Mitchell’s laws:
●The more federal budgets are cut and taxes increased, the weaker an economy becomes.
●Austerity is the government’s method for widening the gap between rich and poor, which leads to civil disorder.
●Until the 99% understand the need for federal deficits, the upper 1% will rule.
●To survive long term, a monetarily non-sovereign government must have a positive balance of payments.
●Those, who do not understand the differences between Monetary Sovereignty and monetary non-sovereignty, do not understand economics.
●The penalty for ignorance is slavery.
●Everything in economics devolves to motivation.
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Well, we have an new protest organization. It’s called “Flip the Debt.” Unfortunately, like the Occupy” movement, they don’t understand economics. So they think our problem is corporations and rich people not paying enough tax.
Here is their press release:
Flip The Debt and Us Uncut Honeywell Action Press Release
Posted by Emine Dilek on Sunday, February 10, 2013Honeywell CEO David Cote and ‘Fix the Debt’ will host a public event on Monday.
Unfortunately for them, a coalition of groups including FLIP THE DEBT, the Alliance for Retired Americans, and US Uncut will hijack their party to elevate our message about the hypocrisy of corporate tax dodgers demanding cuts to social programs.
‘Fix the Debt’ claims to seek bi-partisan solutions to reduce the federal debt and deficit, but Fix the Debt is a CEO-led group whose real objective is huge corporate tax breaks and drastic cuts in Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid.
The hypocrisy is stunning…
David Cote and his CEO friends receive a lot from government:
In 2011, the firm got $725 million in government deals, making it the 35th-largest federal contractor.However, these companies contribute very little in taxes: Honeywell’s actual tax rate from 2008-2011 was 2 percent. They are not alone. Corporate taxes as a share of GDP are near record lows.
Perhaps even more galling is Cote’s demand for cuts to earned benefit programs. Cote has $78 million in his Honeywell retirement accounts, enough to qualify for monthly retirement checks of $428,000 starting at age 65. In contrast the average retiree receives just $1,237 a month from Social Security.
If you think it’s time we stand up against corporate tax dodgers, RSVP to the page NOW! Please RSVP ‘Going’ regardless of whether you can attend. This will help you stay connected with the action. Also, we encourage people to post news, info, and photos about corporate tax dodgers on this wall.
Flip the Debt made good on its promise of protest:
When Honeywell CEO David Cote arrived at Saint Anselm College, he had expected a warmer reception. As the host of Monday’s “Fix The Debt” campaign event, Cote, whose company has come under heavy scrutiny by corporate watchdogs and tax advocates for its use of offshore tax havens, spoke only for three minutes before activists from the “Flip The Debt” campaign interrupted him with a message of protest, before being escorted out by police.
“Offshore tax havens” are not the problem. Low corporate taxes are not the problem. (In fact, they are beneficial.) The problem is a too-wide income gap and a too-low deficit.
You could do Flip the Gap a favor by going to their site and suggesting they immerse themselves in Monetary Sovereignty and/or Modern Monetary Theory. The basics don’t take long to understand, and this will make their protests productive. (You may have to do it via tweets, as I was unable to find an Email address at their site, http://www.flipthedebt.org/)
Otherwise, they’ll just be another Occupy movement that failed to accomplish much, because it refused to learn the facts.
It will be a shame to see their energy wasted.
Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
Monetary Sovereignty
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Nine Steps to Prosperity:
1. Eliminate FICA (Click here)
2. Medicare — parts A, B & D — for everyone
3. Send every American citizen an annual check for $5,000 or give every state $5,000 per capita (Click here)
4. Long-term nursing care for everyone
5. Free education (including post-grad) for everyone
6. Salary for attending school (Click here)
7. Eliminate corporate taxes
8. Increase the standard income tax deduction annually
9. Increase federal spending on the myriad initiatives that benefit America’s 99%
No nation can tax itself into prosperity, nor grow without money growth. Monetary Sovereignty: Cutting federal deficits to grow the economy is like applying leeches to cure anemia. Two key equations in economics:
Federal Deficits – Net Imports = Net Private Savings
Gross Domestic Product = Federal Spending + Private Investment and Consumption – Net Imports
#MONETARY SOVEREIGNTY
#Monetary Sovereignty - Mitchell 
Roger, I got to give it to you, you really keep trying to get the message out about Monetary Sovereignty. I have studied economics as a hobby for years. Just a quick read of your blog, followed up with some research should do the trick, it did for me. I sometimes think people just want something to bitch about, rather then putting in a little effort to educate themselves. For now just keep on keeping on Roger
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Thanks,
To quote Ringo, “It don’t come easy, you know, it don’t come easy.”
