I'm personally willing to pay more in income tax-- to get more -- but also to reduce our national liabilities, i.e. the debt and deficits.
But many wealthy folks declare no income -- and hide their wealth. Who knows who owns those Bitcoins once worth 5 cents in 2009, now worth north of a $100,000?
Who knows how much folks like former Republican candidate for president, Mitch Romney, has in offshore moola?
Who knows how many folk borrow from themsemselves rather than take dividends?
And, worse, how many foreigners do business in this coutry without registering? When I buy a widget made elsewhere, the manufacturer can avoid or bribe its way out of tax liability.
Just yesterday, I posted that I watched a conversation between Heather Cox Richardson, and Zach Everson re crypto, and MANY of the ways the Trump family is enriching themselves. https://bsky.app/profile/hcrichardson.bsky.social
It pisses me off that in most years, my wife and I, middle class people, paid more in income tax than Trump, than many major businesses and religious leaders. I don't own any gold toilets, jets, etc. I don't even itemize.
I don't have a mortgage. But when I lived in Maryland before the 2017 tax cuts, we could deduct a mortgage, state income and property taxes. Now we don't even deduct our property taxes and charitable deductions.
The State and Local Tax (SALT) deduction allows you to deduct certain taxes paid to state and local governments. This deduction is limited to a combined total of $10,000 per year ($5,000 if married filing separately) as a result of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA). This cap is currently set to expire after 2025. You deduct these taxes in the year you pay them.
Washington doesn't have a state income tax but has a state sales tax of 6.5%, and localities can add up to 4.1%, resulting in an average combined rate of 9.43%, so you may/may not be able to deduct them.
Overall, the IRS collected over $5 trillion in tax revenue in fiscal year 2024, the first time in history they surpassed this mark. This represents an increase of almost 9% compared to the prior fiscal year.
I've been sayin' for years that we primarily have a collection problem. A few years ago Janet Yellen said $7 trillion in taxes over 10 years is uncollected. Tha was after #45. It has to be greater now.
IRS internal estimates indicate that DOGE has induced disruptions that will wipe out about $500 billion worth of tax revenues, reported the Talking Points Memo.
I think it's also a national security issue. The other day on Heather Cox Richardson, on a post from Deepak Puri, "Many observers have connected the dots and concluded that Saudi Arabia’s crown prince is seeking to drag the United States into a war with Iran and Hezbollah. But that’s only half the story. Looking at the recent events through a broader geopolitical lens, a much more sinister plan emerges: a Saudi plan to trap the United States in a permanent standoff with Tehran." - National Interest.
Heather documents that members of Trump’s inner circle, including Michael Flynn and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, hatched a plan for a joint U.S.-Russian project to build nuclear power plants in Saudi Arabia. In June 2016 they formed a company called IP3 International, short for International Peace, Power and Prosperity.
I am perplexed right now. I distinctly recall that during Trump's first term, Congress passed and he signed a law that eliminated the mortgage interest deduction, but on checking. via google and IRS website, evidently you can. All I can figure is a glitch in the matrix or the Mandela effect.
I know about SALT
Isn't the elimination of SALT one of the things on the Republican agenda.
I don't think Musk, Thiel the rest of them pay income taxes, because they don't own anything but stock, and they borrow against their stock, that is how Musk bought Twitter, that and a personal loan.
The Income Tax act of 1913 and Title 26 USC, does not include wages and salary as income. Income is interest, dividends and proceeds from sale of stock and property.
The IRS got around that by having congress pass a law that requires employers to deduct taxes from wages and salary, and report those to the IRS. Then the IRS 1040 requires you to report the wages and salary you received on your W-2 or 1099,
and then following the instructions on the 1040 compute your taxes.
They get you if you make a mistake or don't file a 1040.
People were getting away without paying taxes for years, by claiming 9 dependents, if you claim enough dependents you don't have taxes deducted and thus your wages and salaries are not reported to the IRS.
They got around that, by a law requiring everyone to have an SSAN, basically having parents get an SSAN for dependents, and now you have to report the SSAN of all your dependents on the 1040.
If these billionaires and millionaires have any liquidity, it is in some bank in the Caymans, Switzerland or The principality of Sealand.
The IRS used to have investigators looking for those unlisted accounts, but that was years ago.
Some Congressional Republicans in blue states negotiated to increase SALT to $40,000. Doesn't mean it will happen.
