TAX INEQUALITY

RICHARD WOLFF ON TAXES: THE THREE KINDS OF TAX IMPOSED BY VARIOUS LEVELS OF GOVERNMENT, SOMETHING I HAVE RAILED ABOUT FOR WHAT SEEMS FOREVER, WAS BEAUTIFULLY, ALMOST CLINICALLY STATED LAST NIGHT ON THE NPR PROGRAM ALTERNATIVE RADIO.  THE FACT THAT PROPERTY TAX NEVER INCLUDES STOCKS BONDS OR OTHER SECURITIES HELD ALMOST ENTIRELY BY THE INVESTOR CLASS, WHICH IS ARGUABLY MOST ABLE TO FUND THE VARIOUS LEVELS OF NECESSARY GOVERNMENT (AND LET'S SEE ANYBODY ARGUE COHERENTLY THAT GOVERNMENT IS NOT NECESSARY AT THIS STAGE IN THE EVOLUTION OF THE HUMAN ANIMAL) OR THE FACT THAT INCOME  FROM EMPLOYMENT IS TAXED DIFFERENTLY THAN DIVIDEND INCOME OR SALE OF ACCRUED ASSETS (CAPITAL GAINS), OR THE FACT THAT TRANSACTION TAXES ARE FULL OF EXEMPTIONS INCLUDING AND MOST ESPECIALLY THE EXEMPTION FOR SALE OF FINANCIAL ASSETS, IS NOT UNDERSTOOD BY MOST WORKING PEOPLE.  THESE RULES, WHICH HAVE BEEN IMPOSED BY THE INVESTOR CLASS THROUGH THEIR USURPATION OF POLITICAL POWER IN THE CAPITALIST COUNTRIES, HAVE SO WARPED THE BENEFITS THAT ACCRUE TO THE VARIOUS CITIZENS OF THESE NOW UNJUST COUNTRIES THAT WE HAVE ONCE AGAIN ARRIVED AT THE PLACE WE INHABITED IN THE 1920S, WITH THE SAME DISPARITY OF INCOME AND WEALTH WITH ITS DISASTROUS EROSION OF WHATEVER WAS LEFT OF THE SOCIAL COHESION NECESSARY FOR ANY STATE TO CARRY ON ITS LEGITIMATE ENTERPRISE, THE FOREMOST BEING THE CONTINUED REFINEMENT OF A SOCIETY BASED ON TRULY EGALITARIAN BLIND DISINTERESTED RECIPROCAL JUSTICE.  


ONCE AGAIN LET ME STATE THAT IT IS IMPOSSIBLE TO PURSUE JUSTICE WITHOUT ABANDONING PRIVILEGE AND IT IS IMPOSSIBLE TO PURSUE PRIVILEGE WITHOUT ABANDONING JUSTICE.

HABITS

EVERY ANIMAL ON EARTH FORMS HABITS.  IT WOULD BE A WASTE OF PROCESSING POWER IF EVERY MORNING WE HAD TO ACTIVELY THINK ABOUT GETTING UP AND DOING THE THINGS NECESSARY TO SUSTAIN LIFE.  THE DIVIDING LINE BETWEEN HABITS, WHICH ARE EFFICIENT HEALTHY AND USEFUL, AND OBSESSIVE COMPULSIVE DISORDER, INCLUDING ADDICTION, IS WHETHER THE COMPULSIVE ASPECT OF OUR PERSONALITY MORE OR LESS FORCES US TO DO THINGS THAT ARE INUTILE, THAT ACTUALLY GET IN THE WAY OF USEFUL AND LIFE-SUSTAINING ACTIVITIES AND MAKE OUR LIVES MORE DIFFICULT.  THAT THESE COMPULSIONS DAMAGE OUR LIVES AND THE LIVES OF THOSE AROUND US IS A SUBJECTIVE CALL, BUT MOST PEOPLE WHO SUFFER FROM THIS GENETICALLY CODED DISABILITY MANIFEST MULTIPLE EXAMPLES OF DAMAGING BEHAVIOR IN THEIR LIVES AND IN FACT MULTIPLE PROBLEMS IS AN IMPORTANT CLUE TO THE DIAGNOSIS.  IF AFTER REFLECTION ONE CONCLUDES THAT COMPULSIVE HABITS OF THOUGHT AND ACTION ARE HURTING AND MAKING LIVES MORE DIFFICULT IT MIGHT BE MOST EFFECTIVE TO BEGIN AN OPEN AND SOLICITOUS DIALOGUE WITH THOSE AFFECTED.  IT MIGHT ALSO BE USEFUL TO ENLIST PROFESSIONAL HELP IN IMPROVING LIFE FOR THOSE THAT ARE, NOT COINCIDENTALLY, LIKELY MOST IMPORTANT TO US, INCLUDING SELF OF COURSE.  IN SO DOING WE MAY BE ABLE TO RID OURSELVES OF CRIPPLING GUILT, WHICH IS THE FIRST STEP TOWARD IMPROVEMENT. 


