Invoking Fake Job Creators to Cut Taxes on the Rich

taxes

Jun

Invoking Fake Job Creators to Cut Taxes on the Rich

Posted by Paul at 3:03 pm

I think this article speaks a crucial word into this conversation.

“Give us neither poverty nor riches, but our daily bread.” – Proverbs 30:8

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Conservatives like House Speaker John Boehner say the government can’t raise taxes on millionaires and billionaires because they are “job creators.” Instead, House Republicans are once more calling for trillions in more tax cuts for the richest Americans.

That’s a big mistake. The “job creators” that Boehner doesn’t want to tax aren’t creating many jobs. Big corporations already are reaping record profits, sitting on trillions of dollars in cash, and shipping jobs abroad. Small businesses lack customers, not confidence.

But with 24 million people still in need of full-time work and the wealthiest 1 percent capturing a staggering 93 percent of the growth in income in 2010, most customers aren’t willing or able to spend more. In these circumstances, we’d be far better off investing in rebuilding the country and paying for it with higher taxes on the rich and the corporations. They aren’t putting their money to work, so we should do it for them.

This basic conservative belief in tax cuts is a theology based on faith, not evidence. When taxes were raised during Bill Clinton’s presidency, conservatives predicted a deep recession. Instead, the economy boomed and private investment took off. When taxes were cut under President George W. Bush, private investment and job growth were disappointing. But conservatives won’t let the facts get in the way of their gospel.

“Taxing Job Creators,” an OtherWords cartoon by Khalil Bendib.

Conservative Republicans also claim that cutting government spending creates jobs, even in the midst of a recession. House Majority Leader Eric Cantor said, “All of our efforts are centered around jobs — starting with cutting spending and federal regulations — to grow the economy so that people can get back to work.”

But this is just more nonsense. Cuts in government spending at the state level have killed hundreds of thousands of jobs as teachers, cops, and firefighters are laid off and contractors lose their contracts. Those layoffs not only hurt the economy, they slash services we rely on.

Conservatives argue that if we make wrenching cuts in spending, fire civil servants, force seniors to pay more for their health care and students to spend more on tuition, and promise never, never, never to raise taxes, businesses will gain the confidence to invest, despite the resulting government layoffs. But with high unemployment and stagnant incomes, businesses look to increase profits not by adding workers but by cutting costs. Instead of creating jobs, they’re firing workers and investing in cheaper labor abroad.

This conservative theology is squandering an extraordinary opportunity to rebuild America. Interest rates are near record lows, the construction industry is flat on its back, and our decrepit infrastructure — everything from roads to public transit to sewer systems — must be rebuilt.

We’ll never have a better opportunity to borrow money and make the investments we can’t avoid — and put people back to work at the same time. But instead of a major initiative to rebuild the country, the conservative Congress had a hard time even passing a small, short-term extension of a job-friendly transportation bill. No “job creator” would make that choice.

Nick Hanauer: The Inequality Speech That TED Won’t Show You(delong.typepad.com)

Oct

Naked Greed Day – Give them your underwear, too

Posted by Paul at 3:35 pm

Jesus taught neither violence nor passivity in response to financial exploitation. Jesus instead taught a prophetic, nonviolent, and active third way to respond to economic oppression and injustice that empowers the disenfranchised and exposes the corruption in the economic systems. Jesus said that when someone seeks to exploit you economically by suing you for your clothes off your back, you are to take off all your clothes (your inner garment too) in public and give it all to the greedy people suing you. Jesus taught his followers to strip naked in public court and hand over their underwear, which in effect says something like, “You think I’m naked? You know what’s really naked? Your greed and self-interest.” The humiliation then fell on the people whose greed was so rampant it was unclothing people, taking their houses, their lands, their possessions, their incomes, their hopes, and even the very shirts off their backs.

“When someone sues you for your outer garment, give them your undergarment as well” (Matt. 5:40). This seemingly absurd teaching of Jesus is actually a powerful way to take a public action against economic exploitation, corruption, and greed—and now is the time for us to expose naked corporate self-interest by baring our own bodies in public. One way to do this is to be sure and participate in Bank Transfer Day on November 5.

