[The original post has been edited a tiny bit.]
Here are just a few crucial ones---
1. The Income Tax
Disregarding earlier, temporary income taxes in the 1860's (to fund the Civil War), the Big Kahuna was the Revenue Act of 1913. It passed into Law shortly after the 16th Amendment to the Constitution was adopted. [I won't get into arguments about whether or not the 16th was legitimately ratified. That's a can of worms and could be argued until the End of Time...and is a waste of time.] The purpose of the 16th Amendment apparently was to correct a glitch having to do with direct taxes and income from property & interest in the 1909 CORPORATE Income Tax law.
In passing the 1913 Revenue Act, the intent of Congress was to levy an income tax only on the very richest Americans. [I forget the income threshold, but it was high.] Only the top 2% of households were required to pay the tax; everyone else was exempt. Furthermore, the tax was on income from property, rents, and interest, not wages. [The top 2% had no wages.] That was the original Income Tax Law. Obviously, successive Congresses changed it...23 times if I recall correctly. I sincerely doubt that We the People wanted all those changes...to the point where the IRS does what it does today.
The point is this: I'm fairly certain that most Americans are largely unaware of the information above. We've been sold a Bill of Goods relative to the history of the Income Tax Law. The original intent of it never was to tax the wages of average Americans. That was rammed through by the Oligarchy later.
According to Reagan's Grace Commission, 100% of your income tax dollars is used to pay the interest on the National Debt. [97% of all money in circulation in the USA is debt.] Gov't services are paid for by other taxes, fees, and more borrowing.
2. The Cold War (1945-1989) Resulted in a Victory of Capitalism over Socialism
Not true, and here's why. First of all, we had then and still have a Mixed Economy. At best, it's Crony Capitalism, not Free Market Capitalism. The only Capitalists in the Western World are SMALL business people. Western societies, including the USA, have both a weak Welfare State AND strong socialism for the super-rich. Corporate welfare abounds. The State-Corporate Complex rules the day. That is not Free Market Capitalism. Secondly, when Lenin and his Gang seized power in Russia, socialistic institutions created during the 1917-1918 Revolution were eliminated. Bolshevism morphed into Communism...which is a political system, not an economic system...and it's totalitarian. Socialism is not a political system. The Cold War resulted in the triumph of Democracy (of a sort) over Communism.
The point is this: the Oligarchs in the Western World today continually claim that they are Free Market Capitalists and that the only other alternative is Socialism...which they claim was defeated by the Cold War. None of that is a true picture of reality. Crony Capitalists are not Free Market Capitalists; instead, they are married to the State. Soviet Russia had a super-elite Class which practiced Totalitarianism...that's what was defeated by Democracy (of a sort) and a Mixed Economy.
Mega, transnational corporations and their propagandists falsely claim that they are Capitalists opposing Socialism. What they really are (in general) is Fascists opposing the rest of us. Both FDR and Mussolini defined Fascism as: the marriage of the power of the State to the power of BIG Business. That's pretty much what we have in almost the entire Western World today. Even China now is more Fascist than Communist. I don't remember any Communist countries ever having billionaire real estate moguls. China does.
Don't buy into the Propaganda. Despite their claims, the super-rich are not Free Market Capitalists and they're not opposing Socialism. They are Neofascists and are opposing the rest of us.
3. The Scam of Neoliberalism
In the USA, it dates back to at least the 1970's. The overthrow (essentially by Nixon & Kissinger) of Allende and the installation of Pinochet in Chile on 9-11-73 (the other 9-11) was to be the first practical test of a portion of Neoliberalism. What a disaster. The implementation of this political and economic philosophy continues, but Oligarchs here have managed to keep it mostly in the shadows... until recently. None of that is a conspiracy; to them, it's simply good business practice. In general, most all Oligarchs today are Neoliberals. Those at the highest levels are Democrats, or Republicans, or Liberals, or Conservatives in name only. They don't care at all about those obsolete categories... except to use them as divisive propaganda.
Neoliberalism exploded in growth during the reigns of Reagan and Thatcher. It continues today. The goal is nothing short of domination of the worldwide economy and finance by super-rich elites and mega transnational corporations. Its adherents agree with David Rockefeller, who stated publicly in 1991, "Surely it is preferable to have the world run by unelected elites than by the corrupt politicians of today.". At least he got the "corrupt politicians" part correct. He also thanked the Mainstream Press for keeping the Elites' work under wraps "for the past 40 years". [You couldn't make this stuff up if you tried.]
The irony of this is that it seems some, perhaps many, of these Elites actually are altruists. I'm convinced that some of them really believe that the world would be better off if it were run by the unelected super-rich.
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If all this seems convoluted, that's because it is. It's so Orwellian that I'm afraid most people don't believe it. Or, if they do believe it, they either don't grasp how it affects them directly or they think nothing can be done about it, or both. And so it goes.
Not just my opinion. Be Well
