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| Anything stand out here? |
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| Anyone remember a Curve named Laffer? |
Modern Conservatives champion union-free workplaces, de-emphasis of higher education, and regression of the tax rates.
They also champion a return to the glory days of America, which they imagine mostly like the 1950's (about 1945-1965, the Boomers' Baby years). Oddly, when you look back at that time, you will note the high levels of union membership, the greater opportunities for the less-educated to work, and the highly progressive tax rates.
And do you all remember the Laffer Curve? Well, turns out it works if you hold it upside down! (It's a joke, it's a joke! Take a breath, take it easy!) If it didn't seem unrealistically simplistic to the point of moot in the first place, well, here you see what 'just plain wrong' really looks like.
Of course, a lot of our debt is not due right now, and so we borrow a lot, at very low interest rates. Funny thing, interests rates...
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| Gee... |
Conservatives also champion the fighting of inflation - it's what brought Ronald Reagan into office in 1981, and we've been living out the legacy of that "Reagan Revolution." Inflation is the bane of wealthy, though it shows they could use some education themselves, as they are not diving into pools of gold like Scrooge McDuck. Monetarism had been chosen to steer the economy in a new direction, with less inflation, permanently. Interest rates would be leveraged against inflation. And though conservatives claim to champion economic growth, monetarism seems to have thoroughly stifled it.
It seems to me that today's conservative wants it two opposing ways - they want a return to America's glory days, but they want economic policies that simply disallow that. It seems to me, as long as we continue down this path - as long as we continue to disenfranchise workers to the point of them literally walking out of the workforce, as long as we devalue education while allowing it's costs to far outpace inflation, as long we we just keep borrowing and cutting taxes - we will see America stagnate, and the great promise of the American Dream reduced to the inescapable class systems of the Old World that we fought to disavow to become America in the first place.
JMJ
No, we want pre-crime! ;)
ReplyDeleteFeudalism may VERY well be the economic reality for our grandchildren.
ReplyDeleteAs the masters say, Let The Goox Times Roll. For them!
Excellent post Jersey.
Big Labour is no "solution" to the problem of "Big Capital". Big Government cures neither problem. A "system" which balances interests, rather than pit them against one another, is what is needed. A system which discourages ever greater levels of capital accumulation and worker organization.
ReplyDeleteLabour unions as exist in European countries and Businesses that work with Labour rather than against just might work.
ReplyDeleteBut this is America.
I think it would help significantly, if we're going to live in a world without unions, that education and healthcare should be rights and funded, so that workers, and everyone really, have the opportunities in life that the unions fought to give them.
ReplyDeleteJMJ
FJ - your fascination with 'global capital' is a little disconcerting. Without the full-philosophical-press, what is it about trade in capital concerns you most? You think it's all just some house of cards about to collapse? I agree there are plenty of bad actors out there, rigging systems wherever and whenever they can, but that just gets back to why we need a public educated enough to know not to vote for scumbags.
ReplyDeleteJMJ
What is wrong with global capital is that with enough capital, you don't need any labor. You can "automate" everything. Workers become "obsolete". And pretty soon, the only thing for former " workers" to do is collect welfare. They can't compete with robots, or goods produced by robots.
DeleteWe're not going to automate everything in foreseeable future. We're never going to do it completely. But you are looking way out in the future. And never forget, with automation comes people with time for new things to do. When automation caused mass labor changes in the 19th century, it is no coincidence that major strides forward in urban and suburban living and infrastructure, healthcare and education. What was once just some farm hand was now a teacher, or a lawyer, or a doctor, or a train conductor - just something other than farm work.
DeleteFinally, markets are all about supply and demand. If demand drops to low, to the point there's no one to supply to - you can't get rich on your new widget if no one can afford it. This was always the obvious flaw in the logic of Voo Doo economics.
We're seeing this again with Trump's proposed tax cuts, with his folks saying, "If we cut taxes for businesses they will invest in expanding." Why would they? They would expand if there was more demand for their product. But why would they expand if demand remained the same? Maybe they could invest in ways to be more productive - the scary robots - or spend-down the extra capital on a quick off-shoring? Maybe they all just get bigger bonuses? Maybe only a few? But there's nothing to suggest they'd do anything but pocket the cash, or pick one of the above.
JMJ
Karl Marx wasn't that far off the mark eh Thersites? Although I doubt he foresaw robotics, robots, and AI.
DeleteThe progression of capitalism leads to excess labor with the eventual elimination of all labor as its ultimate achievement.
