Wealth Distribution in the USA

But it is not the topic of the thread.

It is not a matter of lefties as you certainly should know by now. That has been pointed out to you many times, even in this thread.

quote:

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"Labor is prior to, and independent of, capital. Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if labor had not first existed. Labor is the superior of capital, and deserves much the higher consideration."

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"Now, this means that our government, national and State, must be freed from the sinister influence or control of special interests. Exactly as the special interests of cotton and slavery threatened our political integrity before the Civil War, so now the great special business interests too often control and corrupt the men and methods of government for their own profit. We must drive the special interests out of politics. That is one of our tasks to-day. Every special interest is entitled to justice -full, fair, and complete -and, now, mind you, if there were any attempt by mob-violence to plunder and work harm to the special interest, whatever it may be, and I most dislike and the wealthy man, whomsoever he may be, for whom I have the greatest contempt, I would fight for him, and you would if you were worth your salt. He should have justice. For every special interest is entitled to justice, but not one is entitled to a vote in Congress, to a voice on the bench, or to representation in any public office. The Constitution guarantees protections to property, and we must make that promise good But it does not give the right of suffrage to any corporation. The true friend of property, the true conservative, is he who insists that property shall be the servant and not the master of the commonwealth; who insists that the creature of man's making shall be the servant and not the master of the man who made it. The citizens of the United States must effectively control the mighty commercial forces which they have themselves called into being."

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"There can be no effective control of corporations while their political activity remains. To put an end to it will be neither a short nor an easy task, but it can be done."

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"We must have complete and effective publicity of corporate affairs, so that people may know beyond peradventure whether the corporations obey the law and whether their management entitles them to the confidence of the public. It is necessary that laws should be passed to prohibit the use of corporate funds directly or indirectly for political purposes; it is still more necessary that such laws should be thoroughly enforced. Corporate expenditures for political purposes, and specially such expenditures by public-service corporations, have supplied one of the principal sources of corruption in our political affairs."

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Theodore Roosevelt

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It is taxation that makes gas cheap, that pays for the roads, police, fire departments; all of the things that make wealth accumulation possible.Governments get no cut.Governments take no money, accumulate no money.What you claim is simply demonstrably a falsehood all the way around.

The question is whether that is how value should be determined?

Should a society have the right to determine what areas should fall under capitalistic rules and policies and which should be outside?Is there some reason other than greed that we must open all areas to capitalism?Why should health care, education or utilities be market driven?

There are many such examples in use all over the world and even in the US until the Reagan-Christian Right coup.Why should healthcare be a profit center? Education? Utilities? Fire & Police departments?When the utilities in the US were run as a regulated monopoly they served several functions. They brought electricity and phone service to areas where it was not profitable to extend service. Second, since their rate structure was based on a guaranteed return on investment, their infrastructure was treated as an asset instead of a liability. Third, they provided a stable safe investment that assured millions of Americans a retirement. Fourth, it provided a stable job environment that was relatively isolated from the overall market.

Factory script, company towns and stores were not all that long ago; in fact they lasted right up through WWII. Look at the date on the lower right coin.Edited by jar, : appalin spallin

Well history has shown us that the tried and true method is bloody and messy. Revolution, disease, famine, starvation all have worked really well in the past and they are also the quickest solution.But if for some reason anyone wanted to try other means then education might work but only over time. As long as corporations are recognized in the US as individuals, as long as corporations are allowed to Lobby, I see little hope.

Again, the answer is pretty simple; education. Stop educating kids to be productive workers; educate the kids to be productive citizens.The problem is that the US decided to reject that solution back in 1966 when they elected Reagan governor of California.Education is slow, generational, but effective. Unfortunately the US has spent the last half century or so trying to educate workers instead of citizens. It's likely too late for any hope of non-bloody solutions, but then people almost never chose the non-bloody solutions anyway.

A lot of the "wage/value" argument seems to revolve around a belief that there is only one correct answer. Of course, with each instance, each case, there are multiple correct answers that depend on who is setting the value.

No, I am not aware of that nor have I ever seen any evidence that that was fact. Again, who are the parasites?

Well, I would agree that the TSA and War on Drugs are pretty much a stupid idea BUT drain? Do they not spend money in the economy, pay taxes?

I'm sure there are alternatives to most everything.BUT, TSA in particular seems to be just another way for private companies to divert funds from the government to private industry.If we are going to ever save the US we need to stop the influence of business into government. We need to stop lobbying, make sure business cannot fund political campaigns, do what I posted way back in Message 49.Fire politicians that oppose increasing taxes in a progressive manor.Fire politicians that oppose revising the inheritance taxes to avoid the creation of a wealthied class.Fire politicians that oppose limiting corporate activities in elections, legislation or tax expenditures.Fire politicians that oppose banning corporate advocacy.

I do use the quote function.TSA spent money on things.That money went into the economy.All governmental expenditures go into the economy EXCEPT were private industry siphons off profits that are not returned to the economy.Today, private industry lobbying, corruption and influence plays a big part in diverting public funds into private coffers.If we wish to improve the US wealth distribution several first steps should be to restrict, control and limit the influence of private industry in lobbying, bribing, entertaining and influencing legislation, governmental expenditures, laws or taxation.

Most of it. The only part that did not go into the economy would be the part that private enterprise took as profits and has not spent. Some but no where near as much as if we had reasonable and educated politicians. The US is not isolated from the rest of the world. Exactly. Just like Scrooge McDuck. That is a great example of the inequity of wealth distribution in the US today.

Yes, I believe that you actually believe that.However the reality is quite different. The US is a great example of Scrooge McDucks and may who are in total denial of that fact.But again, you offer nothing but bumper sticker sloganism as seems to always be the case.