Two problems, one solution: Gun violence and the Gap

Often, in an argument, much can be learned by looking closely and honestly at the other side, to see what elements of truth might lie there.

Consider, for instance, Gun Violence

What if the weapons manufacturers and their paid lobbyists, the NRA, are right after all? What if it’s true that “guns don’t kill people; people kill people”?

What if limiting gun purchases and stronger gun-control laws don’t work?  What if allowing everyone own a gun makes you safer?

I personally don’t believe these things, but what if they were true?

Hold that thought, as we move to the next problem:

The Gap between the rich and the rest.

Have you noticed that the wealthier parts of town have fewer gun murders than do the less-affluent neighborhoods?

Why?

Is there a genetic difference between poor babies and rich babies, that makes poor babies more desirous of shooting  people?

Is there a genetic difference between poor babies and rich babies, that makes rich babies grow up to be more honest and compassionate?

Does a genetic difference cause rich babies to grow up more ambitious and harder working? Is it a genetic difference that causes poor fathers to run away from home more often, leaving poor children without role models?

Are there cultural and traditional differences? Is there a common culture among poor blacks, poor whites, and poor Latinos,  a common culture that is different from the common culture of all rich people (some of whom are black, white and Latino)?

What is the one common element among poor blacks, poor whites, and poor Latinos? The answer is clear.

The single common element among all poor people is they all are poor.

Poor people may be black, white or brown, more or less intelligent, lazy or hard working, happy or sad, caring or uncaring, honest or dishonest, good parents or bad, ruthless or compassionate, religious or not — but the one thing they all have in common is a lack of money. 

And therein lies the solution to two problems: Gun killings and the Gap.

Because all poor neighborhoods, of all colors and faiths, are more subject to gangs and gun violence, and the only common element among all poor neighborhoods is poverty, then one partial solution to gun violence is to reduce poverty. 

Rather than try to attack gun violence at the level of gun ownership, or blather on about Constitutional rights, perhaps we simply should attack the most fundamental cause.

If we reduce the Gap between the rich and the rest, we automatically can reduce gang warfare and shootings.

I don’t need to keep a gun for protection. I live in an upscale community where gun violence is quite rare. Some of my neighbors may have or even carry guns; I don’t know which ones may.

But, mathematically, I would increase my odds of being shot if I kept a loaded gun in the house or carried one in the street.

I’m sure there are plenty of drugs in our schools, but drug gang warfare is non-existent and shootings unheard of.

It’s not that my neighbors and I are morally superior, or more intelligent, or harder working.  Far from it.

The difference is we don’t have to commit street crime in order to make ends meet.

I have no trouble paying for food, clothing, and lodging. I don’t need to rob anyone, and my neighbors don’t need to rob me.

The vast majority of the few burglaries in our town are committed by people who come from a neighboring town, where poverty is far more common.

You seldom hear of a rich man committing burglary or robbery. Rich people may commit white-collar crime, but not gun crime.

Yes, there can be exceptions, but historically the most common gun crimes are committed by the poor, so a partial solution to gun crime is to reduce the number of poor people.

The best protection you can give to your family and yourself is not to own a gun, but rather to help lift the poor.

This may be counter-intuitive to those who despise the poor, and who attribute to the poor all sorts of demeaning characteristics.

But this much is true: If you lived in an area where there were no poor, you wouldn’t need to own or carry a gun for protection.

(And no, carrying a gun will not protect you from a government-orchestrated military takeover. So puleeze, no conspiracy theories.)

Here we have a straightforward  partial solution to gun violence and to the Gap, all rolled into one. No need to even argue about the 2nd Amendment.

Simply institute the Ten Steps to Prosperity (below).

It’s a much more moral and surer way to protect your family and yourself.

Rather than writing to your Congressperson, asking for a loosening of gun laws, ask him/her to read the Ten Steps and to implement them.

Protect your self and your family by helping others.

Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
Monetary Sovereignty

===================================================================================
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 afford better health care than 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 AN ECONOMIC BONUS TO EVERY MAN, WOMAN AND CHILD IN AMERICA, AND/OR EVERY STATE, A PER CAPITA ECONOMIC BONUS (The JG (Jobs Guarantee) vs the GI (Guaranteed Income) vs the EB) 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 EVERYONEFive 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 benefiting 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 CORPORATE TAXES
Corporations themselves exist only as legalities. They don’t pay taxes or pay for anything else. They are dollar-tranferring machines. They transfer dollars from customers to employees, suppliers, shareholders and the government (the later having no use for those dollars).
Any tax on corporations reduces the amount going to employees, suppliers and shareholders, which diminishes the economy. Ultimately, all corporate taxes come around and reappear as deductions from 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 corporate taxes would be an 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

How to protect your child in shooting-gallery America

The right-wing Supreme Court has decided that everyone in America — you, your neighbors, strangers in the street, the angry guy in the car tailgating you who just flipped you the bird — everyone is entitled to carry a  gun “for protection.”

