Wages as a percentage of corporate profits.

This chart paints an ugly picture.

Corporate profits are at an all time high, personal income and salary for the 99% is at an all time low.

Why the disconnect? 

The top 1% which include the CEO's directors, and upper level managers are siphoning more of the salary pie than they used to receive as compensation. 

What's left after the executives take the lions share is a tiny fraction. The small crumbs that are left are split amongst offshore workers that make pennies a day, and the American laborers that are forced to work for salaries that are barely above minimum wage.

Before the Ronald Reagan revolution- that was the beginning of the destruction of the middle class, executives in the 1% took 10% of the salary pie, now they take 40% of all wages. The middle class in the 99% now has 30% less of that salary pie to divided between themselves. Its even worse when you consider anther 20% of that income pie goes to workers in India and China.

If you thought Bloomberg even had one shred of decency- think again.

A Living Wage, Long Overdue
Published: December 25, 2011
Published in The New York Times.

New York City provides hundreds of millions of dollars a year in taxpayer-financed subsidies to private developers. It is only right that the jobs created by those projects pay a decent wage. The Fair Wages for New Yorkers Act, widely known as the living-wage bill, would nudge these employers in the right direction.

Get that- middle class NYC taxpayers provide kickbacks to developers so that they can build fancy buildings for wall street big shots and others.

The bill now before the City Council would require future development projects that receive $1 million or more in discretionary financial assistance from the city to pay $10 an hour plus benefits for full-time workers and $11.50 an hour without benefits for at least 10 years. That may not be much, but it is an improvement over the minimum wage of $7. 25 an hour.

The benefits sound fair.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg is fighting this change, arguing that a wage increase might scare off new developments and cost the city thousands of lower-paying jobs. That has not been the experience elsewhere.

First off, $7.25 isn't a living wage in New York City, it hasn't been for years. Meanwhile, on the left coast, the other expensive city, San Francisco, just raised their minimum wage for ALL workers to $10.24 an hour.

Once again Bloombito is talking his book:
"But, if we don't give these fancy billionaire developers millions in kickbacks, they will build those penthouses that sell for 30 million in Cincinnati!
We can't make these job creators pay another 3 bucks an hour to poor people- that would cut into their tens of millions in profits."

Disgusting!

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/26/opinion/a-living-wage-long-overdue.html

Donate now.

Illinois workers pay taxes to their employers, not to the state. read on.

If that headline had you confused- here it is again.
Some companies in Illinois have convinced the government to let them pocket their workers taxes.

In other words, if you work for one of these companies, the taxes that are deduced from every paycheck don’t go into the governments coffers- they go to the company you work for.

Tax dollars that would normally flow into the state treasury to pay for education and other necessary state services never make it there- instead these taxes go towards CEO bonuses. The corporations that get these sweet deals get to keep the money from their employees that would normally go to the state free and clear.

Why would the government agree to this?

The Illinois government was desperate to keep companies in state, so they went looking for a solution that could reward the job creators.

Usually states offer tax incentives, to entice companies to stay, trouble is- these companies either pay zero state taxes, or the minimal amount they pay on taxes weren't enough of an incentive to stick around.

The Illinois government knew that if it had to write a large check to these companies to stay in state, it would look ugly. Some might call it a kickback, others might say it was extortion.

Either way, the solution was to let the businesses retain worker paid for taxes as they were generated.

Sounds like the people that work for these companies, aren't getting necessary services for their tax dollars. You know, little things, like police, fire departments, roads, schools. Oh well, who needs the police anyway. Better that those tax dollars contribute to the corporations profits. Call me cynical, but it sounds like the workers are actually paying their employers for the privilege of having a job.

funny that, i thought the job creators were supposed to pay employees.
call this what you will, but this isn't capitalism, it isn't a free market.

If this continues- you need to know that it isn't a zero sum game.
As the federal government cuts back financial aid and subsidies to states, it will starve the states of revenue.

Every single republican running for president wants to eliminate capitals gains taxes, and corporate taxes.
If they do that, the states will have to raise tax rates on corporations. Businesses will threaten to move from one state with high taxes, to a state with lower taxes. Finally, when the tax rate is zero in every single state, the job creators will still demand larger and larger kickbacks.

When that isn't enough if an incentive- what then?

read more here.
you can view the story here.