Then on November 12, 2011—Naked Greed Day—gather at banks, corporations, and trading companies that have amassed billions of dollars at the expense of the 99% and remove one piece of clothing as a symbolic gesture to expose their greed, so that it is no longer clothed and hidden. We can publicly oppose corporate greed by removing one piece of clothing as a sign to the world that we the people are being stripped to our underwear by the destructive economic policies and practices of complicit corporations and governments. The self-interest that damages the common good must be exposed, and Jesus taught that a powerful way to expose it was to expose oneself. These removals of clothing should be done in ways that respect the dignity of children and all people, for the businesses we expose respect neither children nor all people as much as they should, and the honor of our actions of protest must exceed theirs. These removals of clothing should also not be wasted and left in front of the businesses, but should be donated when possible to those who need them, so that our nakedness that exposes the Naked Greed of the wealthiest already begins to clothe others who are in need.

Humiliating ourselves can invite those who profit so much from the low wages paid to the majority to change their behavior, or at least it can focus attention on them in a new way so that respect for their exploitative business acumen is undermined and laid bare. The removal of clothes in public to humiliate oppressors was done in South Africa to oppose Apartheid, in Liberia to end the wars and oust Charles Taylor, and at other significant times in history.

The historical context for Jesus’ teaching was the indebtedness that many people in the Roman occupations experienced. Low wages and laws that favored the wealthy led to loss of land to pay debt, which led to more debt for the landless peasants who labored on the increasingly large estates of the wealthy, which led to the wealthy and landed lenders suing the poor for the shirts off their backs as collateral for the loans.

Picture a courtroom with judges, witnesses, prosecutors, observers, and the accused poor person. The poor person would be the poorest of the poor if all they have for collateral is their outer garment, their robe—their clothes! Perhaps it’s a farmer who lost his land because of imperial legislation that consolidates land in the hands of the few, thus creating an overabundance of people who will work for poverty wages and who accumulate debt just to survive. The prophet Amos condemned this behavior: “They who trample the head of the poor into the dust of the earth … lay themselves down beside every altar upon clothing taken as collateral” (2:7-8).

The rich began seeking nonliquid investments to secure their wealth. Land was best, but it was ancestrally owned and passed down over generations, and no peasant would voluntarily relinquish it. Exorbitant interest, however, could be used to drive landowners ever deeper into debt. And debt…created the economic leverage to pry Galilean peasants loose from their land. By the time of Jesus we see this process already far advanced: large estates owned by absentee landlords, managed by stewards, and worked by tenant farmers, day laborers, and slaves. It is no accident that the first act of the Jewish revolutionaries in 66 C.E. was to burn the Temple treasury, where the record of debts was kept (Walter Wink, Engaging the Powers, p. 178).

A poor person with no land, no assets, and no money is being sued for his shirt to make sure that he repays his debt. All he has is his clothes and his body. When the judge says that the poor person is to give his outer garment to the creditor, the poor person is told by Jesus to strip off all his clothes and stand there completely naked in the courtroom. In front of everybody, in public, expose their injustice and corruption and greed and exploitation by exposing his own body. It is the system that is corrupt and guilty, not the poor person who is in debt.

Jesus’ teaching left the poor person’s body intact and whole, only naked and exposed. And that nakedness did not shame the poor person as much as it shamed the people who caused it to happen: the one suing as well as the system that allows such an atrocity to happen.

And this third way of dealing with economic exploitation and abuse that is neither violent nor passive is one of the powers of the Occupy Movement. One could fight economic exploitation with violence by killing the creditors and legislators for destroying so many lives, but even though that has happened, it is not wise. Or people could organize a violent revolution to change the system, but even though that has happened, it is not wise either. There are violent ways to reduce debt and set the oppressed free, but in my opinion these must be rejected. Yet it is why those who own the loans have access to such powerful militaries—to make sure violent debt reduction options are less likely to happen.

But I like to imagine a nonviolent revolution that includes debts being forgiven as credit card accounts in corporate computers are erased and people around the world have trillions of dollars of credit card debt erased. Mortgage interest rates lowered, yes! But also mortgage principal balances lowered. Imagine a revolution where billions of dollars of debts owed by countries in the global south to billionaires in the global north were just erased. Millions, no billions, of people would rejoice and there would be a very few very frustrated millionaires and billionaires. But there are nonviolent ways—and legislation is one of them—to persuade and require the purveyors of economic injustice to reduce debt, increase wages, and contribute more to the common good of all people.

A passive way to deal with having the shirt sued off your back is just to go along with it silently, and many people choose to do this. Give them your clothes and go home. At least you still have your underwear. The wages many were (and are) paid for working all day every day could not cover the costs of rent, food, and basic necessities so you had to borrow just to be able to feed your family. Now they are taking your clothes, your robe that keeps you warm at night, to make sure you pay back the loan and interest on food your family has already eaten. A passive response is “That is just the way it is. The world is unjust.” “There is no sense in trying to do anything about it, what can a poor person do anyway?” “You can’t fight City Hall and you can’t fight Wall Street.”

