temporarily, seems difficult or impossible
You actually read Adam Smith instead of going to Bartlett's! For more books on the same subject see Louis Brandies Other Peoples Money and Ferdinand Pecora's Wall Street Under Oath, and the works of David Cay Johnston,. the last of which suggested the streaming up might be a batter metaphor.
I agree with all you wrote. I need more information on the “how to do it.”
The people with more money than they could possibly spend put all their energy into keeping every dime. They waste money by shooting themselves into space, and instead of leaving themselves there with the rest of the discarded space junk, return to the adulation of those who want to be them.
The Supreme Court has legalized bribing members of Congress by twisting themselves into pretzels in order to confer a “soul” on corporations and then pretend they are protecting democracy.
The point is that there is endless funding to protect the rich. What is there to protect the people? The rich and the selfish are taking away the only defense the people have-the vote- and the law has become a tool for the bullies, not a defense for the people.
What is there to protect the people? The people. The people vastly outnumber the handful of rich and powerful. That's why the rich and powerful do whatever they can to disempower the people. It has always been so. Eventually, though, either some of the rich and powerful come to understand that fundamental reform is in their interest (eg, they'd be better off with a small portion of a much larger pie -- larger because everyone is more motivated ad productive; they'd be better off with a stable and peaceful society -- stable and peaceful because most people judge it to be fair). Or they risk upheaval, uprising, violence, and revolution.
No, the parasite class merely tipped them out of their chairs-and settled right in as Party Parasites, claiming they themselves were equal, workers and peasants, equal with those they drained of life.
Wealth is power and power is rarely denied for long. The 40 years following WW II in America is beginning to look like an anomaly of history that may not be repeated in a very long time.
How to do it? We have to fight! Outvote the Fascists. As a start help register more Democrats. https://www.fieldteam6.org/
In my Fascist state of Florida, the Democratic Party is not spending anything according to yesterday's Miami Herald. DeSantis and the Republican state legislature have imposed a failed herd immunity, tried to eliminate first amendment rights to protest, made voting far more difficult, superseded local authority over health matters, and waged an unnecessary culture war. He is vindictive -- even against his donors like Disney- and has an enemies list and has his own election police.
In 2018, DeSantis won with less than 50% of the votes -- about 33,000 out of 8,000,000 votes. In 2020, the pandemic suppressed the Democratic turn out, So far there is no efficient organization working in Miami Dade County, population 2,751,796 with a growth rate of 0.08% in the past year. A lot of the new residents came from other states and were Republican. During the pandemic a lot of Democrats failed to vote. Tenants and young people trend heavily Democratic and statistically could turn the entire state blue.
In 2020 Biden won Miami Dade 53% as Republicans had a huge turnout, We lost 2 house seats to inferior candidates mostly due to voter reliance on false info about "socialism." In 2016 HRC got 63%.
Totally agree. Fulminating won't do it. I maxed out to Demings the minute she declared her candidacy. (I wish her text-er's would notice that.) We need a list of to-do's. I'm working on Ditch Your Dirty Bank website, so no time.
Amen! The veneer of civilization is very, very thin. It is civilization that protects the vulnerable. Everyone will be vulnerable at some point in their lives and will need protection.
THIS is where we are failing. This is what enables the efforts of the minority in power to retain it. We have bought into individualism (selfishness), that prevents us from helping the least of us. That says I am not my brother's keeper. That enables us to feel we are somehow better or more worthy than someone of a different race, gender, sexual orientation, faith, political party, income, etc. This selfishness is being exploited to keep us divided, keep us from exercising our power-in-numbers. Something you can not exercise if you are not in a Democracy! It even has us revolting against our Government- an example that demonstrates our ability to fall for BS (misinformation) that has us fighting against a system of Government that empowers us and is our only tool against the minority in power!
GrAnnie ; I have the same question and here in today's forum there are some ideas. : Defend voting rights, get after Congress to make some rules to protect our rights to vote. Demand higher taxes on Billionaires ( push for the temporary windfall tax). Champion Unions ; look for products made by union workers. There was a time when we could 'look for the Union label'. Support unionized restaurants etc. Call out 'both sides ism' whenever you see it, note the lack of equivalency and, if possible, call it out. Or just take note in your mind to fend off the lie. Demand enforcement of anti bribery of our representatives and those in the Senate. Call out racist lies, sexist behavior and anything that marginalizes people of particular, established religious beliefs. Support our President, who, although imperfect, (like most humans) is decent and making the best decisions in a tough spot.
Here's a suggestion. Rather than gathering pitchforks and torches to storm the castle (or the Capitol for that matter!), we little people need to STOP doing things. Do you need your estate grounds mowed, Mr. Moneybags? Sorry, I am not doing that anymore. Plumbing backed up in your second home, Sir? Sorry, I am not servicing you. Need some foie gras or champagne for your next dinner party? No can do. Does your megayacht need fuel or engine servicing or a marina berth? Sorry, we're closed this month.
There is no requirement for us to do work or provide services to any individual. If we collectively make things harder for the leeches among us to feed on us, they will wither and possibly get the message. And we don't need to do this to EVERY bully, just some, even some in rotation. Putin clearly deserves our denial-of-service campaign at present because he is afflicting so many and so grievously. We might also add Elon Musk to the list for the next 3 months or so. No one really needs a Tesla when there are now other EVs out there of good quality. And do we REALLY need Twitter.
Hit them in the pocketbook. Deny them oxygen and they will suffer a very real consequence. Anyone with me?
In union there is strength. We need stronger unions, more ways of unionizing, more types of unions, more ways of withholding our labor and our dollars.
Corporate monopolies unite the CEO into strength too. We need to amend or abolish Citizens United and start anti trust proceedings against the major multi-companies. Facebook, Apple,Amazon,Google etc. have been allowed cancerous growth and surgery is in order .
I agree with you, but in the end, you still have to put food on the table. In my opinion, things will continue to get worse until we (society) puts a limit on how much wealth a person can (or should) accumulate. Sometimes, pitchforks and torches can be very persuasive....
Realize this is not an either-or proposition. I am all for taxing the rich AND cutting off their support one by one in the little ways which can be irritating. We can also use our social media to plant ideas such as an infestation of bedbugs at Mar-a-Loco. Let's get our creative juices flowing, people!
Pitchforks may have persuaded centuries ago. Today's weapons are not going to work, at least for the worker/citizen human. The military/ industrial might has weapons no humans can use. Private mercenaries are being used by Russia. Have been used by the US. We need to organize and speak truth to power. Fight back effectively. Strike, support business, and representatives who actually work in our best interests. Call the greedheads and DeSatans out. Demand that government workers earn their pay.
Are you willing to suffer for a little while? Turn off the electricity. All their wealth is tied up in in or supported by electricity. Ours is too, but we are better at survival than they are. (I AM NOT saying destroy it! Even better if we can keep it going but shut down specific sites, such as banks, credit companies, corporate offices, weapons manufacturers, Mar-A-Lago, etc. They will be the ones rioting, not us. And they have no idea how to riot without help!)
I doubt that either Putin or Trump has never heard of Thomas Hobbes or indeed Thomas Aquinas the father of natural law but it is fair to assume that many western politicians may well have been taught about these great philosophers but still show no lasting commitment to upholding basic human rights in their scramble to gather votes from any quarter.
The West can show however it is willing to prioritise principles over profit starting with rejecting Russian energy and disengaging from Chinese manufactured goods.If we expect to have lower living standards over the next decade then we should at least expect a 'dividend' in the form of improved defence of human rights across the world.
I am happy to have heard a UK radio debate this morning about sporting boycotts of Russia and potentially China, but we also need to be mindful about the material sources of our high living standards and take direct action as voters and consumers against governments and corporations that flout universal rights.
