Twitter: @rodgermitchell; Search #monetarysovereignty
Facebook: Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
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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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Because you are a blue collar worker toiling in a hard job — you have no class. You have no appreciation for the finer things in life.
You don’t care about the arts. You have no feeling for paintings, music, poetry, or fiction. You were born low class; you live a low-class life; and you will die low class.
That’s just the way you are. Here’s who says so:
The Trump administration’s budget proposes the elimination of all funding to programs including the National Endowment of the Arts, Meals on Wheels, and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, a decision Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney defended Thursday by citing coal miners and single moms, Politico reports
“When you start looking at places that we reduce spending, one of the questions we asked was can we really continue to ask a coal miner in West Virginia or a single mom in Detroit to pay for these programs?
The answer was no,” Mulvaney told the hosts of Morning Joe on Thursday. “We can ask them to pay for defense, and we will, but we can’t ask them to continue to pay for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.”
You may have voted for Trump, but this is what he thinks of you: If you are a coal miner from West Virginia, he thinks you are a dirty, swearing, beer-swizzling clod — an oaf who has no appreciation for opera, symphony, painting, sculpture or any other of the finer things. They don’t “help” the likes of you.
If you are a single mom in Detroit, he thinks you are a drugged, food-stamp mama, who also cares nothing for the arts or for public radio.
All you listen to is rap music to the beat of gunfire.You care about the military, because in your rough, course life, shooting and killing are necessities.
At least, that is the picture Trump’s Budget Director, Mick Mulvaney, tries to paint. It is his way to dehumanize you, so that any benefits you receive from the government can be taken from you without widespread protest.
You neither want nor deserve government support for the arts, for education, for health care, for good housing, for good food or for the safety of your children.
The government can cut those benefits from its budget, without fear of offending you or those above you on the totem pole. You have no worth or self-worth to be offended.
We have discussed “Gap Psychology” previously. It is the popular belief that people below us on the income/wealth/power scale are inferior and to be disrespected, while people above us are superior and to be admired.
“But,” you may ask, “why would the government even want to take benefits away from me?” That is where The Big Lie raises its ugly head.
In asking one simple question, Rick Mulvaney promulgates both sides of the Big Lie. Remember his question was:
“When you start looking at places that we reduce spending, one of the questions we asked was can we really continue to ask a coal miner in West Virginia or a single mom in Detroit to pay for these programs?
In the first part of his question, “When you start looking at places that we reduce spending . . . “ he promulgates this part of The Big Lie: “The federal government can’t afford [unwanted program].
He implies the federal government can’t afford to support the arts, education, health care, etc. and at the same time support the military. He tells you the government needs to reduce spending, when in fact, the government needs to increase spending, especially on the social programs that will benefit you.
He wants you to believe it’s “either – or,” either the arts or the military. It’s a lie. The Big Lie.
The U.S. federal government, being Monetarily Sovereign, never can run short of its own sovereign currency, dollars. The federal government’s method for creating new dollars to grow the economy is to deficit spend. That is demonstrated by the formula for the prime measure of economic growth, Gross Domestic Product:
GDP = Federal Spending + Non-federal Spending + Net Exports
By formula, federal spending grows the U.S. economy.When Mulvaney says, ” . . . can we really continue to ask
When Mulvaney says, ” . . . can we really continue to ask a coal miner in West Virginia or a single mom in Detroit to pay for these programs?” he promulgates this part of The Big Lie: Federal taxes pay for federal spending.
Unlike state and local taxes, which do pay for state and local government spending, federal taxes do not fund federal spending. Even if all federal tax collections fell to $0, the federal government could continue spending, forever.
The government creates dollars by spending and destroys dollars by taxing. Federal spending itself creates new dollars, ad hoc. No need for taxes.
So here is Mulvaney’s Big Lie in its entirety:
“The federal government can’t afford [unwanted program], and Federal taxes pay for federal spending.
The Big Lie is supported by Gap Psychology, which is funded by the rich.
It is the rich who want everyone to believe the Gap between the rich and the rest should be widened, the rich are superior, the poorer are inferior, and the government cannot afford to help the inferior poor.
Donald Trump is a rich man. He has stocked his cabinet with millionaires and billionaires. He doesn’t associate with those you are poorer. He doesn’t know or respect you. But he loves the military, because it gives him a sense of power.
He can strut belligerently on the world stage, because he controls the biggest weapons and the most soldiers. As a bully, he relishes power, and excuses it as “defense,” as though any nation would dare attack us and survive.
If you read his proposed budget, you will see that throughout it Rewards his Rich pals, and it Punishes you Poorer people. RRPP
(It is) “an agenda of tax cuts for the wealthy, deregulation of Wall Street, and gutting families’ health security . . . “
Trump’s method is The Big Lie and Gap Psychology working in unison to convince you that you want less and you deserve less, while he and his family and cronies deserve more.
It is his attempt to brainwash you and an entire nation.
So far he has succeeded.
Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
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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 (Guaranteed Income)) 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
#Monetary Sovereignty - Mitchell 