The theft machine; makers and takers

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The party of the rich likes to characterize and caricature those with lower income as “takers,” while the rich supposedly are “makers.”

The myth is that while the rich slave, day after day, to pay your salary, the less affluent lay back in their gilded hammocks, and drink mai tais courtesy of their food stamps, Medicaid, Medicare and Social Security payments.

Ah, those beneficial, merciful, compassionate rich-folk “makers,” sweating and dying for we unappreciative “takers.”

And that is why it’s a myth.

Fact: The rich do not provide jobs, other than maid, butler, gardener and chauffeur-type jobs. The rich mostly are employees and investors, who receive huge salaries and huge dividends and other fabulous perks from the companies that provide jobs to the “makers” and “takers” alike.

The primary difference between a “maker” and a “taker” is the former makes and takes more money, while the latter makes and takes less. This imbalance — otherwise known as the “Gap” — is exactly the way the rich want it.

And when there even is a hint of possible fairness, the rich howl like overfed, but still ravenous, dogs.

For example, President Obama has just instituted a new rule requiring — get this — requiring financial advisors to give their best advice to their clients.

Their best advice? How shocking!

A new rule unveiled today by the Obama administration requires retirement advisers to always act in the best interest of their client.
by Heather Long

Currently, it is legal for an adviser to get paid more money (similar to a kickback) if he or she gets you to invest in fund A instead of fund B (even if fund B might be a better investment for you).

For example, an adviser might make $200 if he or she has you invest $10,000 in a stock fund but only $130 if he or she has you invest in a bond fund.

Why is a rule requiring your financial advisors to give you their best advice even necessary?

No one would have the stones to argue against that. Right? Well, actually . . .

The new Obama administration rule — known as the Fiduciary Standard — is a big shakeup of the industry.

Wall Street is anxious about the change. Many financial firms’ stocks plummeted in recent weeks as it became clear the White House was moving forward with the rule.

If there is anything that frightens, even angers, the rich, it’s requiring them to act in an ethical manner. The rich like to complain about “food stamp mamas” who, when they receive their $147 per month, might spend a few dollars on cigarettes. To the rich, that’s criminal!

But when the rich give you bad advice so they can rake in thousands more for themselves, well, that’s just business.

And then there’s this:

The ‘Panama Papers’ Expose the Secret World of the 1%
By Rana Foroohar and Matt Vella

The revelations will reinforce the anger of the growing number of people who believe the world’s political leaders, business tycoons and ultra-wealthy have co-opted systems designed to lift everybody up – democracy, capitalism, free markets.

It’s also only the tip of the iceberg. “The size of the leak is unprecedented, but the tricks the Mossack Fonseca (law firm) has allegedly used for its clients are neither new nor surprising,” says Heather Lowe, director of government affairs for Global Financial Integrity, a Washington-based nonprofit consultancy.

“Anonymous shell companies and the failure of governments to require lawyers, corporate-service companies or banks to collect beneficial-ownership information on clients leave the door wide open for dirty money to flow around the globe virtually unhindered.”

Globalization has allowed the capital and assets of the rich to travel more freely than those of everyone else.

The result is rampant tax avoidance, labor offshoring and a class of elites that flies 35,000 feet over the problems of nations and their taxpayers.

“The 1% can move anywhere they want and profit handsomely from the relocation,” says Peter Atwater, a behavioral economist.

“But the 99% are left with the aftermath–the empty buildings of a deserted Detroit, the toxic waste from chemical plants in West Virginia or the unsustainable tax liabilities of Puerto Rico.”

Developing and emerging economies lost $7.8 trillion in cash from 2004 to 2013 because of maneuvers like those allegedly perfected by Mossack.

Illicit outflows are increasing at a rate of 6.5% a year, twice the rate of global GDP growth.

What exactly is the problem? Corporate and personal greed, as many have suggested? Loose regulation and bribery as others claim? The rich not paying their fair share of taxes?

Not exactly.

New rules released by the U.S. Treasury on April 4 crack down on American corporations that allow themselves to be acquired by foreign firms to avoid U.S. taxes (aka “inversions.”)

How will these new rules by the Treasury, which will increase U.S. tax collections, help the 99%?

Answer: They won’t. Forcing U.S. corporations to pay more in taxes will not put even one dollar into your pockets. It might satisfy a visceral need to punish the rich, but in reality, it will cost you money, and it doesn’t punish the rich. It punishes businesses, our employers.

But it doesn’t even punish businesses.

When business income is good, businesses hire more people and pay higher salaries. That is what puts dollars in your pockets.

But taxes reduce business income. So the more taxes the federal government collects from businesses, the fewer people businesses hire, and the less they can afford to pay those people.

And no, don’t believe that if business pay their “fair share” of taxes, you’ll pay less. Federal taxes are not based on need; the federal government doesn’t “need” any taxes. None at all. Taxes are based on influence. Those with more, pay less.

In summary, business taxes punish workers.