The young people have the energy and they enjoy protesting against “the man,” but they don’t like learning facts. The question is, “How can that energy be used productively.”
Right now, they have no idea what they are doing or asking for. I smell “Occupy” all over again.
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Here is an excerpt from Flip the Debt web site:
They are angry at the 1% (good), but for the wrong reasons. They still are brainwashed into believing federal taxes pay for federal spending.
I hope people contact them and urge them to learn Monetary Sovereignty.
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1.) Michael Strunk writes, “Sometimes think people just want something to bitch about, rather than putting in a little effort to educate themselves.”
Exactly. That is why I say that the peasants do most of their own brainwashing. They are auto-brainwashers.
2.) Rodger writes, “I smell ‘Occupy’ all over again. It will be a shame to see their energy wasted.”
It’s worse than wasted. Their energy harms average people. Indeed, Flip-the-Debt leads me to suggest another corollary to Mitchell’s Laws…
–>If you do not understand Monetary Sovereignty, then no matter how well intentioned are your words and deeds, you serve the 1% at the expense of the 99%.
Put another way, if you do not understand the cause of anemia, then any “cure,” no matter how well intentioned, will worsen the anemia.
Consider the Flip-the-Debt people. Their anger is understandable, since Honeywell CEO David Cote (pronounced ‘CO-tee’) wants to eliminate or privatize Social Security. Mr. Cote collects $500k per month, while the average Social Security check is less than $1.4k per month.
However the Flip-the-Debt people’s anger is a trap, because it is misplaced. Misplaced anger locks people into mental ruts, such that they deny reality. Misplaced anger makes people smugly refuse to listen when you explain that the failure to pay taxes does not cost the federal government anything, since the U.S. government does not need or use tax revenue. Misplaced anger makes people demand that the rich pay taxes; a demand that is as futile as it is unnecessary. The rich will never pay taxes, and even if they did, it would not make a penny’s worth of difference to average people’s standard of living.
In short, misplaced anger makes people defend the lies that keep them enslaved. That is why the 1% and their minions encourage misplaced anger, often supporting grass-roots movements against the 1%, in order to strengthen the 1%. As long as the peasants are angry than the 1% pay no taxes, the peasants will reject the facts of Monetary Sovereignty, and thereby submit to austerity, which widens the gap.
See how the Flip-the-Debt people angrily (and fallaciously) claim that corporations and the 1% have stolen over $2.3 trillion from the U.S. Treasury by not paying taxes, and continue to steal $100 billion every year. The Flip-the-Debt people log these figures in a ‘debt clock’ on their web site. Such items and emotions sustain lies about federal finances, and thus sustain the power of the 1%.
By contrast, consider a young person who has no interest in these matters, and no fierce resentment against the rich. Such a person is not yet trapped by misplaced anger, and therefore may well be open to the learning about the facts of Monetary Sovereignty.
Another example of people trapped by misplaced anger is Ellen Brown and her countless disciples. They want publicly owned banks like the Bank of North Dakota, and I agree with them. (Banks should NEVER be oriented around a private profit motive.) However Ms. Brown and her devotees insist that ALL money in the U.S. economy (except coins) originates in banks, and is lent to the U.S. government. All of it; even dollar bills. (In reality, currency notes are produced by the US Bureau of Printing and Engraving, a branch of the U.S. Treasury). Two days ago Ms. Brown wrote in her blog, “Today we have no permanent money supply. People and governments are drowning in debt because our money comes into existence only as a debt to banks at interest.” Ms. Brown makes this claim often, but she never offers any poof for it. However her total lack of facts and evidence makes her absolutely “right.”
Ms. Brown and her followers are too blindly fanatic to see their own self-contradictions. For example, they say the U.S. government bails out banks. However, if all money comes from banks (as Ms. Brown claims) then banks actually bail out themselves, yes? No, Ms. Brown says the government bails out banks. I have tried to correct Ms. Brown in her countless errors, using very courteous and respectful language. (Not the acerbic language I use here.) She deletes all my comments.
My point?
Again, if you do not understand the facts of Monetary Sovereignty, then no matter how well intentioned are your words and deeds, you serve the 1% at the expense of the 99%.
Thus, the Flip-the-Debt people as useless and counter-productive as the Occupy people.
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Mark, it’s even worse than “The rich will never pay taxes, and even if they did, it would not make a penny’s worth of difference to average people’s standard of living.”
Actually, when the rich pay taxes, dollars are removed from the economy — dollars that would be spent or invested. All taxes are harmful (except perhaps for “sin” taxes.)
As is so common today, the people demand what hurts them.
