UPDATE:

PRE-NIXON = Prior system of broad-based prosperity based on sound American values and Shared Goals for “A BETTER TOMORROW TOMORROW” – Colbert

U-TURN = MORE LIKE CONSERVATIVES TOOK AMERICANS OVER A CLIFF

POST-NIXON = The greatest propaganda victory radical conservatism ever won.

https://concisepolitics.wordpress.com/category/gop-empire-of-lies/

Conservative Propaganda = TRICKLE DOWN + JOB CREATORS + GLOBALIZATION WILL MAKE US ALL RICH + WMDs + USELESS WARS

FACT: TRICKLE DOWN JOB CREATORS = DEPENDS ON HONEST PEOPLE

FACT: GLOBALIZATION = UNLOCKED $1 per Day Labor to take MILLIONS of American JOBS

FACT: FAKED and/or USELESS WARS mostly paid for by the American Middle Class took $6+ Trillion in OUR WEALTH for BETTER LIVES.

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INEQUALITY = CALCULATED GOP GOAL SINCE 1970 = TIME TO REVERSE MULTINATIONAL CORPORATE OPPRESSION OF THE POOR AND ENDING THE MIDDLE CLASS

IMF FINDING: Inequality = bad for growth = Research back to 1960

IMF Finding: Amazing new links between inequality, growth and redistribution

IMF FINDING: GOV taxing and redistributing income through cash transfers = Effective way of encouraging GROWTH.

IMF FINDING: Lower level of inequality = Increases growth

IMF FINDING: More equal countries have more stable growth = over a longer time

IMF FINDING: Inequality creates higher levels of debt and increases the probability of financial crises

IMF’s report: Market inequality is must also be considered

Widening of geographical inequality = Cripples MAIN STREET for years to come.

Huge life expectancy differences between rich and poor neighborhoods = Growing health inequality = 25 year life expectancy gap

Rank neighborhoods from the richest to the poorest = Perfectly ranks health from the best to the worst

Not just poverty causes heath to decay as areas slightly below the richest are slightly less healthy than the richest = It is NOT people’s health-related behaviors = Crass Inaccurate argument = DOMINATE FACTOR IS WEALTH INEQUALITY

WEALTH INEQUALITY = Insecure and volatile LOW PAY incomes = negative impact on people’s health = Relentless grind of life at the bottom of the heap takes its toll on a person’s physical and mental well-being.

WEALTH INEQUALITY = GROWTH over last 40 years = Widening GAP between rich and poor = Staggeringly HIGH economic inequality.

UK the richest 10% = 850 TIMES the wealth of the poorest 10% = Health inequality

Life expectancy inequalities = Reflect all the other inequalities in income, education, social class, social mobility, life chances

UK allows its poorest citizens to die 25 years earlier than its richest = Breakdown in the social fabric that binds society = SERIOUS SECURITY CONSEQUENCES.

Drivers of INEQUALITY:

50% in FAMILY you were BORN = Parents with high incomes = More likely to have children with high incomes

50% in UK = HIGHEST IN DEVELOPED WORLD = Perhaps Monarchy Effect
40% to 50% in USA
15-25% in Nordic countries like Norway, Finland and Denmark

Parental income = Direct effect on your later life chances = lower quality EDUCATION and therefore lower cognitive development and school achievements.

Research PROVES: Giving Every child Free School Meals = 50% DROP in gap between children

Family wealth = Powerful predictor of future income and wealth = Being able to start up a business with family assets = Land + Investments like Real Estate

Inequality of wealth = Bolstered by increases in Real Estate and Market Prices = LOW INCOME RENTERS LOSE MOST

FACTORS CAUSING WEALTH INEQUALITY:

Your family provides PASSIVE INCOME FROM WEALTH
Your family provides social connections and EXISTING BUSINESSES and Funding
Your family provides Links to obtaining jobs and educational opportunities.
Your family provides a culture of motivations for acquiring new knowledge/skills

Research Proves: Intergenerational transfer of WEALTH = Strong IMPACT ON CHILDREN’S incomes

SOLUTION = EVEN OUT families transferring of wealth/assets = 1.5% WEALTH TAX

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Inequality = Most important domestic political issue.

Obama = Measures to REDUCE INEQUALITY+ FAIRNESS IN SUCCEEDING

Reduce Inequality = Tax Wealth = Don’t Tax Income

INEQUALITY THREATENS = 99% + 47% + 1% + .00013%  = Imperils the economy + long-term growth = OUR EXTREME Wealth inequality distorts access to economic opportunities

Wealth = Usually is increased MOST by PASSIVE INCOME – NOT LABOR

SOLUTION = Progressive wealth tax = Reduces Inequality Optimally = Money to finance a new venture IS WEALTH

Addressing Income Inequality = FAR LESS EFFECTIVE = Income is not a good gauge of economic power = complex strategies to avoid taxes.

Wealth Trends DO NOT Income  Trends

Wealth = A measure of accumulated assets = Not flow over time

High earners do add to their wealth every year

Over time wealth inequality rises even as income inequality stays the same + Wealth inequality becomes more severe.

