 |
| BC Idonwanna sez: Dolchstoss! |
Another long standing shibboleth, since the days of Ronnie 'Raygun' Reagan, is the economic "trickle down" theory that lifts all boats, rich and poor alike. NOT! David Hope at the London School of Economics said in a recent paper that five decades of tax cuts for the wealthy have only benefited the wealthy and did not promote jobs or economic growth. Not surprising, but this myth was embraced by conservatives and neoliberals alike for fifty years. As a result, we now have the greatest wealth disparity in 'Merica since the Gilded Age. Hope said his analysis ends in 2015 but could equally apply to the tax cut given the wealthy in 2017. It is facts like these that make the support Killer gets from people who feel left behind and dispossessed hard to fathom. The delusional quality of their fealty has often been commented upon, and put down to racism or neurosis, such as co-dependency.
Be that as it may, the new administration now has political capital to begin rebuilding the working class, starting with recouping the revenue trickled down the rabbit hole. Speaking of inequity, Congress seems ready to pass a last minute pandemic relief bill that includes direct payments to the unemployed. The payments may be in $600-700 range and will last only a few months. One source says that if the money billionaires have made during the pandemic (> $1 trillion, led by Jeff Bezos of Amazon) were split among 330 million of us, we could each receive a check for $3,000 and a family of four $12,000. Now is the time to tax the rich, which is only one reason Democrats need to capture control of the Senate in January. Senator Bernie Sanders noted, "Unfortunately this [current] proposal does not address the crisis in the way that it should. This is a step forward, and I certainly look forward to a Biden administration working with us to get significantly more help to those people who need it.”
 |
| When the walls begin to close in, declare martial law... |