Arianna appeared on MSNBC's "The Dylan Ratigan Show" Tuesday and expressed some worry about Democrats' commitment to clearly outlining a set of initiatives that could spur job creation and a revival of the middle class.
"The thing that I don't understand, especially having recently come back from Brazil and Chile, is this false choice between growth, and even really seriously reducing the deficit, and job creation. Because these things are all intermingled." Arianna said. "It's not a left, right issue. If you're really going to grow the economy you have to move people out of poverty into the middle class."
Arianna then explained her anxiety that the current state of partisan politics would allow a particularly troubling economic trend to become normalized.
"Here we are seeing downward mobility. We are seeing the new poor proliferating, you know, poverty rising in the suburbs more than anywhere else. And yet, we are not making the clear connection between the need to counter that trend in order to grow the economy and ultimately reduce our debt," Arianna said.
Asked why this seemed to be an acceptable situation in politics at present, Arianna expressed her belief that Democrats were to blame for not defining a clear counter-proposal to the GOP's forceful message that the deficit and spending needed to be the highest priority items on the legislative agenda.
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I don't think she understands anything about Brazil or Chile. Since the left wingers Allende and Sarney screwed up each of those nation it was a 10-20 year come back in the economy of struggling by choosing to tackle fiscal and monetary policies, the exact opposite of what she claims. you can't just pop into these countries for a few days, meet the leaders and think you understand the economi history and transition that ahs gone on there. It takes years of living there to get an understanding.
SOme incentives that would work but may be hard to implement are:
A) For all the suggestions below, tie deductions and/or bonuses to work force utilization, unemployment, and jobs created.
1) Raise the capital gains tax to at least 30% for all 'sales' above $250,000 (use deductions above (A))
2) Raise the wealthy tax to 60% (use deductions above (A))
3) Reduce Congressional pay/benefits by 50% (use bonuses above to raise them (A))
4) Tariff foreign products
5) Require companies of more than 1,000 to pay a 'unemployment fee for layoffs' (provide a credit for new jobs)
6) Consider windfall taxes on bonuses of more than $100,000 given to employees
7) Tax penalties for offshoring jobs-Tax deductions for hiring in America
8) National investment fund for research and development (govt-industry combine)
9) Tax deductions for higher education
We should/could rescind the tax cut extensions for those above $250,000 and tie deductions to the above in (A).
We have eliminated whole segments of businesses that sold to the larger corporations as we allowed them to buy up their suppliers and keep few if any of the people working for those suppliers.
As long as you are allowing these anti-competitive mergers you are going to lose more jobs. Add to that the ease of moving jobs out of the country to cut additional employment jobs - with no downside, and you get the current slide into poverty.
Teddy and Franklin Roosevelt understood this dynamic and started by breaking up the big oil companies, the big banks, the big train companies, big coal, etc.
When we elect a President and Congress that represents the people of this country you will know it right away, as they start the legal actions to break up the big corporations - and not until.
Buying I-phones and more hi-tech crap from China is nothing but a destructive diversion from going after the monopoliies. Shiny new toys keep the masses on their A$$$$.
"YOUTH OF THE WORLD WILL UNITE IN 2011 AGAINST GLARING INEQUALITIES…IT’S ALREADY STARTED IN EUROPE…"
http://deadfed.com/
While our war drains our coffers affecting many areas we will see no relief - except defense spending.
We have the highest rate of unemployment among the leading industrial countries - including China.
All the other countries have spent heavily in the education area to retrain their workforces during this depression while the US keeps taking away educational opportunities from its citizens, Instead of encouraging education we have made it a privilege instead of a right - meaning only the well off can afford it. All US colleges are so hurting for funds that they are filling available slots aggressively pursuing foreign students and out of state students that can afford to pay higher fees.
One big missing piece - a WPA / CCC type program that would fix our outdated and deteriorated infrastructure.
This is because employers simply don't need more people. Automation in one form or the other has allowed them to do with fewer and fewer people, a trend that will continue in time. And the fact that the unemployed can't spend doesn't hurt the economy at large. It hurts the corner store, but large corporations get most of their sales internationally.
All of a sudden now banks have begun to offer loans to people in the 500's credit scores, so banks & businesses have decided to deregulate on their own. So much is going on behind the scenes that we don't know about, it's ridiculous.
We sell out or country everyday when we buy Chinese low cost goods. In fact most americans are not much different than the corproations that outsource jobs to China, in that they are maximizing profits.
If you people want a job..just join a lobby group. It is a growing industry!