But Jesus did not say, “When someone sues you for your outer garment, you’re probably going to lose anyway so just give it to them and go home and be glad you still have your underwear.” Jesus did not say, “When someone sues you for your outer garment, give it to them but then ambush them on their way home and bash their head in. Then take your clothes back.” Jesus did not say, “When someone sues you for your outer garment, join the violent revolution and overthrow the imperialist pigs and burn the debt records.”

Jesus did say that when someone is destroying you economically you should be neither passive nor violent, but you should expose their greed by taking off your clothes in public. So let’s do it.

Two banks to include are Citigroup (with 427 offshore tax dodging subsidiaries) and Bank of America (with 115 offshore tax dodging subsidiaries). According to the Executive Excess 2011 Compensation Survey, 25 companies paid their CEOs more money than they paid Uncle Sam in taxes, two of which are Prudential Financial (CEO compensation $16.2 million; US Federal Income Taxes $722 million refund) and General Electric (CEO compensation $15.2 million; US Federal Income Taxes $3.3 Billion refund). There are concrete ways to fix these problems:

1. Narrower CEO-worker pay gaps, like around 20 to 1 rather than the current 325 to 1.

2. Eliminate taxpayer subsidies for excessive executive pay—“ordinary taxpayers should not have to foot the bill for excessive executive compensation.”

3. Accountability to shareholders for CEO pay.

4. Accountability to broader stakeholders—all of us!—the communities and people that are affected by tax dodging, high CEO pay, and low wages.

@NakedGreedDay

www.EvangelicalsforSocialAction.org

www.pcpj.org

Oct

“Occupy ‘til I come” – Zacchaeus, the anti-Jesus, & two #OccupyWallStreet Stories

Posted by Paul at 10:13 pm

When the very rich Zacchaeus heard Jesus’ teaching he said, “Look, Lord! Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount.” If Zacchaeus got only 12.5% of his wealth through cheating that means this promise to Jesus would reduce Zacchaeus to having no possessions. Calculate it: 50% to the poor right off the top. Followed by 12.5% of unjustly acquired wealth paid back at 4x the rip-off rate = another 50%. That’s 100% of his possessions he was willing to release. Zacchaeus very conceivably was offering to give all that he had away to the poor and the people from whom he stole. Even if he stole only 10% of his wealth through loopholes, coercion, and gimmicky accounting tricks he would be giving 90% of it away – leaving him with 10% of what he had before he climbed up that sycamore tree and listened to Jesus.

What was Jesus’ response to this amazing proclamation by Zacchaeus? Jesus said, “Today salvation has come to this house!” A wealthy person willing to give away his or her wealth – which is often unjustly acquired in at least a few ways – is a sign of the presence of God, of being saved and delivered from the gods of Wealth. The Bull of Wall Street, fashioned after the ancient money god Baal, destroys lives in its path toward more and more. People matter more than possessions, and Jesus heard this truth in Zacchaeus’ exclamation of freedom from wealth.

The lesson for #OccupyWallStreet is that Jesus supports the ‘re-redistribution’ of wealth and calls it salvation for all concerned. When the wealthy give back some of what they’ve taken there is rejoicing and they can experience a freedom otherwise unattainable. This is ‘re-redistribution’ because the wealth the wealthy have came from the many – it came from the blood, sweat, and tears of those who labor for minimum, more often less than minimum, and often no wages throughout the world. In mines in Africa, in sweatshops in Asia, in factories in China – those lives of those actual people are transformed into dollars that accumulate in bank accounts and trading accounts on Wall Street. Why protest Wall Street? Why occupy Wall Street? Because it’s where the hundreds of millions of human lives who have been sacrificed to the gods of wealth and industry are now represented – crushed lives who struggle to feed their families generate mountains of possessions and wealth for those on Wall Street and those of us in the USA.

A heart of the Baal, a heart of the quest for wealth and the domination and destruction it entails, is Wall Street. And those who work within that system can be transformed like Zacchaeus and recognize and admit the injustice of their ways – their ways that are often our ways too. We turn people into money, when people really do matter more. To the degree that a society or culture or industry values money and possessions over people to that degree it will be harmful and deeply damaging to all.

