Hi Shantiananda:
Ah—but you see Bernie inspired the Squad, which is inspiring more new peopIe! The oId group are so surprised that their past efforts of doing nothing have not succeeded! Bernie might not have won the DNC leaders, but he’s inspiring new peopIe to take that power and put it where it belongs—with the People. : )
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Right On stardust!!!
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Great speech!
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Caroline, some of us did and are still waiting for the leadership to catch up. It appears that this generation is willing. Funny how things come around again and again giving humanity a chance to do the right thing.
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Agreed. Having a class such as this makes democracy impossible, but more importantly, fortunes of that sort are illegitimate. There is nothing you can do to deserve to own and control that much of society and it’s resources.
The fraudulent system creates these behemoths.
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Labour? HA! The profits go to owners, not workers. There is no labour necessarily attached to collecting profits, like there are with wages.
You’re dreaming if you don’t see there is a class of people who simply collect ‘earnings’ from financial vehicles and never labour for their money.
You want to talk about taking the fruits of people’s labour? What the hell do you call profit? Especially in the cases of remote owners who merely collect dividends?
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Thankyou TTofB. Ironic indeed.
And we are impotent to change it.
First of all, that’s a false comparison, as employment in a capitalist system is a voluntary transaction/contract between employer and employee, whereas communist “employment” is actual slave labor (try not working “hard enough” or meeting quotas in the old USSR; you weren’t fired, you were sent to Siberia and never seen again; or in China, Mao’s thugs just shot you and your family).
But back to this article, before discussing the morality of the Sanders proposal, let’s discuss the practicality of it. How is he going to implement this plan? This isn’t an income tax of 60%, it’s a wealth tax. The vast majority of wealthy people’s wealth is in equities. Taking the examples, Jeff Bezos’ wealth is predominantly concentrated in one stock, Amazon. If Sanders wants to tax Bezos for 60% of the increase in his wealth, then Bezos would have to sell a major portion of his company (and to whom? To the government?). That doesn’t make any sense. The article doesn’t even discuss this.
But the plan is stupid to begin with and just meant to stir up his constituents.
The proposal does beg the question : “How do we pay for the SECOND year?” It reminds me of that Scarlet O’hara line, “I’ll worry about that tomorrow!”
Impotent Bernie.
You’re right. I overlooked power, the ultimate aphrodisiac. Having never had that kind of power, I can only imagine how intoxicating and self-deluding that must be.
Stardust. A very good point…thanks.
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Astrologically I believe it’s still a number of years away but the Age of Aquarius is still coming. Whether there is anything left of the Garden by then is the question It would be nice to see a new age arise without the complete devastation caused by the old. it looks doubtful indeed that it’ll be birthed in this country - maybe Iceland or New Zealand…
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Hi yunohu:
Happy Anniversary with Common Dreams.: )
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Another one of such divisive rubbish comments deriding/bashing Bernie Sanders to make yourself appear smart - you do not!
“Impotent Bernie” and “HEY BERNIE - Try getting one of your bills to PASS for once in your life” -.as dumb and idiotic as any! as if there are no others far-more deserving of such attacks and Bernie were king! Too many seem to be trump/republicon/McConnell supporters, astonishingly uninformed, or just troll propagandists. You must be a mind-reader to know what Sanders has and will do?
Rubbish!
First of all, see my point above about how this plan is stupid in practicality. How is he planning to implement this tax when the “wealth gains” are predominately just an increase in the market cap of the companies these individuals own? And remember that market cap does not equal profits. Taxing 60% of Amazon’s profits doesn’t mean you’re taxing away the market cap of the company. The whole plan is downright idiotic, but Sanders knows that and doesn’t care. He’s just trying to drum up support from his constituents.
I agree. I said in 2016 that Bernie was being used by the DNC as a Progressive, con man when he told me I had to back a Wall Street sycophant… and I stand by that statement. And what more corroboration does one need than Bernie has told us Progressives that we need to support another Wall Street fawning parasite in 2020!
Except profiting off the fruits of others’ labor is exactly how people get rich.