Paying the corporate overseers for the privilege of having a job, sounds like feudalism doesn't it?

Admittedly, I was slow to catch on; but if you look at those on the far right, namely the Koch brothers, Cain, Perry, Bachman, and Paul Ryan, they all pay lip service the Constitution, to freedom, but- what they really want- is to make us all serfs!

If we are the serfs, who would the feudal lords be?

Call what the far right believe in- feudalism, corporatism, fascism- it doesn't matter, what does matter is that they do not believe in democracy.

CNBC: Is this Michelle Caruso Cabrera? Happier days.

You can get her book here.

Many people seem to think this is her- I'm not so sure.
I report- you decide.

Compare and contrast.

this clip speaks for itself- it makes a sharp point.

How can an American watching the republican candidates not weep for the country.
The republican debates are a race to the bottom- they spout meaningless, mindless, soundbites wrapped in a vitriolic wrapper meant to appeal to baser instincts.

There isn't even one republican at the debates that can compare to ANY of the democratic nominees back in 08.

Politics aside, the entire democratic field wipes the floor with these republican baboons.

Who really owns the debt?

Spiegel


Time to put another republican lie to bed.
As you can see from this chart, the bulk of debt and deficit load belongs to Bush.

Take note, The Federal fiscal year runs from OCT 1 to Sept 30.
The day Obama took office, he was running on the Bush budget from Oct 1 2010 (the previous year), till Sept 20 2011. The debt accumulation during this first year in office belongs to the prior congress and president.

Further, it’s important to remember that a large portion of the debt Obama inherited can be blamed on the recession.

How much of this debt is due to the recession? It’s hard to quantify, but it’s a significant amount.
No matter who inherited the White House in 2009, the debt was going to go parabolic.

If you look at the debt with a critical eye, the facts are what matter, just the facts.
The deficit and the debt were going to explode during this massive recession.
You can’t rip the housing sector out of the economy without a colossal hit to collected tax revenues.

The recession led to an increase of unprofitable + bankrupt corporations + Job loss = decreased tax receipts.
Couple the above with an increase of unemployment benefits + assistance programs to help larger numbers of out of work citizens= a guaranteed explosion in the debt and the deficit.
Bake in lower consumer spending in 2009 and 2010 to the overall equation = less demand = fewer hires = even less tax revenues.

Blame Obama if you want- but you are being intellectually dishonest if you do. The debt and the deficit were going to increase no matter who was in charge.
The bottom line:
The bipartisan recession owns a very large part of this debt.

If the stimulus created or saved jobs, even temporarily- it cost less than the 800billion price tag.
There is way too much partisanship on issues in this day and age.
We need more logic, not hatred and biased taking points.

Massive income inequity.

These graphics speak for themselves.

There are two simple ways to fix this attack on the middle class.
Tax the rich- do it right away!
Raise the Minimum wage!

Gov cuomo would rather tax the poor instead of taxing the millionaires.

Anyone that lives in New York City know that the mta is going to jack rates up by at least 30% in the next three years.
The mta needs serious funding for new operations and maintenance over the next few years.

Since the federal government, and the New York state government decided to cut back on funding for the MTA, the MTA had no choice but to raise rates 17% last year. Add that 17% hike with another 30% increase over the next two to three years and that is some serious pain for minimum wage workers.

Instead of taxing millionaires tax one single penny, the Gov is going to tax the poor and the middle class a pound.

These massive MTA hikes are nothing more than painful regressive taxes on the working poor and the middle class.

Cuomo got a lot of good will with his support via the gay marriage issue, but that doesn't forgive his plans on taxing the poor instead of the rich!

I said it before, and i will say it again: millionaires aren't going to leave their Manhattan penthouses and Brooklyn townhouses to move to the suburbs.

New York state and city have become more regressive due to Cuomo and Bloomberg. The Middle class in New York pay the highest state and local taxes as a percentage of their income in the entire nation!

The rich in NY were getting a good deal even with the millionaires tax in place, now they are getting a free ride- courtesy of Cuomo and Bloomberg.

Cuomo needs to be shamed for this disgusting move.

The poor already pay more than their fair share in taxes.

Over and over we need to hear lies from the right that half of the country doesn’t pay taxes.
Over and over again we need to dispute the tripe that the right-wingers pollute the airwaves with.

