Finland has been at the top of the worldwide happiness scale for nine years.....
They have six or seven billionaires. I'll bet they are happy too. Their tax system includes: progressive income tax up to 52%, flat 20% corporate tax, VAT of 25.5%, and capital income tax of 30%.
The Finnish get all the goodies THEY decide they want to be happy. We deserve to do the same. Bezos is scum. Thanks for the lessons, Professor Hartmann. See you in the streets.
Denmark also. Though the combined tax rates are about 50%, no one dies for lack of food, housing and medical care. Everyone has 1st class medical care, and no annual official prayer breakfasts either.
There are about 6,000 homeless at any one time broken down as follows
Demographics: The majority of homeless individuals in Denmark are men, though the number of women and young people has fluctuated. A large portion of this population also deals with compounding issues like mental illness or substance abuse.Migrants:
A notable percentage of visibly homeless individuals in Copenhagen and other cities are migrant workers or foreign nationals who lack access to local social safety nets.
That;s quite different than here in Great America, where people live on the streets, because they lost their homes because they lost their jobs, or went bankrupt over medical bills.
Perfect, Gordon!!! but I'd add, remember the Epstein class -- that means trump, hegseth, bezos, musk etc etc and yes, VOTE! VOTE!! VOTE!!! And vote at your county elections!!! Vote at your state election!! vote for your state Supremes; vote at every election in your state that you are eligible to vote!! help your neighbors get to the voting booths if they aren't able!! In November we have a change to begin change. Don't pass any opportunity to speak up.
Mind boggling. Is that what American capitalism did? turn us from the German guy who doesn't want to be a rich guy in a poor country to Bezos, trump, musk et al who all just want to be the richest guy in the world/country w/no concern who gets hurt in the process. No empathy for the mom w/no money for food for her kids; no empathy for the college grad who can't find a job say nothing about not ever being able to afford a house. So now we're ready for a DEM in the White House who will try to increase taxes on the wealthy to pay down the debt and they will run $$million ads about how all DEMs do is 'tax and spend'. How can we get the language changed?
This article points up a critical weakness of capitalism, in that the business owners have the power to determine not only their own remuneration, but that of their employees as well, thus cementing in place the class system. Unions are a way of correcting this flaw, but of course the ownership class is vigorously opposed to that. And many government programs only exist to compensate the working class for opportunities they would not otherwise receive, due to the predatory nature of capitalist oligarchs.
How is this scam gong to work without Bezo's breaking the law.
When you are hired, you complete a W-4 form, and on it you indicated your dependents, and their SSAN, The employer is then required to deduct taxes, taking into account your deductions and then remit the taxes in your name to the IRS. Failure to do any of the above is crime
s Bezo's not going to have his employees fill out a W-4 form, is not going to withhold taxes. If he doesn't withhold taxes, then the employees take home pay is suddenly increased and he will find it difficult to reduce their salary by the amount previously withheld for taxes.
Bill Kristal penned a charmingly hopeful Substack this morning comparing today’s circumstances to the Axis threats of WWII. He failed to mention the insidious impact of concentrated wealth in today’s world. Corporations, morbidly wealthy individuals, dark money special interest PACS, etc., own all three branches of government, the MSM that once reported on them, and the consultants who call the shots come election time. Ironically, it may well take a Steyer or a Pritzker to steer us out of this ongoing catastrophe. Like the Kennedys and FDR, they know the ground.
Then why did you cheerlead for the privatization of our health care system under Obama's Affordable Care Act? I can't help but notice that every Democrat in my lifetime has promised to raise taxes on billionaires, and none have done so in any substantial manner. Even Mamdani in New York had to compromise with neoliberal Democratic Governor Kathy Hochul to limit taxation of the wealthy to their second homes or apartments which will raise a paltry $500 million. Of course you never ever mention Mamdani in your Substack because he makes Democrats look bad like Bernie Sanders used to. Of course Bezos is a greedy sociopath like all multi-billionaires and anything he does is indeed a scam, yet I bet every single person condemning him (likely including you) is loading their foyers with junk they order from Amazon. So once again while your assessment of Bezos is accurate your assertion that "no income tax" is a hard-right fantasy belies the fact that the wealthy bilking us by paying little to no federal income tax is the result of bipartisan subservience to the ruling class. As we speak local Democratic administrations in Illinois are defying the public and giving the green light to massive data centers that will serve Bezos and his surveillance colleagues.