Just heard at this early hour of 5.30am that after a recent poll gearing up to the midterms that most Americans are siding with the alt-right (aka Republicans) on the “bigger issues” (whatever that means) and that they do not feel the same way about Joe Biden’s administration (who needs the good that would’ve come from a build back America program?). Hmmm…maybe our country men and women are turning masochistic in light of the fear being put into them day after day for the last six years. Maybe they crave bullying, autocratic rule…or maybe they’re just too blindly stupid to understand what is happening.
They were taught to trust the media, that all transgressions would at some point be exposed, a la Watergate. THE MEDIA HAS CHANGED! Now the media tells us what the wealthy and powerful want us to know and believe. It is only through blogs like this one we can get to know the real truth. If we do not approach the media with handfuls of grains of salt, we will never see between the lines that they think they are in charge of what we think. And that is why Repugs are so afraid of "woke" people. We are awake enough to see through their lies. We need to wake their followers--read cult members--up. Never easy at the best of times, since they are brainwashed from a very early age!
Well if you’re talking about folks like Rupert Murdoch who is supremely culpable in maligning journalistic integrity across the board, then I’d say you’d be correct. What we have been witness to is blatant propaganda, subterfuge and misinformation since the Reagan years. And “woke” seems to mean different things to different people. I wish the stupid word would go back from where it came. You either believe what you see with your own eyes or you allow someone to tell you differently. And remember, tRump loved the uneducated for this very reason. A mind is indeed a terrible thing to waste.
Woke does not mean what the Repuglicans are telling us it means, but your comment shows us they are winning. I have no idea where this version of the word came from, but we can use it to our advantage if we can co-opt it for our own purposes. This is how we win the fight, using the enemy's weapons against them. Murdoch is not the only media giant who is controlling what we hear. Facebook, Twitter, probably even Tik-Tok (I don't even know what that is) are capable of controlling what people are being told. I don't know about Substack yet, I am pretty new here, but Word Press has as much disinformation and misinformation on it as any other site. No one is fighting FAUX NEWS adequately! Freedom of speech is as necessary as food, but it is uundeniably dangerous when anyone can call their opinions truth! And that includes me.
I think he is just pointing out how those in power are co-opting terms like woke, de-fund the police, critical race theory, etc. and turning them into something other than what they are intended... misinformation at work. don't think he intended to insult your intelligence. We are all susceptible to misinformation, for example, what is taught (or rather not taught) in school about our history. We are now taught that African Americans are immigrants! This is true, by definition (person who comes to live permanently in a foreign country), hell we all are if you're not Native American, but it negates the nature of how they came, how they were taken advantage of, how that impacts their descendants now and who practiced slavery. How it brutalized it's captives, who perpetuated and benefited from it and how selfishness/greed facilitated it even with those who claimed to be 'christian'. Unfortunately, the selfishness/greed continue to influence those with wealth/power to exploit the rest of us for their own personal gain... they are still using their wealth to push the same tactics- violence/terrorism (scare tactics), voter disenfranchisement, misinformation (lies, propaganda, false equivalency, exploiting religion...) bribery (buying influence or favor) and divide &
conquer (based on race, gender, sexual orientation, faith, political party, income, etc.) to keep us (the majority) from coming together (revolting) against them.
Thank you, fyiurban. It just so happens I am part native North American (though not American) but I would never call my black cousins "immigrants" because, especially those descended from slaves, you/they had no choice in coming. White people seem to forget that without my ancerstors help they would never have survived their first winter here. We gladly gave that help. We were repaid with arrempted genocide.
That may be true to a certain degree but I continue to speak with friends and family who believe everything regurgitated by fox news. And let’s face it, propaganda works.
Yes, conversations sound word for word like fox talking points. If we don't find a way to curb the propaganda and the corruption unleashed by Citizens United our democracy doesn't have much of a future.
The culture of authoritarianism is strong in the USA. What is the national sport? Football, in which the players suffer brain damage thanks to their need to dominate the other team. Football represents a devolution from baseball, the former national sport, in which it’s not necessary to physically destroy the other team but merely to get runners into home plate. It is difficult to mentally separate oneself from Mother Culture. That’s why so many voters cling to an authoritarian like Drumpf.
The moral and material backbone of our community is capitalism, which in basic terms tells us: make as much money as you can, any way you can. The most noble aspiration is to become an entrepreneur, and the climactic mark of success is the fortune bearing IPO. The steady state measure of capitalist enterprise success is profit.
It's a given that capitalism is the most effective and efficient means of producing the diverse goods and services needed by a modern nation. Alternatives have proved dismal failures. But what we consider negative traits in an individual, such as bullying, autocratic control, self serving tendencies, deception, and stinginess are common and uncontroversial in the battle for profits. All's fair in . . .
Many of us like to think of the USA as egalitarian and altruistic, but our very competitive capitalist backbone must at times operate with a degree of anti-social behavior. I think we have to place more emphasis on broad values and spend less energy on the ubiquitous partisan squabbling and attacks. My pledge of allegiance would look like this:
"I pledge allegiance to egalitarian and altruistic principles, fundamental to the best hopes for peace and harmony in United States of America, and the world."
(Yes, the first long words pre-k and k kids would learn are egalitarian and altruistic.)
@sherm. I'm a capitalist. I started and ran a company for 27 years and, I admit, I made some pretty good money. But I am as liberal/progressive as anyone you will meet. I use my money (such as it is) to do responsible, civilized acts, e.g. started a scholarship at my Alma Mater which will fund two underprivileged students every year in perpetuity, spent the maximum donation on my favorite candidate and donated smaller amounts to many deserving Democrats, walked the precinct this past Sunday working to let voters know about our Democratic candidate in the 47th District in California. Maybe what I am suggesting here is that we must enroll well-to-do and wealthy people in our moral mission! Embrace them! We can't paint them all with the same brush. But let's use the rule of law to constrain the perverse actions of corporations, oligarchs, uncaring CEOs and bad actors who work against our nation and our (thankfully majority) values.
I think we can all agree there are exceptions to every rule. I guess the question is... Can one be a successful capitalist and still be egalitarian and altruistic, or no? I believe one can, however, as Sherm points out, the trend seems to suggest one cannot or should not.
Do you have many capitalist successes as friends, Ben? There is something I would like to see ALL WEALTHY PEOPLE INVOLVED IN. That is funding Emergency Response Teams all around the globe, teams that can respond to DISASTERS in a matter of hours or short days, wherever they are needed, experts who can provide all kinds of things, but particularly organizing whoever wants to help to set up supply chains for medical assistance, food and water, shelter, the best ways to dig through destruction to find trapped living beings, etc etc etc.
I hate that the main source of funds to help in disaster relief comes from the poor and middle classes all over the world, while the people who can afford to provide these services sit back and do little.
For those who do their parts, I thank them. But too many wealthy people do not care about the tragedy of others. Emergency Response Teams would be expensive, yes, but think of all the good things they would do. The suffering of those affected could be minimized in short order, and the money the general public provides could be better directed to where it is needed most.
If you and your conscientious friends could start something like this, maybe the hard-hearts and no-hearts could be guilted into doing their parts. Donating even 10% of your/their wealth would not hurt you/them individually, but together your/their 10%s add up to an amazing fund which could do so much good for so many. Please think about it.
i agree with your vision, as do most people here. but the question at this point is not "what should we do?" but rather "how can WE accomplish these goals?"
The first and most basic is: What are our values? What are we for and what are we against, and why?
The second is: What are the policies -- the changes in laws and rules -- that we believe will make a difference in achieving our values? (Here, for example, voting rights, paid leave, worker ownership, high taxes on the wealthy if necessary to pay for better education and universal health care, guaranteed basic income, and so on.)
The third is: How do we gain the power to make these policies a reality? (Here, political organizing, reforming campaign finance, abolishing or rendering irrelevant the Electoral College, and so on.)
thank you for your thoughts, Robert. (i must tell you that i GREATLY admire you, your passion, your kindness and decency, and your thoughtfulness, and your response has well and truly "made my day"!)