-As the federal government has cut back on aid to states, the states have given less to local cities and townships.
-As the federal spigot of tax revenues dries up, and cutbacks are enacted, the states have had to take matters into their own hands for funding.
Here is a simple example of a hidden tax that the poor pay when the government refuses to progressively tax the rich.

Across the nation, funding that would normally come from taxes for mass transit has been severely cutback. The public transit systems have had to raise fares in most of the country to compensate for that lost revenue. Fares have gone up more than 10% in almost every instance.

For someone making the minimum wage, a 10% increase on most major MTA platforms is a 2% tax on their gross paycheck.
Half of the citizens that work in the US make less than 27 grand a year, that same increase in Mass Transit fares is equivalent to 1% tax increase.

The mass transit increase (tax) is highly regressive, the poor and the struggling pay dearly for it.

Sales tax.

Many local cities have raised rates .25 to .50% without much fanfare. For the median wage and minimum wage worker, these seemingly tiny increases can cost 50 to 100 bucks extra every year- To someone making 15k or 20k a year that isn’t chump change.

Local, and state sales taxes, have either gone up recently or they are planning to raise them all across the nation. As the federal government starves the states, the states stave local cities and towns. While it has become almost impossible to raise taxes on the wealthiest citizens on a federal, state or city level, regressive sales and severe hikes are the only places that governments can go to take in revenue.

This is a sick game that the rightwing is playing, as they give tax breaks to the wealthy on the federal or state level, the cities have to raises taxes to make up for the shortfalls. Local municipalities and they aren’t able to change the income tax structure as that usually requires legislation by state senators and governors, many of which are tea party extremists, and they are playing the same games that the GOP is playing in Washington.

Most people have no idea what their state and local tax rates charge. Many, have no idea, how regressive state and local taxes eat away at their purchasing power. Coupled with sales taxes, and hidden taxes such as the mass transit fare increase, and you have a recipe for disaster.

The bottom line:
When the federal government refuses to tax the rich, the states take matters into their own hands by taxing the poor to make up the difference.
For most of the working citizens and the poor- that 20% increase on the bus fare, means you paying 1 to 2% more in taxes on your gross pay, just to get to work.
If the government was able to tax the rich just a tiny bit more, there would be no need to raise fares / taxes on the poor.

I just gave two examples of hidden taxes there are plenty others. While taxes on the rich aren’t raised the states and cities have had to become creative in generation new forms on taxation, the problem is they are all incredibly regressive.

For a minimum wage worker, that 1% tax on mass transit, and that 1% increase in sales tax can break the bank. When you add these surcharges (and others) to state and local taxes, even those that don’t’ directly pay federal income taxes, pay indirect federal taxes. Taken all together, the poor are paying close to 20% of their incomes in taxes. 20% is way too high for a minimum wage worker, especially when you consider the effective top tax rate for a millionaire, falls somewhere between 15 and 35% of their income.

Take that 20% tax rate; couple it with increased costs for rent, food and other necessities- you now know why we have a class of citizen called, -the working poor-, and know you know why their numbers are growing.

One last note:
If the federal government were to impose an income tax of say, 9% on the working poor, they wouldn’t be able to pay their expenses.
Soon, they may not even be able to afford the bus ride that gets them there.
Put another way; why even bother to work if you can’t afford to put a roof over your head?

The USPS has been murdered. Get angry!

I am sick and tired of the GOP controlling the narrative. They are going to spin the USPS as a failed union government organisation that needs a huge tax payer bailout (money) in order to function as a viable entity.

They will say that the solution is deunionization and free markets-but these are outright lies.

The US government is forcing the USPS to prefund all pensions, something no other government org is required to do. This may not seem like such a bad idea to most, but it is killing the USPS in this rescission where revenues are down.

Second and more important, the US government won't let the USPS raise postage rates.
If the USPS were able to raise rates it could close the hole, and continue on as usual.
This is the most important fact- don't let it slip by. UPS and FedEx both have fuel surcharges in place since gas has skyrocketed, the USPS is forbidden from doing the same by the US government!

How is that a free market?

Why should the government care if the USPS raises rates to compete, the ultimate goal is to make a profit and remain solvent. If they raise rates too much and consumers leave them for UPS that is the free market working as it should.
The US government can't have it both ways, if you want a free market and you don't want the USPS taping bailout / tax payer dollars- let them raise rates!