I do not understand. Why is there no serious discussion - especially here - about examining what must be done to reduce the fanatic and irrational devotion in this country to the religion (ism) of capitalism? The problems and the conflicts with democratic governance are that the worship of capital, the discounting of labor, the rejection of fairness and equality, the acceptance of power and influence wielded by the "upper class", and the indoctrination of youth into this perverted and sclerotic paradigm which runs on authority rather than on authentic consent all derive from the ability of capital to rule arbitrarily. Of course, billionaires are running rampant and running roughshod over the rest of us. We have never been willing to effectively address the root causes and to inject the idea into the national dialogue that capitalism is not the final answer and panacea and that the people with the money are not our masters or our gods. Maybe we could have an article along those lines.
Finland has been at the top of the worldwide happiness scale for nine years.....
They have six or seven billionaires. I'll bet they are happy too. Their tax system includes: progressive income tax up to 52%, flat 20% corporate tax, VAT of 25.5%, and capital income tax of 30%.
The Finnish get all the goodies THEY decide they want to be happy. We deserve to do the same. Bezos is scum. Thanks for the lessons, Professor Hartmann. See you in the streets.
Denmark also. Though the combined tax rates are about 50%, no one dies for lack of food, housing and medical care. Everyone has 1st class medical care, and no annual official prayer breakfasts either.
There are about 6,000 homeless at any one time broken down as follows
Demographics: The majority of homeless individuals in Denmark are men, though the number of women and young people has fluctuated. A large portion of this population also deals with compounding issues like mental illness or substance abuse.Migrants:
A notable percentage of visibly homeless individuals in Copenhagen and other cities are migrant workers or foreign nationals who lack access to local social safety nets.
That;s quite different than here in Great America, where people live on the streets, because they lost their homes because they lost their jobs, or went bankrupt over medical bills.
Bezos just wants to keep all his money and make even more - that's the mantra of all these billionaires and Trump.
They now see the blowup coming from the working classes and the lower middle classes as even they see the comparisons.
"A plague on all their houses"
It's just an attempt to delay the breakup and the fight for "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness".
Remember "the Epstein class" and Vote , vote vote - as many times as possible and even more...
We need to take over ALL election places and offices - to ensure an honest counting of real votes/paper ballots.
Perfect, Gordon!!! but I'd add, remember the Epstein class -- that means trump, hegseth, bezos, musk etc etc and yes, VOTE! VOTE!! VOTE!!! And vote at your county elections!!! Vote at your state election!! vote for your state Supremes; vote at every election in your state that you are eligible to vote!! help your neighbors get to the voting booths if they aren't able!! In November we have a change to begin change. Don't pass any opportunity to speak up.
Mind boggling. Is that what American capitalism did? turn us from the German guy who doesn't want to be a rich guy in a poor country to Bezos, trump, musk et al who all just want to be the richest guy in the world/country w/no concern who gets hurt in the process. No empathy for the mom w/no money for food for her kids; no empathy for the college grad who can't find a job say nothing about not ever being able to afford a house. So now we're ready for a DEM in the White House who will try to increase taxes on the wealthy to pay down the debt and they will run $$million ads about how all DEMs do is 'tax and spend'. How can we get the language changed?
Better to be a tax and spend liberal than a borrow and spend Trumpite.
This article points up a critical weakness of capitalism, in that the business owners have the power to determine not only their own remuneration, but that of their employees as well, thus cementing in place the class system. Unions are a way of correcting this flaw, but of course the ownership class is vigorously opposed to that. And many government programs only exist to compensate the working class for opportunities they would not otherwise receive, due to the predatory nature of capitalist oligarchs.
