Category Archives: Economics

The Top 0.1% Of The Nation Earn Half Of All Capital Gains

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Capital gains are the key ingredient of income disparity in the US– and the force behind the winner takes all mantra of our economic system. If you want  even out earning power in the U.S, you have to raise the 15% capital gains tax. . . Make no mistake; the battle that is to be fought over  the coming attempt to reverse this reduction in capital gains  will be bloody and intense. The facts are clear according to the Congressional Budget Office  more than 80%  of the increase in income inequality was the result of an increase in the share of household income from capital gains.

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Privatization Nightmare: Five Public Services That Should Never Be Handed Over to Greedy Corporations

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The justification for privatization is the old argument that private companies do everything better and more “efficiently” than government, and will find ways to cut costs.  Over and over we hear that companies do everything for less cost than government. . . When government does something they don’t have to pay millions to someone at the top.

Private Not Public Interest

There is a fundamental conflict of interest between public and private. When things are privatized of course profit comes first, not public interest.  Public functions are supposed to serve the public, us, We, the People.  The ‘private’ in ‘privatization’ means that it is done for the private gain of a few.  When a public function is privatized it means that instead of operating for the benefit of We, the People – the 99% – it is operated for the benefit of a few – the 1%.

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Dorli Rainey, 84-Year-Old Occupy Seattle Protester, Pepper Sprayed In The Face

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Dorli Rainey, the 84-year-old, pictured in the photo [above], has been an activist since the 1960s and even ran for mayor of Seattle in 2009, according to the Atlantic Wire. . . Rainey was among a group of Seattle protesters scattered by police on Tuesday. A pregnant 19-year-old woman was also reportedly hit by pepper spray Tuesday, The Associated Press reported, though police haven’t confirmed the incident. . . A priest was also among those pepper sprayed during the protesters’ march from their camp at Seattle Central Community College to Westlake Park, according to the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. Police officers on bicycles attempted to block the protesters’ way. After tensions mounted, the police used pepper spray to disperse the crowd.

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Alec Baldwin: What Occupy Wall Street Has Taught Me

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Maintaining US corporate profitability is the single goal of this Congress. Because that is what the corporations who own the Congress paid for when they bought the Congress. . . Occupy Wall Street people understand that not only are more difficult times possibly around the corner, they know that the current government will likely do as it has historically done, which is to protect the rich and powerful at the expense of the long term interests of the middle class. Some of the most financially successful people in America continually remind us all that capitalism is a contest. There are winners and losers. And the winners want to enjoy their success and they want the losers to keep it down. The noise of the vanquished is spoiling the victors’ fun.

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