The USPS doesn't use tax payer money, but if they aren't allowed to temporarily suspend the prefunding requirement or let them raise rates they will have to be bailed out.

Just remember one talking point on this issue:
The USPS has been barred from raising rates to compensate for real inflation IE gas.

Darrell Issa and his disgusting cronies are fighting to deunionize, reduce wages, destroy pensions and fire hundreds of thousands of postal workers.
The GOP would rather let the USPS fail rather than see them raise rates as competitors have done.

Fall Reading and Cookbooks.

Enough! Blacklisting, Remember Elia Kazan, McCarthyism- it isn't making a comeback, its already here

We need to express outrage at NPR for firing host Lisa Simeone, she was fired because she supported the occupy protests.

Here is how it happened.

Explain to me how this any different than blacklisting citizens for political viewpoints?
McCarthyism has made a comeback, but instead of vilifying citizens for being communist sympathizers we are going after liberals!

The lies, the propaganda, the persecution of citizens on the left has reached a fever pitch.

here is another nauseating fact.

ALEC, GOV Walker and the Koch brothers, are on a mission to strip Americans of paid sick days!
hell no! that is another bridge too far! Enough!

They are literally waging war on the middle class- they have crossed the Rubicon.
ENOUGH!

The Mitt Romney economic plan- cut everyone's pay by 25%

The Mitt Romney economic plan- fire 10% of the federal work force. Cut the remaining workers salaries by 25%

Last night, Mitt said- he doesn’t think federal workers should be paid more than those in the private sector, so he is going to cut the pay of all federal employees.
A cut to federal salary by 25% after he lay’s off 10% of the federal workforce- is anyone working for the government going to vote for this clown?

*The Heritage Foundation put out a bullshit report stating that federal workers make 25% more than the private sector.

Second:
He wants to speed up the foreclosure process, kick everyone out and repossess every single house that is underwater ASAP. No loan modification, no refinancing help for those underwater, just let 25% of all homes foreclose- because 25% of ALL mortgages are underwater.

Third:
He is going to cut taxes on the rich, while he bestows a tax holiday to the largest and most profitable corporations in America today.

Got it:
While he says this is a path to prosperity, I see it as a path to Catastrophe.

The republicans have betrayed this country.

There has always been an unspoken and unbroken (until now that is) agreement within the nation.

The poor fight the wars, the rich pay for them.

That pact has been broken, and no one on fox news seems to care.

We had a 90% tax rate on the rich during and after World War 2.
Taxes were increased for Korea.
A surcharge was put into place during the Vietnam era.

They refuse to end the wars; on the contrary they wanted more boots on the ground for Libya- who knows what the hell is going to come of Iran.

All the while, the republicans wish to maintain the lowest tax rates on millionaires in the history of the nation- while the sacrifice is endured solely on the backs of the poor.

For all their talk of patriotism, support for the troops, a strong defense that can’t be cut and a strong nation that needs to tighten its belt, the hypocrites refuse REFUSE to do what they are morally obligated to do, if you won’t end the wars you need to tax the rich so that they can pay for them.

The rich in this nation are richer than they have ever been, they also happen to pay the less in taxes than they ever have.

Tell me republicans; explain how we can have guns and butter.

The Herman Cain 999 plan Is a shit deal for the middle class.

Lets start with how it treats the rich:

Capital gains aren't taxed under 999, and the top one tenth of one percent make almost all of their cash with capital gains.

What is taxed under 999:

All purchases, including food.
All income.
There are zero deductions with 999

Important to note: he is trying to sell 999 as a lower rate than the 15% FICA tax. Problem is, unless you are self employed you only pay half of that, your job picks up the other half.
Unless you job gives you a raise with the money that they save, you aren’t going to save money on payroll taxes since you pay less than 9% on that.
Do you really think the company you work for is going to give you a raise since they just got a tax cut on their profits?
Do we really think that a profitable company currently paying a 20% tax rate, will charge less for their widgets when their rate drops to 9%?

To be fair, your paycheck will be larger under 999 because the withholding tax is gone. By eliminating the withholding and FICA tax, your take home pay will be larger than it is now.

The effective federal tax rate on most median households is 13%- this includes FICA.

This will drop to 9% and that part sounds good- but don’t forget about the national sales tax.
Suppose a family of four spends forty thousand on necessities - that’s a 3600 tax bill!

