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</font></div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" /><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">SEE FOUR</font></font></font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div>6/20 login missing field msg on save<div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">html </font><b style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" box-sizing="box-sizing" border-box="border-box" outline="outline" none="none" margin="margin" px="px" padding="padding"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman">forestall</font></b></b><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
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</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">aha ultimate ineq is lack of access to feed shelter and medicine</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">driver profit maximization: </font></div><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">pharma CORPS claim need massive profits for innovation but trump voodoo windfall went to stock buyback ceo bonus?</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2022/02/pfizer/" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">https://www.alternet.org/2022/02/pfizer/</a></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">public R&D</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">profiteer, someone's mrna vacc reverse engr from open records? but still need license?!</font></span></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></p><div style="font-family: sans-serif; font-size: medium;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div style="font-family: sans-serif; font-size: medium;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2022/02/to-us-oligarchs-majority-views-on-taxing-the-rich-count-for-little/">https://www.alternet.org/2022/02/to-us-oligarchs-majority-views-on-taxing-the-rich-count-for-little/</a></font></div><div style="font-family: sans-serif; font-size: medium;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"> noah b</font></div><div style="font-family: sans-serif; font-size: medium;"><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">With one political party entirely committed to expanding inequality, and the other divided on the issue, overwhelming public support and commonsense ethical commitments don’t carry much weight.
</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">That’s how oligarchies consolidate. The wealthy horde power and wealth, then that power and wealth gives them the ability to shape institutions to further increase their power and wealth.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Yellen has had some successes in restraining wealthy and corporate power. She negotiated an international agreement with 136 countries to implement a <a href="https://www.reuters.com/business/finance/what-is-global-minimum-tax-deal-what-will-it-mean-2021-10-08/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">global corporate minimum tax</a> of 15 percent.</b></font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">At some point, corruption stops being a bug in democracy and starts becoming a feature of oligarchy.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Has the US passed that threshold?</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Based on the sweeping and effective resistance to commonsense solutions to reign in wealthy tax scofflaws, the answer is not encouraging.</b></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Since the 1970s, the United States has become steadily and inexorably more economically unequal. According to <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2020/02/07/6-facts-about-economic-inequality-in-the-u-s/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">Pew</a>, upper income families have brought in a larger and larger share of total income.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>US income inequality is the highest of all G7 nations. Its Gini coefficient is .434, well above second highest UK at .392.</b></font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 102);">In 1968, the top 20 percent of households earned 43 percent of national income. By 2018, the top 20 percent of households earned 52 percent.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 102);">In 1989, the richest 5 percent of families had 114 times as much wealth as families in the second poorest income tier. In 2016, they had <em>248 </em>times as much wealth.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 102);">In <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-10-08/top-50-richest-people-in-the-us-are-worth-as-much-as-poorest-165-million" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">2020</a>, the 50 richest Americans had almost as much wealth as the poorest half of the US population.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>This massive concentration of wealth is also a massive concentration of power.</b> The wealthiest people have access to the best lawyers, the best tax attorneys and the most powerful politicians.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">That means that it is very difficult for the government to restrain them, or to create a more equitable economy and society against their wishes.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>That’s how oligarchies consolidate. The wealthy horde power and wealth, then that power and wealth gives them the ability to shape institutions to further increase their power and wealth. [amp fdbk]</b></font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">An example of oligarchical power is billionaire tax evasion. A <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2021/03/26/wealthy-tax-evasion/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">recent IRS study</a> found that wealthy Americans conceal more than 20 percent of their earnings. They are able to do this because of complex accounting scams involving offshore tax shelters.