[andyt]

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/konrad-yakabuski/is-the-us-headed-for-another-great-depression/article2056781/

Long article. To summarize:

Quote:

“The larger truth is that the pressure to rein in government spending, coupled with continued pressure on household consumption from soft house prices, points to tough times ahead,” he wrote in a June 3 report. “The latest grim jobs report may not be the last.”

It probably won't turn into a depression. For millions of Americans without anything else to compare it to, it will only feel like one.

[BartSimpson]

Which is why the Democrats in Congress think that now is a fine time to push for a 70% tax rate on top earners with a low-end rate of 15% to 20%.

[andyt]

BartSimpson wrote:

Which is why the Democrats in Congress think that now is a fine time to push for a 70% tax rate on top earners with a low-end rate of 15% to 20%.

And the Republicons think that low taxes for the rich and kicking the shit out of social supports will do the trick.

Actually I havn't heard any push from the Dems for a 70% tax rate. What I've heard from people like Warren Buffet is a 2% raise on the top rate for amounts over $250,000. Oh, the humanity!

[BartSimpson]

andyt wrote:

Actually I haven't heard any push from the Dems for a 70% tax rate.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142 ... lenews_wsj

[Thanos]

As long as the Republican House wrongly concentrates on so-called deficit fighting, refuse to increase any government revenue at all through even the most minor of tax increases, and trying to destroy more regulations that (barely) keep the thieves on Wall Street contained, and at the same time completely ignore helping individual home-owners and still do nothing for job creation, then there is a strong possibility that things could get worse. Most likely this current moment of stagnation is just a minor plateau until things start slowly moving upwards again.

Tim Pawlenty wants to bring in tax cuts for the upper 1% that are four times larger than the ones George W. Bush brought in. Strangely enough no one ever seems to notice that the Bush tax cuts occurred at the same time as massive job losses exponentially kept increasing. One would think that eventually the underclass of poor white people that keep the reactionary and revanchist GOP afloat would become aware that it's the uber-wealthy that are continually raping them, and not the poor nonwhite folks that are in an even worse situation than the poor whites are. Kind of astounding actually that this keeps occurring, even in a country with as abysmally awful an education system as the one in the US.

[andyt]

Playing the races off against each other has a long, ignoble history in the US. "I may be a poor ignorant fuck, but at least I'm not a black, poor, ignorant fuck." Plus the US has to have one of the most servile populations in history. No landed nobility, just the ueberclass and the rest eager to suck their dicks because they're convinced one day they'll get to be the suckee. Europeans are much tougher in that regard, and less delusional.

Kurt Vonnegut: "

Quote:

America is the wealthiest nation on Earth, but its people are mainly poor, and poor Americans are urged to hate themselves. To quote the American humorist Kin Hubbard, “It ain’t no disgrace to be poor, but it might as well be.” It is in fact a crime for an American to be poor, even though America is a nation of poor. Every other nation has folk traditions of men who were poor but extremely wise and virtuous, and therefore more estimable than anyone with power and gold. No such tales are told by the American poor. They mock themselves and glorify their betters. The meanest eating or drinking establishment, owned by a man who is himself poor, is very likely to have a sign on its wall asking this cruel question: “if you’re so smart, why ain’t you rich?” There will also be an American flag no larger than a child’s hand – glued to a lollipop stick and flying from the cash register.

Americans, like human beings everywhere, believe many things that are obviously untrue. Their most destructive untruth is that it is very easy for any American to make money. They will not acknowledge how in fact hard money is to come by, and, therefore, those who have no money blame and blame and blame themselves. This inward blame has been a treasure for the rich and powerful, who have had to do less for their poor, publicly and privately, than any other ruling class since, say Napoleonic times. Many novelties have come from America. The most startling of these, a thing without precedent, is a mass of undignified poor. They do not love one another because they do not love themselves.

[DerbyX]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_thelookou ... record-low

Workers’ share of national income plummets to record low

[BartSimpson]

The bottom line here, kids, is that no Democrat tax increase is going to get by a Republican House of Representatives. Likewise, any Republican tax cut will be dead on arrival in the Democrat Senate no matter what Obama thinks of it.

So revenue changes ( plus or minus) are not a topic for discussion until after the 2012 elections.

That leaves the Congress being forced to cut spending since they can't borrow on the scale they've done the past couple years.

With the US government's debt being downgraded the cost of interest service is going to go up and impact the budget more than it did last year and by 2013 T-bills are anticipated to be rated A if spending is not controlled before things get to where the Congress has no choice but to cut spending because no one will lend to them.

[andyt]

Even the Repubs are scared to touch any of the significant entitlements. As soon as what's his face proposed cutting medicare, all the teabaggers were all "keep your government hands off my medicare" and the repub mainstream backed off. And the repubs aren't going to touch the military. So good luck with cutting spending.

[Proculation]

DerbyX wrote:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_thelookout/20110614/bs_yblog_thelookout/workers-share-of-national-income-plummets-to-record-low

Workers’ share of national income plummets to record low

And ?

[DerbyX]

Your capitalist creedo is crushing the workers beneath its boot heels.

[andyt]

Proculation wrote:

DerbyX wrote:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_thelookout/20110614/bs_yblog_thelookout/workers-share-of-national-income-plummets-to-record-low

Workers’ share of national income plummets to record low

And ?

It causes dissatisfaction and discouragement among the working people. The myth that you can make it just by working hard gets popped. Not good for society. Too bad that Derby's graph doesn't include the 1920's, because it likely looked just like present day. Not good.

[Proculation]

It's the share of income. That doesn't say they get less incomes, only a less percentage of the global income. It's not really relevant.

[BartSimpson]

Proculation wrote:

It's the share of income. That doesn't say they get less incomes, only a less percentage of the global income. It's not really relevant.

It's relevant to leftists who are only happy when everyone is equally miserable.

[Proculation]

BartSimpson wrote:

Proculation wrote:

It's the share of income. That doesn't say they get less incomes, only a less percentage of the global income. It's not really relevant.

It's relevant to leftists who are only happy when everyone is equally miserable.

Leftists still think that when someone makes money or profit, it must have "stolen" it from someone. That the economy is big pie and that if someone makes more money, there is less for everyone else. That's quite a 17th century way of thinking. What I'm wondering is if they think like that for a purpose (more socialism, less liberties) or if they are just uneducated. I guess it's a mix of the two.