Twitter: @rodgermitchell; Search #monetarysovereignty
Facebook: Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. It takes only two things to keep people in chains: The ignorance of the oppressedand the treachery of their leaders..
………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
The realities of the U.S. economy can be is difficult to explain to people who have been led to believe federal economics resembles personal economics.
False notions of “affordability,” “taxpayer dollars,” and “debt/deficit sustainability” hide the truth behind many layers of intuition and misleading propaganda.
Sometimes, the solutions to the most infuriatingly complex problems can be visualized by a single, simple concept.
Heliocentrism, the simple fact that the entire solar system revolves around the sun, is an easy way to visualize mathematically complex planetary motions.
And what could be simpler than E=MC2 as a way to visualize a relationship between matter and energy.
In that vein, consider the difficulty in visualizing solutions to the many, disparate and difficult problems in economics, among which are: What should a government do about economic growth, deficits and debt, spending affordability, employment and unemployment, interest rates, imports and exports, poverty, and defense spending?
The answers to such questions are made even more difficult by the variance in government type: National vs. local.
I suggest that the answers to the biggest, most difficult economics problems facing any government can be visualized by one simple question:
If the U.S. government can “print” money, why does it collect taxes?
Try it, yourself. Answer the question and see whether your answer leads you to other questions and answers, eventually taking you to an explanation of Monetary Sovereignty.
The realities of Monetary Sovereignty seem to be quite counter-intuitive to many people, and there is a strong human reluctance to deny intuitive beliefs.
So perhaps the best way to influence someone’s opinion may be to help them uncover the facts rather than being told the facts.
Next time you debate what the federal government should do about a specific problem, you might advance the discussion by asking the most important question in all of economics.
•All we have are partial solutions; the best we can do is try.
•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 no matter how much it taxes its citizens.
•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.
•Progressives 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.
When I read about an entire political party that, for no good reason, wishes to take health care from the poor, with the false excuse “affordability” . . .
And when I read that, Soviet-style . . . our government is using undocumented, immigrant children to turn in their parents, “essentially using these children to unwittingly turn in their own parents, and this is going to haunt these kids for a very long time, especially if their parents are deported, especially if their parents are jailed or sentenced,” said Maria Woltjen, executive director of the Young Center for Immigrant Children’s Rights at the University of Chicago . . .
And when I read that drug overdose is the leading cause of death in Butler County, Ohio, but county Sheriff Richard Jones says he “has no plans to equip his deputies with naloxone, an opioid overdose reversal drug that saves hundreds, if not thousands, of lives around the country every day” . . . .
And then, when I read this poemwritten by a 23-year-old heroin addict . . .
“Funny, I don’t remember no good dope days.
I remember walking for miles in a dope fiend haze. I remember sleeping in houses that had no electric. I remember being called a junkie, but I couldn’t accept it. I remember hanging out in abandos that were empty and dark.
Rest in peace, Delaney Farrell
I remember shooting up in the bathroom and falling out at the park. I remember nodding out in front of my sisters kid. I remember not remembering half of the things that I did. I remember the dope man’s time frame, just ten more minutes.
I remember those days being so sick that I just wanted to end it. I remember the birthdays and holiday celebrations. All the things I missed during my incarceration.
I remember overdosing on my bedroom floor. I remember my sisters cry and my dad having to break down the door. I remember the look on his face when I opened my eyes, thinking today was the day that his baby had died.
I remember blaming myself when my mom decided to leave. I remember the guilt I felt in my chest making it hard to breathe.
I remember caring so much but not knowing how to show it. and I know to this day that she probably don’t even know it. I remember feeling like I lost all hope. I remember giving up my body for the next bag of dope.
I remember only causing pain, destruction and harm. I remember the track marks the needles left on my arm. I remember watching the slow break up of my home. I remember thinking my family would be better off if I just left them alone. I remember looking in the mirror at my sickly completion.
I remember not recognizing myself in my own Damn reflection. I remember constantly obsessing over my next score but what I remember most is getting down on my knees and asking God to save me cuz I don’t want to do this no more !!! “
. . . I think about the people, and realize that there, but for the grace of God, go I, and I wonder, “What has become of our good nation, that cannot even find the heart to help a child who begs us for help?”
Why have we become so unfeeling, so cruel, so willing to turn away and to blame the unfortunate for their misfortune?
There was a time when to be American meant to lend a helping hand. It was written on our Statue of Liberty. Now, we meet every stranger with a steel fist. Now, the Statue is a lie.
It takes courage to be kind. So lacking courage, we elect haters, xenophobes, the mean-spirited and the selfish, who justify their evil by claiming they make us safe, though in reality, they lead us down to our greatest dangers.