America’s business taxes already are too high. How do I know? Just look at all those companies that want to take advantage of lower business taxes elsewhere — the “inversions” the Treasury is trying to stop.

In essence, Obama’s new rules say, “America’s businesses are trying to increase their profitability, by cutting their tax bills. That’s outrageous. We should hamper America’s businesses, by taxing them more, so they will be less competitive internationally, and less able to pay salaries.”

Not only is this ridiculous on the face of it, but it gets even more ridiculous, because as we said earlier, the U.S. federal government doesn’t need the tax dollars. Being Monetarily Sovereign, it creates all the dollars it needs, simply by paying bills.

In summary, the rich are the real “takers,” the working unrich are the real “makers,” American business is overtaxed by a government that neither needs nor uses tax money.

What is the motive for all this nonsense? The usual: To widen the “Gap” between the rich and the rest.

The rich like to portray themselves as job makers, so they can justify their outrageous salaries and tax loopholes. They want the 99% to vote for politicians who are most likely to provide tax benefits for the rich, while punishing the non-rich.

But in order to make the whole theft machine work, the rich have to promulgate the “Big Lie,” the fiction that federal taxes are necessary to fund federal spending, and the reason why Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, food stamps, etc. supposedly are “going broke.”

So co-conspirators like Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and the Republicans, pretend to create and enforce rules against gouging of the non-rich. They write meaningless little laws that never are enforced, and are offset by special tax provisions that apply only to the rich — and no bankster ever is prosecuted, much less, jailed.

I know Americans are not going to do anything about it, and will continue to believe the party line. But wouldn’t it be fun is somehow a tipping point of Americans understood that federal taxes are unnecessary?

Meanwhile, the theft machine grinds on.

Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
Monetary Sovereignty

 

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Ten Steps to Prosperity:
1. Eliminate FICA (Click here)
2. Federally funded Medicare — parts A, B & D plus long term nursing care — for everyone (Click here)
3. Provide an Economic Bonus to every man, woman and child in America, and/or every state a per capita Economic Bonus. (Click here) Or institute a reverse income tax.
4. Free education (including post-grad) for everyone. Click here
5. Salary for attending school (Click here)
6. Eliminate corporate taxes (Click here)
7. Increase the standard income tax deduction annually Click here
8. Tax the very rich (.1%) more, with higher, progressive tax rates on all forms of income. (Click here)
9. Federal ownership of all banks (Click here and here)
10. Increase federal spending on the myriad initiatives that benefit America’s 99% (Click here)

The Ten Steps will grow the economy, and narrow the income/wealth/power Gap between the rich and you.
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10 Steps to Economic Misery: (Click here:)
1. Maintain or increase the FICA tax..
2. Spread the myth Social Security, Medicare and the U.S. government are insolvent.
3. Cut federal employment in the military, post office, other federal agencies.
4. Broaden the income tax base so more lower income people will pay.
5. Cut financial assistance to the states.
6. Spread the myth federal taxes pay for federal spending.
7. Allow banks to trade for their own accounts; save them when their investments go sour.
8. Never prosecute any banker for criminal activity.
9. Nominate arch conservatives to the Supreme Court.
10. Reduce the federal deficit and debt

THE RECESSION CLOCK

Recessions begin an average of 2 years after the blue line first dips below zero. A common phenomenon is for the line briefly to dip below zero, then rise above zero, before falling dramatically below zero. There was a brief dip below zero in 2015, followed by another dip – the familiar pre-recession pattern.
Recessions are cured by a rising red line.

Vertical gray bars mark recessions.

As the federal deficit growth lines drop, we approach recession, which will be cured only when the growth lines rise. Increasing federal deficit growth (aka “stimulus”) is necessary for long-term economic growth.

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Mitchell’s laws:
•Those, who do not understand the differences between Monetary Sovereignty and monetary non-sovereignty, do not understand economics.
•Any monetarily NON-sovereign government — be it city, county, state or nation — that runs an ongoing trade deficit, eventually will run out of money.
•The more federal budgets are cut and taxes increased, the weaker an economy becomes..
•No nation can tax itself into prosperity, nor grow without money growth.
•Cutting federal deficits to grow the economy is like applying leeches to cure anemia.
•A growing economy requires a growing supply of money (GDP = Federal Spending + Non-federal Spending + Net Exports)
•Deficit spending grows the supply of money
•The limit to federal deficit spending is an inflation that cannot be cured with interest rate control.
•The limit to non-federal deficit spending is the ability to borrow.

•Liberals think the purpose of government is to protect the poor and powerless from the rich and powerful. Conservatives think the purpose of government is to protect the rich and powerful from the poor and powerless.

•The single most important problem in economics is the Gap between rich and the rest..
•Austerity is the government’s method for widening the Gap between rich and poor.
•Until the 99% understand the need for federal deficits, the upper 1% will rule.
•Everything in economics devolves to motive, and the motive is the Gap between the rich and the rest..

MONETARY SOVEREIGNTY