So, you may wonder how you will protect your children.

Yes, you pack heat everywhere you go, and some of you give your children guns, because they seem mature for their years.

But for the rest of you who worry that your children might be shot when you’re not around, here are some solutions you might consider.

(The following also is for you folks who wisely will run away when the shooting starts, like those Dallas folks did.)

Send your kid to school with this bullet-proof backpack:

monetary sovereignty


Or, consider this bullet-proof blanket in stylish orange: Believe me, no one will laugh when your kid is the only one left alive.

monetary sovereignty

For the youngest members of your family, we offer this stroller in both black and blood red:

monetary sovereignty

Don’t wait for the country to come to its senses and pass gun control legislation. That could take decades. And you don’t believe in it, anyway. We all need guns to protect ourselves against the government, or something.

Hey, look at that guy walking toward your little daughter’s school, with a rifle slung over his shoulder.

Hmmm . . . that’s an awfully big magazine on his gun. Why does he need such a big magazine on a semi-automatic, high-powered weapon? He must have a good reason. Maybe, he’s hunting a whole herd of deer.

Sure, he’s just exercising his Constitutional rights. (And if there is one thing you know about the Constitution, it’s the second half of the 2nd Amendment.)

But what do you know about that guy? Is he a “good guy” or a “bad guy”? How can you tell?

Gee, wasn’t that Dallas killer a “good guy” before he became a “bad guy”?

Well, you can’t hang around here. You have to go to work now. But you’re not worried. You bought your daughter a bullet-proof backpack.

She’ll be O.K., because you’re a good parent.

shooting-gallery america

You’ve done all you can to protect your children in shooting gallery America.

Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
Monetary Sovereignty

================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================

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 afford better health care than 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 AN ECONOMIC BONUS TO EVERY MAN, WOMAN AND CHILD IN AMERICA, AND/OR EVERY STATE, A PER CAPITA ECONOMIC BONUS (The JG (Jobs Guarantee) vs the GI (Guaranteed Income) vs the EB) 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 EVERYONEFive 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 benefiting 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 CORPORATE TAXES
Corporations themselves exist only as legalities. They don’t pay taxes or pay for anything else. They are dollar-tranferring machines. They transfer dollars from customers to employees, suppliers, shareholders and the government (the later having no use for those dollars).
Any tax on corporations reduces the amount going to employees, suppliers and shareholders, which diminishes the economy. Ultimately, all corporate taxes come around and reappear as deductions from 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 corporate taxes would be an 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

 

Boo hoo. Crocodile tears for Dallas police. A message to the people of Texas

A message to the people of Texas:

Five of your Dallas police officers were shot down. Boo hoo. Crocodile tears.

Who the hell cares? Certainly, not you.

The City of Dallas Is Coming Together to Mourn Last Night’s Tragedy

People began bringing flowers to the Dallas police department the same night of the attack, and on Friday some came out in support for the slain officers, placing bouquets on top of two squad cars that had been set up as a memorial.

Wah, wah. Are you among the grieving phonies who voted to allow every fool in Texas to carry a gun, and now you display your pretend sadness that one of those guns actually was used?

Are you among the shocked! — shocked! — people who parrot the gun lobby’s mouthpiece, the National Rifle Association, when it pronounces the idiocy that, “The only way to stop a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun.”

But wait. Wasn’t Micah Johnson, the Dallas shooter, a “good guy”?

He was a soldier who served his country in Afghanistan and worked with special needs children. He could have been your neighbor.

Johnson grew up in Mesquite, a middle-class suburb of Dallas, living with his mother Delphene in a four-bedroom, $220,000 detached house next to a large field.

It was an All-American neighborhood with pick-up trucks and basketball hoops in the drives. The white family next door would sell cookies for the Girl Scouts and Johnson would pop round to buy them.

Johnson’s stepmother appeared proud of his decision to join the Army, posting pictures of him in uniform on her Facebook page.

