Mitchell’s laws:
●The more federal budgets are cut and taxes increased, the weaker an economy becomes.
●Austerity is the government’s method for widening the gap between rich and poor, which leads to civil disorder.
●Until the 99% understand the need for federal deficits, the upper 1% will rule.
●To survive long term, a monetarily non-sovereign government must have a positive balance of payments.
●Those, who do not understand the differences between Monetary Sovereignty and monetary non-sovereignty, do not understand economics.
●The penalty for ignorance is slavery.
●Everything in economics devolves to motive.
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BACKGROUND
Why is the National Rifle Association (NRA) so resoundingly successful, while the Occupy (OWS) groups have been so predictably impotent? The answer: The three M’s — Membership, Money and Message.
The NRA not only has a large and broad membership — they claim 5 million — but can count on millions of non-member sympathizers. OWS has a sparse membership and few sympathizers.
The NRA has tons of money. OWS has little.
The NRA has a simple, seductive message: “Guns protect you.” OWS has no coherent message. They simply seem angry at everything money. Their pride in having no leadership structure and no organization has made them a confused messenger with a confused message.
Embarrassingly, Modern Monetary Theory and Monetary Sovereignty are more like OWS than like the NRA. We have sparse Membership, little Money, and though we have a Message (“Deficit spending protects you”), it is counter-intuitive and not heard for lack of volume.
One might think we’d have an easier job. After all, we promise better health, education, infrastructure and housing — better lives overall — for the vast majority of Americans.
Our cut-the-deficit opponents promise worse of everything, and have the statistics to prove it. Everywhere austerity has been tried, it has resulted in abject misery. So why do we struggle?
The opposition has Membership (bought-and-paid-for, old line economists, the media, Congress) Money (the Peterson/Koch brothers crowd) and a simple, intuitive Message (“Deficits are bad”).
NOW, ABOUT THE AFL-CIO
Their site says:
“We are the umbrella federation for U.S. unions, with 57 unions representing more than 12 million working men and women.”
That’s 12 million members, plus millions of sympathizers — way more than the NRA has. And what does the AFL-CIO do? They say:
Our priorities include:
1. creating good family-supporting jobs
2. by investing tax dollars in schools, roads, bridges, ports and airports ;
3. improving the lives of workers through education, job training
4. and a livable minimum wage;
5. strengthening Social Security and private pensions;
6. ensuring fair tax policies;
7. making high-quality, affordable health care available to everyone;
8. and holding corporations more accountable for their actions.
NRA results: In the face of massive evidence that gun ownership begets gun murder, Congress resists gun control. Even the most innocuous gun control bills struggle. NRA Membership and Money are growing. Gun sales keep climbing. The NRA succeeds.
AFL-CIO results:
1. Unemployment remains high
2. Spending for schools, roads, bridges, ports and airports is cut
3. Spending for education is cut
4. The minimum wage is not “livable.”
5. Social Security is cut; private pensions are underfunded
6. FICA is increased. The middle class is overtaxed.
7. Medicare and Medicaid are cut. Still millions uninsured
8. No banksters yet convicted, and TBTF banks more powerful than ever.
In short, despite massive Membership and lots of Money, the AFL-CIO fails to accomplish its goals. In fact, they are backsliding.
They don’t have a strong, coherent Message. Why? Partly, because they accept the false belief the federal government spends tax dollars, which evolves to the false belief the deficit must be reduced.
But, an AFL-CIO and MMT-MS team could be a marriage made in heaven. We want mostly the same things for the 99% of Americans. With our Message, plus the AFL-CIO’s Membership and Money, we could change the world.
Suddenly, Congress would “realize” that deficit spending, far from being “unsustainable,” is vitally necessary. Suddenly, workers would receive better health care, income and retirement. Suddenly, the recession would disappear, forever.
Some cynics might say, “That is not what the AFL-CIO leaders want. All they want is union membership.” Whether or not that is true, the union leaders want credibility, an asset they have been losing. Were the unions to finance and spread the “Deficit spending protects you” message, their credibility would come from the credit they could take for saving the American worker.
AFL-CIO + MMT-MS would be a powerful, unstoppable force for the middle class. But, the marriage requires first a proposal. AFL-CIO already understands that the sequester is foolish, as witness their blog article, The Consequences of Austerity Are Dire. But this paragraph in the article indicates they do not understand that deficit reduction itself is foolish:
Working families are calling on Congress to protect Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid from benefit cuts (i.e., raising the retirement age and the “chained” CPI), repeal the sequester and close tax loopholes for corporations and the wealthiest 2%
My reading of this is they wrongly believe the deficit must be reduced, and so long as one believes that, arguments against deficit cuts merely turn into weak, seemingly self-serving bleatings, “Cut them, not us.”
If the leadership of AFL-CIO were educated to understand why the federal deficits actually should be increased, and increased significantly, they could use their Money to deliver the Message to their Membership and to Congress.
I can visualize, just for instance, the University of Missouri, Kansas City, setting up one-week seminars for AFL-CIO officers, leaders, lobbyists and marketing people, to provide the economics basics and arguing points countering the cut-the-defict lies.
The top three AFL-CIO officers are: Richard L. Trumka, President; Elizabeth Shuler, Secretary-Treasurer and Arlene Holt Baker, Executive Vice President.
Probably Mr. Trumka would be the one to reach, directly or via an intermediary. Which brings me to the title of this post: Whom do you know at AFL-CIO? If you know an official, I’ll contact him/her. Meanwhile, I’m going to write to Mr. Trumka. You might write him, too. His address is:
Richard L. Trumka, President
AFL-CIO
815 16th St., N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20006
Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
Monetary Sovereignty
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Nine Steps to Prosperity:
1. Eliminate FICA (Click here)
2. Medicare — parts A, B & D — for everyone
3. Send every American citizen an annual check for $5,000 or give every state $5,000 per capita (Click here)
4. Long-term nursing care for everyone
5. Free education (including post-grad) for everyone
6. Salary for attending school (Click here)
7. Eliminate corporate taxes
8. Increase the standard income tax deduction annually
9. Increase federal spending on the myriad initiatives that benefit America’s 99%
No nation can tax itself into prosperity, nor grow without money growth. Monetary Sovereignty: Cutting federal deficits to grow the economy is like applying leeches to cure anemia. Two key equations in economics:
Federal Deficits – Net Imports = Net Private Savings
Gross Domestic Product = Federal Spending + Private Investment and Consumption – Net Imports
#MONETARY SOVEREIGNTY
#Monetary Sovereignty - Mitchell 