the rich just have to damn much money, and it's killing our economy

the national worship of the rich has simply got to stop.

due to the way wealth controls the levers of the economy, rich people are in a position to do great good for the economy and in the process further enrich thmselves; but, all too often choose to further enrich themselves without regard to the great damage it does to the economy.

once upon a time, henry ford -- hardly a saint -- understood that paying his employees substantially above the lowest wage he could get away with would reap him huge benefits, and he was right. because his thinking didn't stop at how much money left his payroll department. he realized that when workers have money, they become buyers, which means sales and more profit for the company.

today, rich people don't come close to thinking this way. today, rich people direct companies do cut payroll any way they can. if they send a job overseas, no problem. it doesn't enter into their calculations that this means less demand and lower sales in the u.s. if they can save money by cutting benefits and skirting or eliminating safety regulations, and as a result, their own employees are out more often and for longer periods due to sickness and injury, again, that does not enter into their calculations.

but the prevailing "theory" remains that the rich need yet MORE money and lower taxes to coax them into investing more in america.

REALLY?

rich people and big corporations are AWASH in cash, sitting on more money than ever, and yet they have NO interest in investing in american -- because they have no confidence that the american CONSUMER will come back. that's right! they can't put two and two together. they do everything they can to keep the american worker or would-be worker out of a job or working at low wages with ever fewer benefits and therefore with less and less discretionary money with which to consume, and then blame america's work force for not buying enough of their products.

so what DO they rich do with their money? why, they hoard resources, of course. because they're hoarding cash, there's no demand for their products, so they just buy commodities, because that's the only interesting investment these days. stocks suck because they're killing demand, bonds suck because the economy sucks, so they just buy gold and oil and grains and so on.

which does what, exactly?

right, it robs america's would-be consumers of even more of their discretionary spending money. got any money left over? we'll take it at the pump and in the milk aisle, thank you.




SOOOO many problems our economy is facing could be fixed simply and directly by sopping up that excess cash in the hands of the rich and short-sightedly selfish who are doing nothing constructive and much DEstructive with it and putting it in the hands of those who need it and would INSTANTLY turn it into something constructive -- DEMAND in a demand-starved economy.

tax the rich, give it to the poor and middle class, and just watch the economy BOOM. all the ingredients are there. the rich will still have plenty of money available to crank up production and sell to the poor and middle class and enrich themselves the HONEST way, by working for it, by creating and distributing goods and services to the rest of the economy, instead of by just grabbing more and more of whatever they see in front of them.


i should note that while i am hardly rich, my income is nevertheless rather higher than most in this country, and any "tax the rich" plan is likely to cause my own taxes to go up. this will hurt me, but i have enough vision to know that this hurt is temporary, and that a stronger economy will benefit me far more than the few tax dollars i'd save by keeping the current tax policy in place. this is quite aside from any ethical reasons i have for wanting a more fair tax policy. even greedy bastards should be able to understand that it's in their own selfish best interests to have a thriving consumer market here in america. the real problem isn't that the rich are greedy. it's that they're short-sighted as well.

and it's time we started making them play by fair rules that make their greed work for us, not the other way around.

I love it, by the way but the rich are not looking at a short game - but a looong one.

The looong game is to grow a consumer market where the numbers are highest - and that would be China and India. With populations that dwarf the good old US of A, they have gambled that they can keep their riches off Americans and grow a consumer market somewhere else. And once America falls....China and India will be poised to boom.

So....the money flounders about waiting for demand to come from somewhere. It waits for China. It waits for the chinese to fully embrace a comsumer society, instead of reinvesting in American jobs.

In a global economy - money has no loyalties to any state, nor any worker. And the head of that sits on Wall Street - the financial head office, so to speak of the world.

Their bottom line does not care where the stuff is made - only what is the maximum profit potential - which requires deleveraging the value of labour to the value of a currency. Wall street booms while main street suffers.

Only now, only now when main street sufferings is beginning to finally make a wake up call on the markets, and political hijacking downgrades ratings, do they finally realize the gambit they have played. They will double down now to try to hold what they have - which will mean growing demand for cuts in the social safety net, lower taxes (sheer idiocy). This will not produce one more job, nor allow more money to circulate and be liquid.

why on earth would the rich actually want to put their trust in any government other than america's? they have had it great here, and while india's government is not especially worrisome, the chinese government is. the risk to america's rich of having their assets seized, sold, controlled, or otherwise taken from them or destroyed in value by the chinese government is HUGE compared to that happening in america.

actually, the most likely scenario, these days at least, is that american corporate secrets are taken and givern to chinese businesses, putting the american business in china at a great disadvantage. the chinese government has never played fair and there's no great prospect of them getting a conscience of a sense of fair play any time soon. moreover, they specifically PLAN their economy to benefit THEM, not us, and not america's rich.

besides, most of what chinese and indian consumers will buy will be made in places like... china and india and nearby asian countries.

Wall Street will never move. And we live in a global economy. The gambit is to develop those markets and keep the money flowing to wall street. Profitability is tied to the value of stock - and the value of stock is what drives Wall Street and the financial sector. Do you have any idea what percentage of the US GDP is tied to the global financial sector? American business IS already there. China already has a distinct advantage/leverage in the form of holding american debt.

You are right - chinese consumers will buy products made in China and/or asia - but the head offices will remain firmly in the grips of Wall Street. Try to understand what has happened. Wall Street has deleveraged the value of labour - so it does not matter where the goods are made anymore. It is precisely why manufacturing has left for cheaper labour. The US government helps and supports this concept. Why else would the state department step in in the case of Haiti when they wanted to raise the minimum wage.

http://www.greenleft.org.au/node/47890

snip - The factory owners refused to pay $0.62 an hour, or $5 per eight-hour day, as mandated by a measure unanimously passed by Haiti’s parliament in June 2009.

The cables, provided by WikiLeaks, show that behind the scenes, factory owners were vigorously backed by the US Agency for International Development (USAID) and the US embassy.

Before the rise, the minimum daily wage was $1.75 a day.

The factory owners told parliament they were willing to give workers a mere nine cent per hour pay rise — to $0.31 an hour — to make T-shirts, bras and underwear for US clothing giants such as Dockers and Nautica.

To resolve the impasse, the State Department urged then-Haitian president Rene Preval to intervene.