Why winning teams fill stadiums

Twitter: @rodgermitchell; Search #monetarysovereignty
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It takes only two things to keep people in chains: The ignorance of the oppressed and the treachery of their leaders.
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Everything we do and everything we believe is dominated by pleasure and pain. 

Winning teams fill stadiums because we find pleasure in seeing our team win. We go to the stadium to experience that pleasure. We avoid losing teams because we feel pain when our team loses.

Our brains are wired to seek pleasure and to avoid pain. It’s that simple.

At last counting, President Donald Trump has a 36% approval rating. Progressives shake their heads in wonderment.

They ask each other. “How can so many conservatives approve of a proven serial liar, cheater, scam artist, blame-denying, fact-denying, incompetent braggart, who is incapable of reading, writing or holding a coherent thought longer than 140 characters or 30 seconds, whichever comes first. How can this man be the President of the United States, they ask?

Conservatives ask why progressives believe that criminals like Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, and the lazy poor, the ignorant, the alien, irreligious, terrorist, child-killing abortionists should be allowed in America to be fed, housed and coddled with tax dollars.

Both sides read, watch, and hear what they wish to believe because that gives them pleasure.

So the progressives tend to read, watch, and hear the mainstream media and such as Rachel Maddow, et al, which each day report on Trump’s and conservative foibles.

The conservatives find pleasure with Breitbart, Fox, Alex Jones, Rush Limbaugh, Shawn Hannity, Sarah Palin, et al.

The progressive view the conservatives as mean-spirited and stupid, while the conservatives view the progressives as bleeding hearts — and also stupid.

But neither side is as described. It’s just that

Image result for stretching taffy
“The centre cannot hold.”

each side’s beliefs are reinforced by their daily education, pulling the right and left ever further apart, thinning the middle, until extremism becomes the norm, and the middle is despised as “RINOs” and “DINOs.”

When compromise and understanding are considered disloyal weakness, while hatred and bigotry are considered righteous strength, then into the breach steps the tyrant.

Every dictator in history has based his/her rule on hatred and fear, which for evolutionary reasons have been more powerful than love and compassion.

It is less dangerous to hate or fear the stranger and the strange, than to take them into your arms.

The pull is happening here. We have drifted apart and are drifting further.

There is no compromise. Congressional votes tend to be nearly 100% partisan. Even the supposedly unbiased Supreme Court is, in fact, one of the most biased and politically divided agencies in the entire federal government.

A lion used to prowl about a field in which Four Oxen used to dwell. Many a time he tried to attack them; but whenever he came near they turned their tails to warn another, so that whichever way he approached them he was met by the horns of one of them.

At last, however, they fell a-quarrelling among themselves, and each went off to pasture alone in the separate corner of the field.

Then the Lion attacked them one by one and soon made an end of all four.

United we stand, divided we fall.

Aesop

We have been united in the past. If only our leader’s motto had been, “Make America United, again.” Ah, if only . . .

But it is not in the character of the man.  He is too insecure, too frightened to take into his arms, any who disagree with him. He is a born divider, with him, of necessity being the victor, and all others being losers.

How then can the United States become united, again?

The proven method for bringing a people together is to oppose a common enemy.

America was never more united than during World War II, when Germany, Italy, and Japan comprised “the Axis,” the enemy against whom the Allies fought.

War always provides a common enemy. But short of an unthinkable, major war against a major opponent — for instance a war against China or Russia — the United States will have to look elsewhere for its common enemy to bring us together.

And in this regard I have a suggestion: The common enemy can be Donald Trump. He has alienated Democrats. He has alienated independents. He continues to alienate Republicans, libertarians, the religious, the atheists, the gays, blacks, women, scientists, immigrants — the list seems endless.

In an ironic way, Donald Trump, the divider, may have been sent here to provide a focus for our enmity — the ultimate uniter.

Congress and the people can go on without him, working together and leaving him behind to fume and fuss behind his childish mutterings.

Progressives can progress, and conservatives can conserve, and both can give and take, ignoring the divisions and embracing the common ideals that built the United States.

Trump has led Republicans into disaster. They have good reasons to view him as the enemy and to break out from under his thumb and to work with the Democrats.

It will take courage on both sides. Compromise always takes courage. But given a common enemy, it can be done.

Winning teams fill stadiums, and when compromise begins to win, the public will find pleasure in becoming fans.

We now need that first step, that first win.

Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
Monetary Sovereignty

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The single most important problems in economics involve the excessive income/wealth/power Gaps between the have-mores and the have-less.

Wide Gaps negatively affect poverty, health and longevity, education, housing, law and crime, war, leadership, ownership, bigotry, supply and demand, taxation, GDP, international relations, scientific advancement, the environment, human motivation and well-being, and virtually every other issue in economics.