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The lost tax costs the government at least $175 billion a year in revenue. The top 1 percent of earners are responsible for a third of unpaid federal taxes.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In addition to these straightforwardly illegal accounting tricks, the very wealthy also benefit from at least nominally legal loopholes.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">For instance, wealthy people have many assets that increase in value over time, but they do not pay taxes on those assets until they sell them.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>They can borrow against those assets without paying taxes, since again the assets aren’t considered income</b>. Then, if they die before selling the assets, they can pass them on to their heirs using trusts and other accounting shenanigans to avoid the estate tax.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">ProPublica called this strategy <a href="https://www.propublica.org/video/buy-borrow-die-how-americas-ultrawealthy-stay-that-way" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">Buy, Borrow, Die</a>. It’s a key method for hoarding generational wealth, and entrenching oligarchy.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The Biden administration, led by Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen, have proposed strong measures to rein in billionaire corruption. In part, they want to restrain inequality. In part, they hope to fund other priorities like climate mitigation and anti-poverty measures in the administration’s Build Back Better infrastructure plan.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">To address billionaire tax evasion, BBB included <a href="https://federalnewsnetwork.com/budget/2021/10/bidens-irs-spending-plan-makes-it-through-build-back-better-act-framework/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">$80 billion</a> to boost capacity and staff at the IRS. That would help make up for the steady budget-cuts under Republican administrations. Those have led to a 60 percent decrease in audits of taxpayers who earn more than $1 million. Biden said the investment would allow the IRS to collect $400 billion in taxes.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Biden, Yellen and Senate Finance Chair Ron Wyden have also been pushing for a <a href="https://www.politico.com/newsletters/politico-nightly/2021/10/26/the-billionaire-tax-loophole-hunt-is-on-494854" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">billionaire tax</a> to force the very wealthy to pay taxes on the increased value of their assets.</b></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">This would strike at the heart of the oligarchic “Buy, Borrow, Die” lifestyle. It would force the ultra-wealthy to pay their fair share, like everyone else, every year, year after year.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Policies that prevent the rich from escaping a tax burden everyone has to pay should be easy to pass in a democracy. You’d think preventing billionaires from cheating on their taxes would be a popular policy.</b></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>And you’d be correct.</b></font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">A 2019 poll, for example, <a href="https://www.politico.com/story/2019/02/04/democrats-taxes-economy-policy-2020-1144874" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">showed</a> that 76 percent of Americans agreed that the wealthiest should pay more in taxes. Proposals to tax income over $10 million at 70 percent — a huge increase over current rates — obtained more than 50 percent support.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">In an oligarchy, though, public support doesn’t necessarily count for all that much.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">A notorious 2015 study <a href="https://www.vox.com/2014/4/18/5624310/martin-gilens-testing-theories-of-american-politics-explained" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">found</a> that politicians were much more likely to listen to and follow the political preferences of economic elites than those of the less affluent.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">You can see that playing out in the politics of billionaire taxation.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Build Back Better, which included the beefed-up IRS funding, was scuttled by millionaire West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin, in large part, <a href="https://www.huffpost.com/entry/joe-manchin-build-back-better-child-tax-credit-drugs_n_61bf8f6be4b061afe394006d" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">reportedly</a>, because he was worried that poor parents would spend money on drugs.</b></font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">A wealthy politician refused to enforce the law against billionaires because he was worried that poor people are natural criminals.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">That is what you call class consciousness.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Wyden’s proposal to end “Buy, Borrow, Die” also failed after opposition from <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/jonathanponciano/2021/10/27/billionaire-tax-dead-on-arrival-after-manchin-blasts-proposal-mere-hours-after-its-release/?sh=34f6a763bc36" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">Manchin</a>. </b>It was of course opposed by Senate Republicans, whose main goal is to shovel as much money as possible to the rich in as short a time as possible.