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You’re right, Rodger.
I shall amend my statement to: “The rich will never pay taxes, and even if they did, it would LOWER the average person’s standard of living.”
The federal tax issue is a red herring sustained by the 1% and their puppets to enslave the peasants. As long as the peasants demand that rich people pay taxes, the peasants will never demand direct participation in the creation of money and loans.
Therefore it is possible that both “Flip-the-Debt” and “Occupy” consist of mobs of people led by key figures who are paid by the 1% to distract the herd.
As for the herd itself, the reason why people are peasants is that they think like peasants. Common folk regard money-creation as a process that is “above them,” and “too complex to understand.” Indeed they insist in being inferior. An example is Ellen Brown’s insistence that all money in the US economy consists of bank loans. ALL of it. Ms. Brown is a peasant defending her ignorance and inferiority.
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“Actually, when the rich pay taxes, dollars are removed from the economy — dollars that would be spent or invested. All taxes are harmful (except perhaps for “sin” taxes.)”.
And, what Rodger, if those “investments” are counterproductive and destroy the real economy? What if they are destructive of the poor, working and middle class because theiir so-called investments are used as economic WMD’s. I believe you oversimplify things.
“PEASANTS”, Mark! It doesn’t ever end does it? Also, explain how it lowers my standard of living. Is it because they are the job creators? The masters?
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1.) “And, what Rodger, if those “investments” are counterproductive and destroy the real economy? What if they are destructive of the poor, working and middle class because their so-called investments are used as economic WMD’s. I believe you oversimplify things.”
Federal taxes are potentially useful to discourage human behavior, e.g. taxes on polluters. The problem is that federal taxes on anyone, including the rich, and including “sin taxes,” lower everyone’s standard of living, because federal taxes remove money from the economy, and destroy that money. Destroy as in vaporize. Poof. Gone.
Therefore, why not emphasize rewards instead of punishments? Why not have government subsidies for people and companies that do not pollute the environment, or do other harmful things? That way, parties who receive the subsidies will crowd out the offenders, while the economy is not starved of money.
Generally speaking, humans tend to be more motivated by the promise of reward than by the threat of punishment.
2.) “PEASANTS”, Mark! It doesn’t ever end does it? Also, explain how it lowers my standard of living. Is it because they are the job creators? The masters?”
Average people are peasants because they THINK like peasants. I want average people to stop thinking like peasants.
An example of thinking like a peasant is the childish demand that the 1% pay taxes, under the false assumption that this will materially benefit the 99%. The federal government creates its money on computer keyboards. It does not need or use federal tax revenue, and in fact destroys it upon receipt. You can trace the path of federal tax revenues through Treasury Tax and Lien accounts, plus various Federal Reserve gyrations. However, since the federal government creates its money on keyboards, and since ALL money consists of digital values in digital bank ledgers, the result is the same: federal tax revenue is destroyed upon receipt.
About a third of IRS offices let you pay federal taxes in cash if you wish, but those currency bills are credited to a computerized TT&L account, which returns us to the fact that all money is digital. (The dollar bill in your hand is not money. It is a currency note. It is a claim to ownership of a digital value that consists of a dollar’s worth of the ‘faith and credit of the United States.’) And when a nation has Monetary Sovereignty, the nation has no limit to how much digital money it can create. Thus, the federal government does not need or use tax revenue.
So I ask again, how will taxing the 1% materially help the 99%?
Instead of complaining that the rich have money, why don’t you condemn austerity, which is genocide perpetrated by the rich? Instead of weeping because the rich do not pay taxes, why not demand greater public participation in the process of money creation? That is, instead of seeking to bring the rich down, why don’t you seek to bring everyone else up?
Here is an analogy…Two armies meet on the battlefield. One army is totally modern. The other has only spears and swords, but it attacks anyway, in other to “punish” its enemy, and is promptly slaughtered. The rich correspond to the modern army. You correspond to the army with swords and spears.
Therefore, why don’t you learn about the facts of Monetary Sovereignty, so your army can have the same power as the rich?
Why not stop thinking in terms of “punishment,” and start thinking in terms of POWER?
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There is an argument for taxing the rich albeit not a strictly economic one. That is the ability to amass power through fortune.
Though it should be taxation on wealth rather than income.
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Power comes from the gap between the rich and the rest. Reduce the gap and you reduce the power of the rich. I prefer reducing the gap by lifting the lower classes than by bringing down the higher classes.
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I think you have to do both. Within a capitalist system the exponential function dictates that those with an advantage must expand that advantage and you end up back where you started i.e. feudalism.
The accumulators at the top end up with everything. That’s how we got to where we are.
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