Implementation of The Ten Steps To Prosperity can narrow the Gaps:

Ten Steps To Prosperity:
1. ELIMINATE FICA (Ten Reasons to Eliminate FICA )
Although the article lists 10 reasons to eliminate FICA, there are two fundamental reasons:
*FICA is the most regressive tax in American history, widening the Gap by punishing the low and middle-income groups, while leaving the rich untouched, and
*The federal government, being Monetarily Sovereign, neither needs nor uses FICA to support Social Security and Medicare.
2. FEDERALLY FUNDED MEDICARE — PARTS A, B & D, PLUS LONG TERM CARE — FOR EVERYONE (H.R. 676, Medicare for All )
This article addresses the questions:
*Does the economy benefit when the rich can afford better health care than can the rest of Americans?
*Aside from improved health care, what are the other economic effects of “Medicare for everyone?”
*How much would it cost taxpayers?
*Who opposes it?”
3. PROVIDE A MONTHLY ECONOMIC BONUS TO EVERY MAN, WOMAN AND CHILD IN AMERICA (similar to Social Security for All) (The JG (Jobs Guarantee) vs the GI (Guaranteed Income) vs the EB (Economic Bonus)) Or institute a reverse income tax.
This article is the fifth in a series about direct financial assistance to Americans:

Why Modern Monetary Theory’s Employer of Last Resort is a bad idea. Sunday, Jan 1 2012
MMT’s Job Guarantee (JG) — “Another crazy, rightwing, Austrian nutjob?” Thursday, Jan 12 2012
Why Modern Monetary Theory’s Jobs Guarantee is like the EU’s euro: A beloved solution to the wrong problem. Tuesday, May 29 2012
“You can’t fire me. I’m on JG” Saturday, Jun 2 2012

Economic growth should include the “bottom” 99.9%, not just the .1%, the only question being, how best to accomplish that. Modern Monetary Theory (MMT) favors giving everyone a job. Monetary Sovereignty (MS) favors giving everyone money. The five articles describe the pros and cons of each approach.
4. FREE EDUCATION (INCLUDING POST-GRAD) FOR EVERYONE Five reasons why we should eliminate school loans
Monetarily non-sovereign State and local governments, despite their limited finances, support grades K-12. That level of education may have been sufficient for a largely agrarian economy, but not for our currently more technical economy that demands greater numbers of highly educated workers.
Because state and local funding is so limited, grades K-12 receive short shrift, especially those schools whose populations come from the lowest economic groups. And college is too costly for most families.
An educated populace benefits a nation, and benefitting the nation is the purpose of the federal government, which has the unlimited ability to pay for K-16 and beyond.
5. SALARY FOR ATTENDING SCHOOL
Even were schooling to be completely free, many young people cannot attend, because they and their families cannot afford to support non-workers. In a foundering boat, everyone needs to bail, and no one can take time off for study.
If a young person’s “job” is to learn and be productive, he/she should be paid to do that job, especially since that job is one of America’s most important.
6. ELIMINATE FEDERAL TAXES ON BUSINESS
Businesses are dollar-transferring machines. They transfer dollars from customers to employees, suppliers, shareholders and the federal government (the later having no use for those dollars). Any tax on businesses reduces the amount going to employees, suppliers and shareholders, which diminishes the economy. Ultimately, all business taxes reduce your personal income.
7. INCREASE THE STANDARD INCOME TAX DEDUCTION, ANNUALLY. (Refer to this.) Federal taxes punish taxpayers and harm the economy. The federal government has no need for those punishing and harmful tax dollars. There are several ways to reduce taxes, and we should evaluate and choose the most progressive approaches.
Cutting FICA and business taxes would be a good early step, as both dramatically affect the 99%. Annual increases in the standard income tax deduction, and a reverse income tax also would provide benefits from the bottom up. Both would narrow the Gap.
8. TAX THE VERY RICH (THE “.1%) MORE, WITH HIGHER PROGRESSIVE TAX RATES ON ALL FORMS OF INCOME. (TROPHIC CASCADE)
There was a time when I argued against increasing anyone’s federal taxes. After all, the federal government has no need for tax dollars, and all taxes reduce Gross Domestic Product, thereby negatively affecting the entire economy, including the 99.9%.
But I have come to realize that narrowing the Gap requires trimming the top. It simply would not be possible to provide the 99.9% with enough benefits to narrow the Gap in any meaningful way. Bill Gates reportedly owns $70 billion. To get to that level, he must have been earning $10 billion a year. Pick any acceptable Gap (1000 to 1?), and the lowest paid American would have to receive $10 million a year. Unreasonable.
9. FEDERAL OWNERSHIP OF ALL BANKS (Click The end of private banking and How should America decide “who-gets-money”?)
Banks have created all the dollars that exist. Even dollars created at the direction of the federal government, actually come into being when banks increase the numbers in checking accounts. This gives the banks enormous financial power, and as we all know, power corrupts — especially when multiplied by a profit motive.
Although the federal government also is powerful and corrupted, it does not suffer from a profit motive, the world’s most corrupting influence.
10. INCREASE FEDERAL SPENDING ON THE MYRIAD INITIATIVES THAT BENEFIT AMERICA’S 99.9% (Federal agencies)Browse the agencies. See how many agencies benefit the lower- and middle-income/wealth/ power groups, by adding dollars to the economy and/or by actions more beneficial to the 99.9% than to the .1%.
Save this reference as your primer to current economics. Sadly, much of the material is not being taught in American schools, which is all the more reason for you to use it.