Why have we allowed ourselves to change?
Now we carry guns. We impoverish students. We cut Social Security. We jail the poor for the most minor infractions. We impose bails that only the wealthy can meet. We pay for hard work with salaries too low for life. We deprive the poor of their vote.
We prefer paying to jail than paying to feed. Given the choice between the carrot and the stick, we choose the stick. We bar the innocent from our shores because a tiny few may be guilty.
We pass cruel laws. We justify torture. We sneer at the homeless and the starving.
We deport children. Our hearts have frozen even to them.
Who are we who punish the sick, the poor, the less fortunate? Why have we become so addicted to inhumanity?
Twitter: @rodgermitchell; Search #monetarysovereignty
Facebook: Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. It takes only two things to keep people in chains: The ignorance of the oppressedand the treachery of their leaders..
………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
Do you believe any of these popular myths about our economy:
There should be a sign
The federal deficit is too high.
Federal deficit spending (aka “printing money”) causes hyperinflation
The federal debt is “unsustainable.”
Our children will pay for the federal debt
Federal taxes fund federal spending.
The federal government can run short of dollars.
The federal government should live within its means
Federal finances are like personal finances.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) benefits poor nations
Federal debt crowds out private debt
Federal spending crowds out private spending
The poor are lazy, dishonest “takers”; the rich are smart, energetic “makers.”
The U.S. government should be run like a business, by a businessperson
Austerity helps an economy grow.
Some people don’t pay their “fair share” of federal taxes
Raising interest rates kills economic growth.
If you cross your fingers for the next hour, your baseball team will win.
O.K., that last one isn’t economics, but it’s just as scientifically factual as the others.
Today’s post focuses on myth #16, which the duplicitous and the uninformed promulgate on a weekly, if not hourly, basis, especially when the Fed announces an interest rate hike.
Here are excerpts from a typical article written by a noted debt fearmonger:
Higher interest rates will triple the interest on the federal debt to $830 billion annually by 2026, will hurt workers and young voters, and could bankrupt over 20% of US corporations, according to the IMF.
Ah, the IMF, the International Monetary Fund, the group that always, always, always prescribes austerity as a cure for a failing economy — essentially prescribing leeches to cure anemia.
Is the IMF composed of liars, or of incompetents? Hard to tell — but they are led byChristine Lagarde, who embodies huge dollops of both attributes.
Responding to earlier presidential pressure, the Federal Reserve is expected to raise interest rates this week for the third time since November, from a funds target of 1% to 1.25%.
An increase in the base rate, however small, will tighten the screw on younger voters and some of the poorest communitieswho rely on credit to get by.
Allow us to place this into some sort of context. The interest increase of .25% on a $5,000 loan amounts to less than the cost of one extra pack of cigarettes every 3 months — not much of a “screw tightening.”
More importantly for his economic programme, higher interest rates in the US will act like a honeypot for foreign investors . . . . [S]ucking in foreign cash has a price and that is an expensive dollar and worsening trade balance. . . .
It might undermine (Trump’s) call for the repatriation of factories to the rust-belt states if goods cost 10% or 20% more to export.
Higher interest rates will attract investors to U.S. dollars, thereby strengthening the dollar. A strong dollar makes imports less costly, which is one reason why interest rate increases fight inflation.
And those cheaper imports particularly benefit the “younger voters and some of the poorest communities” about whom Ellen Brown expressed such concern.
As for the “repatriation of factories to the rust-belt states,” that was just a con-job by Trump, along with “I will save the coal industry,” and “The Keystone oil pipeline will create thousands of jobs.”
There will be no “repatriation” of factories unless two things happen, neither of which is attractive or likely:
American wages drop below the level of 3rd world nation wages
Automation ceases to be the primary job-consuming, efficiency-building factor in America
Raising interest rates benefits financial institutions, due to a rise in interest on their excess reserves and net interest margins (the difference between what they charge and what they pay to depositors).
This neither adds nor subtracts dollars from the economy. It just changes the flow. Borrowers will pay more dollars to lenders and depositors. But there is one important benefit to the economy:
The hardest hit will be the federal government.
According to a report by Deloitte University Press republished in the Wall Street Journal in September 2016, the government’s interest bill is expected to triple, from $255 billion in 2016 to $830 billion in 2026.
Said another way, “the government will pump many hundreds of billions of additional stimulus dollars into the economy every year, reaching $575 additional stimulus dollars in the year 2026.
This stimulus will be a boon to economic growth while costing Americans nothing.
The Fed returns the interest it receives to the Treasury after deducting its costs.
That means that if, rather than dumping its federal securities onto the market, it were to use its quantitative easing tool to move the whole federal debt onto its own balance sheet, the government could save $830 billion in interest annually – nearly enough to fund the president’s trillion dollar infrastructure plan every year, without raising taxes or privatizing public assets.