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Yellen has had some successes in restraining wealthy and corporate power. She negotiated an international agreement with 136 countries to implement a <a href="https://www.reuters.com/business/finance/what-is-global-minimum-tax-deal-what-will-it-mean-2021-10-08/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">global corporate minimum tax</a> of 15 percent. This would make it harder for businesses to escape tax burdens by moving their corporate offices. Congress still has to pass the treaty, but Yellen said she was <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/business/2021/oct/10/us-treasury-secretary-yellen-global-minimum-corporate-tax-debt-ceiling" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">confident</a> they would do so.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>The corporate minimum tax is a substantial achievement. But it’s also a small dam erected against the tsunami of inequality in the US.</b></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">With one political party entirely committed to expanding inequality, and the other divided on the issue, overwhelming public support and commonsense ethical commitments don’t carry much weight.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">The wealthy have been expanding their power and influence for decades in the US. The result is that the US regularly chooses to make the rich richer rather than <a href="https://www.npr.org/2022/01/21/1074413273/end-expanded-child-tax-credit-families-effects" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">helping the poorest feed their children</a>.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The outlook for change is likely to be even bleaker if Republicans recapture one or both legislative chambers in November.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Yellen and Biden are to be commended for fighting an ongoing rearguard action against corruption. But if government inability to restrain corruption is a feature of oligarchy, then the US is already well down a path that it is very difficult to retrace.</font></p></div><div style="font-family: sans-serif; font-size: medium;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="font-family: sans-serif; font-size: medium;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2022/02/billionaire/">https://www.alternet.org/2022/02/billionaire/</a></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">comm dr</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><strong>over the next few</strong> decades, the richest American families could avoid paying about $8.4 trillion in taxes, or more than four times the cost of the stalled Build Back Better package, according to a report released Wednesday.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The Americans for Tax Fairness report—entitled <a href="https://americansfortaxfairness.org/wp-content/uploads/DT-2.2.pdf" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">Dynasty Trusts: Giant Tax Loopholes that Supercharge Wealth Accumulation</a>—urges Congress to fix the federal tax code to address dynastic wealth</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">.</span></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The new analysis details how loopholes have made the payment of estate, gift, and generation-skipping taxes—collectively called wealth-transfer taxes—effectively optional for the "ultrawealthy" and thereby accelerate the "accumulation of dynastic wealth."</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"Ultrarich families use dynasty trusts—the term for a variety of wealth-accumulating structures that remain in place for multiple generations—to ensure their fortunes cascade down to children, grandchildren, and beyond undiminished by wealth-transfer taxes," the report explains.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Some U.S. states, such as South Dakota, have even changed their laws on dynasty trusts to attract wealthy residents, as Chuck Collins of the Institute for Policy <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/views/2021/10/01/why-billionaires-love-park-their-dynastic-wealth-places-south-dakota" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">highlighted</a> last year.</b></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The new report notes that U.S. lawmakers aren't planning to address the issue, even if the Senate passes a version of a <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2021/11/19/time-deliver-house-democrats-pass-build-back-better-act-zero-gop-votes" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">House-approved</a> package:</font></p><blockquote style="margin: 1em 40px 1em -5px; border-left: 4px solid rgb(11, 13, 101); line-height: 32px; padding: 10px 20px 10px 24px; width: 602.546px; background: rgb(245, 245, 245);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Build Back Better (BBB) legislation now before Congress—otherwise a vehicle for significant progressive tax reform—does nothing to directly reverse this toxic accumulation of dynastic wealth. Moreover, some dynasty trust reforms that were included in the bill passed by the House Ways and Means Committee in September 2021 were stripped out before the House voted on the measure in November.
</font></blockquote><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The BBB bill needs full support from Senate Democrats to pass. Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.)—one of the primary reasons the legislation hasn't reached President Joe Biden's desk—said Tuesday that it is "dead."</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">However, <b>Americans for Tax Fairness </b>still uses the whittled-down BBB package to illustrate just how much money wealthy Americans can hoard for their families in the years ahead thanks to the U.S. tax system.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">"The tax savings for the richest families could be about $8.4 trillion over the next 24 years or so if the current 40% estate tax rate remains in place," the report states. <b>"That's the equivalent of more than four Build Back Better plans costing $1.75 trillion each over 10 years."