U.S is becoming a corporatocracy

The power of our corporations is becoming so pervasive that we are becoming a nation, of, by and for big business. Nowhere was this more evident when the big gun lobby won the day in the Senate, defeating background checks for gun control despite overwhelming support of the people.

Why are we so complacent about big profits as the middle class dies a slow death?

Speaking On Capitalism

I think capitalism is a great way to run a nation's business - and it's probably a great way to run the world's business - with some restrictions and controls. Entrepreneurial success should be rewarded - financial gain should be associated with taking financial risks and achieving success. BUT - and here comes my caveat - the success should not be so large as to be obnoxious. The wealth and the success should be shared by those who have participated in it and that includes consumers, workers and the very society whose rules and people have allowed for that success.

When the earnings of those at the very top of the food chain in our capitalistic system get disproportionately large, the system will crash to bring them back to reality. It happened to us in the 1920's (remember the robber barons?) and it's happening to us again now. It is time for those of great wealth to give back to society in general. BTW, have you ever visited the mansions of the 20th century robber barons? There are several of them here on the east coast and they are obscene.

At any rate, here's what Robert Reich, a veteran of the Clinton cabinet, had to say recently...

It's about time a presidential budget unequivocally redistributed income from the very rich to the middle class and poor. The incomes of the top 1 percent have soared for thirty years while median wages have slowed or declined in real terms. As economists Thomas Piketty and Emanuel Saez have shown, in the 1970s the top-earning 1 percent of Americans took home 8 percent of total income; as recently as 1980 they took home 9 percent. After that, total income became more and more concentrated at the top. By 2007, the top 1 percent took home over 22 percent. Meanwhile, even as their incomes dramatically increased, the total federal tax rates paid by the top 1 percent dropped. According to the Congressional Budget Office, the top 1 percent paid a total federal tax rate of 37 percent three decades ago; now it's paying 31 percent.

via Crooks and Liars.

Did You Know - Bush Loves Profits

The Bush administration hates kids and loves big business. Let the little buggers die, as long as profits are up.

The Bush administration on Friday rejected a request from New York State to expand its children’s health insurance program to cover 70,000 more uninsured youngsters, including some from middle-income families.

The ruling was the first application of a restrictive new White House policy that has drawn ferocious criticism from Democrats since it was announced last month. New York wanted to expand its program to cover children in families with incomes up to four times as much as the federal poverty level, or $82,600 for a family of four. The state’s current limit is 250 percent of the poverty level.

From the NY Times

Did You Know - Bush Wants Price Fixing

There's a corner of my mind that simple shudders everytime President Bush and his administration do something like this. Why? There can be absolutely no good to any human being in this country from action such as this, yet Bush favors it. Why, oh why, do you suppose the Republicans put business profit before people? How could anyone view the world this way?

White House Pushes Supreme Court to Repeal Retail Law

from Air America Radio -

News: Acting at the behest of the National Association of Manufacturers, which wants the government to pull back on enforcing antitrust laws, Bush administration lawyers urged the Supreme Court on Monday to repeal a nearly 100-year-old rule that bars manufacturers from fixing the retail prices of their products. Speaking for several of his colleagues, Justice Breyer pointed out that a repeal could mean that every American will pay far more for the goods they buy. In reply, the Bush administration's lawyer claimed, price is not the only thing consumers care about.