Forum Post: Movement of the middle class
Posted 13 years ago on Oct. 10, 2011, 1:13 p.m. EST by alwayzabull
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Is that what this is? Thoughts?
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5 comments 2 years ago by agkaiser
when the farmer starves, so shall the banker. thats what this is about.
Good point!
but farmers aren't starving - farm land prices are rising, crop prices are rising, and so many "farms" are corporate farms where profits are rising.
but I do get the metaphor...
I think the lack of a common straight forward list of demands allows people to interject their personal and at times confused perspectives, making our cause appear that much murkier. To me we the 99%ers are those that have no voice in this country. It doesn't matter if you are a Republican, Independent, Democrat, Tea Partier, believe in Socialism or Capitalism. Contrary to what you believe none of us actually has a voice in this county. We have been taught to believe that if we elect our respective parties into power that our goals and ideas will be done. Well guess what people, it won’t. The only people in this county with a voice are the 1%ers!
Who are the 1%ers you may ask? Well I say they are the large corporations and special interest groups who TRULY run this country. They are the groups of individuals who spend millions upon millions of dollars each year to convince YOUR congressman, YOUR senator, YOUR President to do what best suits them regardless as to what's in the best interest of the rest of the 99% of this country.
Think about it, the root of every problem we face as a county regardless as to political beliefs boils down to who's willing to pay the most money to see their agenda done. So until we fix this system of legalized BRIBERY also known as lobbying this country will never ever be the place we dreamed that it could be.
Oh and if you don't believe me, ask yourself when was the last time you tracked down your congressman or senator in the capital between meetings and offered up a large some of money in order to see a piece of legislation passed that best interested you?
Good words
There has been a massive "wealth redistribution" that has gone on for the last 30 years. The top 1% now controls over 42% of our entire nation's wealth and the top 10% now controls over 70% of our entire nation's wealth. The bottom 50% now control around 2% of our entire nation's wealth. (University of Southern California Study).
How did this wealth redistribution happen? The middle class is the engine of our economy. The middle class spends their wealth on corporate goods/services and the corporations take that money in as profit. The corporations redistributed the middle class wealth by paying vast majority of their profits out to the executives at the top and shareholders. Middle class wages have stagnated for 30 years while executive wages have gone up 256% in since 1980. Even last year executive compensation went up another 11%. We have not seen numbers like this since the great depression. All of our nation's wealth has been redistributed into the hands of the few.
How did this happen? The middle class was roped into replacing wages with easy credit and loans. So instead of paying people living wages, corporations fooled us into thinking we were doing well and could afford things by giving us easy credit instead of wages. Corporations came up with the brilliant idea that they could loan us money instead of paying us wages. Instead of having wages to buy t.v.'s, furniture, etc. we were given easy loans. So the middle class became a debtor class.
There used to be a tax disincentive to paying out all of corporate profits at the top because in the 1950's income was taxed at 90% over a certain amount money ($2 million in today's dollars) and now that tax disincentive has disappeared. In 1950's the highest marginal tax rate was 90%. In 1960-1970's it was 70%. In 1980's it dropped to 49%. In 1990's dropped to 39%. Under George Bush it dropped to a mere 36%.
We have had over 30 years of massive tax cuts for the wealthy. There is now no tax disincentive to paying out all of the corporate wealth at the top. And there is no employee bargaining power because now less than 7% of all of private sector jobs are unionized.
With no tax disincentive and no employee bargaining power, all of the corporate profits are being paid to shareholders and executives. Why can't you just trust executives to pay people fair wages? In the 1980's our courts ruled that corporate executives only have one duty and that is to maximize shareholder profits. The 1980's ruling single-handedly removed executives from having any duties to their employees, society, or to the company's long-term future. Executives only have one duty and that is to maximize short-term shareholder profits. And executive compensation is usually directly tied to maximizing short-term shareholder profits. This caused companies to not create long-term growth plans and to instead use gimmicks to increase short-term profits.
In fact, instead of executives using innovation, creation, and growth to increase profits and stock prices, executives know that they can do it through easier methods like laying-off workers and cost-cutting like pushing healthcare and retirement costs on workers.
The problems are: 1) deregulation of the banks by the Republican-controlled congress in 1999 (Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act); 2) hedge funds are exempt from regulation (and are currently causing the world financial crisis by betting against Greece and other Euro nations and the Euro currency); 3) tax system no longer has a disincentive against paying outrageous executive salaries (highest marginal tax rate has dropped from 90% to 36%); 4) commodities market (oil, gold, food, metals) is exempt from regulation and is now a haven for financial speculators (Republican-controlled Congress exempted it in the Commodities Future Modernization act of 2000); 5) the Supreme Court has ruled that corporations can spend unlimited funds in campaign elections - Citizen's United case (thus politicians on both sides favor the wealthy/corporations) and 6) the rise of corporate/billionaire propaganda media "news." Because of the need to raise massive sums in politics today, we no longer have a party that represents the people. The Democrats have to chase the corporate and big money donors too.
What can we do about this: 1) re-instate Glass-Steagall Act regulating the banks; 2) regulate hedge funds and the commodities market (because the commodities market is not regulated speculation has caused prices for commodities to go through the roof); 3) get rid of the money in politics (have federally funded elections with clear limits on spending and no outside groups allowed to have ads); 4) get rid of 1980's laws stating that corporations' only duty is to maximize shareholder profits; and 5) regulate "news" channels and newspapers (no more "slanted opinion news" masquerading as hard news) and reinstitute the fairness doctrine across all news outlets to ensure that both sides get equal time.
Thanks for your clear, on-point response.