How to do it? We have to fight! Outvote the Fascists. As a start help register more Democrats. https://www.fieldteam6.org/
In my Fascist state of Florida, the Democratic Party is not spending anything according to yesterday's Miami Herald. DeSantis and the Republican state legislature have imposed a failed herd immunity, tried to eliminate first amendment rights to protest, made voting far more difficult, superseded local authority over health matters, and waged an unnecessary culture war. He is vindictive -- even against his donors like Disney- and has an enemies list and has his own election police.
In 2018, DeSantis won with less than 50% of the votes -- about 33,000 out of 8,000,000 votes. In 2020, the pandemic suppressed the Democratic turn out, So far there is no efficient organization working in Miami Dade County, population 2,751,796 with a growth rate of 0.08% in the past year. A lot of the new residents came from other states and were Republican. During the pandemic a lot of Democrats failed to vote. Tenants and young people trend heavily Democratic and statistically could turn the entire state blue.
In 2020 Biden won Miami Dade 53% as Republicans had a huge turnout, We lost 2 house seats to inferior candidates mostly due to voter reliance on false info about "socialism." In 2016 HRC got 63%.
Like you, I'm sick and tired of bullies running the world. Power over others has become more important than: fairness, justice, truth, honesty, equality and all the freedoms and rights that democracies cherish. Decency in human interaction is now a weakness. Lying is a lifestyle. Communication is planned lies - for power and money. The bullies of the world need to be called out, exposed and shamed. From Putin, to Trump to Murdoch to our current Australian PM Scott Morrison. As a retired teacher, I KNOW it starts in school times and that's where it HAS to start.
And such were the hopes, goals and idealistic dreams of the founding fathers . That these United States, our governments and populace recognized and survived these examples of the human paradigm throughout the world and convened to create 'The Great Society'. Where recognizing and guarding against them was built into the fabric and daily function of that society . But the sinuous, invasive, infecting nature of control, advantage and usery is that of a terminal disease requiring recognition, and aggressive treatment and cure . A concerted effort on the part of WE THE PEOPLE to react in no uncertain terms to cure and prevent that disease . Lobbyism NEEDS abolished. Free and unrestricted access by the corporate entity and advantaged to government NEEDS to end . The overt, accepted and systemic corruption of our elected officials NEEDS outlawed. And likewise, our all but totally bought and sold fourth estate having been degraded into a growing source of mis and dis information,
polluted and corrupted by the same terminal disease needs a thorough shaking out . "Without the occasional revolution, democracy dies." said Thomas Jefferson . Ours is long overdue . Vote progressive. Recognize these societal and governmental diseases. Volunteer to cure them in any way possible . Recognize the goals, hopes and idealistic dreams of the founding fathers and strive to achieve and regain their viability. DO THE RIGHT THING ! WAKE UP AMERICA ! !
Prof. Reich: I fully agree with what you said, but I must make an observation: All of the people that "must" be held to account are usually not held to account. Something always interferes with the accountability process. It seems as if human society is perpetually condemned to be victimized by the tyranny of the minority. Of course there have been exceptions, but on the average, I believe that I am right. Having said that, I agree that we must keep on keeping on.
Eloquent. But easy to identify the problems. Easy to say what needs to be done. Such words abound ad nauseum. But where is action? Where is the white knight using power for good? There may be more of "us" than "them," but where are the organizers leading the way? Where is anything more positive and productive than bullying and advice?
I served two terms in town meeting and couldn't do a thing to help even my town. But if I somehow suddenly do have power, then I hereby convict Trump of treason and order that he not be allowed to run again for public office. I enact a tax on the ultra wealthy and revoke corporate abikity to purchase politicians. And I change many other injustices. In reality, however, my best arguments don't change even my own friends' opinions against Libruls, Biden, or Covid vaccines. Ignorance, lack of logic, poor education, propaganda, and nature seem somehow to be today's leaders. The average IQ is 100. That doesn't mean I give up, but as I look at political polls, Supreme Court leaks, and many other signs, a lot of negative reality does appear at present to be fact, so I acknowledge it and dare wonder in pixels what better than rhetoric might change it before the GOP uses its power to overturn Roe, fix elections, and continue to let criminals go free. I think it's dangerous now not to do a lot more to acknowledge and act on the hazards, while at the same time, I hope I hallucinate.
But that's just one pilot's opinion. Never sugar-coat the hazards. I note, though, that, aside from corporate interference, airline safety since CRM (which teaches junior pilots to speak up in the face of captain's authority) seems to be doing better than U.S. politics.
I registered voters in FL last election. Biden won. The Democrats are in power. Still, Trump and his fellow crooks remain free. Corruption and corporate greed increase. Obviously, we have to keep trying to prevent the GOP from winning, but the Democrats are a huge disappointment. So again, my question...who is going to stop the bullies?
We need a full court press and Congress is the immediate issue.
Biden does not have enough Congressional support to get rid of the Fascists still in government. We can win this year but for defeatists who don't understand that the threat will be catastrophic unless the people rise to the occasion. In some cases Biden hasn't been able to appoint his people because of internal problems especially with head cases like Manchin.
The Justice Department is independent from the president and needs an adequate budget to prosecute its cases. Attached is a list of defendants charged in federal court in the District of Columbia related to crimes committed at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C, on Wednesday, Jan. 6, 2021. https://www.justice.gov/usao-dc/capitol-breach-cases
From my perspective there is enough to bring changes against some of the "low hanging fruit" like the phony electors in seven states, Rudy Giuliani, Sidney Powell, Lin Wood, and others who have been involved in “a historic and profound abuse of the judicial process.” Although the insurrection occurred in DC, these violators can also be charged in states where they may have committed crimes. If the cases are brought outside DC, the DC AUSAs will not have to be involved.
David Sirota said it better than I ever could in his May 2, 2022 article in the Guardian., “Americans Believe Nothing Is Getting Better. Biden Feeds That Disillusionment”
…“I’m going to become the Joker” is some of the internet’s most poignant shorthand. … the origins of the Batman villain, the phrase describes becoming so thoroughly disillusioned that one loses faith in everything.
.. the Biden White House is actively convincing a generation to believe nothing will fundamentally change….Tossing the Republican party a lifeline, he has reverted to his familiar formula: he promises big changes that could help the working class – and then prevents those changes from happening.”
Professor, many of us live in precincts which were recently re-districted and even here in California, presumably a "blue" state, proven responsible effective Congressional Representatives are having to fight much harder to be re-elected. In my district we have Katy Porter, one of the most effective Representatives on the Oversight Committee, who is now in a purple district containing about 50/50 membership in each party. The only moral, civilized, responsible thing to do is to get out and work for our Representatives, maintain a Democratic majority in the House of Representatives, and hopefully somewhere in this nation find two more honest, moral, responsible Senators.
“Some inequalities of income and wealth may be necessary to encourage hard work and inventiveness, from which everyone benefits.”
This is NOT true and is the assumption by which we continue to allow systems that promote inequality, systems that enforce competition. This statement suggests that people are motivated only through necessity. This thought pattern is out-dated and needs to be terminated.
Our financial system is encoded with the imperative of infinite growth which cannot sustain on a finite planet. We must restructure our financial system to enforce equality. If given the chance, people thrive when they have what they need. They have a deep need to contribute. Yeah, some will ‘coast’, but so what? Value in people is inherent, not the product of doing for the sake of economic growth which is the force that is destroying our ecosystems.
Bullying is the best way to frame the overarching issue, large and small. We feel compelled to break up such instances of clear bullying. Widening the definition and instances of bullying will help us to regain a moral footing when challenging such misdemeanors, felonies and misprisions. I noticed that Speaker Pelosi also mentioned bullying in her meeting in Ukraine.