Whether that actually happens is anybody's guess and of course remains to be seen. It is for future generations to grapple with. But present generations should consider it a possibility and make decisions accordingly. AI and robots with AI is the future.
The funny things is - it could be a wonderful thing!
DeleteJMJ
I question if supply and demand is the rule of an economy today. The last time a barrel of oil was this low a gallon of gas was way under two dollars. We pay twice as much for prescription drugs as the rest of the world, yet, our demand (use) of those drugs is no greater than the rest of the world. Food prices are at an all time high, yet, our consumption (demand) of food has stayed about the same for years. Corporations are gouging consumers and the net profits of corporations confirm that.
Delete...that a few men with control of capital could render all the future potential labour of mankind moot. You must really love banker aristocrats and hate the rest of mankind, Jersey. Especially when they declare anything and everything that the "common" men may produce "unsafe contraband".
Deletefrom the Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography (1901)
DeleteThe Rev. Mr. Heckewelder, who is probably the best authority we have upon the Indians of this section of the country, states that Tamanend's memory was held in the highest esteem by his own people, but that he never heard them say much concerning him, as it was not their custom to talk of their dead except in a very general way, and that no white man that had any regard for their feelings ever broached the subject of their dead to them. The various traditions, both verbal and written, concerning Tamanend emanated from the whites and not from the Indians. We see that between the first record that we have of him in 1683 and the last in 1697 he must have impressed himself strongly upon not only the community but also upon the officials of the provincial government, for in the last account he is described in the deed, which of course was writ ten by the English, as the Great Sachem Tamaniens, and no other Indian is so described; so to have acquired the right to such a title he must have had at least a large part of the attributes ascribed to him. In further corroboration of the way in which his memory was held, we cite the old cannon presented by the Colony on Schuylkill to the Association Battery about 1747, on which appear the words "Kawania che Keekeru" (This is my right, I will defend it). By many writers this motto is ascribed to Tamanend, and justly so, we think, rather than to the Delaware Nation alone, for we would expect just such a sentiment to be chosen by a man endowed with such lofty ideas as these words express. (This was the motto of the Saint Tammany Society. See Independent, May 3, 1783.) Further, the records of this Society show that their principal day—May 1, or opening day—has been always spoken of by them as Tammany's day. Their tradition is that Tamanend himself made a treaty with the fathers of this Society giving them the right to fish in the waters of the Schuylkill and hunt game upon its banks.
We also find this motto at the top of the title-page of a pamphlet which is in verse: "Kawanio Che Keeteru, a true relation of a bloody battle fought between George and Lewis in the year 1755. Printed in the year MDCCLVI." Turning over the page, we find "The words I have chosen at the head of my Title Page I am told by a gentleman skilled in the Indian languages is very expressive of a Hero relying on God to bless his endeavors in protecting what he has put under his care." "To form some idea of its signification," he says, "you may imagine a man with his wife and children about him and with an air of resolution calling out to his enemy, All these God has given me and I will defend them." (In Hist. Soc. of Penna. Said to have been written by Nicholas Scull.)
"By order of King John, the "markets" of Sherwood have now been officially closed."
Delete-Sheriff of Nottingham
Well, to anonymous, the context here was the notion that cutting taxes on corporate profits or investment income or the top rates will encourage those receiving the breaks to expand. But that ignores the realities of supply and demand, all your notable sectors aside, and many included anyway. We have been operating under a supply-side model, which monetarism essentially is, for decades now.
DeleteWe pay twice as much for drugs because we are the Western Power that has no national healthcare system.
Food prices are not far higher. We had a spike from the way corn changed, but they've been pretty consistent with inflation since the mid-eighties. The food corporations are 'raking it in' in a variety of ways. Big producers are huge exporters. They are the sheer physical bulk of our exports. Retail level guys are doing it by importing a lot, and almost completely disenfranchised labor, the sector paying the very worst of any.
JMJ
FJ - again, I don't know what exactly you think I think, but I can tell you this - it seems to me reality dictates the best we can hope for, for the foreseeable future, is capitalism balanced by socialism, just as we have liberty balanced by the ends of each other's noses.
DeleteJMJ
Perhaps if the rules of capitalism were different, we wouldn't need as much "socialism". Do corporations really "need" liability protections and tax rate less than the one real people have tp pay?
DeletePersonally, I think corporate tax rates should only reflect the costs they impose on society. I believe corporate rates should be very low. They are regressive, essentially sales taxes. They should be taxed only enough to regulate them. I could imagine a rate as low 1-2%. But that's just me.