Measure of inequality = Gini WEALTH coefficient (0 EQUAL and 100 Disparity)

STUNNING CHANGES:

40’s 1970s to Early 1990s

75 by 1992  Top 10% controlled 20 X wealth of Bottom 50%

80 by 2010  Top 10% controlled 65 X wealth of Bottom 50%

Our graduated income-tax system redistributes a small amount of money every year but does little to slow the polarization of wealth.

Global financial crisis = Kept Assets of wealthiest American families even

Global financial crisis = DESTROYED the bottom half OF AMERICANS = # owner-occupied homes = DROPPED by 1 million since 2007

Destroyed Lives = Dangerous for society = Erosion of empathy + widening of rifts and anger + undermining of hard work to get ahead

$58 Trillion in American household wealth in 2010

1.5% FLAT TAX on Financial assets + housing + business ownership = More all the TAX on incomes

0% up to $500,000 in wealth

1% for wealth between $500,000 and $1 million

2% for wealth above $1 million

These tax rates = Reverse the increase in WEALTH inequality.

A family with $500,000 in wealth and $200,000 in annual income = pays $50,000 tax

With the wealth tax brackets = $0 in Tax

A family with $4 million in wealth and $200,000 in annual income = $65,000 tax

With the wealth tax bracket = $40,000 in Tax

Families that depend on their wealth for their income = Pay more

Working families = Pay less

TAX Higher wealth = More Evenly Distributed

Weaknesses in talk about inequality assumes inequality is bad and class warfare and demonization work better than data.

MORE THEORY:  “trickle-down consumption” = wealthiest bidding up most valuable homes has broader ripple effects = unequal spending = the wealthy consume instead of save

REDUCE INEQUALITY:

Taxing “the rich”

Wealth Inequality:  Aristotle and Madison Dealt With Them

Chomsky = MADISON secured rights of property while Aristotle emphasized democracy as the best form of government = Great mass of the poor could vote against rich = No-billionaires America because extreme wealth is dangerous

Aristotle’s solution = Reduce inequality = Welfare state measures to create a middle class to remove extreme variation of wealth and poverty.

Madison picked opposite solution = Reduce democracy = Place political power in the hands of wealthy more responsible men able to protect the rights of property owners = PLACE power mainly in UNELECTED senate (WEALTH OF NATION) with long tenure not under popular control with Executive as administrator + The rest of the society was fragmented and divided in various ways to PREVENT what was called the tyranny of the majority = Majority rule.

Aristotle’s solution = Democracy = Eliminate vast disparities of wealth with New Policies = Disparity resulted from very deliberate decisions beginning in the 1970’s escalating under Reagan, continuing with Clinton and onto the present = Can and must be reversed = Sharply reduce taxes on the very wealthy and corporations.

POLLS = Public strongly supports going back to Pre-1970s PROGRESSIVE tax system = higher tax rules on the wealthy and the corporate sector.

Inequality resulted from deliberate deregulation by BOTH PARTIES = Huge growth of financial institutions = BIG BANKS = Mostly harmful to Society and Economy.

BIG BANKS = NOW Enormous in scale + Totally different than in the great growth period of 1950’s and 1960’s when banks were banks = Put your money in and they’d lend money out.

Since 1970’s to the present = Financial institutions + Investment banks = Massive Speculation + Rapid flow of capital + Exotic financial instruments + Securitization of sub-prime mortgages + All sorts of trickery = Extreme harm to  economy = Regular financial crises ever since the 1980’s (ZERO in 1950’s and 1960’s).

De-regulation = Enormous Growth of Financial Institutions = Crisis after Crisis

Reagan years ended with the savings and loan crisis.

Clinton years ended with the bursting of the tech bubble.

Bush years ended with housing bubble burst = CBO says $25 Trillion lost output

Each one is worse than the last = Huge effect on AVERAGE AMERICANS = 1989 WAGES + For male workers 1968 WAGES = Concentration of wealth at TOP = Vicious cycle = Nothing to do with Markets or Capitalism = Can be reversed by returning to pre-970s tax system and RE-Regulating Finance.

USA shouldn’t have multi-billionaires while we have worst poverty in developed world = A total scandal from CALCULATED DECISIONS from 1970 to today = NEO-LIBERAL POLICIES.

What Is the Common Good?

Kind of Humans we become = Depends on social, cultural, and institutional environment of life = What arrangements are conducive to people’s rights and welfare, and to fulfilling their just aspirations = The common good.

INDIVIDUAL LIBERTY DEFINED: BY JOHN STUART MILL = On Liberty

Idea that society progresses from lower to higher stages culminating in a system of representative democracy = Growth and development of liberty = Civil liberty = Limits on society’s power over each individual.

Liberty origin = Protection from tyranny = Role of rulers as servants of the people

Tyranny of the majority = Democratic majority forces its will on the minority = Tyrannical power with public opinion stifling individuality and rebellion = Society becomes the tyrant.

