Forum Post: We are the Middle Class and We Support You!!!
Posted 13 years ago on Oct. 15, 2011, 8:41 p.m. EST by jlhanks
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The country is suffering, the middle class is dying!! The Republicans want our economy to fail, and our President (and Democrats) to take the blame for the failed economy. Then they believe the American people will vote for change in Nov 2012?????
The average working American has really taken the brunt of the damage in this "Global Economy" less pay, more hours, little or no health care etc. While during the last Republican administration they waged war, lowered taxes on the wealthiest 1% and corporations posted their highest profits ever. GE income was over $14 billion in 2010 and did not pay a penny in income taxes. In fact, GE claimed a $3 billion tax rebate due to offshore profits.
In addition GE announced it is moving its X-ray business to Beijing China!! This is becoming far too common, American Corporations selling the largest % of their products in America, but moving the manufacturing of them somewhere else!!! I believe this is criminal.
Look @ BP, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, ExxonMobil, and Shell. These companies enjoy billions in cash reserves, made nearly $1 trillion in profits over the past decade, and at least one company (ExxonMobil) pays a lower effective tax rate than the average American family.
In September Obama announced his plan on closing special interest loopholes. This includes eliminating $41 billion in tax loopholes for the oil and gas industry over the next decade.
The American Petroleum Institute, or API, the oil industry’s lobbying muscle, quickly claimed that “the Administration plan would hurt jobs and investment.”Despite generating $546 billion in profits between 2005 and 2010, ExxonMobil, Chevron, Shell, and BP combined to reduce their U.S. workforce by 11,200 employees over that time.
Outsourcing is rapidly eroding America's superpower status. So far in the 21st century, the U.S. economy has only been able to create jobs in non-tradable domestic services -- the hallmark of a Third World labor force.
WE HAVE TO WAKE UP!! It is time we put "Americans First" WE NEED LIVING WAGE JOBS!! NOT MINIMUM WAGE JOBS!! The economy will never improve when you pay people $8.50 an hour. Can you buy cars & homes on minimum wage jobs?? Do families declare bankruptcy in Canada & England when they get sick and need hospitalization?? I say look at the evidence, we are @ the bottom on education, healthcare and quality of life! It’s up to Congress to support seniors, students, workers, and middle-class families instead of genuflecting to corporations & their lobbyists once again.
Sincerely,
Mike Hanks
Time to get money out of politics on both sides of the aisle and fix our corrupt and bought out trade, tax and banking system.
http://www.getmoneyout.com/
http://www.dylanratigan.com/2011/08/09/dylan-ratigan-mad-as-hell-his-epic-network-moment/
http://www.dylanratigan.com/2011/08/03/job-wanted-jobs-ending-rigged-trade/
http://www.dylanratigan.com/2011/08/04/jobs-wanted-ending-rigged-tax-code-jobs/
http://www.dylanratigan.com/2011/08/05/jobs-wanted-ending-rigged-banking-jobs/
Bravo!
My friend, the Chinese economy improves and workers there only get 1$ an hour or less.
You are blaming the big companies for moving to China and at the same time blaming for low wages and at the same time blaming for rising cost of living!! What do you want? be rational.
It is not possible to have them all. If all those big companies were to move back to US and pay the wages that make you happy, the price of good will definitely increases dramatically, then you are not happy again.
All good points, Mike. I have been an independent voter for years and have no faith that there is really any difference between the two parties. They ALL take donations from the same industries and corporations. So what if Obama wants to close tax loopholes -- over a DECADE!?! How absurd. Essentially, that's caving to big business, because while it sounds assertive, the next president (doubt it will be Obama) will just repeal those measures. They have to be immediate. When Bank of America wants to charge more fees to the public, it doesn't phase those in over ten years. They happen immediately and they immediately make exhorbitant profit. On OUR money! In THIS economy! It is hugely arrogant and greedy.
We do have to wake up and demand change NOW. Not over 10 years. NOW!
I'm proud of everyone taking part in this extremely important movement. It may be our only chance to preserve our futures. I do NOT want to be pushing a shopping cart in the winter when I'm 75.
