Forum Post: Wall Street, NOT Washington

Michelle Bachmann says the protesters are wrong and should be camping out on the White House lawn not Wall Street. Using her inverse relationship with what is factually correct, this is a pretty good indicator that Wall Street is the boss of Washington. There will be no government reform worth diddly squat until Wall Street is reigned in and stops owning Washington. Citizen United just codified what has been happening for years.

And, for the "get a job" people, just let me point out that the last tax holiday resulted in layoffs. (http://www.moneynews.com/Economy/Tax-Holiday-Layoffs/2011/10/04/id/413177) When the rich and corporations were being taxed at a MUCH higher rate, America was stronger. It could afford to pay for better infrastructure, and that made people want to have factories and other business here. Also, when taxes were higher, the government ran a lot more R&D programs that resulted in creating new industries and new products. There are a few problems with privately funded research:

1) There is a bias, whether overt or subliminal, that leads to the results the company wants, not necessarily what is real. 2) R&D is often limited to what the company believes will be profitable in the short term. It tends to overlook what is truly new and revolutionary or may take more years to develop. 3) Private R&D doesn't have to publish or report any negative results. That means that other companies can and will go up the same blind alley. Not only does negatively affect productivity across an entire industry, it can be dangerous, as in the case with drug testing. Currently, if a drug results in negative side effects (up to and including death), the drug company doesn't have to report it if they decide not to market the drug. That means another company can independently come up with the same sort of idea, run the test on more humans, and there will be even more bad side effects or deaths. If the research is publicly funded, it is published. 4) Companies cut R&D in tough times, so when new ideas for new things that create new jobs are needed most, companies tend to do the very thing that would stop this from happening.