Surely ethical standards can help in the case of normative behavior, i.e. a propensity to appeal to the false authority of "the majority" (really the tyranny thereof)? Being the only person in a given context who doesn't lie/cheat/steal/etc. can prove immensely challenging - and especially if blowing the whistle doesn't result in any measure of disincentive for those who choose to persist oh-so-flagrantly; some means of protecting those who choose to speak up should be a contingency in the event all else fails...
Also, creative lawyering, e.g. holding oil companies to account in the same way that was ultimately done with tobacco companies (as a proper effort at recognizing & managing risk will result in some of that bullying being refactored!)...
Thanks to Prof. Reich for beautifully stating what the fight for equal rights and equal justice under the law means. In a moral society freedom comes with responsibilities. Money is not equivalent to free speech, as posited in the Supreme Court’s disastrous ruling in the Citizens United decision. That decision encourages an unequal access to free speech. Elon Musk now controls Twitter. One of his first decisions was to ban the organization Public Citizen from the platform. Public Citizen’s crime was to responsibly criticize Musk. This is a perfect example of what bullies do. What to do? We must fight to overturn the Citizens United decision. We must fight for public financing of elections. We must help register people to vote. We must vote out the bullies!
Excuse my bluntness, but the most basic moral principle in a civilized society is to tax the rich. US society, which was never perfect, began to unravel 40 years ago when Reagan announced tax cuts on the wealthy. It accelerated with the busting of unions. As the 0.01 percent became wealthier, they became more powerful. They pushed NAFTA and became yet wealthier, as American jobs were shipped to Mexico. Their wealth began to influence SCOTUS, which gave "free speech" to corporations, and denied Gore victory in 2000. They persuaded Clinton to dissolve Glass-Steagall, while donating to the Clinton Foundation. Corporations began to form oligopolies. Pharmaceutical corporations, in particular, were able to lobby for fixed pricing, thereby destroying Adam Smith's market. Now we have the richest man in the world in charge of the largest and most important information corporation in the world.
This "trickle down" experiment is over.
Smith was right, there must be progressive taxation, or the wealthy have too much power, and all the rules of capitalism are violated.
Tax the rich, heavily, and the rest will follow.
Back to basics, back to Smith.
Trickle-down never worked. Nothing ever trickled down. It was a hoax from the start.
Yup, that's about the size of it.
We are living in a dystopian type of capitalism, for sure, and it’s heartbreaking. My humble family members of yore are rolling in their graves, from those who fought in the American Revolution to those who believed we stood for working person rights, and equality for everyone...everyone. We need tactical momentum to dig out every vote, before it’s too late, really too late and we are living The Handmaid’s Tale.
Omg Michael, you have said it ALL. Geez, I watched a guy named Donald Regan, a muckety-muck from Wall Street ascend to become Reagan's Secretary of the Treasury first, then White House Chief of Staff, and somewhere deep down I knew we were screwed. The rich, powerful elites gave us "Reaganomics." Trickle down bull____. For the life of me I can't imagine how we're getting out of it. I will never forget what Henry Kravis did to millions of working Americans and blazing a path for all the other corporate raiders that contributed to destroying our middle class. The nation is now littered with tent cities with nary a word from anyone. "Barbarians at the Gate" is America's norm. You can see from how fearful Biden is of the rich Democratic donor class, to make even simple changes, like cancelling student debt. Also his inability to use executive privilege to roll back some of Trump's most awful abuses tells you how controlled he is by the rich and the GOP. I have never forgotten what Biden said when he campaigned, "nothing will fundamentally change." And it won't. This is no longer a Democracy. Period.
It's a hedge fund.
Michael, You are not being blunt, you are simply stating the very obvious. Years and years ago, my Father (a tax accountant for a cpa by occupation) declared quite simply: "This (trickle-down economics) will never work. Nothing's ever going to trickle down as the wealthier love their money and are at pains to part with a penny of it. They have nothing to spare for those down the chain, no matter how much money they have. And they will just attack those with less and call them out as undeserving or unworthy or lazy or whatever. The way to improve the economy does not entail giving breaks to the already wealthy but taxing those wealthy in order to level the playing field. Tax the rich heavily and things will even out." My Father was not a graduate of any fancy business school anywhere; he was a simple tax accountant who saw what taxes meant for ordinary people. He was right then and anyone who says "tax the wealthy heavily" is right now. It's simple, really, but we have created a perversion of the tax system, a kind of regressive system that results in tax loopholes, breaks, write-offs for the wealthy and demands that ordinary working-class people pay their (unfair) share for the rest of us. All the breaks are given the wealthiest, the rest of us (lazy, do-nothings as we are assumed to be) are expected to pay all the bills and bear all the burdens for programs we desperately need but will see ended at the insistence of those with the funds. Money talks with the loudest voice and, what with Biden's hesitancy to do what he can in a timely fashion, money will continue to talk. Unless, of course, workers begin to demand a say in the matter--which might be happening.
We remember the numerous rich people who invested with Bernie Madoff, seeking ever more money — when they had plenty to begin with. Greed is, as the medieval philosophers attest, a mortal sin. If we allow greed to stand as our basic moral principle, we are doomed.
Nothing to excuse about the truth Mike !✊️
How do we disband the monopolistic companies of the super rich so that there are more merely "wealthy" corporations to tax?
As a youth, my family owned and operated a small heating oil company in the shadow of Lady Liberty. My grandather, an Irish immigrant started it in 1917 as a coal and ice company. Somewhat of a real American success story. It was a small, tightly knit community with other similar fuel oil companies. Not an absolute but, we kinda took care of the Irish folk. The Italian guy took care of the Italian families, the Polish guy, the Polish folk and the Jewish guy, the Jewish folk. We all had a mutual respect, friendliness and comradery with one another. Indeed, we lent tools and materials to one another without question. Also in the town was The Eastern Standard Oil Company's tank farm. A huge employer and hub for local conmerce. As a 13 year old, I clearly recall the brass plack on my grandfather's office wall; "65 years of cordial business relations with The Eastern Standard Oil Company". They would regularly use our trucks and drivers to move their products to ships, airplanes, manufacturers etc . They too delivered heating oil and serviced and installed heat systems. Sometime in the 60's, anti-trust & anti-monopoly legislation kicked in forcing them to divest out of the home heating oil/repair & installation business. This to "level the playing field" for smaller businesses and "share the wealth" with we smaller concerns. We still sold their products. Where are such laws now-a-days ? Corporate access, coercion and corruption of congress and our elected officials has all but ended such laws. This luring our government away from THE WORK OF THE PEOPLE . It has morphed our democracy into a corptocracy and the oligarchy under which we now live . Corporate citizenship NEEDS recinded. Lobbyism NEEDS abolished. Corporate access to and free reign over our elected officials NEEDS to be outlawed ! UNFETTERED CAPITALISM DOES NOT WORK ! !
