[Plantagenet]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('asg70', ' ')Last time I checked, unions are dead and we're living in a corporatocracy.

[Tanada]

Here is a recommendation for you! Declare that the US Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico together are the 51st state!

[Newfie]

^ Works for me!

[Cog]

2 more Democrat senators. No thanks.

[careinke]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Cog', '2') more Democrat senators. No thanks.

[Ibon]

There is this graph about Congress having a 20% approval rating but a 97% reelection rate.
Term limits and a strict prohibtion of any congressmen taking a corporate lobby position.

The reason though that all of our wonderful ideas here on this thread will never be inacted is that the
very same congressmen who would have to approve any of these ideas are the very same compromised bastards in the first place.

Good luck with that.

[Newfie]

Ibon,

That made me laugh. I’ve heard it before, everyone thinks all Congress critters are corrupt, except his.

Here’s another factoid that peers into our souls.

Years ago Men’s Health Magazine did a survey and found 93% of American men rate themselves as above average drivers.

All farts stink, except mine. My shit don’t stink!

LOL, humanity, gotta love it.

[Newfie]

I’ve a rant stuck in my craw this morning.

The bottom line is in The USA we are great for coming up with things YOU should do to fix MY problem. We also love to find things to shame others and to have emotional outbursts of righteous outrage. Doesn’t work in marriages, won’t work in our culture.

It comes from the recent mass shootings and the knee jerk call for more gun control if not outright bans.

As Neil gets Grasse Tyson pointed out that the mass shootings are small potatoes.

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', ' ')In the past 48hrs, the USA horrifically lost 34 people to mass shootings.

On average, across any 48hrs, we also lose…

500 to Medical errors
300 to the Flu
250 to Suicide
200 to Car Accidents
40 to Homicide via Handgun

Often our emotions respond more to spectacle than to data.

[Outcast_Searcher]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Tanada', '[')img]https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRKy6Wpq2PYypaw46_ec3GoEe-poa4EnCBm4IPH1n0P_jrJ1UYWqw[/img]

Here is a recommendation for you! Declare that the US Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico together are the 51st state!

[Tanada]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Outcast_Searcher', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Tanada', '[')img]https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRKy6Wpq2PYypaw46_ec3GoEe-poa4EnCBm4IPH1n0P_jrJ1UYWqw[/img]

Here is a recommendation for you! Declare that the US Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico together are the 51st state!

[Zarquon]

A couple of comments on this thread:
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', '
')"IDEA 1 - REPLACE INCOME TAX WITH A PRODUCTIVITY TAX"

[Zarquon]

An article from 2009 I only recently discovered:
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/ar ... up/307364/

Well worth reading (really, read it). An economist arguing that the problem besetting banana republics everywhere is and always was that a bunch of oligarchs (the proverbial 20 or 200 ruling families) own the country, own the political system and then borrow like there's no tomorrow in order to build their business empires. One day their credit is no longer good and the whole thing crashes. Then the International Monetary Fund comes in to fix what the oligarchs had messed up. Most of the pain is felt by those who never had a say in the matter.

He then argues (in 2009, long before the billionaire US cabinet of 2016) that this is what happened to the US. It has become a typical banana republic.

The piece would be easy to dismiss if the author hadn't been chief economist of the IMF.

"Not surprisingly, Wall Street ran with these opportunities. From 1973 to 1985, the financial sector never earned more than 16 percent of domestic corporate profits. In 1986, that figure reached 19 percent. In the 1990s, it oscillated between 21 percent and 30 percent, higher than it had ever been in the postwar period. This decade, it reached 41 percent."

41% of domestic corporate profits. I think a lot of people who discuss the US economy by arguing about coal mines and car factories and shopping malls are like the proverbial blind men who can each only feel one body part of an elephant - the trunk, a leg, the tail - and then debate and try to figure out what kind of animal they stand next to.

"Of course, the U.S. is unique. And just as we have the world’s most advanced economy, military, and technology, we also have its most advanced oligarchy."

[Ibon]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Zarquon', '
')"Of course, the U.S. is unique. And just as we have the world’s most advanced economy, military, and technology, we also have its most advanced oligarchy."

[Newfie]

Zarquon,

On your first post I think you missed the point. At one time production relied heavily upon workers. When you taxed production you taxed the work force. Now with greater industrialization and manufacturing efficiencies the work force is shrinking but production is growing (or so they say, another story). To to continue to tax production you have to follow where it is going. Tax the production.

