Do you deserve to be a desperate, low-wage worker? Protest. Learn. Vote.

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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The pundits continue to mislead the public about Monetary Sovereignty, and that is just what the rich want. If you accept their lies, you will have less and less, while they have more and more — and that will make you desperate enough to slave permanently for low wages.

In June, three columnists were quoted by The Week Magazine, Tom Rogan, Michael Tanner, and Jordan Weissmann. What these three men said was outrageously wrong, but it is the norm in today’s “made-to-misinform,” “owned-by-the-rich” media.

First, Rogan:

Why Trump’s budget is smart to propose cuts to healthcare research

The failure to reform entitlements is economic insanity. It will bury the nation in debt, and restrain the opportunities available to future generations.

“The money has run out,” said Rogan in WashingtonExaminer.com. This country is “taking on persistent deficits” and “slowly drowning” in $20 million of national debt.

Translations:

1. “Reform entitlements” is conservative-speak for “gut Medicare, gut Medicaid, and gut Social Security.” This would widen the Gap between the rich and the rest, exactly what the rich pay the media to do.
2. The so-called “debt” actually is the total of deposits in T-security accounts at the world’s safest bank, the Federal Reserve Bank. Does Rogan call his local bank’s deposits “debt”? Does he claim that his local bank is “drowning” in deposits? Why does he say it about the world’s safest bank? Paid by the rich.
3. Federal “deficits” are the net dollars the government spends into the economy. Federal deficits are the economy’s income. Federal deficits are an economic surplus. If the federal government didn’t run deficits (economic surpluses), the economy would have no income other than net exports (which we seldom run), and we would fall into a depression.

Misunderstandings would disappear if we properly called the misnamed debt, “deposits,” and the misnamed deficits, economic “surpluses.”

Here is a bit of history. Debt reductions lead to depressions:
1804-1812: U. S. Federal Debt reduced 48%. Depression began 1807.
1817-1821: U. S. Federal Debt reduced 29%. Depression began 1819.
1823-1836: U. S. Federal Debt reduced 99%. Depression began 1837.
1852-1857: U. S. Federal Debt reduced 59%. Depression began 1857.
1867-1873: U. S. Federal Debt reduced 27%. Depression began 1873.
1880-1893: U. S. Federal Debt reduced 57%. Depression began 1893.
1920-1930: U. S. Federal Debt reduced 36%. Depression began 1929.

U.S recessions follow deficit growth reductions, and are cured by deficit (economic surplus) growth increases.

Then, there’s Michael Tanner in National Review.com:

Trump realizes “he can’t actually balance the budget simply by eliminating ‘waste, fraud, and abuse. The only way to truly reduce federal spending is to . . . cut programs that are popular, supported by powerful, special interests, or both.”

Translation: “Balance the budget” means, “Add zero new dollars to the economy, thereby preventing economic growth.”

You need to balance your budget. Even your city and state need to balance their budgets.

But the federal government never should balance its budget. Never.

And then we come to the craziest comment yet, this one by Jordan Weissmann in Slate.com:

“If you really want to tackle the debt, you have to take on the two giants of federal spending: Social Security and Medicare.

Without entitlement reform, and with massive tax cuts for the wealthy to fund, Trump’s budget is nothing more than a ‘permission slip’ for Paul Ryan and company . . . telling them ‘they are free to go wild butchering the essential pieces of the safety net.”

Get it? Weissmann wants to “take on” (i.e. gut) Social Security and Medicare, but does not want to “butcher . . . the safety net” (i.e. Social Security and Medicare). Huh?

Finally, we are told that deficit spending is not just a fiscal problem, it is a moral problem:

GOP Budget: Deficit Spending ‘a Sin;’ We’ll Do It 9 More Years
By Terence P. Jeffrey | August 2, 2017

The Republicans in Congress today heroically (plan to) balance the budget in fiscal 2027 — after increasing the debt every year from 2017 through 2026.

“For too long, the federal government’s excessive spending has put future generations at risk,” says a statement on the committee’s website. “Failure to take swift and decisive action is not only inexcusable, it is immoral.”

We today, are the “future generations” who were “at risk” back in 1940, when the federal debt was $40 billion and was called a “ticking time bomb.“  Today, the federal debt is $14 TRILLION, and that “at risk” time bomb supposedly still is ticking.

Here is the federal debt fear-mongers’ story:

A cult leader told his flock the world was about to end, so they should give him all their worldly goods and go to the top of the mountain to await the end. They believed, but when the end didn’t happen, they came down to destitution, haven given everything away.

The next year the cult leader said the same thing, and they believed him again, and every year after that he warned them, they believed, and gave away their possessions, again and again. They were incapable of learning from experience.

I have just told you the federal debt fear-mongers’ story.

“As Nobel Laureate James M. Buchanan wrote: ‘Politicians prior to World War II would have considered it to be immoral (to be a sin) to spend more than they were willing to generate in tax revenues, except during periods of extreme and temporary emergency,'” said the report.

“‘To spend borrowed sums on ordinary items for public consumption was, quite simply, beyond the pale of acceptable political behavior. There were basic moral constraints in place; there was no need for an explicit fiscal rule in the written constitution.'”

Oh, the immorality of it, spending for ordinary items that you, the public may consume.

The rich, “high priests” of America want you to believe that only the rich are entitled to consume.

They want you “not-rich” to work endlessly for scraps. They want you to believe that the worse your life, the more moral you are, and the only way to be moral is to work ’til you drop.

That way, the rich would have a ready supply of slave labor, uncomplaining ignorant, low-wage slaves. It would be “good” for the economy.

Let’s summarize the lies the rich want you to believe.

1. The federal government is running short of money. (It can’t. It is Monetarily Sovereign.)
2. The federal “debt” and deficits are unsustainable. (Unsustainable like the phony “time bomb” that has been ticking since 1940.)
3. The problem is: You receive too much in Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and other social benefits. You are not entitled to those benefits. Only the rich should live well. You should work ’til you drop. (Who made that rule?)

The rich want you to accept the lies so you will be a desperate worker. Your defense is to understand the truth and to protest, protest, protest. And learn. And vote.

And that brings us to our last point:

Up to 75.5 percent of those very lowest income families didn’t vote in 2014. Lower-income people tend to vote less than higher-income people.

Voting rates go up with income levels — the highest-income group, people in families making $150,000 or more, also had the highest turnout, at 56.6 percent.

The rich are not better than you. The rich do not deserve more than you. They are just people who think they are better and think they deserve more.

Protest. Learn. Vote.

If you let them con you, and if you accept their lies, well maybe they will be proved right.

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