DeleteJMJ
Unemplyment is "the cost they impose upon society.". Terrorism is the "cost they impose upon society.". If you charged corporations for the costs they imposed upon society, their rates would be over 100%
Delete"Unemplyment is "the cost they impose upon society.""
DeleteNo.
Employment is most all an expression of demand. You don't hire people based upon how much taxes you pay as a corporation. Many CEO's say they do, many Republican and conservatives sorts say things like that, but it is not true. Corporate taxes are essentially sales taxes, the costs passed down to the consumer. The average corporate tax effect on consumer prices, and wages, and shareholders, varies wildly from product to product, industry to industry, sector to sector. Here's Bruce Barlett, no lefty, on the subject: https://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/02/19/who-pays-the-corporate-income-tax/?_r=0
People should be taxed on voluntary transactions, IMO. Corporations are not people. Corporations have to be regulated or they will misbehave, and governmental policy must be informed by knowledge of the business activity anyway, so some tax, tat is shared by all involved, the corporate tax, is necessary. But it should only be reflective of the costs of regulating them. Corporations are not people, with rights, IMO. I feel the same way about property. And also think it should very minimally taxed if at all.
JMJ
Look Jersey, we're arguing past each other. My point is that corporations are always going to "out efficiency" the little independent business owner and put him out of work (and business).
DeleteSo my "solution" is to tax corporations on those scale "efficiency savings" to give the little guy/mom & pop enterprise an even break.
DeleteIt's simply a question of "who" receives the benefits from the savings created through the division of labour. The "means" through which the proletariate owns the "means of production" ion a democracy is the "tax" system.
DeleteThose glory days came with taxes at twice the level we pay today. The trillion dollar debts started with Reagan and his tax cuts. Trickle down has been proven a failure many times and Trump's budget is trickle down on steroids. Trump's out in business was to declare bankruptcy. I guess that's next for the USA.
ReplyDeleteWell, the new budget is out of the House, the Senate should be making it a little more realistic, and it keeps us going through, I believe, September (through the rest of the fiscal year). It looks to be status quo, until then.
DeleteTrump's little wish list looks terrible - like every proven-to-be-bad-over-and-over-again idea in one glop. What happens in September should have serious ripples through the off-year election cycle. NJ and VA, both politically diverse and interesting states, will be having state elections. I'd be curious to see how those go, given whatever the situation at that time.
JMJ
Kawamio che keeteru!
ReplyDelete"Ye lovers of frolic, who blithsome and gay,
Resolve to be merry on Tammany's Day;
I Neddy the Sachem, by some surnamed P—e,
For a moment would like your attention to call.
In barbarous days, ere America rose
The pride of her Friends, and the scourge of her foes,
Old Tammany bounding o'er valley and hill,
Every deer that he met would constantly kill:
So each of his sons in remembrance of that,
On his birthday displays a Buck's Tail in his hat.
Now those who this tuft emblematic must buy,
To me let them come, and their wants I ll supply.
Since S—dd----S's deer skins I plundered of late,
I their tails can retail at a moderate rate:
‘Tis the joy of my heart all my neighbors to fleece;
Come buy my fine Buck Tails at six-pence apiece.
"NEDDY THE SACHEM."
Oh yeah... I'd forgotten about that St Tammany and all that. Fun little bit of Americana there, FJ!
DeleteJMJ
from Wiki: On May 1, 1777, John Adams wrote of the Tammany festival in Philadelphia during the American Revolutionary War. Adams, who was in Philadelphia attending the Second Continental Congress as a delegate from Massachusetts, wrote a letter home to his wife Abigail Adams, which said:
DeleteThis is King Tammany's Day. Tammany was an Indian King, of this part of the Continent, when Mr. Penn first came here. His court was in this town. He was friendly to Mr. Penn and very serviceable to him. He lived here among the first settlers for some time and until old age. ... The people here have sainted him and keep his day.[2]
On May 1, 1778, General George Washington and the Continental Army held a Tammany festival while camped at Valley Forge. The "men spent the day in mirth and jollity...in honor of King Tammany" (Military Journal of George Ewing, 1928).
After the end of the Revolutionary War, Tammany celebrations spread throughout the United States, including to Savannah, Georgia. Local societies promoted annual festivals, usually held on May 1. Tammany celebrations were such important events that, in 1785, George Washington appeared at the Tammany festival in Richmond, Virginia with Virginia governor Patrick Henry. The Tammany Society in New York City held its first festival in 1787.
Good ol' May Day, always taking up some new purpose. Apropos for Spring. ;)
DeleteJMJ