The Corporatocracy doesn't want you to know this about economics & the economy

In general, the Powers-That-Be (both public & private) almost constantly mislead us regarding whether or not the economy is doing well.  That's because they measure such all wrong.

Robert Reich tells it like it is---

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tFjoDq0HfFw&list=WL&index=71

To have an economics as if all people and the entire ecosphere matter, we must adhere to the parameters described/endorsed by Prof. Reich in the short clip above.  Anything else is mostly propaganda.

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Not only my opinion.  Take Care

How most billionaires damage the economy

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2_Mx1koLOGc

Unfortunately, too many people believe the myth that billionaires help the economy.  This short clip (7.5 minutes) from Wired magazine explains why a "wealth tax" is necessary.  [As I stated in the previous post, the first permanent Income Tax in the USA was such a tax.  It applied to only 2% of the population.  Not long after that, legislators were lobbied over & over by the Rich, and we wound up with the current set-up.]

There's nothing wrong with being rich if one acts responsibly and helps society by paying their fair share.  To get where they are, billionaires stood on the shoulders of society via education, infrastructure, networks, communication, civility in our habitat & relations, etc.  In addition, perhaps they had a bit of luck:  maybe born on third base, maybe smarter than the average person, or taken under the wing of someone with wealth/influence/power.  In any case, there's no such thing as a "self-made" billionaire.  That's another myth.  

Any super-rich person should be willing & happy to help out society by means of a wealth tax.  Humans are a social species, and that includes those in the Upper Crust. 

Watch the clip at the link above; see if it makes sense to you.

From Inequality.org---

67%.  Now, someone please tell me how anyone still believes our elected politicians in DC represent the Will of the People.  It doesn't appear they do in this instance.

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Not only my opinion.  Be Well

Here's a glaring example of wealth inequality

 [If an asset's price has increased and you haven't yet sold it, you have an "unrealized capital gain".] See below---

When the first permanent Income Tax legislative bill was passed into Law (there was a temporary one during our Civil War), wages were not taxed, only capital gains were. The tax applied to only about 2% of the adult population.

During the Golden Age of American Capitalism (right after WW II to the "Nixon Shock" in 1971), the Upper Crust was taxed at a rate of up to 90%...and they remained wealthy. Now they whine if they have to pay at a rate of 30%.

Be Well

"An Economy for the 1%: How Privilege and Power...

in the Economy Drive Extreme Inequality and How This Can Be Stopped".  That's the title of a new Oxfam America report.  From the Report and as reported on Democracy Now, the 62 richest billionaires in the world (a majority of them in the USA) now are as wealthy as the poorest 3.6 billion people worldwide combined.  The inequality is due primarily to:  deregulation (i.e., Crony Capitalism), privatization (more Crony Capitalism), and offshore tax havens (even more Crony Capitalism).  [Those are key components of Neoliberalism...which is subscribed to by most Democrats and Republicans (at the highest levels) here in the USA.]

In one such tax haven, the British Virgin Islands (population 24,000), there are 800,000 shell corporations associated with real corporations from around the world.  Anxious to get in on the action, there also are a total of fifty banks there.  Here in the USA for the last 20 years, politicians have talked about closing the loopholes in the Tax Code that allow tax havens.  In that timespan, there have been periods when both the Repubs and the Dems each have controlled Congress separately.  Nothing has been done.  Lobbyists.  More Crony Capitalism.  Democrats and Republicans both are to blame.

Some here would argue that the corporations need every break they can get, and that allows them to expand and create more jobs.  It's the old "Trickle Down Theory of Economics".  Unfortunately, nothing much is trickling down anymore.  The tax avoidance wealth is either being held offshore, or being used to close, dismantle, & ship factories out of the country, or buy/lease existing factories in another country, or raid companies here & the downsize them, or invest in bizarre financial derivatives, or in foreign currencies, or in foreign bonds, or in a number of other ventures that also create zero jobs in the USA.  So much for the Trickle Down argument.  Mega Corporations seem to rarely invest in their communities anymore (or even in the USA); instead, they move their operations to wherever the labor is the cheapest.  Apple Computer is a prime example:  they don't make even one of their products in this country...not one.  Remember that the next time you buy something from Apple.