She and Johnson’s father were part of the local neighborhood watch group and well liked by neighbors.

As a child at John Horn High School in Mesquite, the gunman had been an enthusiastic member of the Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps and loved basketball.

Friends described him as “fun-loving and goofy” and “a sweet-hearted joker”.

Johnson was just a regular guy, a “good guy.” He legally could have bought any gun he wanted in Texas.

And that’s the point, isn’t it.

When it comes to guns, every “good guy” suddenly can become a “bad guy.”

Like when he gets drunk.
Or you cut him off on the road.
Or if you give him a bad grade in school.
Or you ticket him for speeding.
Or you talk to his girlfriend.
Or you call “Ball!” when he thinks it’s a strike.
Like when he doesn’t like his wife’s smart mouth.
Like when he hates her nagging about drinking with the guys.

And now, you put flowers on police cars to show how oh-so-sad you are about your police officers, when you were the one who killed them.

Yes, you killed those police just a surely as if you had shot them yourself.

You put the gun into the killer’s hands. In fact, you’ve put a lot of guns into a lot of killers’ hands.

And still you whine, “Don’t take my gun. Not my gun. I want my gun. I need my gun. I’m John Wayne. “Wah, wah, wah.”

And more phony “wah, wah, wah” for the dead policemen, whom you killed with your vote against gun control.

Go ahead, pile on the flowers. It isn’t the first time. It won’t be the last time. Nothing will change because you won’t change.

You want every damn fool in Texas to carry a gun, and you believe all those damn fools are “good guys” and will remain “good guys” throughout their lives, and never will get angry.

Oh, you need your gun for protection? Will you shoot first and go to jail, or will you shoot second, and die? What about your wife?

Will your children carry guns to protect themselves at school or on the way?

Really? Are you really that stupid? No.

So is it that you just don’t give a damn as long as you can have your gun?

Is it that you don’t give a damn that you are putting yourself and your loved ones in danger by giving guns to all your neighbors and all the strangers around you.

You don’t really trust that all the people in all the stores where your spouse shops are forever “good guys,” do you?

You don’t really trust that all the people your kids pass, on the way to school, are “good guys,” do you?

You don’t really trust that the driver of the car behind you — the guy who just flipped you the bird — is a good guy, do you?

No, you really aren’t that stupid. It’s just that you don’t give a damn, so long as you can pack your heat.

So cry your crocodile tears. Demonstrate your phony grief. Vote to allow everyone to carry a death machine, then mourn when they use it.

And make sure you have a good supply of flowers and phony tears for the innocent people you will kill.

You’ll need them.

Or, maybe the “good guy” who kills your family can use them.

Phony.

Rodger Malcolm Mitchell

Police shootings: Causes and solutions

Five police murdered in Dallas. More unarmed black men killed by police. Dozens shot in Chicago. The beat goes on.

The term “police shootings” can mean shootings by police or shootings of police. Interestingly, they have the same causes and the same solutions:

  1. Widespread gun availability means that every police encounter — from the simplest traffic stop or jaywalking warning — can lead to a gun confrontation. The police know and fear this.
    .
    The armed and carrying public comes in all colors and stripes — some angry, some drunk or drugged, some bearing a grudge, some criminal — and the police, being human and fearing for their own lives, are on hair-trigger alert.

    Even the best-trained, most compassionate police officer can, by a simple misunderstanding, believe his life is in danger, causing him to shoot before the other guy does.

  2. Bad apples. Police are human, and every group of humans will include at least some who either from fear or hatred or anger, will shoot an innocent person.
    .
    The fact that people are more likely to be armed today, and more likely to be aware of, and angry about, wrongful shootings by police, makes for an explosive situation.

    Think of two armed people, both of whom know the other is armed, and neither of whom trusts the other to act responsibly, and you have a greatly increased possibility of an unnecessary killing.

    Shootings by police bad apples inflame the populace, which responds by shooting police, in an ever-increasing helix of violence.

  3. Police unions and the code of silence. Police unions see their job as protecting all police from punishment even for the most egregious acts.
    .
    Similarly, the brotherhood “code of silence” keeps bad apples on the street, sticks of dynamite waiting for the slightest excuse to explode.

  4. The profit motive: The gun industry and its paid puppet, the NRA, care only about gun sales profits.
    .
    To increase sales, they promulgate the notion that allowing every fool on the street to carry a killing machine is what makes America safer.

