How Many Billions?

[HughBeaumont]

How many billions could be put into the economy by not having to police and maintain a global bully empire?

How many billions could be put into the economy by levying a 0.025% - 0.05% tax on trade transactions?

How many billions could be put into the economy by ending the two disastrous go-nowhere wars against nations that did absolutely NOTHING to us?

How many billions could be put into the economy by placing an absolute moratorium on the TARP regarding CEO bonuses/perks/compensation unless a legitimate business plan to make the company solvent is presented, particularly a plan that would involve drastic pay/perk/compensation cuts or eliminations?

How many billions could be put into the economy by instituting a CAP on the CEO industry (and make no mistake . . . it IS an industry. Unless they invented the product or started the company, NO human being is worth that much damned money)?

How many billions could be put into the economy by raising the minimum wage to 10 dollars an hour?

How many billions could be put into the economy by revitalizing our manufacturing and industrial bases?

How many billions could be put into the economy by stopping the unnecessary and greedy practice of job offshoring until American citizens start getting employed again (and don't even tell me there's a "skills" shortage. It's called an "On the CHEAP" shortage)?

How many billions could be put into the economy if the wages of the average American actually kept up with inflation and production since 1979?

How many jobs could be saved by instituting universal health care instead of leaving it up to the employers, who are forced to mark their prices up due to our costlier-by-the-year, piss-poor health care "system" (currently ranked 37th in the world. Awesome.) saddling them with more of an anvil on their backs?

How many billions could be put into the economy by decriminalizing drugs and using more federal dollars for rehab instead of the prison industry?

How many billions could be put into the economy by legitimizing industrial hemp, which creates cottage industries and small businesses here in America and would solve many deforestation/environmental issues involving fuel, paper, wood and textiles?

How many billions could be put into the economy by raising taxes on the wealthy RIGHT NOW instead of waiting for them to expire in 2010?

How many billions could be put into the economy by using wasted Pentasewer dollars for a better social safety net for it's laid-off citizens, or a guaranteed income so that consumerism (unfortunately, the lifeblood of a junk-food economy that only employs heavily degreed people pushing paper containing phantom dollars) doesn't come to a grinding halt during bad times?

How many billions could be put into the economy by, and I'm just spit-balling here, SIMPLY NOT FIRING ANY MORE PEOPLE?

Please logically explain to me how business is going to happen or a depression is going to be averted when no one is spending because they don't make a wage that's worth the fiber it's printed on and a quarter to a third of America is out of work?

You talk about restoring trust? Please logically explain to me why we should trust the rich privileged greedbags who run corporations (who, in turn, run this country) when they got plans to lay America off by the several hundred thousands monthly in the name of "saving their bottom line!"??? Please logically explain to me why I and millions of taxpaying citizens should be giving these fascist pigs 1.6 billion for their perk and compensation packages, all so they'll end up gladly pocketing it while sending several hundred thousand workers to their financial deaths anyway? This is Trust?

Unless their plan includes assured destruction of their operations from their getaway cars, eventually, corporations are going to need this little thing called "business". I hate to be the one to break it to the fortunate and greedy, but the reason you ain't moving product is not because your workers make too much, or because of the dirty "yewnyuns" or the Democratic congress.

It's because you aren't giving your potential consumers of whatever that product is any reason to BUY it.

A person who's fired or is seeing all of his co-workers being fired is scared. They're worried they could be next, and since you're giving them absolutely no indication they aren't, what the hell do you THINK they're going to do?

Right now, the American CEO doesn't really have a hell of a lot of options left as far as continuing this Friedman/Reaganomic dream they're all living in and still think they can continue on with. Their 30s corporate ancestors, much like the current crop will, went kicking and screaming into "the New Deal" and had to be pried from wealth-favoring laissez-faire economics with a crowbar; so much that they even toyed with the idea of a fascist takeover of FDR to do Wall Street's bidding. Really, all that stopped them was a brave general who couldn't be bought.

I don't know where they're going to get customers among existing scared-to-be-fired workers who are having trouble keeping up with the rising costs of everyday living that companies refuse to give them a raise for. Maybe they could always lower their prices to 1/10th what an American gets charged and hope the living-in-squalor Chinese will buy them some Blackberries or whatever it is we have them make. I don't know if that's a good plan, but hey, it would probably allow THEIR fortunes to remain intact. And I guess that's all that matters, right?

I also don't know where anyone got the screwball idea that anything is successfully built from the top down. Homes need a strong foundation to stand intact. Towers need well engineered and anchored bases to prevent collapse during a natural disaster. I dunno, does a roof or a turret have the ability to suspend itself in mid-air while the rest of the construction is happening or did I miss that Home Depot class? I mean, did history LIE to us about where periods of wealth inequality and concentration led us to? Why are we STILL repeating this?

So if most of America goes into foreclosure/debt/squalor, realize that it's entirely the fault of 28 years worth of the old-boy CEO network, their paid-for, free-market embracing Republican politicians, Harvard/Chi-school "fire-everyone-let-the-market-sort-em-out" bean counters infesting our businesses and appeaser Lieberdems solidifying a culture of "me-first" selfishness in the name of a 375% profit margin.

Realize too, that it's not entirely YOUR fault; that you "bought too much junk", "spent beyond your means", "made too much money", "were a welfare queen", "stole too much oxygen" or whatever excuses the elite and their Horatio Alger fool supporters come up with to divide and conquer us all. For Christ's sake, stop blaming each other and hold the correct feet to the fire.

The question is, how much longer will this lousy way of life continue before the collective finally concedes that this doesn't work?

Will it take either eviction or starvation for you to grab a damned pitchfork, sit on the lawns of the wealthy and power elite and say "NO MORE!"??

We finally elected a Democratic president after a non-consecutive 20-year looting. When is it OUR turn to make ourselves heard?

[HughBeaumont]

1. Let's try this: You know who has the right idea? Steve Forbes!

:shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug:

[HughBeaumont]

2. Shameless cqique

:kick: