I was in London this week, where the news was filled with images of Finance Minister George Osborne pausing outside 11 Downing Street with a replica of the red "budget box" that has been used to carry budget papers for the last 150 years. Inside the box: a new budget calling for the slashing of government programs and an embrace of massive debt reduction -- even while the British economy continues to sputter. The next morning, in an editorial meeting at the Guardian, I listened as story angles were discussed: economic growth is slower than expected; unemployment remains higher than expected; the deficit will be higher than expected. I had a real feeling of déjà vu from across the Atlantic, and I thought I might send over some of America's headlines from last year and save them the time and aggravation of coming up with new ones. Isn't it time for governments to expect their expectations to be wrong?
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All hail to the rich and greedy. Just remember when we return to 70 hour work weeks and no employee rights that people once died for what we have now.
I guess - in some ways I'm glad I'm old enough where I won't have to put up with much of this selfishness too much longer - but I do feel very sorry for the up and coming generation of Americans - who even as I write this - are being robbed of the American dream by Republicans and their right-wing thugs.
When I drove big rigs, I worked 70 hour weeks. For what amounted to 20per at 40 hours per week.
We already have places where people work that many hours. In the case of truck drivers, I think underpayed, but for many, it is great money compared to their skill set.
Lets face it, over the next few decades, if we do not lower our cost or raise the cost of overseas labor, jobs will continue to drift out. No matter how good the union says we are here.
Funny - do you have any idea of how these fed and state labor laws came into being?
Do you have any idea what is going on in Wisconsin right now, and why Scott Walker and his buddies are trying to take away Union bargaining rights?
You said "do the math" and I did. Do you have any other ideas?.
One plate consists of inanimate corporate entities operated by less than 1% of the population. Their modus operandus is based on predatory profit driven sole motivation and exploitive conflict driven zerosum game imperative of a super-rich shrinking infinitessimal minority at the expense of a vastly expanding sinking poor majority.
The other plate consists of 99% of rest of the population. Reduced to its core essence, this majority is driven by the imperative of justice, equality, and peace, because the majority will survive by the "Golden Rule" or perish by collective societal meltdown.
These two tectonic plates are colliding against each other, going in opposite directions, rubbing each other the wrong way. The pressures have been building over past 3-4 decades. It's predictable there will be a point and instant of complete rupture. In a rupture, one of two outcomes will emerge. If the super-rich corporate driven minority prevails, normal society will meltdown, producing a metastasic cancerous cannabalistic society. If the majority prevails, there'll be potential for a truly egalitarian, just and peaceful society and global community of collaborating nations. The points and stages of rupture are already becoming apparent, in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, Wisconsin, ... just as the clashing geological tectonic plates produced 9.0 earthquake, and unstable nuclear reactor produced radioactive fallout.
You mean the "entitlement crowd" the corporations who feel they are entitled to pay low wages and no benefits while they make record profits off of labor and continue to break unions?
You mean that "entitlement crowd"? The entitled crowd of the obscenely wealthy in this country who would rather see millions of Americans kicked out of their homes, millions more jobless - just so they can be richer than God - that Entitled crowd?
chopin smoking pipes.................!
Earnings of the average person in the West is sucked-off by high oil prices at the pump. These monies go to oligarchs and govt. in the Mid-East.
These oligarchs enrich themselves living in secluded palaces; and funnel much of our money to govt and oligarchs in the US buying tanks, fighter planes, bombs, etc.
Western govts and oligarch facilitate and encourage Mid-East oligarchs to continue the cycle.
Earnings of citizens in both countries should have gone to build roads, schools, health care, clean water, and other infrastructure for social improvement. Yet citizens in both societies are finding their wealth reduced and standard of living declining.
In both regions in fact there is no population over-growth as some claim to be the underlying case of problems. What we rather have is monopolistic and cartels (national and international) controlling the flow of good and services fleecing and gouging citizens in both regions.
The 'crisis' also provides the Tories with a cover for what they have always wanted to do: slash public services, limit public spending (except for military expenditure) and continue to transfer control into private--that means fewer--hands.
The current impasse is about cutting 5% of the budget.
It is time Democrat Senators develop some spine and present a list of cuts in corporate welfare, subsidies and loopholes. That will both raise revenues and decrease spending.
Knowledge is power ...
Where are the jobs?