WE HAVE NOT DESIGNED OURSELVES.  WHATEVER INHERENT PROBLEMS WE ENCOUNTER, OUR JOB IS NOT TO CONDEMN, EITHER IN OTHERS OR OURSELVES, THE FACT OF THEIR EXISTENCE OR EVEN THEIR PERPETUATION IN OFFSPRING — OUR JOB IS TO SEEK PRAGMATIC SOLUTIONS IN THE FORM OF CONSCIOUS BEHAVIOR MODIFICATION OF GENETICALLY CODED AUTOMATIC RESPONSES TO LIFE.  IN ADDITION TO RELIEVING MUCH DISCOMFORT AND ALLOWING MORE SUCCESSFUL OUTCOMES ALL AROUND, THIS CONSCIOUS INTERVENTION, WHICH MAY FOREVER NEED TO BE CONSISTENTLY APPLIED TO IMPULSES, MAY SERVE AS A MOST USEFUL EXAMPLE TO OTHERS.

NOONE CAN ANSWER FOR ANOTHER

excerpt from WHAT THE MAN IS

by

Hank Schachte

this fragment floating somewhere in a quiet cold close humid tent.  and might he ask in the morning why he did that, having covered over his reason with slumber and as usual not written completely enough?  but that is not an invitation to answer.  noone can answer for another — even himself — from the future or the past.

THE TROUBLE WITH GDP

there are basically three kinds of economic activity — there is positive economic activity, negative economic activity and redistributive economic activity, which has no positive or negative component.  lets take an example of positive economic activity: i plant a garden from little seeds that cost hardly anything and i get from that food — quite a bit of food — and that food is sold into the local economy and is then considered positive economic activity because i have added it to the gdp, to the wealth of society. 

negative activity is still counted as part of gdp the way things are presently calculated.  here is a good example of negative activity: i pull out a gun and i shoot you.  okay, thats going to generate positive economic activity.  first, i had to buy the gun which had to be manufactured.  thats considered positive economic activity according to the gdp calculation.  then i had to buy the bullets and then once ive shot you we will have to call for emergency medical services, which is considered positive economic activity, and then there will be the medical services that try to save you, which is also considered positive economic activity.  and when that fails there will be the funereal services, which is again considered positive economic activity, and then there is going to be a very expensive investigation and trial with detectives and lawyers and judges and a jury and thats all considered positive economic activity.  and then there will be a long prison sentence for me and the cost of my going to prison will be considered part of the positive economic activity of society that will go on for years.  all that is added to the calculation for gross domestic product but it is in reality all below the line.  it is all negative economic activity.  if i hadnt shot you we wouldnt have had to spend any money to get back essentially to the baseline, which is zero.  so thats an example of an incredible miscalculation of gdp, which is negative activity. 

now neutral activity is what financial services mostly does.  it is just redistributive.  they take a little money from everywhere and concentrate it in certain big piles somewhere, mostly in certain people’s bank accounts, and a bit of this may be usefully distributed to stimulate improvements in society but most of it doesnt really generate any wealth of any kind, and yet it is all financial services, it is all considered a part of the gdp — in fact, in united states and great britain it is somewhere between a quarter and forty per cent of gdp — but that is mostly a zero, that is largely just redistributive, it doesnt really make anything, it doesnt add anything to the productive wealth of society. 

so, thats the problem with gdp and thats the problem with an awful lot of people’s life work and the energy they expend.  like war and other destructive activity including its ensuing reconstruction, it is all truly below the line — below the zero baseline that was there before any of these monkeys got out of bed in the morning and started doing things.