Relative to your second post, spot on. I can’t verify your profit percentages but it gives me these 2 thoughts.
1- so that’s where all the quantitative easing money went.
2- if the profit is QE money then it clearly is not “real” money. Which means the wealth spread isn’t as big as one would think.

But also there is another book you might like: Wealth and Democracy. I think it’s supports your quote about profits above.

[Newfie]

IDEA 2

PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION REFORMS
Pick 7 unindicted ex-goveners under 70 in a ramdom draw. They get to pick running mate from same group. Pick the best 3 within 3 months. Then do a run off in another 3 months.

IDEA 3

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES REFORMS
Must be CITIZENS between 21 and 65. No felony convictions.
Set it up like the Selective Service, in fact have the Selective Service run it.

In each state a reverse lottery is held, the chosen one then takes a drug test. There can be a few allowable exemptions, a death certificate will do.
Then you serve your 2 years.

At the end of 2 years you are free to go back to civilian life OR you may opt to request permission to stay as a Representative. If you wish to stay there is a vote, simple “stay” or “go.” You can serve a total of 6 terms, 12 years. If the vote is “go” then there is another lottery and the process starts over.

[evilgenius]

I'd like to see the US experiment with a one percent national sales tax on internet purchases. The intention would be to rebate those monies back to the individual states, as sales tax revenues from brick and mortar went down. The best you can hope for is a rebate to the individual states, as you cannot really expect the Federal Government to become involved in distribution at the truly local level. That probably is best left up to each individual state.

I know this would most likely exacerbate political problems between rural and urban areas within the states, but unless you can prove that something like civil rights are at stake it would be hard to legitimately involve the Federal Government in making those decisions regarding distribution. Many states do have a problem with large city power structure gobbling up available monies for all sorts of projects which rural areas need done. This sort of thing might only exacerbate those inequalities. The trouble is, the individual states need to work those problems out for themselves, so that they have more just systems anyway. Increasing the amount of money might actually prove an incentive to take care of those problems.

[asg70]

The root of the problem is the electoral system. Fix that and you clear the way for other fixes. There must be an IQ test of sort which all citizens must pass in order to be given the privilege (not the right) to vote. This should wipe out the ability of flat-earth knuckle-draggers driving the elections towards populist dictators like Trump. Of course, even if there is support for this, people will argue endlessly over the nature of the test. This is because we're so far gone that we can no longer all agree on the nature of the world around us (think creationism and AGW denialism).

Right now we have people jump through more hoops to have a driver's license than to vote, but how people vote has far more impact on our welfare than driving.

Not only that, but we have to find a way to discourage career politicians but to encourage broader participation in public service. Right now the system encourages narcissists and the rich to run for office. The founding fathers wanted things to be more of a grass roots system where joe public put in some time and then someone else replaced them. I don't know how to fix this, maybe something like jury duty or the draft where a certain random selection of people are always called upon to enter politics and then term limits boots them out. But turnover is really key to preventing the power corrupts problem from festering. De-emphasize cult of personality and make it more issue-based.

[Newfie]

Well that was sort on thrust on reforming the House.

The can’t see an IQ test, wide open to abuse.

But also not all “smart” people are so smart nor are “dummies” so dumb.

[Ibon]

As an employer here in 3rd world panama I am familiar with workers rights as well as some of the benefits the government has legislated for workers. To name a few:

Workers receive 4 weeks paid vacation and a 13th month salary

Social security is part of the public health care system. Employee contribution is 11.5% of wages. Employers pay 13.5 %. A worker recently cut his hand and went to the local public hospital for 6 stitches. His copay was $ 1 dollar per stitch = $6

Minimum wages established by industry and job.

Government fixes prices on staples like rice, chicken , beans etc. Example, 5lb of rice costs $2.00

There are very few homeless people visible on the streets of the Capitol or in large towns.

Panama is a poor country and has these policies in place. The USA is a rich country but for many also a 3rd world country all wrapped up in a package that leaves those most disadvantaged hanging in the breeze.

At some point up ahead public policy in support of the poorest members of society will be an issue of national domestic security. But not as long as the public remains pacified and compliant.

Somewhere along the way social protest demanding better legislation for the poor disappeared. The poor in the USA have no representation.

That wont change until the poor start mobilizing in ways to scare the shit out of the rest of society so they no longer feel safe to move about in public spaces.

[Newfie]

Ibon,
The USA was much as you describe just 100 years ago. Shirtwaist factoids, cigar shops, knitting mills, mine workers, seasonal pickers.

What we have, the wealth, is a brief interlude.