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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region Forums"The rich are on strike" - Romney and his allies say the economy will come back if he wins
These words from an article on salon.com have haunted me all day.
There have been so many wake up calls this election season, but this idea puts the stakes in such stark relief - the rich will continue to hold the economy hostage. It makes my blood boil. The fact that the rich even have this much power is disgusting.
If Romney wins and a GOP majority controls both houses of congress, the poor and middle class will be taxed to the bone so the rich can have their taxes cut. Who will stop them?
I honestly can't wrap my mind around the wealth transfer that has already happened... how corporations became people and limits on political contributions were abolished... the swift gutting of women's rights by the states... the house GOP majority's naked obstructionism.
Equally as mind boggling is the media narrative that rose so swiftly that says Biden was "hostile" and "angry," while Romney's disrespectful debate performance was judged to be the second coming of Lincoln... the Koch and Adelson billions being spent to game elections... a GOP candidate who openly mocks the 47 percent and is within striking distance of the White House.
It's as if we're characters in a political thriller novel. But unless I'm asleep and having a nightmare right now, it's all real.
Had to get all of this out of my head. I don't know what I would do without my kindred spirits on DU.
sadbear
(4,340 posts)Sorry, Rmoney. We don't negotiate with terrorists.
Politicub
(12,165 posts)Raster
(20,998 posts)And then of course the rethuglican TRAITORS IN CONGRESS that pledged to do whatever necessary to make President Obama a on-term President, EVEN IF IT HURT THE COUNTRY.
Make no mistake, these people are TRAITORS AND ECONOMIC TERRORISTS!
2pooped2pop
(5,420 posts)amborin
(16,631 posts)Robust recovery--all part of their plan, and many openly admit it
begin_within
(21,551 posts)Warpy
(111,267 posts)The rich are doing what they always do, instructing their underlings to squeeze as much profit as they can out of their holdings but don't bore them with how it was done. The rich are relaxing between "charity" functions where they tart themselves up and go to see and be seen.
Mitt, honey, if all the John Galts of the world decamped for some floating fortress, no one would notice. Business would proceed as usual, the real producers, labor, staying on the job.
Politicub
(12,165 posts)As i tapped out the post.
Thanks for pointing that out. Sometimes people (me) need a reality check.
theKed
(1,235 posts)But, but...we need them to ...
umm...
Who's going to ...
...errr...
What about all the ...
uhhh...
You know what? Take all the time you need. No, no. Really, we got this.
Hm? Us? Oh, we'll try to keep busy. You know, actually producing stuff, creating wealth and jobs. Let us know how the weather down there in Galt's Gultch is, 'kay? You can come back when you're done holding your breath and stamping your feet. No promises on those tax cuts while you're gone, though. Sorry 'bout that.
Politicub
(12,165 posts)I have no idea what they see in him.
Voice for Peace
(13,141 posts)um .. what you said
Aoxous
(28 posts)Let them put their money where their mouth is. If they are so disenfranchised, stigmatized, and tired of 47% of the people leeching off them, then why don't they uphold their Randian philosophy and go built their utopian paradise deep in the middle of nowhere.
BuelahWitch
(9,083 posts)Where they can get cheap labor, drink dirty water and eat food full of salmonella. Let them lie awake every night worrying about being kidnapped by the natives. I'll send them a bag of dirty cat litter as a going away present
Voice for Peace
(13,141 posts)or their money will eventually run out
aint_no_life_nowhere
(21,925 posts)I recall that there were only a dozen billionaires on that list and I believe several were Waltons. As of the 2011 Forbes list there are now over 400. How is it possible that Americans are struggling to find jobs, to get healthcare, to afford college, to pay their mortgage and yet there are those in the upper class getting richer than ever?
FirstLight
(13,360 posts)...actually, we should just let them eat cake and THEN feed them to the sharks...
anyway, i agree with those up thread who tell them to go fuckthemselves, life will go on. And , actually, they can say they are 'staying out of the game' all they want, but they will have to contribute anyway...it's called TAXES. And the Bush cuts are gonna be gone and those top 2% can just write a check to uncle sam instead... so let them think they are 'striking'... We'll get 'em in the end...
flyguyjake
(492 posts)Who are the middle class you might ask?
