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| THE RICH ARE SO FULL OF THEMSELVES! MONEY=POWER! |
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| THEY REFUSE TO PAY HIGHER TAXES TO PAY FOR THE WARS AND PAY DOWN THE DEBT! |
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| THESE BASTARDS OUTSOURCED US JOBS TO CHINA AND INDIA SO THEY CAN MAKE AN EXTRA DIME! |
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| WHEN THEY WERE KIDS, SCROOGE MCDUCK WAS THEIR HERO! |
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| THESE REPUBLICAN BASTARDS WHO RUN CONGRESS CARE ONLY FOR THEIR RICH FRIENDS! THEY HAVE SOLD OUT AMERICA TO THE HIGHEST BIDDER! THESE TRAITORS TO AMERICA! |
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| GAVE 'EM TO THE CHINESE, MEXICANS AND INDIANS! OUTSOURCED? |
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| THESE BASTARDS WERE GIVEN TRILLIONS IN TAX CUTS-AT THE SAME TIME THEY OUTSOURCED US JOBS. THESE PRICKS ARE AT THE COUNTRY CLUB WHILE YOU'RE UNEMPLOYED! THE BASTARDS! |
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| CEO'S MAKE MANY X's WHAT THE AVERAGE WORKER MAKES, ALONG WITH STOCK OPTIONS, PENSIONS AND GOLDEN PARACHUTES..., ALONG WITH THEIR COUNTRY CLUB MEMBERSHIP AND COMPANY PROVIDED MERCEDES! |
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| THE SUPER RICH CRY FOR PITY! |
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| IF THE REPUBLICANS HAD THEIR WAY, THEY WOULD ABOLISH THE MINIMUM WAGE AND BRING BACK SLAVERY! |
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| WELCOME TO THE CHINAMART ECONOMY! |
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| THESE BASTARDS COUNT THEIR MONEY WHILE YOU COUNT YOUR CHANGE! |
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| THE REPUBLICANS AND THEIR BENAFACTORS REMIND YOU, THEY ARE THE LANDLORD, AND YOU ARE ONLY A TENANT! 21st CENTURY SLAVERY, ECONOMIC BONDAGE! |
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| THE ED SHOW CALLS OUT THESE HYPOCRITICAL TRAITORS TO AMERICA! |
THEIR BAG OF WIND ABOUT LOW TAXES, TAX CUTS AND SMALL GOVERNMENT, IS, JUST THAT -BS! THEIR TWISTED VISION OF AMERICA IS ONE IN WHICH THEY HAVE CARTE BLANCHE TO PAY MINIMAL TAXES AND NO REGULATION SO THEY CAN GET AWAY WITH THE SAME CRAP THAT CRASHED WALL STREET IN 2008, THE SAME CRAP THAT AROSE OUT OF THE SAVINGS AND LOAN CRISIS IN THE 1980's!
The myth of the job creators
By Terence Corrigan - The Independent | Posted: Friday, July 6, 2012 5:00 amWe are being asked to pity the “job creators” as they squeal porcine-like about the excessive tax burden they bear. They made up that name for themselves, “job creators,” but in actuality over the last few decades, for the most part, they’re nothing but job exporters, plundering the husk of the American economy, pushing more and more of our children into lives of poverty as their global job creation drives down the incomes of American workers.
If they wish to get better treatment by the taxman their tax breaks should be based on the number of good paying jobs they create here in the United States.
Consider how difficult it must be for the wealthy to maintain their standard of living. Times have been tough since 2008 and even the wealthy have seen the buying power of their fortunes eroded.
Bankers’ bonuses were expected to rise by 10 percent in 2011, on the heels of two years of record setting compensation in 2009 and 2010. In Jan. 2011, JP Morgan Chase set aside $10 billion for pay and bonuses for the 26,300 employees in its investment banking division. The average bonus of the JP Morgan Chase investment guru was to be about $370,000, although the majority of the workers will get far less while a chosen few will be richly rewarded for what, as it turned out, was their disastrous performance that cost the bank’s shareholders billions. The new American tradition of richly rewarding managers who fail continues.
A line in a recent Outlaw Country song about bankers sums it up: “Good things happen to bad people.”
As we sit back and watch the two major political parties vie for control of what we still mistakenly think is still a democratic republic, we should consider how the wealthy also suffer from rising prices and declining incomes.