That’s Brown’s restatement of the “Federal taxes fund federal spending” myth. After all these years, she still doesn’t understand that unlike state and local governments, the federal government uniquely is Monetarily Sovereign.
As such, it creates its sovereign currency, the dollar, by the act of paying bills. Every time the government pays a bill, it creates new dollars, ad hoc. Even if all federal tax collections fell to $0, the federal government could continue spending, forever.
As noted by fund manager Eric Lonergan in a February 2017 article, “The Bank of Japan is in the process of owning most of the outstanding government debt of Japan (it currently owns around 40%).”
Forty percent of the US national debt would be $8 trillion, three times the amount of federal securities the Fed holds now as a result of quantitative easing. Yet the Bank of Japan, which is actually trying to generate some inflation, cannot get the CPI above 0.2 percent.
Oh, what a surprise. The Bank of Japan, rather than the people of Japan, receives the interest on 40% of government securities, and this does not generate inflation.
Well, of course not. With no increase in the money supply, inflation is not stimulated.
The Deloitte report asks: Since the anticipated impact of higher interest rates is slower growth, the question becomes: why would the Fed purposely act to slow the economy? We see at least two reasons.
First, the Fed needs to raise rates so that it has room to lower them when the next recession occurs. And second, by acting early, the Fed likely hopes to choke off inflationary pressure before it starts to build.
Really? “The anticipated impact of higher interest rates is slower growth”?
Blue line = Interest rate; Red line = GDP growth
Over the 25-year period, 1955-1980, interest rates averaged higher as GDP growth increased. From 1980-2015, interest rates averaged lower while GDP growth also fell.
Now, the Fed wishes to raise the rate from 1% to 1.25%, still historically low, and the Ellen Browns of the world are panicked.
The Fed is paying 1% (soon to be 1.25%) on $2.2 trillion in excess reserves.
At 1%, that works out to $22 billion annually. At 1.25%, it’s $27.5 billion; and at 3.5% by 2020, it will be $77 billion, most of it going to Wall Street megabanks.
This tab is ultimately picked up by the taxpayers.
Wrong again. Ms. Brown, please repeat this to yourself, again and again, until you learn it: “Taxpayers do not fund federal spending.”
Among other possibilities, an extra $22 billion annually accruing to the federal government would be enough to end homelessness in the United States.
Instead, it has become welfare for those Wall Street banks that largely own the New York Fed, the largest and most powerful of the twelve branches of the Federal Reserve.
And wrong, yet again. If $22 billion annually is enough “to end homelessness” in the United States, nothing stops the federal government from spending it. The government cannot run short of its own sovereign currency.
Better yet, the government should institute the Ten Steps to Prosperity (below).
Ellen Brown is an attorney, founder of the Public Banking Institute, a Senior Fellow of the Democracy Collaborative, and author of twelve books including Web of Debt and The Public Bank Solution. She co-hosts a radio program on PRN.FM called “It’s Our Money.” Her 300+ blog articles are posted at EllenBrown.com.
Sad, but she can’t help it. Even if she understands the truth, there is no way she can admit it after twelve books, a radio show and 300+ blog articles devoted to the myth that raising interest rates kills the economy.
Excessive inflation however, does kill an economy, and that is what the Fed wishes to prevent.
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:
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.
Twitter: @rodgermitchell; Search #monetarysovereignty
Facebook: Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. It takes only two things to keep people in chains: The ignorance of the oppressedand the treachery of their leaders..
………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
The following article got me so damn angry, I could spit:
Democrats were advised to stay away from promoting the “Medicare for All” plan that has energized the party’s grass-roots activists and its rank and file in Congress.
“Keep the focus on the Republican plan and make them own it,” the polling memo from GBA Strategies & Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research reads. “The Republican plan is extremely unpopular and Democrats have little to gain by shifting the spotlight to new Democratic proposals or fixes.”
Democrats have little to gain by telling the truth??
Democrats have little to gain by providing health care to every man woman and child in America??
The Democrats have little to gain by doing what its grass-roots activists want??
Is this the nuttiest idea, ever?
Democrats’ polling data shows that health care is a top-of-mind issue for many voters. The data was accompanied by a three-page memo on messaging, two pages of which were dedicated to likely GOP attacks on a single-payer system.
Notably, none of those arguments were refuted in the message document.
The Democrats are so clueless, they don’t know how to justify giving everyone a longer, healthier life.
If you can’t even sell long life and health, what the heck good are you? Why are you in Congress?
Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi is trying to squash her own party’s desire to fight for a health care system in which the government is the single payer for necessary medical expenses and the health insurance industry is all but eliminated as a middle man.