30% of the middle class make an earned income (e.g., wages, salary, bonuses and commissions). That income is subject to Social Security and Medicare taxes. In addition, it is taxed at the standard income-tax rates. For example, the maximum earned income-tax rate is 35%.
Now 70% of the middle class are very wealthy and receive most of their income from unearned income in the form of interest, dividends and capital gains. Such income is taxed at a preferential maximum tax rate of only 15%--even with $1 million or $1 billion of annual income.
That is very unfair, unjustified and foolish. Why should unearned income be taxed at less than half of the rate on earned income? Is your money different than mine? No, its exactly the same.
Now heres the meat and potatoes!
Mitt Romney is a shining example of how wealthy individuals can use this preferential treatment of income classified as Interest, Dividends and Capital Gains to minimize payments to the U.S. government.
Most of Mitt Romneys income comes from Capital Gains. In 2010 Mitt paid $3 Million and in 2011 he paid $1.95 Million. So lets be clear, Mitt Romney says that he will take away, zero out the income tax on Interest, Dividends and Capital Gains!!!
Folks he just saved himself Millions of dollars!
The top 1% pay 21.5% of all State and Federal taxes. Romney says Kiss that good bye!
The 99% pay 78.4% of the total taxes in the US. Romney says Sorry, youre going to pay 100% now.
Bucky
(54,014 posts)Nah, no publisher would be dumb enough to try and sell such a ludicrous idea, even in fiction.
Turborama
(22,109 posts)Holding back investing and employing were a couple of the main ingredients in their recipe to try and make it appear as if he "failed".
The other one was the total obstruction of absolutely anything that would have positive results in Congress.
+infinity on your last sentence!
LeftyMom
(49,212 posts)HiPointDem
(20,729 posts)LeftyMom
(49,212 posts)HiPointDem
(20,729 posts)NashvilleLefty
(811 posts)I have been at my present Corporation for 21 years today - and I have had positions when I had to deal with the CEO directly.
Let me also make the note that we have more CEO's in that time than I can recall. I can name 4 within the last 5 years.
But the Company has prospered despite the name of the CEO. Why? Because we employees know what the fuck we are doing. In fact, the various CEO's have held us back and wasted money. I would love to see them get out of our way and let us do what we do best.
Please, PLEASE, PLEASE "Go Galt" and get the fuck out of the way of the people who know what we're fucking doing!
Brother Buzz
(36,440 posts)The rich realize they can't strike because they've locked out. I'm just saying.
PD Turk
(1,289 posts)They suck up an assload of profit to the tune of 93% of income growth and they "go on strike"?
WTF do they want? Oh , I know...EVERYTHING!!
I have been working very hard on myself to resist violent thoughts and urges. These assholes are trying real hard to undo all that.
D23MIURG23
(2,850 posts)If we really get lucky then maybe they will go Galt after the election and we will never see them again.
But seriously, they don't have the power to put the economy on hold. This business about the "job creator" class is greatly exaggerated. The rich aren't going to stop hiring people if they need new employees to turn a profit, because if they do, their competitors will take advantage. Jobs come from commerce, not from the whims of the aristocrats.
HiPointDem
(20,729 posts)concessions.
same as the 1975 fiscal crisis in nyc, the template for what's going on now.
symptom of the overwheening power capital has accumulated.
alcibiades_mystery
(36,437 posts)If the rich or "producer class" were "on strike," it would open up a huge hole in the market that anybody could jump in to, and, according to invisible hand economics, people (as rational actors) inevitably would. This is the basis for all of market / competition theory, and it's the only part of the theory that would guarantee something like the social mobility so promised by capitalist ideologues. If the withdrawal of producers from (already existing!) markets doesn't immediately result in new producers entering that market, then none of capitalist economics makes any sense at all.