</b></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>The report adds that "about half of the $8.4 trillion is equivalent to the cost of the expanded child tax credit, which was included in the House-passed BBB bill and is estimated to reduce childhood poverty by 40%, for 24 years at $160 billion a year.</b>" [twt]</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"This hoarding of wealth is inexcusable," declared the report's principal author, Bob Lord, who practiced estate law for 30 years before joining Americans for Tax Fairness as tax counsel.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"The BBB legislation now before the U.S. Senate should be amended to close loopholes in the three components of America's wealth transfer tax system: the estate, gift, and generation-skipping tax," he asserted. "Effective reforms have already been developed—all that's needed is for Congress to recognize the urgency to act now."</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>The group's new analysis and call for action come after Americans for Tax Fairness <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2022/01/19/top-10-us-billionaires-got-1-billion-richer-every-day-pandemic" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">estimated</a> last month that the 10 wealthiest billionaires in the United States have become approximately $1 billion richer collectively every day of the Covid-19 pandemic.</b></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Wednesday's report contains a warning about that group of ultra-billionaires, mentioning by name Amazon's Jeff Bezos, Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg, and Elon Musk of Telsa and SpaceX.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"As much as familiar fortunes have blossomed in the low-regulation, low-tax, wealth-worshiping environment of the previous 40 years," the report says, "the next 40 and beyond could see the rise of economic dynasties that will make the old money look small."</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Along with closing dynasty-trust tax loopholes, Americans for Tax Fairness urges reforms that would "curb the year-to-year accumulation of wealth in existing trusts." Specifically, it calls for a new income-tax bracket "on undistributed trust income in excess of $250,000 that is five percentage points higher than the maximum income-tax bracket for individuals."</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Noting a <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2021/02/03/joining-powerful-finance-committee-warren-vows-introduce-wealth-tax-first-order" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">proposal</a> from Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), the group also encourages U.S. lawmakers to "impose an annual 2% wealth tax on the portion of a dynasty trust's holdings that exceed $50 million, and an additional 1% on dynasty trust accumulations in excess of $1 billion."</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"The choice is clear," according to the report. "We can fix our broken estate and gift tax system and stop the concentration of an ever-larger share of America's wealth inside enormous dynasty trusts, or we can trust our democracy to a handful of trillionaire trust fund babies."</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"Fortunately, we know what needs to be done," the report concludes. "The sole remaining challenge is to summon the courage to stand up to the holders of dynastic wealth and their enablers."</font></p></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">=</font></div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">an</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">ho<a class="widgetheadline-text rm-stats-tracked" href="https://www.alternet.org/2019/01/how-unchecked-capitalism-and-massive-inequality-made-america-bully-nation/" aria-label="How unchecked capitalism and massive inequality made America a bully nation" data-type="text" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s; word-break: break-word; overflow-wrap: break-word; line-height: 25px;">w unchecked capitalism and massive inequality made America a bully nation</a></font></div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" /><div class="social-author clearfix" style="margin-top: 10px; display: inline-block; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><a class="social-authorname rm-stats-tracked" href="https://www.alternet.org/author/charles_derberand_yale_magrass" data-type="text" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s; overflow-wrap: break-word; line-height: 1.4; display: inline; overflow: hidden; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap; position: relative; vertical-align: baseline;">Charles Derber and Yale Magrass</a> <a class="social-authorname rm-stats-tracked" href="https://www.alternet.org/author/charles-derber-and-yale-magrass" data-type="text" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s; overflow-wrap: break-word; line-height: 1.4; display: inline; overflow: hidden; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap; position: relative; vertical-align: baseline;">Charles Derber and Yale Magrass</a> <a class="social-authorname rm-stats-tracked" href="https://www.alternet.org/author/university-press-of-kansas" data-type="text" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s; overflow-wrap: break-word; line-height: 1.4; display: inline; overflow: hidden; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap; position: relative; vertical-align: baseline;">University Press of Kansas</a></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></div><div class="social-date" style="margin-top: 8px; display: inline-block; vertical-align: top; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> <span class="social-datetext" style="top: 3px; position: relative; line-height: 1; left: -3px;">January 14, 2019</span></div><div class="body js-expandable clearfix js-listicle-body css-listicle-body-2647347773" style="margin-top: 10px; -webkit-box-orient: vertical; text-overflow: ellipsis; overflow: hidden; display: -webkit-box; -webkit-line-clamp: 4; line-height: 31px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div class="body-description"><div class="widget__brief"><p><font face="Times New Roman">The following is an excerpt from the new book <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Bully-Nation-American-Establishment-Bullying/dp/0700622608/?tag=alternorg08-20" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s; overflow-wrap: break-word;">Bully Nation</a> by Charles Derber & Yale R. Magrass (University Press of Kansas, 2016):</font></p></div></div></div><div><div><font face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">no lnx twit nice table</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2022/01/us-billionaires/"><font face="Times New Roman">https://www.alternet.org/2022/01/us-billionaires/</font></a></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><div><font face="Times New Roman">Top 10 US billionaires got $1 billion richer every day of pandemic</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">Jake Johnson and Common Dreams January 20, 2022</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman"> </font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman"><b>The 10 wealthiest billionaires in the U.S. have added roughly $1 billion to their collective fortune every day—or around $12,600 per second—since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, which has killed millions of people across the globe and thrown countless lives into chaos.</b></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">The billionaire wealth update comes courtesy of the progressive advocacy group Americans for Tax Fairness (ATF), which released an analysis Wednesday estimating that the <b>combined net worth of the 10 richest people in the U.S. has more than doubled since March 2020, reaching $1.35 trillion this week.</b></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">"The pandemic has been very good to American billionaires, especially the top 10," said ATF executive director Frank Clemente, who noted that billionaires' pandemic profits will likely not be taxed because they consist largely of unrealized capital gains.</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman"><b>Sen. Ron Wyden's (D-Ore.) proposal to subject the unrealized capital gains of the mega-wealthy to taxation has gone nowhere in Congress.</b></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">"Their obscene rise in wealth—all of it potentially untaxed—stands in stark contrast to the lot of America's working families, who've struggled through almost two years of a health crisis and economic uncertainty including most recently, rising prices," Clemente said. "Chairman Wyden's Billionaires Income Tax would better align the fortunes of America's richest of the rich with the needs of average Americans."</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">[nice table/stats]</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">ATF's analysis is the latest in a series of new studies highlighting the extent to which the coronavirus pandemic has accelerated the decades-long trend of soaring wealth inequality in the U.S. and worldwide.</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">Earlier this week, as Common Dreams reported,<b> Oxfam International released an analysis showing that the 10 richest men in the world have doubled their combined wealth since the pandemic began.</b> Meanwhile, the anti-poverty group noted, "the incomes of 99% of humanity are worse off because of Covid-19."</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">On Tuesday, a coalition of progressive organizations including the Fight Inequality Alliance and the Institute for Policy Studies estimated that a modest annual wealth tax on global millionaires and billionaires would raise $2.52 trillion dollars a year, enough money to lift 2.3 billion people out of poverty.</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">In an open letter published Wednesday morning, a group of more than 100 rich individuals voiced support for such a tax, warning that "history paints a pretty bleak picture of what the endgame of extremely unequal societies looks like."</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">"For all our well-being—rich and poor alike—it's time to confront inequality and choose to tax the rich," reads the letter, which was addressed to political and economic elites. "If you don't, then all the private talks won’t change what's coming—it's taxes or pitchforks. Let's listen to history and choose wisely."</font></div></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">=</font></div></div><div><div><font face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2021/11/how-wealth-inequality-spiraled-out-of-control/">https://www.alternet.org/2021/11/how-wealth-inequality-spiraled-out-of-control/</a></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" /><div><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman">no lnx vid</font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></div><div>
</div><div>How wealth inequality spiraled out of control</div><div>
</div><div> Robert Reich and Robert Reich's Blog November 04, 2021</div><div> </div><div><b>Elon Musk's wealth has surpassed $200 billion. It would take the median U.S. worker over 4 million years to make that much.</b></div><div>
</div><div>Wealth inequality is eating this country alive. We're now in America's second Gilded Age, just like the late 19th century when a handful of robber barons monopolized the economy, kept wages down, and bribed lawmakers.</div><div>
</div><div>While today's robber barons take joy rides into space, the distance between their gargantuan wealth and the financial struggles of working Americans has never been clearer. <b>During the first 19 months of the pandemic, U.S. billionaires added $2.1 trillion dollars to their collective wealth and that number continues to rise.</b></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">And the rich have enough political power to cut their taxes to almost nothing — sometimes literally nothing. In fact, Jeff Bezos paid no federal income taxes in 2007 or in 2011. By 2018, the 400 richest Americans paid a lower overall tax rate than almost anyone else.</span></div><div>