Once upon a time, I reresented townships where the majority were land rich, cash poor. As a result, on paper, we got little revenue.
As to mortgage interest, it's not as important as when tax rates were high. In the old days, people used them as tax shelters.
AI. Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) of 2017.
Mortgages taken out after December 15, 2017: You can deduct interest on up to $750,000 of qualifying mortgage debt, or $375,000 if married filing separately.
Mortgages taken out before December 16, 2017 (including "legacy debt"): You can deduct interest on up to $1 million of qualifying mortgage debt, or $500,000 if married filing separately.
Homes sold before April 1, 2018 (with contracts before December 15, 2017): Similar limits to mortgages before December 16, 2017, may apply if a sales contract was executed by December 15, 2017, and closed before April 1, 2018.
Important Notes:
You must itemize deductions on Schedule A (Form 1040) to claim the mortgage interest deduction.
Home equity loan interest is generally deductible if the funds are used to buy, build, or substantially improve your home and the total debt falls within the specified limits.
If you paid more than $600 in interest during the year, your mortgage provider should send you a Form 1098 detailing the interest paid.
The limits introduced by the TCJA are set to expire on December 31, 2025, which may lead to changes in the rules for future tax years.
. In the old days, as long as the mortgage was recorded, all could be deducted. Now just principal home. We used to be snowbirds.....
I am retired military and also on Social Security, From 1996 to 2019 I used the mortgage Interest deduction and filed a schedule A, but in 2019 I paid off my mortgage, so no deduction and no Schedule A.
I suspect that stability is a factor also and that constantly screwing with tax rates is upsetting and confusing for ordinary working people. More importantly, people who are on an even keel and living a decent and sustainable life with hope for the future take great pride in contributing a reasonable portion of their gross income to the public welfare and to the regular maintenance costs of a peaceful society and government - as long as there is a degree of fairness and equity within the system. Fairness went out the window with Reagan and there never was any true fairness for minorities and women.
The earned income tax credit (EITC), first proposed in the early 1970s, was signed by Ford. It was later substantially expanded by Reagan, who deemed it “the best anti-poverty, the best pro-family, the best job creation measure to come out of Congress.”
IMHO Biden temporarily had the best solution, but Republicans killed it. A significant expansion of the Child Tax Credit, included in the American Rescue Plan of 2021, temporarily increased the credit amount and made it fully refundable.
Increased Credit Amounts: Biden's proposals aim to restore the expanded credit amounts similar to those seen in 2021: $3,600 per child under age 6, and $3,000 for children aged 6-17.
Full Refundability: This would ensure low-income families receive the full credit amount, even if they owe little or no federal income tax.
Monthly Payments: The expanded credit would be delivered through advance monthly payments, offering families more consistent financial support.
Expansion of Eligibility: The proposals would also make the credit available to 17-year-olds and remove the phase-in for the full credit based on earnings.
Address Child Poverty: Reviving the expanded CTC was aimed at reducing child poverty and providing critical breathing room to millions of working families.
For 2024) the Child Tax Credit was administered under the rules established by the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) of 2017. The credit is worth up to $2,000 per qualifying child, with a refundable portion of $1,700.
In the Big Crappy bill -- Child Tax Credit Expansion:
Increased Credit Amount:
The bill proposes increasing the maximum per-child credit to $2,200, indexed for inflation, potentially starting in 2025.
Potential Restrictions:
The legislation limits eligibility to parents or guardians with Social Security Numbers, potentially excluding some mixed-status families where children are citizens but parents are not.
Impact on Low-Income Families:
While the bill aims to expand the credit, some argue that the restrictions could exclude a significant number of children in low-income families, especially those with non-citizen parents.
Refundability:
The Senate version of the bill may also include provisions for making the credit fully refundable and adjusting it for inflation.
Extends Trump Tax Cuts:
The bill would extend the 2017 tax cuts, which lowered taxes for businesses and individuals.
Immigration Provisions:
The bill includes provisions related to border security and immigration, potentially impacting eligibility for tax benefits for certain immigrants.
Tax Cuts for Seniors:
The bill also includes a senior deduction for both itemizers and non-itemizers.
Potential Deficit Increase:
Some analyses estimate that the bill could add to the national debt, especially if temporary provisions are extended without offsets.
Potential Benefits and Drawbacks:
Potential Benefits:
Families could see a larger tax credit, potentially leading to more disposable income.
Potential Drawbacks:
Some families, particularly those with non-citizen parents, could lose access to the credit. The bill's overall impact on the national debt and potential cuts to social programs like Medicaid and SNAP are also concerns.
Lest we forget the most cynical ploy of all when it comes to American workers and their tax rates. In Trump 1.0 he famously announced a reduction in withholding which most people heard as a tax cut and it stimulated the economy a little for holiday purchases. Many Americans were massively surprised when, instead of getting a (ever shrinking) refund the were required to pay more taxes in April for the very first time. The connection of lower withholding and the fact they suddenly had to pay more at the end has still not dawned on many peoples minds and they credit DJT 1.0 for having lowered their taxes even though the opposite is true. My America was Great Already
This commentary misses an important point, alluded to in the acknowledgement of Danish happiness, there are two sided to the ledger. Only talking about tax rates misses what the money buys, especially buying what only a national govt can buy efficiently, eg defense, infrastructure.
The latter is alluded to briefly in one sentence about gutting infrastructure. The Danes are happy because the govt makes service avaiable to all viz the Danish gendelaw. sw
Mr. Hartmann, since I first discovered the economic ideas of Adam Smith and David Ricardo years ago, I have been suspicious about their models. I had studied mathematics and physics before I studied economic theories. It seemed to me immediately, that the early economists were attempting to impose onto a particular kind of human behavior [economic] the same kind of theoretical models that Physicists were using. This did not seem to me to be appropriate. it did not really work. The physical world exists independently of us. It has in it, objective truths which we can discover. This is not true of human behavior, including economic behavior. There is no such thing as a marketplace which exists independently of human behavior. No such thing as a marketplace containing objective truths which we can discover in the same sense a physicist or biologist does.
There is no doubt that human beings adjust their behavior in accordance with changes in government policies, taxes or other policies. But these collective changes in behavior are not as ironclad as the relationships between variables one finds in physics, chemistry and biology. In their search for patterns in human economic behavior early economic theorists tried to imitate the success of the physical scientists. And in this attempt they failed to produce any really useful knowledge. Instead they ran up many blind alleys. Their great failure was their inability, or unwillingness, to recognize that in a very fundamental sense, all human behavior is arbitrary. The physical world is not arbitrary. It is a mistake to try to transplant theoretical paradigms from the world of physics, chemistry and biology onto the phenomena of human behavior.
Human beings are symbol using creatures. The only ones on the planet. Symbols create a completely arbitrary mental world for us. All of our knowledge about the world we live in, is arbitrary. The physical world forces us to attempt to minimize this arbitrariness as much as we can. But even here we are at a disadvantage, as our recent discovery of the apparent contradictions in the world of nuclear physics has revealed. It seems even that world we thought for many years was objective....the physical world....is not entirely objective. Now, after the discovery of atoms, particles, and their behavior; we look back on what the great Newton gave us and reassess his contribution. Not only is the world as "Newtonian" as we thought it to be. But, we now must face the reality that Newton's idea that there is a "force" in the universe called gravity which pulls masses toward one another; this idea, has thrust us back into the pre-renaissance world of mysticism. Gravity is mysticism. Since Newton we have discovered 2 other forces which are also examples of mysticism.
The habit we have developed of trying to adapt physical paradigms to economic behavior is ridiculous. But we continue to do it. The only economists who have developed a paradigm which is close to being objective are the Physiocrats and the Marxists. Modern economic activity has changed so much since the Physiocrats that their paradigm must be changed to fit today's world. No longer is it rue that wealth is founded on ownership of and utilization of land; as the Physiocrats believed. Marxism, however, is still a good paradigm fit.
If Denmark is the model, per Thom Hartmann, it's not Marxist. Not a "good fit." And as my 'ol pappy would have said, social science is to science as masturbation is to fornication.
I'm personally willing to pay more in income tax-- to get more -- but also to reduce our national liabilities, i.e. the debt and deficits.
But many wealthy folks declare no income -- and hide their wealth. Who knows who owns those Bitcoins once worth 5 cents in 2009, now worth north of a $100,000?
Who knows how much folks like former Republican candidate for president, Mitch Romney, has in offshore moola?
Who knows how many folk borrow from themsemselves rather than take dividends?
And, worse, how many foreigners do business in this coutry without registering? When I buy a widget made elsewhere, the manufacturer can avoid or bribe its way out of tax liability.
