King Arthur Movie Tristan

What to do? We go to plan B…bail out the banks and Wall Street and screw the American people.

It is mind boggling how Republicans have succeeded in instituting a scorch-the-earth austerity mentality on our country. Even Liberal Progressives are singing the praises of cuts in spending and reducing our debt at the expense of prosperity and economic growth. We know for a fact…and there are reputable economists who insist in this; that we can’t create jobs and bring back prosperity by cutting and reducing government spending at this time…just the opposite…if private enterprise has deemed it necessary to sit on trillions of dollars and not pump it back into the economy, if they are systematically closing plants and laying off workers in America to take them abroad…then we have to rely on our government to kick start the sluggish economy…but NO…NO…NO, that would mean that we will actually have job creation and we will be out of the recession the Republicans left us…that will mean that President Obama will look good and could be re-elected…

So, what are they to do? What will Republicans continue to insist on doing? Why…it is more of the same, more TRICKLE DOWN ECONOMICS…give more tax cuts to the rich, more loopholes to corporations and eliminate all social safety net programs. It is the ideal situation, the dream of every fucking Republican that has ever lived…to dismantle all of FDR’s programs, to return to the beginning of the last century where big business ruled the country.

Why capitalism is choosing Plan B

As Richard Wolff tells us: “Austerity for labour and the public is everywhere capitalism's Plan B. Even capitalists now see that capitalism's Plan A failed.

You will recall that Plan A entailed a crisis-response programme of bailing out the banks, insurance companies, large corporations and stock markets to achieve "recovery". The theory behind Plan A – we used to call it "trickle-down economics" – was that recovery would spread from financial markets and financiers to everyone else. It never did. So now the same servants of capitalism who imposed Plan A are dishing out Plan B.”

Richard Wolff also says: “Corporations and the rich bankroll the parties and governors who design and impose Plans A and B, while avoiding Plan C. And so matters will remain unless and until corporations' profits are no longer available to their boards of directors to enrich themselves and major shareholders and to buy politicians' servitude. The best response to capitalism's crisis, to its failed Plan A and to its unjust Plan B would be a Plan D: to change how we organize productive enterprises in our society. Profits should be distributed by the democratic decision-making of all those who produce and depend on them, the workers and affected communities.”

So basically, what we have is a PLUTOCRACY that will, when they are good and ready to get the economy started again…because they realize that they could get even more profits from a prosperous nation than from a failed one…we all have to suck our thumbs and waddle in the mud puddle of misery and deprivation.

From the 50’s and into the early 1960s, the highest income earners paid a tax rate over 90% for many years. Today, the top earners pay a rate of only 35%.

The graph above shows the portion/percentage of total national income taken by the top 1%, the top tenth of a percent, and the top 100th of a percent of individuals and families: the richest of the rich.

This graph compares what happened to the after-tax household incomes of Americans from 1979 to 2005 (adjusted for inflation). The bottom fifth of poorest citizens saw their income barely rise at all. The middle fifth of income earners saw their after-tax household income rise by less than 25%. Meanwhile, the top 1 % of households saw their after-tax household incomes rise by 175%.

Richard D Wolff is professor of economics emeritus at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, where he taught economics from 1973 to 2008. He is currently a visiting professor in the graduate programme in international affairs of the New School University, New York City. Richard also teaches classes regularly at the Brecht Forum in Manhattan. His most recent book is Capitalism Hits the Fan: The Global Economic Meltdown and What to Do About It (2009). A full archive of Richard's work, including videos and podcasts, can be found on his site

SOURCES: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2011/mar/01/us-taxation-public-finance