Take Back the World
The main reason for companies moving elsewhere has to do with the fact the America has the highest ccorperate tax (39 percent) as well as alot of unecessary regulations (non-enviromental type regulations). Manufacturing will return if these two areas become more bussiness friendly. The oil industry pays 50 million a week in taxes. Their profit comes from high volume and low margins. In fact Federal, State and Local taxes account for over 50 percent of the cost of a gallon of gas.
The minimum wage is entry level pay. Pay raise are performance based. Make positive contributions and you will be rewarded.
As far as health care, there are folks in Canada and England who come to America for operations because the waiting list are so long. When a doctor can no longer make a good living then he will go elsewhere for employment.
Productivity has risen steadily; pay has not. The two are usually disconnected.
Read "Pay without Performance", for a clear picture of how CEO's get paid more and more even when they do a poor job. There are two standards in place in this country.
$102 Billion in profits and zero tax: that how "overtaxed" the corporations are. Over a third of corporations paid no corporate tax at all, and that was what they had for profits. The research shows that in most years no corporations - zero - paid the full corporate tax rate.
Thanks for the economic baby food. I tried to swallow it but I couldn't keep it down having eaten so much of that crap in grade school. I decided to go on a more healthy diet. How about getting us out of GATT? That might give the pigs a little incentive to come back. What do you think? There is no way a corporation will come back to the US as long as they could manufacture the product with slave wages and sell it back to us without tariffs. That treaty was a scam on the American people. Discussing out sourced jobs without mentioning GATT is like having a trial without a murder weapon.
Mike, Well said. Wish I could write more, but I am a 51 yr old 99%, working my ass off to stay out of foreclosure. I feel like I was born at the wrong time. Better if I lived in the 50's and 60's. I voted Repub every time, except last I voted for Obama. I have voted split ticket in the other races. Nothing changes. That's it. I have no health Ins, no retirement, no Corporation I can call home (I am self employed out of being unable to find employment). My oldest son is 22, no health ins, and unemployed. Wife and younger son no health ins either. We buy it when business is good, and then when it gets tight we can't afford it anymore. I live in NC. Read the book the "Creature from Jekyll Island". it has taken me a long time to see the light. God Bless you and all!
Nothing changes? You voted obama and you say nothing changed? My god, open your eyes. HIS policies have kept unemployment above 9%. HIS policies have forced business to go abroad to have any chance of survival. HIS policies have ballooned the deficit and debt to all time highs. HIS policies have exacerbated the quid pro quo in Washington. HIS policies have brought this nation to the brink of class warfare. NOTHING CHANGED?.... EVERYTHING CHANGED!
Obama didn't bail out the banks ,(2008 and 1980), Chrysler in the 70's, Pennsylvania RR (Now Amtrak that loses millions. Nor did he created the Federal Reserve, Social Security Ponzi Scheme, or Wall Street. Go ahead and blame him, I'm sure if McCain won, we'd all be better off. The dollar would be strong, no deficits, and full employment for everyone who wants it. Truth is, Obama is a President, not an Autocrat, and he just a pawn in the big scheme of things. I really don't understand your OBAMA response. Unemployment is more like 20% + when you do a true count. We should have revolted years ago, but we thought going to the polls would change things. The wheels have been coming off for a while. It's like getting a 20 yr old car, and trying to keep it going. Sometimes you need a new car. It's time for a new system of Government, One that is radically different. Not run by Insurance Co's, Banks, Big medicine, and Corporations.
Autocrat? He's trying. You just proved my point. You say "revolt" should have happened years ago. Well, guess what, it didn't happen because we always had some optimism that things would change when we had a rough patch. After three years of BHO running this into the ground, there is NO optimism out there, only despair. I submit to you that IF McCain had been President, we would still be having serious issues but we would also have some light at the end of the tunnel and your "revolt" would be a figment of someone's imagination.
A "New" system of Government is NOT in our Constitution BTW. My problem with all this... NO actual thinking of what is being spouted.
Kudos, Mike