How is this scam gong to work without Bezo's breaking the law.
When you are hired, you complete a W-4 form, and on it you indicated your dependents, and their SSAN, The employer is then required to deduct taxes, taking into account your deductions and then remit the taxes in your name to the IRS. Failure to do any of the above is crime
s Bezo's not going to have his employees fill out a W-4 form, is not going to withhold taxes. If he doesn't withhold taxes, then the employees take home pay is suddenly increased and he will find it difficult to reduce their salary by the amount previously withheld for taxes.
Bezos' buddy, Trump, has influence with the IRS.
And there is that.
Bill Kristal penned a charmingly hopeful Substack this morning comparing today’s circumstances to the Axis threats of WWII. He failed to mention the insidious impact of concentrated wealth in today’s world. Corporations, morbidly wealthy individuals, dark money special interest PACS, etc., own all three branches of government, the MSM that once reported on them, and the consultants who call the shots come election time. Ironically, it may well take a Steyer or a Pritzker to steer us out of this ongoing catastrophe. Like the Kennedys and FDR, they know the ground.
Then why did you cheerlead for the privatization of our health care system under Obama's Affordable Care Act? I can't help but notice that every Democrat in my lifetime has promised to raise taxes on billionaires, and none have done so in any substantial manner. Even Mamdani in New York had to compromise with neoliberal Democratic Governor Kathy Hochul to limit taxation of the wealthy to their second homes or apartments which will raise a paltry $500 million. Of course you never ever mention Mamdani in your Substack because he makes Democrats look bad like Bernie Sanders used to. Of course Bezos is a greedy sociopath like all multi-billionaires and anything he does is indeed a scam, yet I bet every single person condemning him (likely including you) is loading their foyers with junk they order from Amazon. So once again while your assessment of Bezos is accurate your assertion that "no income tax" is a hard-right fantasy belies the fact that the wealthy bilking us by paying little to no federal income tax is the result of bipartisan subservience to the ruling class. As we speak local Democratic administrations in Illinois are defying the public and giving the green light to massive data centers that will serve Bezos and his surveillance colleagues.
Reagan started this corrupt “ no taxes for wealthy people” scam and since then it has morphed into “ the greedy take all”.
It has also impacted our education programs and all services that reasonable governments can expect to provide.
It is a rampant disease this game the government is playing with its wealthiest citizens.
It is immoral, in that it nullifies the worth of anyone who is not wealthy.
If the wealthiest among us are criminals , their encounters with the law result in few consequences , if any.
If a working class person has a similar encounter with the law, their consequences are much more severe.
The illustration of this has never been clearer than it is now with this corrupt regime of Trumps.
The plan is to make it so difficult for working class people they will be unable to live with any degree of comfort.
This results in a shorter life span .
When basic needs aren’t met, despair, hunger, poor or no education keep this vicious circle going.
I read today that RFK wants to eliminate COVID vaccines. Now who is that going to kill? Poor and working class people.
We need to fight these corrupt politicians and their supporters with the real truth and further expose their inhumane dealings.
The disease of grift is progressive and will ultimately kill its victims.
I do not understand. Why is there no serious discussion - especially here - about examining what must be done to reduce the fanatic and irrational devotion in this country to the religion (ism) of capitalism? The problems and the conflicts with democratic governance are that the worship of capital, the discounting of labor, the rejection of fairness and equality, the acceptance of power and influence wielded by the "upper class", and the indoctrination of youth into this perverted and sclerotic paradigm which runs on authority rather than on authentic consent all derive from the ability of capital to rule arbitrarily. Of course, billionaires are running rampant and running roughshod over the rest of us. We have never been willing to effectively address the root causes and to inject the idea into the national dialogue that capitalism is not the final answer and panacea and that the people with the money are not our masters or our gods. Maybe we could have an article along those lines.
Didn't this country have a stint of - if you're not a capitalist you must be a communist and therefore must be dealt with accordingly?