3 Types of LIBERTY:

Liberty of thought and opinion

Liberty of tastes and pursuits = Freedom to plan our own lives

Liberty to join other like-minded individuals for common purpose = not hurt anyone.

These freedoms push back against society’s propensity to compel compliance.

Freedom to express a divergent point of view – No matter how divergent the individual’s viewpoint may be = No censorship = Popularity is not necessarily correct = ALLOW Freedom of opinion = Dissent is vital to preserve truth = Truth can easily be hidden in prejudice and dogma = Freedom of the individual to articulate unpopular views.

ACTIONS by people holding unpopular views = Limited by law if they harm others or be an outright nuisance. Humans are fallible but need to experiment with different ways of living to promote social and personal progress.

Should society limit individual liberty = Because society offers protection = People are obliged to behave in a certain way + Members must defend & protect members and society from harm = Society has power to curtail behavior that harms others, but no more.

Individuals are not accountable to society for behavior & actions affecting only them

A person is answerable for any behavior/action that harms others = society can punish and curtail such behavior and action.

Some types of actions that harm others can bring a larger benefit to society = When one person succeeds in business more than his rival.

Key concept = Liberty is essential to ensure progress of the individual and society

A representative democracy in which the opposition between the rulers and the ruled disappears and the rulers only represent the interests of the ruled = Society becomes free of the constraints of government = Entrenched interests of a Powerful few threatens individual liberty in a new way.

Repression of the individual by the ever more powerful and confident majority = Necessitates the freeing of the individual from such limits = Happiness of the individual attained in a civilized society where people are free to engage in their own interests, with all their skills and capabilities, developed and honed in a good system of education.

Civilized person = One who acts on what he or she understands and who does everything in his or her power to understand = advocates individual initiative over social control = Individuals are more creative than governments = advances mental education of that individual but government action always poses a threat to liberty and must be carefully watched = Absolute and essential importance of human development in its richest diversity = Institutions that constrain such development are illegitimate, unless they can somehow justify themselves in cultivating human development in its richest diversity.

Adam Smith = Humane policies = “Theory of Moral Sentiments” = No matter how selfish a person he will want the happiness and fortune of others as a necessary pleasure of seeing it VERSUS “All for ourselves, and nothing for other people.”

Human development that strives to attain Enlightenment ideals = many cooperative movements around the world + feminist and civil and human rights initiatives = Challenge structures of hierarchy, authority and domination that constrain human development = Should be dismantled = The problem in our time is freeing people from the curse of economic exploitation and political and social enslavement.

American brand of libertarianism = Advocating subordination of working people to the masters of the economy and destructive features of markets = NOT libertarian traditions

Libertarian Traditions = Advocating “planned administration of things in the interest of the community” = Federations of self-governing communities and workplaces = Support state power to protect people, society and the earth itself from the ravages of concentrated private capital = Must be safeguarded for long-term.

ALTERNATIVE:  Popular “widening the floors of the cage” of state institutions that protect from the savage beasts roaming outside: the predatory, state-supported capitalist institutions dedicated in principle to private gain, power and domination.

In “Affluence and Influence: Economic Inequality and Political Power in America,” the Princeton scholar Martin Gilens reveals that the majority of the U.S. population is effectively disenfranchised = 70% at the lower end of the wealth/income scale, has no influence on policy + Those at very top determine policy = Plutocracy = “neo-democracy” a partner to neoliberalism = A system of liberty/security for FEW

OPPOSITE of Rocker’s truly democratic system “an alliance of free groups of men and women based on cooperative labor and a planned administration of things in the interest of the community.”

American philosopher John Dewey = “Power today resides in control of the means of production, exchange, publicity, transportation and communication. Whoever owns them rules the life of the country.” Those institutions in the hands of the FEW = “shadow cast on society by big business.”  = Seen today.

Shifting control of productive institutions to people in “The form of association…of laborers collectively owning the capital with which they carry on their operations, and working under managers electable and removable by themselves.” – Mills

Madison used England as his model = “In England, at this day, if elections were open to all classes of people, the property of landed proprietors would be insecure. An agrarian law would soon take place,” undermining the right to property = ensure the actual rulers will be the wealthy minority “secure the rights of property against” the danger from a voting majority wanting greater equality = “The Constitution was an aristocratic document to check democratic tendencies of the period.”

Aristotle SOLUTION = Welfare state measures.

Madison SOLUTION = Reduce democracy.

Jefferson distinguished between “aristocrats and democrats” = Aristocrats “fear and distrust the people” = All powers into the hands of the higher classes.

Democrats = “identify with the people, have confidence in them, cherish and consider them as the most honest and safe” = Not the most wise

Jefferson’s “aristocrats” today would choose for RULERS either technocrats and intellectuals VERSUS bankers and corporate executives = Plutocracy.

Genuine libertarian tradition seeks to dismantle and reconstruct from below = changing industry (Dewey) “from a feudalistic to a democratic social order” based on workers’ control, respecting the dignity of the producer as a genuine person, not a tool in the hands of others = the libertarian tradition always burrowing peeking through in surprising and unexpected ways = The common good.