I believe there are a few things we can do to fight the super-rich monopolies that have taken over so much of our commerce and business: 1. The workers at such corporations need to gain and exercise more power and that means....strong unions that help increase workers' participation in making policies, ensuring equitable and safe work environments and dealing with customers and management on a more level and shared field. 2. Customers need to return to local small business and family-run businesses in their neighborhoods. Instead of dealing with big box stores at the mall, we should focus on neighborhood businesses that offer better products and services, generally at reasonable prices. Malls should be re-purposed into housing and social service centers, libraries and schools, care homes, and hospitals. Large corporations also need to devote more resources to employee housing, public transportation, and health service centers for their workers. 3. Currently, corporations do a poor job securing the transactions and credit cards issued by their companies, especially when it comes to online and telephone sales. Traditional in-store shopping reduces the many frauds and scams that run on the name and brand of large impersonal corporations. Such corporations currently do nothing to protect their customers and employees from frauds run by in-store grifters or grifters just using the corporation products. 4. No corporation should run an unpaid internship program for workers in training; if a worker is good enough to qualify for an internship with a corporation, that individual should be paid for the relevant time and effort needed to learn the job, and all workers should be as capable of performing an intern's job as the intern at the end of training. Hiring should be merit-driven, with no special sweet deals for family at the expense of qualified workers unrelated to the ceo in any way. That is: no nepotism and all work should be respected and valued and all workers similarly respected and paid in full for their services and time. I see a trend towards unionization of work forces as a good way of restoring the health, safety, rights, and future for workers and reducing the negative impacts that large corporations bring with them. Early on in our history, we were a nation of shop-keepers and family-run businesses; certain areas of the country still run family concerns with some success. While it is probably impossible to eliminate all large and environmental-destroying malls and business campuses, I do believe that greater discretion should be brought to bear; we do not need the many ugly malls, business parks, and corporate offices that have been built; this is especially true with the growth of work-at-home practices. Work is changing and we need to change with it. We might also be looking at a future with UBI in the picture as AI takes over tasks once done by people.
I agree with all except the last part of#2. Expecting employers to provide housing, transportation and especially health care immunes and exempts them from higher taxes whereby the government can provide housing, trans and health care. Mulholland did this to the point of creating his own money until the project was completed. Corporations , if they did fulfill these expectations, would widen the gap of equality for all and corner the market for employees on health care as they are often now, making employees more dependent than ever.
I believe you are overlooking the fact that corporations, ceos of large companies, high income heads of things, pay very low taxes if they pay taxes at all. They are able to declare losses, garner tax write-offs, take all kinds of deals and deductions that translate into tax rates that are considerably lower than those of ordinary working people, the little people of the country. (For example, in 2016 & 2017 Donald J Trump paid $750 per year in taxes on an income of ++++++++++++ (who knows!) and during the debate with Hillary Clinton, he bragged and winked at the clever way he had managed to evade taxes; for the very same years, (We were supposed to think him clever and smart, which was his aim, I guess. I thought of him as a tax cheat and criminal but he has a way of confessing to his crimes openly and cheerfully--after the fact.) I paid $3500 on a 2016 income of $30,000 and $2100 on a 2017 income of $27,000. I did not make enough to take losses or qualify for tax write-offs or any of the schemes that gave Trump a tax burden of $750 per year. I did get refunds but only because I had a maximum withheld and exceeded my tax burden. But let's think about this. The vast income that Trump and his ilk receive would (in a just world) be used to pay taxes which would provide people of lower income the housing, the transportation, the health care they need; by not paying his fair share of taxes, Trump was not being clever or smart; he was depriving the govt of the revenue it needs to function as an advanced (and humane) society. Trump's gain comes at the cost to those of us who pay our (unfair) share of taxes. The system is a progressive one for Trump and he and his cronies thrive on the benefits and lower taxes and write-offs, it's a kind of socialism for the wealthy. For the rest of us (the 99% of us), the tax system is sadly regressive...the lower our incomes, the higher our tax rates and the tighter the squeeze on us. When the wealthy and their cronies in Congress game the system, our govt loses revenue and this translates into poorer infrastructure, less efficient and effective health care, greater homelessness. That's how the deal works, I may have put it a bit too bluntly for you but the facts remain: if the wealthy cheat on taxes, the govt will not be able to pay for what ordinary people need. I guess that's how I view the bottom line.
Well said. " Render to the Government what is the Government's". ON INCOME. The wealthy borrow for income=no tax, etc.
Yes, I make it a point to shop at local small businesses, but even the local Ace Hardware is a franchise. The day of the mom-and-pop retail business is almost extinct despite our efforts to keep them alive.
Absolutely. I believe it was Bernie who said there shouldn't be billionaires. I think, though, that progressives need to be more strategic in our thinking, by which I mean that we need a plan, a sequential approach, so that the reforms we do initially open the door to others. For example, I think that if all progressives focused on and pushed as hard as we could for campaign finance and lobbying reform, we could make the system more responsive and likely to do other things we desperately need and want, including taxing the rich. But getting progressives to focus our collective energies on any one thing, even temporarily, seems difficult or impossible
You actually read Adam Smith instead of going to Bartlett's! For more books on the same subject see Louis Brandies Other Peoples Money and Ferdinand Pecora's Wall Street Under Oath, and the works of David Cay Johnston,. the last of which suggested the streaming up might be a batter metaphor.
I agree with all you wrote. I need more information on the “how to do it.”
The people with more money than they could possibly spend put all their energy into keeping every dime. They waste money by shooting themselves into space, and instead of leaving themselves there with the rest of the discarded space junk, return to the adulation of those who want to be them.
The Supreme Court has legalized bribing members of Congress by twisting themselves into pretzels in order to confer a “soul” on corporations and then pretend they are protecting democracy.
The point is that there is endless funding to protect the rich. What is there to protect the people? The rich and the selfish are taking away the only defense the people have-the vote- and the law has become a tool for the bullies, not a defense for the people.
What is there to protect the people? The people. The people vastly outnumber the handful of rich and powerful. That's why the rich and powerful do whatever they can to disempower the people. It has always been so. Eventually, though, either some of the rich and powerful come to understand that fundamental reform is in their interest (eg, they'd be better off with a small portion of a much larger pie -- larger because everyone is more motivated ad productive; they'd be better off with a stable and peaceful society -- stable and peaceful because most people judge it to be fair). Or they risk upheaval, uprising, violence, and revolution.
Violence and revolution worked out poorly for the wealthy during the time of the Bolsheviks.
No, the parasite class merely tipped them out of their chairs-and settled right in as Party Parasites, claiming they themselves were equal, workers and peasants, equal with those they drained of life.
Wealth is power and power is rarely denied for long. The 40 years following WW II in America is beginning to look like an anomaly of history that may not be repeated in a very long time.
For pretty much every violent revolution that ever was. Sometimes the wealthy come out on top but it's always ugly.
How to do it? We have to fight! Outvote the Fascists. As a start help register more Democrats. https://www.fieldteam6.org/
In my Fascist state of Florida, the Democratic Party is not spending anything according to yesterday's Miami Herald. DeSantis and the Republican state legislature have imposed a failed herd immunity, tried to eliminate first amendment rights to protest, made voting far more difficult, superseded local authority over health matters, and waged an unnecessary culture war. He is vindictive -- even against his donors like Disney- and has an enemies list and has his own election police.
In 2018, DeSantis won with less than 50% of the votes -- about 33,000 out of 8,000,000 votes. In 2020, the pandemic suppressed the Democratic turn out, So far there is no efficient organization working in Miami Dade County, population 2,751,796 with a growth rate of 0.08% in the past year. A lot of the new residents came from other states and were Republican. During the pandemic a lot of Democrats failed to vote. Tenants and young people trend heavily Democratic and statistically could turn the entire state blue.
In 2020 Biden won Miami Dade 53% as Republicans had a huge turnout, We lost 2 house seats to inferior candidates mostly due to voter reliance on false info about "socialism." In 2016 HRC got 63%.
That lost 10% could have painted the state blue.
We also have a hotly contested Senate race. Dump Marco Rubio. I support Val Demings.https://secure.actblue.com/donate/val-demings-ads?refcode=ads_search_acq_key_fl_campaign-launch-d2d_0621&amount=25&amounts=25%2C35%2C50%2C100%2C250%2C500&gclid=CjwKCAjwgr6TBhAGEiwA3aVuIdwy8MTCUly_G_0uYGu9nc--ygHjNyyZ1TmbQNhfsHaFFYlJmhXW-xoCP70QAvD_BwE
Please help. Follow the Field Team 6 link. https://www.fieldteam6.org/
Thanks.
Totally agree. Fulminating won't do it. I maxed out to Demings the minute she declared her candidacy. (I wish her text-er's would notice that.) We need a list of to-do's. I'm working on Ditch Your Dirty Bank website, so no time.