The median household income in 2010 is fifty thousand. That 3600 tax bill represents a 7% tax rate for a family of four that makes the median household income.

That’s an effective 16% tax rate for a household that makes the median wage. This same household is paying 3% more in taxes under the 9-9-9 plan- this represents a 20% increase in taxes.

Needless to say, this regressive plan gets worse and worse the less you make. On the flip-side, it gets better and better the more you make.

Will rent be taxed at 9%- how about your mortgage payment? We don’t know, because he doesn’t say.
How is he going to fund entitlements without FICA taxes? We don’t know, because he doesn’t say.

Are entitlements going on vacation to Chile under his 999 plan?

An open letter to moderate conservatives.

If you’re a evangelical- I get it, this letter isn’t to you.

Maybe I don’t know where to look on the internet, but I haven’t seen any dismay on the current crop of candidates. Where is the honest discussion on how their policy (or lack thereof) is going to doom us all to hell.

While I lean more to the left, I can see many positives on the conservative end of the spectrum. The democratic party can’t solve every single issue, neither can the republican party, sometimes, meeting in the middle and finding common ground is the best solution.
More to the point, party affiliation doesn’t really mean much to me. For example: I would vote for an honest republican, if they had better ideas than a democratic candidate.

Depending on the era and the particular crisis, a liberal solution might be right solution, at other times a conservative approach would yield better results.
For example: JFK cut taxes, and it was the right decision at the time. He reduced taxes on the top 1% from 90% to 65%- in that era, during that economy he took a conservative approach and democrats saw the value in that approach and agreed. Ike did the opposite, he didn’t try to lower the top tax rate from 90%- and conservatives of that time agreed that was the best approach.

Currently, I believe the liberal idea of raising taxes, and the republican mantra of cutting wasteful spending is the ideal solution to the deficit. The world isn’t colored in black and white; we aren’t going to balance the budget by just painting in one color- we need some gray.

Liberals believe we need to spend on infrastructure, to repair roads and bridges. We need to spend money on research and development- this can in turn cut costs for both medical care and on alternative forms of energy. In other words, sometimes you can save some money over the long term by spending some money in the now.

Conservatives believe we need to cut taxes and stop all spending, but before we do that, let’s look at the current state of the economy.
If you look at the last 30 years in an unbiased unpartisan way, you will see that the rich have increased their net wealth by 80% and there tax rate is lower than it has ever been before.

During that same 30 year period, the middle class has lost over 10% of all net wealth.

It would seem to me, the republican solution of cutting taxes, won’t get us out of this mess. If the rich are paying less than they ever have, how much more are we going to cut their tax rate? And if you succeed in cutting taxes now- what if it doesn’t work? Are you going to propose the same solution in 3 years from now? At some point their tax rate will be so low, there won’t be anything left to cut.

Putting the tax issue aside, who on the republican side is going to get us out of this ditch?
The current crop of republican candidates neither seem honest or smart enough to get the job done.

Mitt Romney- has flip flopped on every single damn issue known to man, and while its good for a laugh, there is a dark side to this. The man is will to do and say anything to become president of the US. This scares the living crap out of me. ALSO: He doesn’t want to cut defense, in fact he wants to beef it up so that we can bomb Iran into submission. Is Iran the way we get the economy moving again?

Herman Cain- his 9-9-9 plan is pathetic, most believe that it will generate fewer revenues than we currently do, at the same time it will lower the effective tax rate on the rich and shift that burden onto the poor and the middle class. This is an evil plan. . ALSO: He doesn’t want to cut defense, in fact he wants to beef it up so that we can bomb Iran into submission. Is Iran the way we get the economy moving again?

Rick Perry- this man is Bush part 3. I don’t know what else to say about it except to say you know better.

Michelle Bachman- if you are waiting for the rapture, I get it.

Ron Paul- a breath of fresh air, his truth telling is refreshing; this man wants to dismantle the federal government. In case you didn’t get it- he wants to destroy the federal government!

Rick Santorum- all he cares about is gays, and bombing IRAN.

Who are these losers? What the hell are they going to do to the country if we give them power? I honestly don’t see things getting better if any one of them get elected.
How can this crop be the best that the party has to offer, I’m offended for you.

If you aren’t criticizing these candidates - if you aren’t angry that the system has given you this wrecked menagerie to pick from- I have to ask you something.

My question:
What the fuck is wrong with you?