Originally published at http://www.commondreams.org/views/2020/12/12/our-youngest-self-made-billionaire-our-wealthys-oldest-bogus-claim
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âScaling this upâ has âbeen insanely intense, grueling.â
These pampered people have nothing to compare to, to define âgruelingâ when it comes to work. Oh, to lead young Russell into a burning building, with 60-70 lbs. of gear on, with smoke so thick there is zero visibility, on a day of 95 deg. temps and 80%-90% humidity, he might truly learn the term âgruelingâ. But jobs like that are for the âlittle peopleâ, right Russell?
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Biden appointee Cedric Richmond telling Wall Street that âNo one is going to convince me that CEOs are bad peopleâ misses the point that more than four decades of bipartisan dismantling of FDRâs New Deal regulations created a playing field where those not âbad peopleâ have the power to own enough of Congress to control it.
Richmond praising those CEOs for âcreating jobsâ misses the point that small businesses create more jobs than the big corporations Richmond is pandering to, yet corporations have benefited from bipartisan special treatment at the expense of small businesses at least since 1986 tax reform, the most regressive US tax reform in history until Trumpâs 2017 tax cuts.
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All monopoly power seeking ideologies share an opening premise .: /\ :. One extremely carefully placed get-out-of-jail-free-card. The ultimate original sin for which one engages jaw flapping mouth noises detached from any coherence whatsoever, they just have the right âtoneâ : unquestioned privilege because nothing could exist without them.
Would you like my bridge in Hoboken or San Francisco? Hurry up. The offer will expire.
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Another example of insanely intense, grueling work is working a double shift in Emerg, with Covidiots being unloaded off the Ambos, gasping for air but still claiming Covid is a hoax. ICU is Code Black, so is Emerg. Then you have in influx of idiot drivers who smashed up their big ass pickups in the first winter storm of the season, all claiming they thought their vehicles could never be wrecked in winter weather because the adverts showed it was so. Youâre trying to take vitals, medical hx, evaluate the severity of conditions, all while more patients are coming in and there are no beds available. You hope a field hospital will be set up STAT, along with some relief workers to give you a chance to grab a few minutes of sleep.
And, on the TV in the waiting room, some goon is yelling about his freedom being violated by having to wear a maskâŚand you think, fleetingly, every one of them people could spend just one shift in Emerg. Or at a nursing home.
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Itâs not the strength of their arguments that brings to the plutocrats their preferential treatment, but the power of their money to buy, at bargain basement prices, whatever it takes to get it, keep it, and forever expand it.
Joe Biden will ignore the vast array of changes needed to bring basic fairness to the tax code, and instead, for misleading show, proffer a token, a significant, needed, but narrow change, making just a minor dent in the lavish injustices enjoyed by his donors.
Joe Biden is a corporatist and a stalwart steward of their interests. Maybe you wonât even get the token.
I do thank god my EMT days were long over with before this pandemic started, I have a huge amount of empathy for those on the âfront linesâ of our medical systems and first responders right now.
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The stock market is awash in money, âwith rich investors eager to speculate on unproven firms like Russellâsâ. âTotal household net worthâ stands at $118.955 trillion says the Federal Reserveâs Flow of Funds report, page 2. About 2/3rds or $80 trillion are financial paper assets. In comparison, the federal government spent $4.4 trillion in 2019 and ran an almost $1 trillion deficit. ($984 billion) The economy has too much wealth, and it proves damaging to everyone. Excess wealth is essentially hoarded, it doesnât create productive activity, and like hoarding food, the results are damaging. Private wealth as a percentage of GDP has never been greater. Economist Wm. Lazonick reports that over 90% of the profits from the S&P 500 corporations over ten years has gone to stock buybacks and dividends â that is into the stock market. This inflates the prices of the say 2000 stocks for sale. Itâs like a dual currency, instead of saving money, it is converted into stock that appreciates faster than âmoneyâ. We need a wealth tax, such as Sanders proposed, maybe steeper. The excess wealth should be viewed by all as a leach, a parasite, a menace that destroys widespread prosperity for all. Other countries with worse inequality end up like Mexico, a disaster to live in.
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âNobodyâs going to persuade me,â Richmond [told] a gathering of the Wall Street Journal âs CEO Council, "that CEOs in this country are bad people. CEOs in this country are creating jobs, they are supporting families.ââ
I love this Neo-liberal philosophy. CEOâs create jobs. Since I am an accountant, a corporate budget never starts with how many CEOâs there are, they always start with sales projections at a certain price. Then when sales increase, the number of employees also increase.
Nothing is as fragrant bullshit than the ever more untrue Horatio Alger stories perpetrated by the rich to legitimize their usually inherited wealth.
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Now often when sales increase a company is actually able to automate more fully, sheds workers, and then sees large âefficiency gainsâ (code word for the increased profits from laying off workers, whose wages represent a significant cost that reduces profits).
The future will be one where far fewer people are likely to be employed.
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Wouldnât that cause highly mobile global capital to flee the country?
The exact opposite of what the oligarchs want?
I donât remember the details, but Sandersâ and Warrenâs plans involved a severe penalty for shifting capital off-shore, and even transferring citizenship. The penalty would discourage âmovingâ capital. Itâs a good question. Just off the top of my head I donât have an answer. But itâs a conflict or battle, how much of the financial resources logically belong in the nation that created them? All, part or none? Look it up, the search engine is waiting, I just tried it. I read about Warrenâs but not about Sanders.
The âPolitical Trilemmaâ of globalization?
Bretton Woods and its âcompromiseâ?
Weâre in very very serious trouble. The world is being stolen right out from under all of us.
Please dont bring up any of these âplansâ to me, okay?
If you want to talk about single payer, do, but donât bring up these politicians or US politics. Its completely evil. I am not interested in discussing any of them.
Youâre totally on your own there.
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Its the biggest bubble ever.
https://wallstreetonparade.com/2020/12/mission-creep-or-creepy-mission-the-new-york-feds-trading-desk-has-ballooned-to-6-59-trillion-today-from-576-billion-in-2008/
In case you dont click the link in the articleâŚyou shouldâŚ
https://wallstreetonparade.com/2019/11/these-are-the-banks-that-own-the-new-york-fed-and-its-money-button/
CEOs in this country are not necessarily âbad peopleâ but their personal Wealth is bad for the country as a whole and should be taxed accordingly.