Just yesterday, I posted that I watched a conversation between Heather Cox Richardson, and Zach Everson re crypto, and MANY of the ways the Trump family is enriching themselves. https://bsky.app/profile/hcrichardson.bsky.social
IMHO all that money belongs to us taxpayers!
Trump's stablecoin chosen for $2 billion Abu Dhabi investment in Binance, co-founder says. https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/wlfs-zach-witkoff-usd1-selected-official-stablecoin-mgx-investment-binance-2025-05-01/
It pisses me off that in most years, my wife and I, middle class people, paid more in income tax than Trump, than many major businesses and religious leaders. I don't own any gold toilets, jets, etc. I don't even itemize.
I can go on for a month!
You apparently aren't carrying a mortgage and make charitable contributions. Or the interest on your mortgage is less than the standard deduction.
I don't have a mortgage. But when I lived in Maryland before the 2017 tax cuts, we could deduct a mortgage, state income and property taxes. Now we don't even deduct our property taxes and charitable deductions.
The State and Local Tax (SALT) deduction allows you to deduct certain taxes paid to state and local governments. This deduction is limited to a combined total of $10,000 per year ($5,000 if married filing separately) as a result of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA). This cap is currently set to expire after 2025. You deduct these taxes in the year you pay them.
Washington doesn't have a state income tax but has a state sales tax of 6.5%, and localities can add up to 4.1%, resulting in an average combined rate of 9.43%, so you may/may not be able to deduct them.
This hits hard in states like NY, CA.
Overall, the IRS collected over $5 trillion in tax revenue in fiscal year 2024, the first time in history they surpassed this mark. This represents an increase of almost 9% compared to the prior fiscal year.
I've been sayin' for years that we primarily have a collection problem. A few years ago Janet Yellen said $7 trillion in taxes over 10 years is uncollected. Tha was after #45. It has to be greater now.
IRS internal estimates indicate that DOGE has induced disruptions that will wipe out about $500 billion worth of tax revenues, reported the Talking Points Memo.
I also think that OPEC countries owe us trillions. They fix prices. This used to be a bipartisan issue. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_Oil_Producing_and_Exporting_Cartels_Act
I think it's also a national security issue. The other day on Heather Cox Richardson, on a post from Deepak Puri, "Many observers have connected the dots and concluded that Saudi Arabia’s crown prince is seeking to drag the United States into a war with Iran and Hezbollah. But that’s only half the story. Looking at the recent events through a broader geopolitical lens, a much more sinister plan emerges: a Saudi plan to trap the United States in a permanent standoff with Tehran." - National Interest.
Heather documents that members of Trump’s inner circle, including Michael Flynn and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, hatched a plan for a joint U.S.-Russian project to build nuclear power plants in Saudi Arabia. In June 2016 they formed a company called IP3 International, short for International Peace, Power and Prosperity.
Puri's Substack. https://thedemlabs.org/2025/06/19/trumps-decision-to-bomb-iran-driven-by-gifts-from-irans-enemies/
Ask Trump whether he had any contact with them. Whether he had an undisclosed conflict. Did Hegseth know this?
Please call Kushner, Flynn to hearings and get them on the record.
I am perplexed right now. I distinctly recall that during Trump's first term, Congress passed and he signed a law that eliminated the mortgage interest deduction, but on checking. via google and IRS website, evidently you can. All I can figure is a glitch in the matrix or the Mandela effect.
I know about SALT
Isn't the elimination of SALT one of the things on the Republican agenda.
I don't think Musk, Thiel the rest of them pay income taxes, because they don't own anything but stock, and they borrow against their stock, that is how Musk bought Twitter, that and a personal loan.
The Income Tax act of 1913 and Title 26 USC, does not include wages and salary as income. Income is interest, dividends and proceeds from sale of stock and property.
The IRS got around that by having congress pass a law that requires employers to deduct taxes from wages and salary, and report those to the IRS. Then the IRS 1040 requires you to report the wages and salary you received on your W-2 or 1099,
and then following the instructions on the 1040 compute your taxes.
They get you if you make a mistake or don't file a 1040.
People were getting away without paying taxes for years, by claiming 9 dependents, if you claim enough dependents you don't have taxes deducted and thus your wages and salaries are not reported to the IRS.
They got around that, by a law requiring everyone to have an SSAN, basically having parents get an SSAN for dependents, and now you have to report the SSAN of all your dependents on the 1040.
If these billionaires and millionaires have any liquidity, it is in some bank in the Caymans, Switzerland or The principality of Sealand.