    Because anyone, under certain circumstances and sufficient pressure, can become a “bad guy,” the gun industry tells us we all have to be armed to protect ourselves against the “bad guys” they already have armed.

    It’s a perfect profit setup: Arm some people, then tell other people they need to be armed to protect themselves against the first group.

    As you arm more and more people, it’s easier to frighten the remaining people into buying guns.

  5. The right-wing Supreme Court: Bribed by hunting trips and other gifts of value, the right wing of the U.S. Supreme Court has come to the indefensible conclusion that the authors of the Constitution included the words “well-regulated militia” for no reason whatsoever.
    .
    The normal, plain English interpretation of the Second Amendment would be: A nation, having experienced a war for freedom, would want the ability to assemble an army quickly, in case of surprise attack.

    Thus, it would want militias, and not just any crazed groups who call themselves “militias,” but militias well-regulated by the government, to which the citizenry quickly could report and be trained.

    Having guns immediately available to the citizenry, expedited the purpose. Today, no such purpose exists.

    To the founders, “arms” meant muzzle-loading muskets and flintlock pistols, one-shot, inaccurate weapons that took much time to load and fire. They did not anticipate an entire citizenry carrying high-powered, rapid firing weapons with large magazines — a citizenry neither trained nor regulated, and having no relationship to a government militia.

    Until recently, this interpretation was understood by the Supreme Court. In fact, for all of American history, the law held that gun ownership and carry could be restricted by the government.

    Only in June of 2008, just eight years ago, did the right-wing Supreme Court decide that two centuries of American law was wrong.

    By a 5-4 margin (split along party lines) the Court decided, in Heller v District of Columbia, that any fool in America could carry the most lethal of killing machines.

  6. Gangs: Fools associate with fools, and create gangs of fools, but the problem of gangs goes well beyond foolishness.
    .
    It is a product of the Gap between the rich and the rest.

    There is very little gang problem in upper-middle-class neighborhoods. Gangs feed on feelings of powerlessness and hopelessness — lack of money, lack of opportunity, lack of a future.

The solutions to police shootings — shootings by police and shootings of police — involve removing the causes.

  1. A liberal Supreme Court could return to the two-centuries of 2nd Amendment interpretations, allowing gun ownership only for the purpose of implementing well-regulated militias.
  2. The gun manufacturing industry should be nationalized, to remove the profit motive and its false propaganda about the need for everyone to carry guns
  3. Existing gangs could be made leaderless by application of the RICO (Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act) statutes. Application of the Ten Steps to Prosperity (below) would help ease the gang recruitment problem.
  4. Eliminate police unions. The police, firefighters, the military, NASA and other similar government workers are in a special category that should not be allowed to unionize. Their work environment is not determined by the profit motive, but rather by the law. There is no public purpose to be served by allowing unions to dictate working conditions for government-run agencies.
    .
    Then, for current gun ownership:
  5. There should be expanded punishment for any felony committed while carrying a gun
    and
  6. Make gun ownership expensive by taxing guns and ammunition.

When we give fools the opportunity to do something foolish, fools predictably will do foolish things, especially if egged on by the gun lobby.

So now they are out there, the fools of America, walking the streets and carrying guns, a menace to themselves, to the police, and to all those around them.

Five police murdered in Dallas. More unarmed black men killed by police. Dozens shot in Chicago. The beat goes on.

It doesn’t need to be this way. We don’t need to have killings every day. The situation is not hopeless, even though it can’t be solved in a day.

The current system is not working. We can’t keep doing the same things, while hoping for a different outcome.

We need to take the first steps toward a society where we no longer have the need or the means to kill each other.

=Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
Monetary Sovereignty

=====================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================
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 afford better health care than 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 AN ECONOMIC BONUS TO EVERY MAN, WOMAN AND CHILD IN AMERICA, AND/OR EVERY STATE, A PER CAPITA ECONOMIC BONUS (The JG (Jobs Guarantee) vs the GI (Guaranteed Income) vs the EB) 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 EVERYONEFive 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 benefiting 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 CORPORATE TAXES
Corporations themselves exist only as legalities. They don’t pay taxes or pay for anything else. They are dollar-tranferring machines. They transfer dollars from customers to employees, suppliers, shareholders and the government (the later having no use for those dollars).
Any tax on corporations reduces the amount going to employees, suppliers and shareholders, which diminishes the economy. Ultimately, all corporate taxes come around and reappear as deductions from 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 corporate taxes would be an 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