Amen! The veneer of civilization is very, very thin. It is civilization that protects the vulnerable. Everyone will be vulnerable at some point in their lives and will need protection.
THIS is where we are failing. This is what enables the efforts of the minority in power to retain it. We have bought into individualism (selfishness), that prevents us from helping the least of us. That says I am not my brother's keeper. That enables us to feel we are somehow better or more worthy than someone of a different race, gender, sexual orientation, faith, political party, income, etc. This selfishness is being exploited to keep us divided, keep us from exercising our power-in-numbers. Something you can not exercise if you are not in a Democracy! It even has us revolting against our Government- an example that demonstrates our ability to fall for BS (misinformation) that has us fighting against a system of Government that empowers us and is our only tool against the minority in power!
GrAnnie ; I have the same question and here in today's forum there are some ideas. : Defend voting rights, get after Congress to make some rules to protect our rights to vote. Demand higher taxes on Billionaires ( push for the temporary windfall tax). Champion Unions ; look for products made by union workers. There was a time when we could 'look for the Union label'. Support unionized restaurants etc. Call out 'both sides ism' whenever you see it, note the lack of equivalency and, if possible, call it out. Or just take note in your mind to fend off the lie. Demand enforcement of anti bribery of our representatives and those in the Senate. Call out racist lies, sexist behavior and anything that marginalizes people of particular, established religious beliefs. Support our President, who, although imperfect, (like most humans) is decent and making the best decisions in a tough spot.
Here's a suggestion. Rather than gathering pitchforks and torches to storm the castle (or the Capitol for that matter!), we little people need to STOP doing things. Do you need your estate grounds mowed, Mr. Moneybags? Sorry, I am not doing that anymore. Plumbing backed up in your second home, Sir? Sorry, I am not servicing you. Need some foie gras or champagne for your next dinner party? No can do. Does your megayacht need fuel or engine servicing or a marina berth? Sorry, we're closed this month.
There is no requirement for us to do work or provide services to any individual. If we collectively make things harder for the leeches among us to feed on us, they will wither and possibly get the message. And we don't need to do this to EVERY bully, just some, even some in rotation. Putin clearly deserves our denial-of-service campaign at present because he is afflicting so many and so grievously. We might also add Elon Musk to the list for the next 3 months or so. No one really needs a Tesla when there are now other EVs out there of good quality. And do we REALLY need Twitter.
Hit them in the pocketbook. Deny them oxygen and they will suffer a very real consequence. Anyone with me?
In union there is strength. We need stronger unions, more ways of unionizing, more types of unions, more ways of withholding our labor and our dollars.
Corporate monopolies unite the CEO into strength too. We need to amend or abolish Citizens United and start anti trust proceedings against the major multi-companies. Facebook, Apple,Amazon,Google etc. have been allowed cancerous growth and surgery is in order .
I agree with you, but in the end, you still have to put food on the table. In my opinion, things will continue to get worse until we (society) puts a limit on how much wealth a person can (or should) accumulate. Sometimes, pitchforks and torches can be very persuasive....
Realize this is not an either-or proposition. I am all for taxing the rich AND cutting off their support one by one in the little ways which can be irritating. We can also use our social media to plant ideas such as an infestation of bedbugs at Mar-a-Loco. Let's get our creative juices flowing, people!
There are plenty of jobs available right now, choose unions whenever possible.
Pitchforks may have persuaded centuries ago. Today's weapons are not going to work, at least for the worker/citizen human. The military/ industrial might has weapons no humans can use. Private mercenaries are being used by Russia. Have been used by the US. We need to organize and speak truth to power. Fight back effectively. Strike, support business, and representatives who actually work in our best interests. Call the greedheads and DeSatans out. Demand that government workers earn their pay.
Doug McNeill ; Good ideas! This is war, after all!
Brilliant!
Are you willing to suffer for a little while? Turn off the electricity. All their wealth is tied up in in or supported by electricity. Ours is too, but we are better at survival than they are. (I AM NOT saying destroy it! Even better if we can keep it going but shut down specific sites, such as banks, credit companies, corporate offices, weapons manufacturers, Mar-A-Lago, etc. They will be the ones rioting, not us. And they have no idea how to riot without help!)
I doubt that either Putin or Trump has never heard of Thomas Hobbes or indeed Thomas Aquinas the father of natural law but it is fair to assume that many western politicians may well have been taught about these great philosophers but still show no lasting commitment to upholding basic human rights in their scramble to gather votes from any quarter.
The West can show however it is willing to prioritise principles over profit starting with rejecting Russian energy and disengaging from Chinese manufactured goods.If we expect to have lower living standards over the next decade then we should at least expect a 'dividend' in the form of improved defence of human rights across the world.
I am happy to have heard a UK radio debate this morning about sporting boycotts of Russia and potentially China, but we also need to be mindful about the material sources of our high living standards and take direct action as voters and consumers against governments and corporations that flout universal rights.
Just heard at this early hour of 5.30am that after a recent poll gearing up to the midterms that most Americans are siding with the alt-right (aka Republicans) on the “bigger issues” (whatever that means) and that they do not feel the same way about Joe Biden’s administration (who needs the good that would’ve come from a build back America program?). Hmmm…maybe our country men and women are turning masochistic in light of the fear being put into them day after day for the last six years. Maybe they crave bullying, autocratic rule…or maybe they’re just too blindly stupid to understand what is happening.
They were taught to trust the media, that all transgressions would at some point be exposed, a la Watergate. THE MEDIA HAS CHANGED! Now the media tells us what the wealthy and powerful want us to know and believe. It is only through blogs like this one we can get to know the real truth. If we do not approach the media with handfuls of grains of salt, we will never see between the lines that they think they are in charge of what we think. And that is why Repugs are so afraid of "woke" people. We are awake enough to see through their lies. We need to wake their followers--read cult members--up. Never easy at the best of times, since they are brainwashed from a very early age!
Well if you’re talking about folks like Rupert Murdoch who is supremely culpable in maligning journalistic integrity across the board, then I’d say you’d be correct. What we have been witness to is blatant propaganda, subterfuge and misinformation since the Reagan years. And “woke” seems to mean different things to different people. I wish the stupid word would go back from where it came. You either believe what you see with your own eyes or you allow someone to tell you differently. And remember, tRump loved the uneducated for this very reason. A mind is indeed a terrible thing to waste.
Woke does not mean what the Repuglicans are telling us it means, but your comment shows us they are winning. I have no idea where this version of the word came from, but we can use it to our advantage if we can co-opt it for our own purposes. This is how we win the fight, using the enemy's weapons against them. Murdoch is not the only media giant who is controlling what we hear. Facebook, Twitter, probably even Tik-Tok (I don't even know what that is) are capable of controlling what people are being told. I don't know about Substack yet, I am pretty new here, but Word Press has as much disinformation and misinformation on it as any other site. No one is fighting FAUX NEWS adequately! Freedom of speech is as necessary as food, but it is uundeniably dangerous when anyone can call their opinions truth! And that includes me.
I am well aware Murdoch isn’t the only one. My comments tell you nothing of the sort.
I think he is just pointing out how those in power are co-opting terms like woke, de-fund the police, critical race theory, etc. and turning them into something other than what they are intended... misinformation at work. don't think he intended to insult your intelligence. We are all susceptible to misinformation, for example, what is taught (or rather not taught) in school about our history. We are now taught that African Americans are immigrants! This is true, by definition (person who comes to live permanently in a foreign country), hell we all are if you're not Native American, but it negates the nature of how they came, how they were taken advantage of, how that impacts their descendants now and who practiced slavery. How it brutalized it's captives, who perpetuated and benefited from it and how selfishness/greed facilitated it even with those who claimed to be 'christian'. Unfortunately, the selfishness/greed continue to influence those with wealth/power to exploit the rest of us for their own personal gain... they are still using their wealth to push the same tactics- violence/terrorism (scare tactics), voter disenfranchisement, misinformation (lies, propaganda, false equivalency, exploiting religion...) bribery (buying influence or favor) and divide &
conquer (based on race, gender, sexual orientation, faith, political party, income, etc.) to keep us (the majority) from coming together (revolting) against them.