It's a really weird survival of feudalism that even sustains this odd "Go Galt" argument, a sense in the inherent superiority of some over others. Notice that this inherent superiority is in fact the opposite of capitalism - it is what the capitalists or emerging bourgeois class fought the feudalists over for 300 years. For the capitalists, superiority is not inherent, but specifically temporary and determined precisely through market competition. That "Going Galt" would actually be a feudalist argument is, of course, not that surprising, since its inventor was essentially a Tsarist.
closeupready
(29,503 posts)Do you know what a cartel is? Cartels might be illegal in the US, but not outside.
Skidmore
(37,364 posts)in it. The wealthy have been extorting this nation for the past four years. They bought a Congress and have held the 99% hostage. This duck quacks and has the makings of a great ad.
Fresh_Start
(11,330 posts)nt
closeupready
(29,503 posts)SS. DD.
KansDem
(28,498 posts)...were supposed to give more money to the "job creators" to re-invest in America. Instead, the wealthy took their new-found swag and hid it in secret, off-shore tax havens.
IT DIDN'T WORK!!!
Shall I say it again?
IT DIDN'T WORK!!!
...so let's stop this stupid notion that the wealthy are "job creators."
They didn't live up to their part of the agreement so they need to repay what they stole...
librechik
(30,674 posts)how else can he promise such a thing?
BTW, don't believe them. They have absolutely no intention of "saving the economy" for the middle class.
Zoeisright
(8,339 posts)Ship them all off to Somalia.
unblock
(52,243 posts)thank you for opening the door to take all the ridiculous anti-union anti-strike attitude and turn it around against this filthy rich!!
all that negative crap going back to the air traffic controllers striking and them getting bad press because they were being greedy, wanting better working conditions while protecting us from air disasters.
you think WORKERS are being greedy when they go on strike?
how about BILLIONAIRES being greedy when they go on strike!
Ken Burch
(50,254 posts)The "Great Recession" was always a capital strike...and the administration should have treated it accordingly.
Z_California
(650 posts)These corps are sitting on a SHIT TON of cash - holding out hope that they regain unchecked power in DC like 2001-2008. Either way this election goes, this cash is going to start to flow. They can't hold out another 4 years.
WillyT
(72,631 posts)jmowreader
(50,559 posts)I disagree with the theory that says the rich are withholding capital in protest of their having to pay taxes.
Rich people - seriously rich, Romney/Koch/Soros-level rich - don't pay taxes and never have. Oh, they might throw a couple million in the bucket now and again, but look at Romney's 2010 numbers: $25M top line, less than $3M tax paid. He may have picked that year because capital losses (tax reducers) were lowest that year; it wouldn't look so good if Romney showed us a return with zero tax due, and in tax year 2008 he probably had one.
Rich people are on this earth to become richer people. If Michael Dell can become richer by firing the Americans who assemble his computers and ordering them from China preassembled - and he can - that's what he will do.
We are talking a very simple business transaction here: Mr. Dell would think it very poor economy to spend $5 million a year to convert a warehouse back to a factory, hire people, buy equipment for their use, receive more truckloads of parts (cases and finished computers take the same amount of space in a container, but getting them empty means getting a second container full of circuit boards to go in them), etc...just to get a $250,000 tax cut...especially since Romney will cut his taxes whether he creates manufacturing jobs in the US or not.
If you want computer assembling to return to these shores, simply pass a law requiring government-owned computers to be assembled here. The government buys lots of computers and opening a factory for them is not expensive - lease an abandoned supermarket, buy a forklift and put in workbenches. Do that with other easy-to-make products then move on to things that have more complex assembly.
We didn't lose our industry in 2009; it happened long before that. Mere tax cuts and regulation cuts won't magically bring it back.
Fire Walk With Me
(38,893 posts)lumberjack_jeff
(33,224 posts)Kidnappers forced to follow through on their empty threat.
The premise is ridiculous. Romney's allies are powerless to individually suppress the economy. The only power to grow the economy is in the hands of consumers willing to buy stuff. They are unwilling to buy things because they're uncertain about their economic future.
The premise that capitalists are going to hold their breaths unless we elect a capitalist is the stupidest kind of gibberish. No business owner is going to ignore or reject profit opportunities to make a political point, and certainly not *all* of them.
Capital is incapable of collective action. The only time they are is when they form trusts and monopolies, and if Romney is saying that we're in that boat, it's all the more reason to elect democrats.