The Ten Steps will grow the economy, and narrow the income/wealth/power Gap between the rich and you.

MONETARY SOVEREIGNTY

8 thoughts on “Why winning teams fill stadiums

  1. I agree that it’s compassion, but it’s definitely not education. But it sure makes you feel good to call those who disagree with your approach, stupid.

    I bet you dislike monopolies because they tend to exploit their market strength, yet you like Obamacare because 30 million get healthcare insurance at the expense and exploitation of the 330 million. How compassionate and educated are you.

    Yet we both know there are 100 year anti monopoly laws that would immediately kill the medical care company monopolies if applied, everyone else has been to abide by these laws, except medical care.

    Of course the congress will never sell anything that doesn’t sound “compassionate”, nobody would buy into into. But they do pray on the regular joe who has no time to figure out he is being dup’ed.

    How compassionate and educated are you.

    Once again, I grew up a democrat and my siblings remain the same. I have a masters degree which didn’t make me smarter, I just opened my eyes. Liberals, especially those in government, make me sick.

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      1. 1. Hospitals charge whatever they want.
        2. Hospitals do not post prices.
        3. Hospitals are monopolies.
        4. We have a 100 year law that makes monopolies illegal.

        If your goal is to make health care cheaper for all, insurance won’t do it. You actually support more monopolies by supporting Obamacare or single payer system.

        Applying the 100 year law does fix the issue in killing the monopolies.

        Is that still too difficult to understand?

        Liked by 1 person

  2. Flash, facts are easily understood. But your superciliousness, together with your repeated errors, are less tolerable.

    Re. your comments:

    1. Wrong. Neither insurance companies no Medicare allow hospitals to “charge whatever they want.”
    2. Any patient actually can request prices in advance, though few take advantage of that option.
    3. Hospitals are not monopolies, in most areas. I live in an area containing dozens of hospitals, which is typical for the majority of America’s population.
    4. Some monopolies have been found to be illegal, some not, and the most important laws in this area are not 100 years old.

    So all four of your comments are incorrect, as has become typical of your messages.

    My concern, however, is not with your “Trumpist” degree of truth and accuracy, but rather with the need for people to have health care. Federally funded, Medicare for All would go a long way toward providing that care.

    If you ever bothered to try to understand Monetary Sovereignty — the title of this blog — you would know that federal taxes do not fund federal spending, so federally funded Medicare for All would cost you nothing, while it stimulated the economy.

    Additionally, paying doctors and hospitals would increase the availability of doctors and hospitals, so overall care would improve.

    Apparently, it never has occurred to wonder how federal financing differs from state and local government financing. You continue to display abject ignorance of Monetary Sovereignty, or you would not repeatedly stress about the money hospitals and doctors receive.

    Sadly, you seem to feel you have learned all you ever will know by the age of five, and now your job is to write disagreeable comments to those who actually have studied the subject for many years.

    If ever you wish actually to learn something, rather than simply mouthing words, start with learning the basics of Monetary Sovereignty. I would be glad to answer your questions.

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    1. 1. Explain how it’s possible for a hospital to charge 80k for an aspirin and a one night got stay.

      2. Why don’t you run a test and let me know how it goes. I bet you won’t get any pricing details past “it depends”.

      3. Monpolies doesn’t equate to being only one. Monopolies typically get a blind eye f m governments. The medical industry as a whole doesn’t have to post prices, yet its illegal for a gas station to do so. Imagine what would happen if gas stations didn’t have to you tell you the price before filling? That’s 5k for 10 gallons. Heck yes, the medical industry is a monopoly.

      4. No sir, we have anti trust laws. There are no legal monopolies. They are all illegal. here https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clayton_Antitrust_Act:

      The solution is simple. End the monopolistic behavior of the industry.

      Your plan is to reward theft and illegal activity. So who’s the compassionate here and who’s the promoter of theft and lawlessness?

      Not a surprise that you are from Illinois – the state of mobsters.

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