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Obama is taking hits for saying the words “spread the wealth”. Why? Do republicans believe that we shouldn’t spread the wealth? That wealth is only for the rich? That the rest of us should never have a shot at wealth? If that’s true, it’s really working out for the republicans and their rich investor and upper management cronies. Their share of the national income has grown dramatically, while the people who work for them have stagnated financially, or worse, have lost income and their savings.
It wasn’t always like this. For decades, the deal was that workers shared in productivity gains. As workers become more efficient, some of the profit increase was spread to them. Average Americans could reasonably assume that if they worked hard and were careful, they could expect a slowly rising standard of living, one that would enable them to raise their families and save a bit for retirement. That worked for years, benefiting working people, the people who eventually voted for Reagan. But as soon as the Gipper took office, the big crackdown began. The republican mania for tax cuts for the rich, deregulation, and union-busting, all supported by a pseudo-intellectual theory of trickle-down economics, meant the end of the old deal. And as the republican policies took effect, the wages of workers were unlinked from productivity increases. Take a look at the productivity chart in Ian’s post. It is revealing.
Republicans, especially including John McCain, have adopted policies that enforce their ideology, policies that will insure that the working people of America can forget the idea that they should get a real raise after inflation as they become more productive, or that their standard of living.
What do we say if someone raises this issue as a reason to vote against Obama? How about this:
There are two ways to spread the wealth. We can confiscate property from rich people and give it to the poor. You don’t really think that’s what Obama wants?
The second way is to make sure the rich people don’t confiscate money from you. They have to pay their fair share of taxes, and they don’t get to tap your future to pay for their bailouts. Bailout money helps you only after it helps them, because you might be able to borrow money. But they weren’t willing to put their trillions of dollars to work to save the system they wrecked. They want you to pay.
Well, they repay by paying higher taxes. Much higher. It’s going to take a lot of taxes to pay that trillion or two back.
Republicans want you to pay. That’ll happen for sure if you elect more republicans.
Obama can’t say things like this, But, Yes We Can!
19 Comments
Thanks masaccio!
Let’s see how they like it for a change.
I recently got a whopping .50 an hour raise, that’s twenty bucks a week.
Guess what?
It put me in a higher freakin’ tax bracket and every fucking bit of it goes to taxes.
Fuck these people, pay your damn share.
Income tax is Progressive.
Estate Tax is Progressive.
Property tax is Progressive.
Social Security is Regressive
Medical Insurance Is Regressive
Sales Tax is Regressive
and nearly evrything else is regressive
Now that the rich have all the money they want to keep it. It says a lot about the bankruptcy of our political system that any politician would utter such a ridiculous defense of greed and inequality.
About the ‘wealth’ Massacio; the ‘turn’ actually started before ‘Reaganomics’
in the early 1970’s; this explains what I mean
“Manufacturing capacity utilization began its secular decline that has continued to the present, averaging only 79.8 percent in the 1972–2007 period (as compared to an average of 85 percent in 1960–69). Partly as a result net investment has faltered (see chart 2).”
And this contrasts Reagan’s tax cuts with Kennedy’s.
And for more historical perspective, here.
Bailout money helps you only after it helps them, because you might be able to borrow money. But they weren’t willing to put their trillions of dollars to work to save the system they wrecked. They want you to pay.
If anyone can give a good reason why that bailout bill was needed and how it will work, I’d like to hear it. Bart Farkel called his exclusive Russell investment broker. They told him that the bailout was needed. The economy fundamentals are better than what they seem. We are in a recession. Don’t sell now. Stay in the market.
I told Bart that the bailout funds will be lucky to survive a turn by Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley. Bill Clinton had Ruben, Obama has Ruben; Bush has Paulson and Paulson hired Kashkari to spread the wealth. All are Goldman guys.
you can’t reason with an ignorant inbred brick wall. say nothing. vote.
A.I.G. Has Used Billions From the Fed but Hasn’t Said for What
Yeah, color me surprised. It’s rather like saying that “he was a very healthy man until he dropped over dead.”
All of the top leadership of AIG, Lehman, etc. would have us believe that everything was fine one day and that the company was insolvent the next. The truth is that all of them had to have known for a considerable time that things were falling apart.
I have said this over and over but the housing bubble and subsequent meltdown were eminently foreseeable and predictable. Such major financial dislocations have to be huge to have the effects they do and they need a long lead time to develop that can be measured in years not days or weeks. For me, it’s rather like being in Colorado Springs looking west on a clear day and saying you can’t see the Rocky Mountains. In fact, the Rocky Mountains are pretty much all you can see from there.
the republicans have confiscated middle class assets since reagan was president
getting our money back is NOT called “redistributing the wealth” and it’s NOT “sharing the wealth”
it’s restitution
Perris, as I said in the summary of my diary, It’s not the President or Congress but the system (no matter whether Dem or Repub)
And the next ‘bubble to burst’ will be credit cards.
Bruce Fein’s quote from Shakespeare the other day is ’spot on’:
“the wish is father to the delusional thought.”
of course it’s the system, however it’s really who initiated the system and who facilitated the theft
that would be ronald reagan, that would be the republicans
does that mean I trust the democrats?
no, I trust us, I trust that if we make it clear we will not let them keep their seat in power unless they get us restitution
I want my money back, my kids money back and their kids money back
One need not be an economist to realize that for the capitalist system to function with comparatively full employment, money needs to be spread around so a large number of people have the means to buy stuff. When wealth is concentrated in the wealthy who are also greedy, they don’t buy nearly enough to keep an economy going. They invest their billions, and the income from their billions, in real estate, stocks, bonds, etc which are nice to own but do not keep the economy going. After they buy their five mansions and twelve cars, that is pretty much it.
I think they get off on the knowledge that others feel economic pain. Part of the joy of being a “have” is the existence of “have nots”. In their greed, they ignore history which teaches that impose sufficient pain is imposed on the lowly mob, the mob may storm your gated community and hang you from the nearest tree. These people should understand that “spreading the wealth” is a matter of self defense. If they are unable to learn from history, they will repeat it.
“I want my money back, my kids money back and their kids money back” – understood and fully support….but it ain’t gonna happen without a revolution.
And the wheel keeps turning.
Here is Ian’s chart showing productivity increases vs. wage increases. It is amazing that the two part company beginning with the Reagan years. There is a blip in 1976, but wages were starting to catch up as we left the recession of that year.
Understood BUT the foundations for such change were laid before Reagan took office.
Just like one builds a house; first the foundation,etc.
You may want to look at this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FvM3_ZH9euc
It is the right wing think tanks who make up these inflammatory remarks that have no substance other than to enrage the ignorant. There is no where in the “Constitution” that so many of the self-righteous rely upon or refer to for their convenience that addresses what the tenets of a “Tax Policy” should be. In fact, tax codes, rates, loop holes, etc. are all artifacts of “We the people.”
In the past when Congress has tried to impart its own idea of fairness on the tax code, the wealthiest among us weren’t accusing them of being socialist, Marxist, or distributionist, even though the redistribution of the tax burden occurred each time the rates were changed or another loophole was slipped into the final legislation. Now, in a serious effort to return the economy to a more stable, consumer oriented institution, those with ideas like that are labeled with very unflattering tags. Remember, like democracy, being an American, a patriot, etc. as we continue to experiment with the way of life we have crated, occasionally, and in a completely unAmerican way the greedy, compassionate conservatives act like they are being robbed. Grow up.