B
The IRS used to have investigators looking for those unlisted accounts, but that was years ago.
Some Congressional Republicans in blue states negotiated to increase SALT to $40,000. Doesn't mean it will happen.
Once upon a time, I reresented townships where the majority were land rich, cash poor. As a result, on paper, we got little revenue.
As to mortgage interest, it's not as important as when tax rates were high. In the old days, people used them as tax shelters.
AI. Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) of 2017.
Mortgages taken out after December 15, 2017: You can deduct interest on up to $750,000 of qualifying mortgage debt, or $375,000 if married filing separately.
Mortgages taken out before December 16, 2017 (including "legacy debt"): You can deduct interest on up to $1 million of qualifying mortgage debt, or $500,000 if married filing separately.
Homes sold before April 1, 2018 (with contracts before December 15, 2017): Similar limits to mortgages before December 16, 2017, may apply if a sales contract was executed by December 15, 2017, and closed before April 1, 2018.
Important Notes:
You must itemize deductions on Schedule A (Form 1040) to claim the mortgage interest deduction.
Home equity loan interest is generally deductible if the funds are used to buy, build, or substantially improve your home and the total debt falls within the specified limits.
If you paid more than $600 in interest during the year, your mortgage provider should send you a Form 1098 detailing the interest paid.
The limits introduced by the TCJA are set to expire on December 31, 2025, which may lead to changes in the rules for future tax years.
. In the old days, as long as the mortgage was recorded, all could be deducted. Now just principal home. We used to be snowbirds.....
I am retired military and also on Social Security, From 1996 to 2019 I used the mortgage Interest deduction and filed a schedule A, but in 2019 I paid off my mortgage, so no deduction and no Schedule A.
I suspect that stability is a factor also and that constantly screwing with tax rates is upsetting and confusing for ordinary working people. More importantly, people who are on an even keel and living a decent and sustainable life with hope for the future take great pride in contributing a reasonable portion of their gross income to the public welfare and to the regular maintenance costs of a peaceful society and government - as long as there is a degree of fairness and equity within the system. Fairness went out the window with Reagan and there never was any true fairness for minorities and women.
The earned income tax credit (EITC), first proposed in the early 1970s, was signed by Ford. It was later substantially expanded by Reagan, who deemed it “the best anti-poverty, the best pro-family, the best job creation measure to come out of Congress.”
IMHO Biden temporarily had the best solution, but Republicans killed it. A significant expansion of the Child Tax Credit, included in the American Rescue Plan of 2021, temporarily increased the credit amount and made it fully refundable.
Increased Credit Amounts: Biden's proposals aim to restore the expanded credit amounts similar to those seen in 2021: $3,600 per child under age 6, and $3,000 for children aged 6-17.
Full Refundability: This would ensure low-income families receive the full credit amount, even if they owe little or no federal income tax.
Monthly Payments: The expanded credit would be delivered through advance monthly payments, offering families more consistent financial support.
Expansion of Eligibility: The proposals would also make the credit available to 17-year-olds and remove the phase-in for the full credit based on earnings.
Address Child Poverty: Reviving the expanded CTC was aimed at reducing child poverty and providing critical breathing room to millions of working families.
For 2024) the Child Tax Credit was administered under the rules established by the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) of 2017. The credit is worth up to $2,000 per qualifying child, with a refundable portion of $1,700.
In the Big Crappy bill -- Child Tax Credit Expansion:
Increased Credit Amount:
The bill proposes increasing the maximum per-child credit to $2,200, indexed for inflation, potentially starting in 2025.
Potential Restrictions:
The legislation limits eligibility to parents or guardians with Social Security Numbers, potentially excluding some mixed-status families where children are citizens but parents are not.
Impact on Low-Income Families:
While the bill aims to expand the credit, some argue that the restrictions could exclude a significant number of children in low-income families, especially those with non-citizen parents.
Refundability:
The Senate version of the bill may also include provisions for making the credit fully refundable and adjusting it for inflation.
Extends Trump Tax Cuts:
The bill would extend the 2017 tax cuts, which lowered taxes for businesses and individuals.
Immigration Provisions:
The bill includes provisions related to border security and immigration, potentially impacting eligibility for tax benefits for certain immigrants.
Tax Cuts for Seniors:
The bill also includes a senior deduction for both itemizers and non-itemizers.