Pelosi said she’s supported the idea for decades but that the American public isn’t there yet.
Well, Nancy, if the Democrats aren’t “there yet,” and you aren’t “there yet,” is it any wonder your constituents aren’t “there yet”?
Or do you expect the people to do the leading, while you trail miserably behind?
And now, here comes the really, really stupid part:
“I say to people, ‘If you want it, do it in your states. States are laboratories,’” she said. “States are a good place to start.”
What a cowardly comment. “Let the states do it. We are too frightened to take a chance. We are afraid to lose elections — which is we have been doing consistently for the past 8 years!”
Our political leaders
Is this why you are in the House, Nancy — to hide under your desk and hope the states will do something for your constituents??
No, Nancy, states are not a good place to start. States are monetarily NON-sovereign.
Like you and me, they do not have the unlimited ability to create dollars.
Making the states “laboratories” practically guarantees the failure of any Medicare for All plan, because of the states’ need for taxes.
By contrast, the Federal Government is Monetarily Sovereign. It never can run short of its sovereign currency, the U.S. dollar.
The Federal Government creates dollars, ad hoc, every time it pays a bill. That is something I can’t do, you can’t do, the states, counties and villages can’t do — but it is exactly what the federal government does every day.
It is how the federal government was created to operate.
The federal government creates dollars by deficit spending.
Michigan Rep. John Conyers now has 112 members of the caucus signed up for his “Medicare for All” bill — nearly 60 percent of the rank and file.
The problem is that Sanders’s bill and Conyers’s bill talk about “affordability,” and “cost cutting,” and “taxes”, none of which are appropriate to a federally funded program.
The federal government can afford to fund a comprehensive, no-deductible, Medicare for All program, plus long-term care for everyone, without using a single tax dollar.
Moreover, the dollars the federal government would create to fund these programs would stimulate economic growth, create millions of jobs, and dramatically improve the health and lifespans of Americans.
When I asked a Pelosi aide about her position, I was sent a Vox piece on the cost of California’s single-payer health care plan — $400 billion per year, or twice the state’s budget.
Right. The so-called state “laboratories” would have to spend billions of taxpayers’ dollars.
In a vacuum, most Americans think the government should provide health care for all — either through a single-payer or hybrid system — but the question isn’t usually asked with a price tag attached.
Conyers’ plan would require massive tax increases not only on the 1 percent but on the top 5 percent of earners.
No, no, no, dammit, no.
Federal funding of Medicare for All would not require a single tax dollar. Zero. Zilch. Nada.
The Monetarily Sovereign federal government uniquely does not spend tax dollars. It creates new dollars, ad hoc, by spending.
Even if all federal tax collections were $0, the federal government could continue spending — and creating dollars — forever.
Pelosi outlined her alternative at the California Democratic Party’s convention earlier this month.
“We must defeat the repeal of the Affordable Care Act,” she said. “But that is not our only fight. We must go further. The Affordable Care Act enables every state to create a public option.
“I believe California can lead the way for America by creating a strong public option.”
What unmitigated bullshit.
Monetarily NON-sovereign California and its taxpayers are supposed to “lead the way,” while the cowardly, lying national Democratic party pretends to lead — from behind?
Let’s just get this straight. The states, counties, and cities cannot afford Medicare for All without increasing taxes, and with price inflation on medical services, the problem only will worsen.
The federal government can afford Medicare for All, with zero additional taxes. All medical price inflation will do is cause the government to pump more stimulus dollars into the economy.
In that sense, medical price inflation will help grow America.
Pelosi’s a tough customer who has shown a willingness to stand up to her base at times, but it’s getting harder for leaders in Washington to tell activists that they’re wrong and survive the backlash.
This will be a big test of Democrats’ faith in her leadership and of Pelosi’s ability to navigate the increasingly treacherous shoals of modern politics.
Yeah, some “tough customer” she is — hoping California, not her, will lead.
No, this election will be a big test of Democrats’ courage and willingness to tell voters the truth. So far, they have shown neither.
The voters have been lied to continually since August, 1972 (when the federal government became Monetarily Sovereign).
So, perhaps the public can be excused for not understanding the financial differences between the monetarily NON-sovereign states and theMonetarily Sovereign federal government.
But the Democratic politicians have no such excuse. Professor Stephanie Kelton (UMKC), who understands Monetary Sovereignty quite well, and has been an adviser to Sanders and the Democrats, has been ignored by the weak-willed ninnies now leading the party.
I feel for her. I don’t see how she can stand dealing with those useless people.
Democrats. Either do your jobs or get the heck out of Congress.
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:
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 - Mitchell 