Dispelling the conservative tax myth

When I was in high school and university, I believed that the markets should be free and then at the end of the day make the transfer payments to the less fortunate. Because I felt that we should make transfer payments at the end to take care of our poor, I considered myself a social conservative. I now see this as analogous to bombing a country back to the stone age and then air-dropping food aid to take care of the now disposed and homeless. (Which we literally do.)

I later came to realize that the government has a responsibility to intervene in the "free" markets to make them actually free by stopping mergers, breaking up monopolies, preventing collusion, protecting the public good and the public environment. If this were actually the case, small business would easily out compete the big corporations. But the corporations have an ace up their sleeve - access to and control of the government. This is what justifies huge CEO salaries in the US.

But it's worse than you ever thought.  There's no money to be made in the US anymore.  The consumer class is broke, the government is burdened with debt, there's no more room to lower interest rates and there is little room for printing more money.  The only way left to make money is to compete for government payouts.  Of course the wealthy are winning this war too.

See:

• The "My God We're Overtaxed" and "My God the Tax Code is Too Complicated" Canard
• The All-American Occupation A Century of Our Streets Vs. Wall Street
• Dean Baker on How We Can Make the 'Free Market' Work for the 99%
• Myth of the Liberal Nanny State

Also, two of Dean Baker's books are free here and here.

From the King James Bible:

The LORD will enter into judgment with the elders of his people, and with their princes: for ye have eaten up the vineyard; the spoil of the poor is in your houses. - Isaiah 3:14

Thus according to the bible, one's wealth is considered stolen from the poor. This is perfectly clear now in the US and its global neoliberal empire. Income disparity (inequality) has never been higher in the US.  See this.  There needs to be some serious redistribution of wealth in this country to deal with the increasing poverty (see this) and the quickly disappearing middle class by increasing taxes on the wealthy: 50% tax rates on income over $200,000. 70% tax rates on income over $1 million and 90% tax rates on income over $5 million.  The economy would soar.

Also, Mindsweeper and I wrote an 8 part series on the, 'Bush Tax Cuts' in November and December of 2010 which you can easily find by searching this blog.

Liberty for the People.
Tyranny for the Oppressors.