Meanwhile, the Middle Class here shrinks, wages essentially are stagnant (& have been for 30 yrs), our manufacturing base rapidly is disappearing, jobs are becoming more & more inferior, employee benefits are shrinking, and the income of the Upper Crust has increased 700% in the last thirty years.  Plus because of the crashing economy, in 2016 alone many 401ks already have lost from $2,000 to $6,000.

While eight million jobs here evaporated after the 2008 Crisis, the Mega Banks grew by 37%, significantly increasing their profits.  At the same time, their Executives avoided prosecution for what was blatant FRAUD during the time leading up to the Crisis.  More Crony Capitalism.  Politicians know on which side their bread is buttered.  SSDD.

NeoFeudalism is well on its way to being here.

Not only my opinion.  Be Well

Oligarchs, Propaganda, & Fascism

This all is not unique to the USA; it's a worldwide phenomenon in the developed world... at least, in general.  Perhaps a country such as Norway, for example, is not yet Fascist...really, I don't know.  As usual, I'm using FDR's and Mussolini's definition of Fascism:  the power of the State married to the power of BIG Business.  And as always, I maintain that none of it is a "conspiracy"; most of it is out in the open for all to see.  First, though, we have to stop drinking the Propaganda Kool Aid.

Let's take a tiny example of that Kool Aid; it's here in the USA and goes by either of two names--- Obamacare or the Affordable Care Act (ACA).  It should be called, the Affordable Insurance Act.  As the Roosevelt Institute points out, the ACA is a "bonanza" for private health insurance companies.  It bails them out.  Apparently, people were dropping their policies or switching to cheaper, "catastrophic care" coverage.  Contrary to what some may think, insurance premiums have not decreased with the ACA; our Gov't is making up the difference...a bailout.  The availability of health CARE has not increased, and the COST of health care has not decreased.  Before the ACA, there already were long lines of folks at clinics with cash in hand.  Obamacare is not health care reform... instead, it's a bailout of private health care insurers, who now are even more entrenched in our health care system.

Notice that the Corporate Media here in this country rarely, if ever, speak of any of the above; rather, they focus on the "need" for the ACA, or on the basically unimportant fiasco regarding tech problems of the website.  Is their lack of coverage of what's really relevant a "conspiracy"?  No, I don't believe so.  It's more like individuals and groups with similar interests and mutual goals working sometimes individually, sometimes together, to promote BIG Business.  It's no more a conspiracy than is that of AT&T working to maximize profits.  Corporations are required by law to maximize profits for their shareholders.  It wasn't always that way, but that's another story.  [Google:  How did John D. Rockefeller change the rules for corporations.]

What are the "similar interests and mutual goals" of the Oligarchs?  Rather than repeat it, I refer you to Item number 4. in my November 2 post, "The New World Order...Again".  David Rockefeller stated it quite well...in 1991.

For two startling and brief depictions of more Propaganda in America (and the world), do a YouTube Search for each (separately) of these videos:  Political Fraud; and, Financial Crime.  They're both by ClassWarFilms, and each one is only about ten minutes in length.  They're somewhat shocking, but right on the mark.  The History of the USA is quite different from the History of the People of the USA, the former being to a large degree, nothing but propaganda...geared to benefit the Powers-That-Shouldn't-Be.  :)

Some Inconvenient Realities---
1.  In 1998, the richest 1% of this country owned 30% of the wealth; today it's between 40 & 50%.  [Estimates vary within that range.]  That's not because the other 99% of us are lazy...the game has been engineered in favor of the one-percenters.
2.  Capitalism has been replaced by Financialization...credit derivatives and other inventions of Wall Street that do not involve any production of goods.  The only true capitalists left in the world are owners of SMALL businesses.
3.  Most all mega corporations are owned & run by Crony Capitalists, aka, Fascists.  The Crony Capitalists don't influence elections here; they own them.
4.  We're in the largest class war in U.S. history, and as Warren Buffett lamented, "unfortunately, my class is winning."...he's correct.
5.  Taxpayer bailouts go to Wall Street, not Main Street.  Most of those who receive such bailouts do NOT use them to create jobs...and they're not required to do any such thing.  The game is rigged.
6.  Propaganda is viewed by the Oligarchs as both a necessary & beneficial component of any democracy...and obviously, the same is true of any totalitarian society.

I'm not a Republican or a Democrat.  I view them both (those at the top of each heap, anyway) as branches of the same, un-named political party:  the Mega Transnational Corporatist Party.  I'll give them this much, they surely know how to put forth the Propaganda.

Just my opinion.