Thank you, fyiurban. It just so happens I am part native North American (though not American) but I would never call my black cousins "immigrants" because, especially those descended from slaves, you/they had no choice in coming. White people seem to forget that without my ancerstors help they would never have survived their first winter here. We gladly gave that help. We were repaid with arrempted genocide.
Thank you for your comments.
If you cannot see that, i pity you.
No pity for me, please. Pity for our country, the environment, Ukraine and all who are suffering. Peace.
Just because I'm paranoid does not mean I'm not being followed.
Mary Hyland ; Consider the source, beware polls. Wealth owns the media and polls can be bought.
That may be true to a certain degree but I continue to speak with friends and family who believe everything regurgitated by fox news. And let’s face it, propaganda works.
Yes, conversations sound word for word like fox talking points. If we don't find a way to curb the propaganda and the corruption unleashed by Citizens United our democracy doesn't have much of a future.
The culture of authoritarianism is strong in the USA. What is the national sport? Football, in which the players suffer brain damage thanks to their need to dominate the other team. Football represents a devolution from baseball, the former national sport, in which it’s not necessary to physically destroy the other team but merely to get runners into home plate. It is difficult to mentally separate oneself from Mother Culture. That’s why so many voters cling to an authoritarian like Drumpf.
The moral and material backbone of our community is capitalism, which in basic terms tells us: make as much money as you can, any way you can. The most noble aspiration is to become an entrepreneur, and the climactic mark of success is the fortune bearing IPO. The steady state measure of capitalist enterprise success is profit.
It's a given that capitalism is the most effective and efficient means of producing the diverse goods and services needed by a modern nation. Alternatives have proved dismal failures. But what we consider negative traits in an individual, such as bullying, autocratic control, self serving tendencies, deception, and stinginess are common and uncontroversial in the battle for profits. All's fair in . . .
Many of us like to think of the USA as egalitarian and altruistic, but our very competitive capitalist backbone must at times operate with a degree of anti-social behavior. I think we have to place more emphasis on broad values and spend less energy on the ubiquitous partisan squabbling and attacks. My pledge of allegiance would look like this:
"I pledge allegiance to egalitarian and altruistic principles, fundamental to the best hopes for peace and harmony in United States of America, and the world."
(Yes, the first long words pre-k and k kids would learn are egalitarian and altruistic.)
@sherm. I'm a capitalist. I started and ran a company for 27 years and, I admit, I made some pretty good money. But I am as liberal/progressive as anyone you will meet. I use my money (such as it is) to do responsible, civilized acts, e.g. started a scholarship at my Alma Mater which will fund two underprivileged students every year in perpetuity, spent the maximum donation on my favorite candidate and donated smaller amounts to many deserving Democrats, walked the precinct this past Sunday working to let voters know about our Democratic candidate in the 47th District in California. Maybe what I am suggesting here is that we must enroll well-to-do and wealthy people in our moral mission! Embrace them! We can't paint them all with the same brush. But let's use the rule of law to constrain the perverse actions of corporations, oligarchs, uncaring CEOs and bad actors who work against our nation and our (thankfully majority) values.
I think we can all agree there are exceptions to every rule. I guess the question is... Can one be a successful capitalist and still be egalitarian and altruistic, or no? I believe one can, however, as Sherm points out, the trend seems to suggest one cannot or should not.
Do you have many capitalist successes as friends, Ben? There is something I would like to see ALL WEALTHY PEOPLE INVOLVED IN. That is funding Emergency Response Teams all around the globe, teams that can respond to DISASTERS in a matter of hours or short days, wherever they are needed, experts who can provide all kinds of things, but particularly organizing whoever wants to help to set up supply chains for medical assistance, food and water, shelter, the best ways to dig through destruction to find trapped living beings, etc etc etc.
I hate that the main source of funds to help in disaster relief comes from the poor and middle classes all over the world, while the people who can afford to provide these services sit back and do little.
For those who do their parts, I thank them. But too many wealthy people do not care about the tragedy of others. Emergency Response Teams would be expensive, yes, but think of all the good things they would do. The suffering of those affected could be minimized in short order, and the money the general public provides could be better directed to where it is needed most.
If you and your conscientious friends could start something like this, maybe the hard-hearts and no-hearts could be guilted into doing their parts. Donating even 10% of your/their wealth would not hurt you/them individually, but together your/their 10%s add up to an amazing fund which could do so much good for so many. Please think about it.
Mary Hyland: I could not have said it better myself.
i agree with your vision, as do most people here. but the question at this point is not "what should we do?" but rather "how can WE accomplish these goals?"
I see three levels to this.
The first and most basic is: What are our values? What are we for and what are we against, and why?
The second is: What are the policies -- the changes in laws and rules -- that we believe will make a difference in achieving our values? (Here, for example, voting rights, paid leave, worker ownership, high taxes on the wealthy if necessary to pay for better education and universal health care, guaranteed basic income, and so on.)
The third is: How do we gain the power to make these policies a reality? (Here, political organizing, reforming campaign finance, abolishing or rendering irrelevant the Electoral College, and so on.)
We need to work on all three levels.
thank you for your thoughts, Robert. (i must tell you that i GREATLY admire you, your passion, your kindness and decency, and your thoughtfulness, and your response has well and truly "made my day"!)
See my comment to "What do we do?." https://www.fieldteam6.org/
That website is closed/moved, according to my internet.
How to do it? We have to fight! Outvote the Fascists. As a start help register more Democrats. https://www.fieldteam6.org/
In my Fascist state of Florida, the Democratic Party is not spending anything according to yesterday's Miami Herald. DeSantis and the Republican state legislature have imposed a failed herd immunity, tried to eliminate first amendment rights to protest, made voting far more difficult, superseded local authority over health matters, and waged an unnecessary culture war. He is vindictive -- even against his donors like Disney- and has an enemies list and has his own election police.
In 2018, DeSantis won with less than 50% of the votes -- about 33,000 out of 8,000,000 votes. In 2020, the pandemic suppressed the Democratic turn out, So far there is no efficient organization working in Miami Dade County, population 2,751,796 with a growth rate of 0.08% in the past year. A lot of the new residents came from other states and were Republican. During the pandemic a lot of Democrats failed to vote. Tenants and young people trend heavily Democratic and statistically could turn the entire state blue.
In 2020 Biden won Miami Dade 53% as Republicans had a huge turnout, We lost 2 house seats to inferior candidates mostly due to voter reliance on false info about "socialism." In 2016 HRC got 63%.
That lost 10% could have painted the state blue.
We also have a hotly contested Senate race. Dump Marco Rubio. I support Val Demings.https://secure.actblue.com/donate/val-demings-ads?refcode=ads_search_acq_key_fl_campaign-launch-d2d_0621&amount=25&amounts=25%2C35%2C50%2C100%2C250%2C500&gclid=CjwKCAjwgr6TBhAGEiwA3aVuIdwy8MTCUly_G_0uYGu9nc--ygHjNyyZ1TmbQNhfsHaFFYlJmhXW-xoCP70QAvD_BwE
Please help. Follow the Field Team 6 link. https://www.fieldteam6.org/
Thanks.
Like you, I'm sick and tired of bullies running the world. Power over others has become more important than: fairness, justice, truth, honesty, equality and all the freedoms and rights that democracies cherish. Decency in human interaction is now a weakness. Lying is a lifestyle. Communication is planned lies - for power and money. The bullies of the world need to be called out, exposed and shamed. From Putin, to Trump to Murdoch to our current Australian PM Scott Morrison. As a retired teacher, I KNOW it starts in school times and that's where it HAS to start.