For the normal, middle income person, to judge whether or not we’re better or worse off, a good yardstick is the Consumer Price Index – to see whether our pay rate is keeping pace with rising prices. For example, if your weekly take-home pay was $250 in 1970 that would have to be $1,481 today if you’ve just kept up. That would be a 492 percent increase in 42 years.
The plight of the average CEO, however, has been much different. The median pay for an American CEO was $2.44 million in 1989 and by 2000 that figure had grown to $10.77 million — an almost 450 percent increase in just 11 years.
The so called job creators are not worried about — or even considering — creating jobs to save the middle class, they are just opportunists preying on public uncertainty and fear. Their political allies (almost all members of Congress) are demagogues, attacking big government, posing as conservatives, claiming to fight to protect ordinary people when in reality they are protecting wealthy corporate interests, being fed at the hog trough they claim to detest. The politicians’ slop is campaign contributions, insider trading and sweetheart deals. The investor class calls the shots, while the politicians dance with the ones who brung ‘em.
For the wealthy, one gauge they refer to, to see if their virtually unlimited incomes are keeping up, is the Cost of Living Extremely Well Index from Forbes magazine. The rich, according to the CLEWI, are indeed being squeezed by rising prices for some lifestyle sustaining items.
Just keeping clothes on their backs has cost the wealthy considerably more:
• A natural Russian sable coat from Bloomingdale’s was $200,000 in 2010 (up 14 percent from 2009) and in 2011 it was up another 20 percent to $240,000;
• Men’s shoes: black calf wing tip, custom-made by John Lobb of London cost $4,917 in 2011 (up 17 percent from 2010). In 2010 the Lobb wing tips cost $4,187.
• The cost of a good meal for the well heeled also has jumped a bit. Dinner at La Tour d’Argent in Paris cost roughly $470 per person in 2011; in 2010 the same meal would have cost $426.
• A catered dinner for 40 of your closest friends (put on by Ridgewells of Bethesda, Maryland) cost $6,828 in 2010; this year the same event would cost $7,374 (up 8 percent).
• Surprisingly, the cost for a pair of 12 gauge side-by-side shotguns – which you could use to hunt for your next meal – didn’t rise too much. The James Purdy and Sons shotguns in the CLEWI went from $185,954 to $197,004.
• Even the cost of commuting has gone up. It’s well known that gas prices have pinched the middle class. The more affluent have also been forced to pay more for transportation costs. The price for a Sikorsky S-76D (with the VIP options) has gone up, 14 percent over 2010 to $14.8 million.
• But, on a brighter note, if the stress of rising prices is too much for the upper crust, an hour-long visit with a pyschiatrist on the Upper East Side of New York City has stayed the same for the past three years: $325.
• Although many prices have gone up on the CLEWI scale, some have declined. A kilo of Tsar Imperial Sevruga caviar (fish eggs) was $13,600 in 2011, down from $19,600 a year earlier.
The conservative posers are able to rally the working middle and upper middle classes by acting as though they care about families and other popular social values, and espousing populist libertarian causes. In reality they are shills for the wealthy. The conservative class, claiming to support popular American values of self-reliance, have successfully started to dismantle social programs and regulations that were implemented to ensure survival for some and a level economic playing field for all. Look at the stats, if you’re born to poverty it’s a guarantee you’ll also live in poverty and you’re children will likely live in poverty, too. If you were born a fortunate one, you’ll most likely stay there.
In the disheveled Occupy movement we have seen the early signs of disintegration of our social compact. The real changes are yet to come, when the true lovers of liberty realize that our republican democracy is being undermined not only by our government but also by the wealthy investor class and their corporations.
The Supreme Court has sided with the powerful. The court ruled that in the name of free speech, that corporations may use money to control our elections, despite the fact than money is not and never will be speech and corporations do not have any constitutional granted right of free speech.
The real contest, that neither political party is engaged in, is the struggle for power between the small and local and the massive and global. This is the struggle between the individual man and the large, faceless corporation. It’s uncertain how this will end but the monied interests have more weapons on their side. They have the protection of a law enforcement community that looks more and more like a military force and has already been used to stifle dissent. We have seen a phenomenon on the other side of the world called Arab Spring. We perhaps need an American Spring.