47 % of americans paid 0 federal tax in 09
73% paid by the top 10% of wage earners
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Nearly-half-of-US-households-apf-1105567323.html?x=0&.v=1
Bof A, Citicorp, Exxon and GE, among others, paid no taxes in 2009.
During the boom years of '96 to 2000 94% paid less than 5% taxes on earnings, 61% paid nothing.
Our tax receipts are the lowest in 50 years.
In 2005 3,565 large US corps and 998 foreign companies doing business in the US paid no taxes.
In 2003 corporate taxes were 7.4% of total receipts, while individuals contributed 45%.
while your at it, link up when the laws were made that allowed corps to pay an effective rate less than what is on the books of 39.2 percent.
Here try this: Exxon tries to limit the tax pain with the help of 20 wholly owned subsidiaries domiciled in the Bahamas, Bermuda and the Cayman Islands that (legally) shelter the cash flow from operations in the likes of Angola, Azerbaijan and Abu Dhabi. No wonder that of $15 billion in income taxes last year, Exxon paid none of it to Uncle Sam, and has tens of billions in earnings permanently reinvested overseas.
http://wonkroom.thinkprogress.org/2010/04/06/exxon-zero-taxes/
we need: www.fairtax.org
our tax receipts are not the lowest in 50 years. that is laughable. In 1961 the budget was only in the billions.
corps are global, lower the tax to zero, they will bring money here to invest, which will spur jobs.
That's meant to be an empowering statement. Stay positive. Unjust laws can be overturned; however, the will to embrace compassion is key now in order to achieve a positive collective future on Earth. We are not just our brothers' keeper, we are our brothers/sisters. What happens to one, "the least of us" happens to all of us b/c it filters outward into the collective consciousness. It's pragmatic therefore to voice one's preferences aloud or silently, even to oneself, but strongly. What kind of a world do we want to live in? The time to decide is now.
We're not just in a recession; it's a depression cycle (read JK Galbraith on the subject) that recurs every ~90 yrs. The last one was 1927-35. There are other overlapping cycles at work now as well.
“The problem with socialism is that you eventually, run out of other people’s money.”
Margret Thatcher.
http://www.theslowbleed.com/tag/margaret-thatcher-socialism/
and so does NY gov coumo: http://www.businessweek.com/news/2011-03-27/new-york-s-cuomo-lawmakers-agree-on-budget-for-coming-year.html
he is set to lay off over 9800 union employees.
but i can not do that with my personal finances ?
A natural occuring one happened about 650 years ago. It did indeed change things up a bit.
the plague.
6:32pm
Arlington, VA
How about going after the fraud waste and corruption more aggressively. And then, don't kill the auditors when they have bad news.
>> why isn't anybody doing these things?
I chalk it up to 24/7 propaganda coming out of major medias such as FOX news, and the amount of money the flows in our elections - allowing liars to be elected into key parts of our government. For example, Scott Walker got elected in Wisconsin, but not because he said he was going to bust unions and give huge tax breaks to Corporations in that state when he was campaigning.
They would never add the new tax onto the price of their goods would they?
www.fairtax.org
since the cost of tax is at least partially passed onto the consumer, lets just go straight to national sales tax. for everything (product and service) purchased new. this means no more income tax, for everyone including corps. no more filing. no more irs. no more argument on how much anyone pays. we all pay, when we choose to buy new.
Now here we are - all these unused empty homes across the country - and millions of Americans who are jobless and homeless - many now sleeping on friend's couches, others sleeping on wooden benches provided inside churches - churches that are right next to empty unused homes owned by the Big Banks.
You gotta ask yourself - who is our economy serving? Ordinary Americans - who haven't had a "real" pay raise since 1974? Or the super wealthy, who have tripled their income since then - and who control the Big Banks and Wallstreet?
Here is a good point. Last time people thrown out of homes was the 30's. Banks were protected by FDR. He even switched the money. Silver certs were made worthless by him and the banks. Banks picked up vast amounts of property. Banks donated to his re-election time and time again. Despite that, people 'loved' FDR.
So, now we have a similair situation. People, at least 10 percent, could be more; are losing property to banks. Banks are with the Pres, (he voted for TARP), and millions 'love' BO anyway.
Next term BO will try to increase Supreme Court to 11 or 13, as FDR attempted. To make it a liberal court with him appointing all new justices.
He will go down in history as greater than JFK, or LBJ or FDR, but with only two initials;BO.