Potential Deficit Increase:
Some analyses estimate that the bill could add to the national debt, especially if temporary provisions are extended without offsets.
Potential Benefits and Drawbacks:
Potential Benefits:
Families could see a larger tax credit, potentially leading to more disposable income.
Potential Drawbacks:
Some families, particularly those with non-citizen parents, could lose access to the credit. The bill's overall impact on the national debt and potential cuts to social programs like Medicaid and SNAP are also concerns.
Lest we forget the most cynical ploy of all when it comes to American workers and their tax rates. In Trump 1.0 he famously announced a reduction in withholding which most people heard as a tax cut and it stimulated the economy a little for holiday purchases. Many Americans were massively surprised when, instead of getting a (ever shrinking) refund the were required to pay more taxes in April for the very first time. The connection of lower withholding and the fact they suddenly had to pay more at the end has still not dawned on many peoples minds and they credit DJT 1.0 for having lowered their taxes even though the opposite is true. My America was Great Already
And it reduced the SSA retirenent fund.
Good point!
This commentary misses an important point, alluded to in the acknowledgement of Danish happiness, there are two sided to the ledger. Only talking about tax rates misses what the money buys, especially buying what only a national govt can buy efficiently, eg defense, infrastructure.
The latter is alluded to briefly in one sentence about gutting infrastructure. The Danes are happy because the govt makes service avaiable to all viz the Danish gendelaw. sw
True in part. But if includes prune Danish, my wife would love it.
As members of NATO Danes have to increase defense spending to 5% of GDP. We only spend about 4%.
good point!
Mr. Hartmann, since I first discovered the economic ideas of Adam Smith and David Ricardo years ago, I have been suspicious about their models. I had studied mathematics and physics before I studied economic theories. It seemed to me immediately, that the early economists were attempting to impose onto a particular kind of human behavior [economic] the same kind of theoretical models that Physicists were using. This did not seem to me to be appropriate. it did not really work. The physical world exists independently of us. It has in it, objective truths which we can discover. This is not true of human behavior, including economic behavior. There is no such thing as a marketplace which exists independently of human behavior. No such thing as a marketplace containing objective truths which we can discover in the same sense a physicist or biologist does.
There is no doubt that human beings adjust their behavior in accordance with changes in government policies, taxes or other policies. But these collective changes in behavior are not as ironclad as the relationships between variables one finds in physics, chemistry and biology. In their search for patterns in human economic behavior early economic theorists tried to imitate the success of the physical scientists. And in this attempt they failed to produce any really useful knowledge. Instead they ran up many blind alleys. Their great failure was their inability, or unwillingness, to recognize that in a very fundamental sense, all human behavior is arbitrary. The physical world is not arbitrary. It is a mistake to try to transplant theoretical paradigms from the world of physics, chemistry and biology onto the phenomena of human behavior.
Human beings are symbol using creatures. The only ones on the planet. Symbols create a completely arbitrary mental world for us. All of our knowledge about the world we live in, is arbitrary. The physical world forces us to attempt to minimize this arbitrariness as much as we can. But even here we are at a disadvantage, as our recent discovery of the apparent contradictions in the world of nuclear physics has revealed. It seems even that world we thought for many years was objective....the physical world....is not entirely objective. Now, after the discovery of atoms, particles, and their behavior; we look back on what the great Newton gave us and reassess his contribution. Not only is the world as "Newtonian" as we thought it to be. But, we now must face the reality that Newton's idea that there is a "force" in the universe called gravity which pulls masses toward one another; this idea, has thrust us back into the pre-renaissance world of mysticism. Gravity is mysticism. Since Newton we have discovered 2 other forces which are also examples of mysticism.
The habit we have developed of trying to adapt physical paradigms to economic behavior is ridiculous. But we continue to do it. The only economists who have developed a paradigm which is close to being objective are the Physiocrats and the Marxists. Modern economic activity has changed so much since the Physiocrats that their paradigm must be changed to fit today's world. No longer is it rue that wealth is founded on ownership of and utilization of land; as the Physiocrats believed. Marxism, however, is still a good paradigm fit.
Denmark is not Marxist.
Mr. Solomon.........where ever you go, there you are.............therei s no head janitor in this building..........????????
If Denmark is the model, per Thom Hartmann, it's not Marxist. Not a "good fit." And as my 'ol pappy would have said, social science is to science as masturbation is to fornication.
O,Captain my Captain and the rich keep getting richer. That’s just the way it is! Democracy, please.