Forum Post: Suggestions for a Platform II:
Posted 13 years ago on Oct. 24, 2011, 10:18 p.m. EST by puff6962
(4052)
This content is user submitted and not an official statement
Reconciliation bills should be fashioned by representatives of both parties.
Representatives should be barred from any form of lobbying for a span of five years following the end of their tenure.
The Equal Time requirements of media should be reinstated and frank errors, misrepresentations, and lies in reporting of the news should again require sanction. The news media serves a vital function in our Democracy and it is rotting on the vine. News has become entertainment and it must again be treated as a service to the public. Newspapers and investigative journalism are dying and our federal government must adopt every incentive, tax break, or subsidy to preserve them. I cannot stress this one enough. If our ability to find truth is allowed to perish, our ability to govern ourselves is lost.
We must once again be a nation of builders. At the end of World War II, returning GI’s were faced with a bleak job market. Our federal government anticipated their plight and, in order to shrink number of excess workers, offered the GI bill. This insight allowed millions, who otherwise would lack adequate financial resources, to attend college. This investment bred a generation of entrepreneurs, engineers, intellectuals, and scientists. The investment was returned tenfold. We are once again faced with a crisis that has left millions of Americans without work and unqualified for a transitioning economy. Our federal government should again take measures to shrink the surplus of workers without viable employment in our economy. A national endowment should be created that invests in what our country needs most; engineers, entrepreneurs, and experts (“the three ‘E’s’”). Scholarships, grants, and generous financial aid should be granted to students participating in approved programs advancing the three “E’s.” The effect would be a new generation of professionals proficient in science and the business opportunities of the future. A wise investment in our future will occur while abating, somewhat, the plight of the unemployed.
The "big banks" should be broken up. Our financial system works best when there segmentation without concentrated systemic risk. It may be slightly less efficient in certain instances, but smaller banks are less prone to financial engineering and can be more appropriately monitored. Glass Stegall and the Volcker rule should be instituted immediately.
The estate tax should be returned to it's 1980 formulation.
Charitable giving should continue to be given special tax exemptions. However, charitable giving in time should be documented and rewarded as a tax exemption at (at least) the hourly minimum wage. If you work 20 hours a week at a soup kitchen, you should be able to claim against your time multiplied by the minimum wage against your yearly federal taxes
A progressive tax system should be instituted in which tax rates increase based upon each additional one thousand dollars earned. Three tax rates would be replaced by a table of these rates advancing upwards to some agreed upon number. Above this level, surtaxes would be placed upon the top .5 and .02 percentages of wage earners.
Americans, particularly during times of economic transitions, benefit unequally from the investments of past generations in our social and economic system. To some degree, this is inevitable. There will be, even in a capitalist utopia, winners and losers. However, there are also services supplied by each of us that are, in many cases, rewarded very poorly. If someone wishes to become a teacher instead of an investment banker, it must be recognized that the investment banker has chosen a profession that disproportionately draws upon the communal investments in our infrastructure and past societal investments. Such a person should be expected, therefore, to return a higher proportion of their earnings back into the system than a teacher making low wages. This argument has existed since Teddy Roosevelt and was the basis of the 16th amendment enacted in 1913. Our system works best when to whom much is given, much is asked.
job income has little to do with the benefits to society
Focus on a real solution...
Are We the 99%Voters ready to take the REAL next step?....Here is the more proactive solution as the necessary next step at-- http://www.getmoneyout.com --& tell a friend--tell everyone...because this ones gonna be the hardest next step to take.
Election Reform Now-- One person ,one vote ,$100 limit to voters only! Reform Elections first...& the rest will follow...put an end to "government of the corporation, by the corporation, for the corporation."
& Read Jeffery Sachs--the "Price of Civilization: Renewing America's Values". or listen to--- http://www.commonwealthclub.org/events/archive/podcast/dr-jeffrey-sachs-101011 ---
Vote for any one who supports these ideas.
You have some good ideas.
Thank you. Pass them on.
I have to say I am for a ZERO estate tax. Why should the greedy gov get some of my parents money?
Unless your parents are quite wealthy, they never would. The estate tax prevents the useless progeny of the deceased from sitting on their ass and establishing an aristocracy. That is, in plain language, it's rationale. The question you did not raise is why should YOU get your parent's money. If you are self-reliant, then why is this an issue to you?
Unless your parents are quite wealthy, they never would. The estate tax prevents the useless progeny of the deceased from sitting on their ass and establishing an aristocracy. That is, in plain language, it's rationale. The question you did not raise is why should YOU get your parent's money. If you are self-reliant, then why is this an issue to you?
If you want to understand how effective the right has been on the estate tax, realize first the they have successfully assigned it a euphemism, "the death tax." Second, look at the following chart:
http://www.taxfairnessoregon.org/oldsite/pdfs/Graph_Estate%20Tax%20Minimum%20Wage%20Wealth%20Divide.pdf
Most of this tax break goes to very wealthy families. In fact, the campaign to repeal the estate tax was largely financed by five families in the United States. These kids want their money. All of it. Part of living in a meritocracy is making your own way, and I have seen nothing that destroys initiative more than inherited money.
"The first generation creates the wealth, the second inherits it, the third squanders it."
Because they are my parents, and thats who they would want it to go to....I really dont feel like contributing to more wars/bailouts/corruption than I have to. Right?
If you are independent and your parents want to truly leave you a better world, then they should donate that money to their favorite charity. Let it help the poor. Not the government. That is the other reason we have an estate tax.....to encourage charitable giving. If they want to give you the money, that's fine.....start now, 13k per year.....but you need to let part of that estate go to the government. Otherwise, you are no better than the Koch brothers.
How can you be against the bailouts, the wars and the printing, and tell me I need to give my parents money to those people?
Really?
You're proving everything I've said. You're already counting on that money, and that's a personal issue I will not delve into further. No starving of the government of fund will prevent it's abuses. George Bush involved us in two wars and their funding was never paid for. Deficits skyrocketed and government went on with no constraints. If you want to change the government, begin thinking about what kind of a society that you want to live in. I want my parents to give their money to someone who needs it a lot more than I do.