Why do I support #OccupyWallStreet and the occupations of the cities of the USA? Because right after Zacchaeus joyfully experienced salvation and gave away his possessions, Jesus told a parable about the opposite kind of person. A person who values money more than people and who thus makes life miserable for most.

A man who wanted to be king gave money to his servants and told them to “put this money to work” while he was gone and “occupy ‘til I come.” The people didn’t want him to be king because he was a hard man who “takes out what he did not put in and reaps what he did not sow.” A few ‘worked his money’ – which means they worked people – and they were able to double his money while he was gone. But one man did not do it and was chastised severely by the new king, “Take his mina away from him and give it to the one who has ten minas!” The others protested that that man already had ten, but the hard king revealed the opposite attitude of Zacchaeus, “I tell you that to everyone who has, more will be given, but as for the one who has nothing, even what he has will be taken away. But those enemies of mine who did not want me to be king over them—bring them here and kill them in front of me.”

This wealthy king reaped where he did not sow, rewarded the servants who became hard like him, punished the servants who would not participate in his oppressive practices of abusing lives so that his money could double quickly, and coupled these excruciating monetary policies with violence and killing so that the money could flow more easily. High return rates on investments generally necessitate high loss of life rates from the people who make them possible.

This king in this story is not Jesus. Jesus did not say the famous “occupy ‘til I come” as a line from himself, it’s a line in one of Jesus’ stories about a greedy king who uses violence and intimidation to increase his profits. A story that Jesus told right after the Zacchaeus experience of salvation through reduction of possessions and wealth!

These two stories together can help us see that 1) in the Zacchaeus story re-redistributing of wealth from the wealthy to the majority (the 99%) is praised by Jesus, and 2) we need to conduct careful and critical analysis of the global trade realities and violent systems that allow lives to be transformed into high monetary returns for a very, very few people. These kinds of leaders are not wanted by most people (as clearly shared in Jesus’ story) and when challenged they respond violently to protect their profits.

In addition, 3) US citizens can justly demand tight regulations and enforcement on these industries that generate such great wealth – again, it’s human lives that turn into those dollars so we must speak for the lives (we are the lives!) because once they become dollars their voices get co-opted by the ones who control the dollars. 4) US citizens can justly demand higher taxes on those with incomes of millions (and hundreds of millions) of dollars per year because it helps bring balance to a terribly unbalanced system – when the lifeblood of most people go to generate profits for the few, who pay them as little as they can, it is fair and right and just for those profits to be taxed so that social services are provided widely. Healthcare, education, food programs, the “safety net” that is so important for a healthy civil society must be maintained if we are to be able to claim at all that we value people more than money. For instance, one 5.6% tax on a million dollar income is $56,000 and that provides about 56,000 breakfasts for kids who wouldn’t get them otherwise.

Jesus said that people cannot serve both God and Wealth (Mammon), and based on his teachings, I think we must also ask whether we can serve both people and money. I hope those within OccupyWallStreet stay focused on people and emphasize that money is at most a tool, an object to be used for the good of the many and not a goal in itself because then the quest for wealth subordinates and destroys human lives. All of us, regardless of our social locations, can try to be more like Zacchaeus and less like the hard king who reaps where he does not sow. And as we’re seeing so clearly, we can organize, re-think the system so that it prioritizes people (especially those most in need), modify our own behavior as needed, and influence policy so that the highest are brought lower a bit and the lowest are brought up a lot. Hopefully, it can transform from occupations of Wall Street and beyond to elected occupations of executives and legislatures where wiser policies and practices can be implemented.

Jun

Bush Tax Cuts = Rich Richer, Poor Poorer

Posted by Paul at 11:21 am

The Bush Tax Cuts After Ten Years
Will Nearly Double Budget Deficit if Continued, Mostly Benefit the Rich

State-by-State Fact Sheets

Ten years ago, on June 7, 2001, President George W. Bush signed into law the first of several tax cuts that drove the balanced budget he inherited from President Clinton deep into the red. Last year, Congressional supporters of Bush’s policies pushed through an extension of these tax cuts through the end of 2012.

Many lawmakers want to extend the Bush tax cuts again into 2013 and beyond, which would almost double the federal budget deficit.
47.2 percent of the benefits of this tax cut extension would go to the richest five percent of the nation’s taxpayers.
The richest one percent would receive an average tax cut of $68,079 in 2013.
The poorest 60 percent of taxpayers would receive an average tax cut of just $487 in 2013.

See the national data and state-by-state fact sheets.

taxes