Not sure any of them care if they're called out, expose or shamed. For that to work you have to have morals, ethics, and personal integrity.
And such were the hopes, goals and idealistic dreams of the founding fathers . That these United States, our governments and populace recognized and survived these examples of the human paradigm throughout the world and convened to create 'The Great Society'. Where recognizing and guarding against them was built into the fabric and daily function of that society . But the sinuous, invasive, infecting nature of control, advantage and usery is that of a terminal disease requiring recognition, and aggressive treatment and cure . A concerted effort on the part of WE THE PEOPLE to react in no uncertain terms to cure and prevent that disease . Lobbyism NEEDS abolished. Free and unrestricted access by the corporate entity and advantaged to government NEEDS to end . The overt, accepted and systemic corruption of our elected officials NEEDS outlawed. And likewise, our all but totally bought and sold fourth estate having been degraded into a growing source of mis and dis information,
polluted and corrupted by the same terminal disease needs a thorough shaking out . "Without the occasional revolution, democracy dies." said Thomas Jefferson . Ours is long overdue . Vote progressive. Recognize these societal and governmental diseases. Volunteer to cure them in any way possible . Recognize the goals, hopes and idealistic dreams of the founding fathers and strive to achieve and regain their viability. DO THE RIGHT THING ! WAKE UP AMERICA ! !
Prof. Reich: I fully agree with what you said, but I must make an observation: All of the people that "must" be held to account are usually not held to account. Something always interferes with the accountability process. It seems as if human society is perpetually condemned to be victimized by the tyranny of the minority. Of course there have been exceptions, but on the average, I believe that I am right. Having said that, I agree that we must keep on keeping on.
Eloquent. But easy to identify the problems. Easy to say what needs to be done. Such words abound ad nauseum. But where is action? Where is the white knight using power for good? There may be more of "us" than "them," but where are the organizers leading the way? Where is anything more positive and productive than bullying and advice?
The organizers and leaders are here on this page, reading these words. By that I mean you.
I served two terms in town meeting and couldn't do a thing to help even my town. But if I somehow suddenly do have power, then I hereby convict Trump of treason and order that he not be allowed to run again for public office. I enact a tax on the ultra wealthy and revoke corporate abikity to purchase politicians. And I change many other injustices. In reality, however, my best arguments don't change even my own friends' opinions against Libruls, Biden, or Covid vaccines. Ignorance, lack of logic, poor education, propaganda, and nature seem somehow to be today's leaders. The average IQ is 100. That doesn't mean I give up, but as I look at political polls, Supreme Court leaks, and many other signs, a lot of negative reality does appear at present to be fact, so I acknowledge it and dare wonder in pixels what better than rhetoric might change it before the GOP uses its power to overturn Roe, fix elections, and continue to let criminals go free. I think it's dangerous now not to do a lot more to acknowledge and act on the hazards, while at the same time, I hope I hallucinate.
But that's just one pilot's opinion. Never sugar-coat the hazards. I note, though, that, aside from corporate interference, airline safety since CRM (which teaches junior pilots to speak up in the face of captain's authority) seems to be doing better than U.S. politics.
See my comment above, https://www.fieldteam6.org/
I registered voters in FL last election. Biden won. The Democrats are in power. Still, Trump and his fellow crooks remain free. Corruption and corporate greed increase. Obviously, we have to keep trying to prevent the GOP from winning, but the Democrats are a huge disappointment. So again, my question...who is going to stop the bullies?
We need a full court press and Congress is the immediate issue.
Biden does not have enough Congressional support to get rid of the Fascists still in government. We can win this year but for defeatists who don't understand that the threat will be catastrophic unless the people rise to the occasion. In some cases Biden hasn't been able to appoint his people because of internal problems especially with head cases like Manchin.
The Justice Department is independent from the president and needs an adequate budget to prosecute its cases. Attached is a list of defendants charged in federal court in the District of Columbia related to crimes committed at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C, on Wednesday, Jan. 6, 2021. https://www.justice.gov/usao-dc/capitol-breach-cases
From my perspective there is enough to bring changes against some of the "low hanging fruit" like the phony electors in seven states, Rudy Giuliani, Sidney Powell, Lin Wood, and others who have been involved in “a historic and profound abuse of the judicial process.” Although the insurrection occurred in DC, these violators can also be charged in states where they may have committed crimes. If the cases are brought outside DC, the DC AUSAs will not have to be involved.
David Sirota said it better than I ever could in his May 2, 2022 article in the Guardian., “Americans Believe Nothing Is Getting Better. Biden Feeds That Disillusionment”
…“I’m going to become the Joker” is some of the internet’s most poignant shorthand. … the origins of the Batman villain, the phrase describes becoming so thoroughly disillusioned that one loses faith in everything.
.. the Biden White House is actively convincing a generation to believe nothing will fundamentally change….Tossing the Republican party a lifeline, he has reverted to his familiar formula: he promises big changes that could help the working class – and then prevents those changes from happening.”
Are you Republican trolls or do you come from Russia? This is about the Supreme Court.
Great call to arms, sir. Rouse that rabble!!
Professor, many of us live in precincts which were recently re-districted and even here in California, presumably a "blue" state, proven responsible effective Congressional Representatives are having to fight much harder to be re-elected. In my district we have Katy Porter, one of the most effective Representatives on the Oversight Committee, who is now in a purple district containing about 50/50 membership in each party. The only moral, civilized, responsible thing to do is to get out and work for our Representatives, maintain a Democratic majority in the House of Representatives, and hopefully somewhere in this nation find two more honest, moral, responsible Senators.
“Some inequalities of income and wealth may be necessary to encourage hard work and inventiveness, from which everyone benefits.”
This is NOT true and is the assumption by which we continue to allow systems that promote inequality, systems that enforce competition. This statement suggests that people are motivated only through necessity. This thought pattern is out-dated and needs to be terminated.
Our financial system is encoded with the imperative of infinite growth which cannot sustain on a finite planet. We must restructure our financial system to enforce equality. If given the chance, people thrive when they have what they need. They have a deep need to contribute. Yeah, some will ‘coast’, but so what? Value in people is inherent, not the product of doing for the sake of economic growth which is the force that is destroying our ecosystems.
Bullying is the best way to frame the overarching issue, large and small. We feel compelled to break up such instances of clear bullying. Widening the definition and instances of bullying will help us to regain a moral footing when challenging such misdemeanors, felonies and misprisions. I noticed that Speaker Pelosi also mentioned bullying in her meeting in Ukraine.
Surely ethical standards can help in the case of normative behavior, i.e. a propensity to appeal to the false authority of "the majority" (really the tyranny thereof)? Being the only person in a given context who doesn't lie/cheat/steal/etc. can prove immensely challenging - and especially if blowing the whistle doesn't result in any measure of disincentive for those who choose to persist oh-so-flagrantly; some means of protecting those who choose to speak up should be a contingency in the event all else fails...
Also, creative lawyering, e.g. holding oil companies to account in the same way that was ultimately done with tobacco companies (as a proper effort at recognizing & managing risk will result in some of that bullying being refactored!)...
Thanks to Prof. Reich for beautifully stating what the fight for equal rights and equal justice under the law means. In a moral society freedom comes with responsibilities. Money is not equivalent to free speech, as posited in the Supreme Court’s disastrous ruling in the Citizens United decision. That decision encourages an unequal access to free speech. Elon Musk now controls Twitter. One of his first decisions was to ban the organization Public Citizen from the platform. Public Citizen’s crime was to responsibly criticize Musk. This is a perfect example of what bullies do. What to do? We must fight to overturn the Citizens United decision. We must fight for public financing of elections. We must help register people to vote. We must vote out the bullies!