Why America is Severely Broken

[grahamhgreen]

This has been floating around for a while, but since i just saw it, I thought maybe others had missed it as well.....

[Initech]

1. And the "job creators" will have the nerve to say we make too much.

[grahamhgreen]

5. In reality, they are job killers, Walmart has had a huge hand in outsourcing US manufacturing.

They need to be busted up as any monopoly would be.

[abelenkpe]

13. We do have anti trust laws. Why are they never used?

[truedelphi]

21. Chicago School of Economics has replaced them.

Anti Trust laws are so not "freedom of the markets to regulate themselves." Or so say the propagandists that brought us these policies, and all their puppets (including leadership in both parties.)

[RKP5637]

28. Money and power in the right places rule, the rest of us just talk. We live

with a failed capitalistic system morphed into a corpocracy, hoping it will get better, it won't.

[Initech]

19. Yup - the billionaires have caused more death and destruction on this planet than any terrorist could ever dream of.

[grahamhgreen]

22. One could almost postulate that the billionaires are the terrorists...

[Initech]

24. I've been saying that for quite a while now.

[RKP5637]

29. Yes, that is a true statement for the majority of them. Also our

financial system has favored and allowed sociopaths to rise to the top of the heap. These people, most of them, could give a F about the majority of the citizens or the country. They are only interested, most of them, in extracting the wealth of the country for themselves, and greed rules for them.

[xchrom]

2. Du rec. Nt

[HopeHoops]

3. She's taller than me.

[JHB]

14. ...but a smaller person.

[RadiationTherapy]

4. "Worth" 21,000 piles of $1,000,000 each.

[ladjf]

6. 65 years of professional propaganda dished out by the 1% has also made America sick. nt

[SalviaBlue]

7. Yep. Propaganda is a powerful tool.

Its been used against us for a long time and gets more and more sophisticated.

[Octafish]

8. Absolutely. Alex Carey documented the history...

http://www.press.uillinois.edu/books/catalog/32amb6ff9780252066160.html

[grahamhgreen]

11. Thanks for the book rec.... on my list.

[LiberalEsto]

9. Socialism!

That is, socialism for the rich.

Trickle down capitalism for the rest of us.

[indepat]

10. And those creating public policy want to keep Alice from ever paying as much of her income in taxes

at all levels as do those Walmart employees who are on food stamps. Additionally, those creating public policy don't want Alice's heirs to ever be burdened with estate taxes. The enemies within are those who foster and promote such national policies.

[MindMover]

12. But, but but she bought the midwest an art museum.....

[clang1]

15. +1000 1 in 7 Americans on 'Food Stamps'

No such thing as 'the job creators', we know that. Saying it again anyway. It's just propaganda. NOTHING MORE NOTHING LESS. Designed to delude people. That is what propaganda of deception does. Call it what it is.

[lib2DaBone]

16. 35,000 registered lobbyists swarm Capital Hill....

The Corporate Lobbyists write the laws.. and Congress rubber stamps them.

NO ONE in Washington is concerned about what is best for the American people.

We do not live in a democracy.. its only political theater....

[AnotherMcIntosh]

27. And for all the money that we pay, it's not even good political theater.

[Selatius]

17. It's much simpler than that. Alice Walton and other wealthy people buy our politicians.

Who is in the best position to fund the campaign expenses of a politician running for office? Rich people. Alice Walton could subsidize thirty or forty congressional races at the same time if she wishes and still walk away with more money on interest alone.

A rich person who could subsidize thirty or forty races has the advantage of unanimity of purpose and short decision-making time. Tens of thousands of working class/working poor voters could never agree to a platform or choose a course of action as quickly as one person who could fund the same amount of politicians.

Our problem is our privately funded election system. If that is addressed, we'll see long-lasting change. Other than that, it's just addressing the symptoms and not the causes.

[clang1]

20. re: problem is our privately funded election system. If that is addressed, we'll see long-lasting ch

I agree to an extent, but there are other problems.

Taking the money out of all this would solve a LOT. Both in elections and deal with the lobbyists money as well. If you don't get both, less money in the elections is just sticking fingers in a leaking dike. Now it is even more crazy with Citizens United as everyone knows. It's like a fire. Good luck trying to put it out, though it has to be done.

[grahamhgreen]

23. A nice 91% 'greatest generation' tax rate on the wealthiest would surely help.

[JHB]

18. We used to incentiveize job creation. It was market oriented, non-micromanaging program called...

...the progressive tax system.

If you were up in the economic stratosphere, you could build your wealth in ways that help build everyone else's, or you could take it as liquid cash, in which case Uncle Sam would take a nice big chunk so that you would ask yourself "is this extra wad of cash really necessary?" It changed the economic decisions the wealthy made in order to NOT pay that huge chunk.

But these days it's communism to suggest that jaaahb creeaters merely slow down how fast they get more wealthy by upping salaries a little. Just ask FOX.

[Bryn]

25. Alice Watson is a drunk

She looks it in that picture.

[grahamhgreen]

33. Guilty conscience.

[AnotherMcIntosh]

26. Why? Because the super-rich and their politicians favor let's-send-jobs-to-foreign-countries,

"free-trade" agreements.

1994 - North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA)
2001 - Jordan – United States Free Trade Agreement
2004 - Australia-United States Free Trade Agreement
2004 - Chile - United States Free Trade Agreement
2004 - Singapore – United States Free Trade Agreement
2006 - Bahrain – United States Free Trade Agreement
2006 - Morocco - United States Free Trade Agreement
2006 - Oman – United States Free Trade Agreement
2007 - Peru – United States Trade Promotion Agreement
2005 - Dominican Republic–Central America Free Trade Agreement (DR-CAFTA; incl. Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and the Dominican Republic)
2011 - Panama - United States Trade Promotion Agreement
2011 - Colombia - United States Trade Promotion Agreement
2011 - Republic of Korea (South Korea) - United States Free Trade Agreement

The super-rich and their politicians are also working on:
Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA)
Middle East Free Trade Area (MEFTA)
Transatlantic Free Trade Area (TAFTA)
Free Trade Area of the Asia-Pacific Region (FTAAP)
Trans-Pacific Strategic Economic Partnership (TPP)

The Administration and eight Pacific Rim nations are working on adopting another wage-lowering, let's-send-even-more-jobs-to-foreign countries "free-trade" agreement which, when signed will be known as the Trans-Pacific Free Trade Agreement. Some are calling it NAFTA on steroids.

If you haven't heard about the ongoing work re the Trans-Pac FTA, it may because it's not going to be good for you.

[grahamhgreen]

31. True. Very nice rundown.

[progressoid]

30. Rec.

[BlueToTheBone]

32. And she's an alcoholic because of it.

She wants it all and the guilt of her wrongness can't be covered up. Probably why she built the museum, but it still doesn't change the misery she causes.

[GeorgeGist]

34. History shows that Class Warfare will end with Words.

We need to ask ourselves: Are we willing to Act?