</div><div>But we can not solve this problem unless we know how it was created in the first place.</div><div>
</div><div>Let's start with the basics.</div><div>
</div><div>I. The Basics</div><div>
</div><div><b>Wealth inequality in America is far larger than income inequality.</b></div><div>
</div><div>
</div><div>Income is what you earn each week or month or year. Wealth refers to the sum total of your assets — your car, your stocks and bonds, your home, art — anything else you own that's valuable.Valuable not only because there's a market for it — a price other people are willing to pay to buy it — but because wealth itself grows.</div><div>
</div><div>As the population expands and the nation becomes more productive, the overall economy continues to expand. This expansion pushes up the values of stocks, bonds, rental property, homes, and most other assets. Of course recessions and occasional depressions can reduce the value of such assets. But over the long haul, the value of almost all wealth increases.</div><div><b>
</b></div><div><b>Lesson: Wealth compounds over time.</b></div><div>
</div><div>Next: personal wealth comes from two sources.The first source is the income you earn but don't spend. That's your savings. When you invest those savings in stocks, bonds, or real property or other assets, you create your personal wealth — which, as we've seen, grows over time.</div><div>
</div><div>The second source of personal wealth is whatever is handed down to you from your parents, grandparents, and maybe even generations before them — in other words, what you inherit.</div><div>
</div><div>Lesson: Personal wealth comes from your savings and/or your inheritance.</div><div>
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">II. Why the wealth gap is exploding</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The wealth gap between the richest Americans and everyone else is staggering.</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">In the 1970s, the wealthiest 1 percent owned about 20 percent of the nation's total household wealth. Now, they own over 35 percent.</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Much of their gains over the last 40 years have come from a dramatic increase in the value of shares of stock.</span></div><div>
</div><div>For example, if someone invested $1,000 in 1978 in a broad index of stocks — say, the S&P 500 — they would have $31,823 today, adjusted for inflation.</div><div>
</div><div>Who has benefited from this surge? The richest 1 percent, who now own half of the entire stock market. But the typical worker's wages have barely grown.</div><div>
</div><div>Most Americans haven't earned enough to save anything. Before the pandemic, when the economy appeared to be doing well, almost 80 percent were living paycheck to paycheck.</div><div>
</div><div><b>Lesson: Most Americans don't make enough to save money and build wealth.</b></div><div>
</div><div>So as income inequality has widened, the amount that the few high-earning households save — their wealth — has continued to grow. Their growing wealth has allowed them to pass on more and more wealth to their heirs.</div><div>
</div><div>Take, for example, the Waltons — the family behind the Walmart empire — which has seven heirs on the Forbes billionaires list. Their children, and other rich millennials, will soon consolidate even more of the nation's wealth. <b>America is now on the cusp of the largest intergenerational transfer of wealth in history. As wealthy boomers pass on, somewhere between $30 to $70 trillion will go to their children over the next three decades.</b></div><div>
</div><div>These children will be able to live off of this wealth, and then leave the bulk of it — which will continue growing — to their own children … tax-free. After a few generations of this, almost all of America's wealth could be in the hands of a few thousand families.</div><div>
</div><div>Lesson: Dynastic wealth continues to grow.</div><div>
</div><div>III. Why wealth concentration is a problem</div><div>
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 102);">Concentrated wealth is already endangering our democracy. Wealth doesn't just beget more wealth — it begets more power.</span></div><div>
</div><div>Dynastic wealth concentrates power into the hands of fewer and fewer people, who can choose what nonprofits and charities to support and which politicians to bankroll. This gives an unelected elite enormous sway over both our economy and our democracy.</div><div>
</div><div>If this keeps up, we'll come to resemble the kind of dynasties common to European aristocracies in the seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth centuries.</div><div>
</div><div><b>Dynastic wealth makes a mockery of the idea that America is a meritocracy, where anyone can make it on the basis of their own efforts. It also runs counter to the basic economic ideas that people earn what they're worth in the market, and that economic gains should go to those who deserve them.</b></div><div>
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Finally, wealth concentration magnifies gender and race disparities because women and people of color tend to make less, save less, and inherit less.</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The typical single woman owns only 32 cents of wealth for every dollar of wealth owned by a man. The pandemic likely increased this gap.</span></div><div>
</div><div>The racial wealth gap is even starker. The typical Black household owns just 13 cents of wealth for every dollar of wealth owned by the typical white household. The pandemic likely increased this gap, too.</div><div>
</div><div>In all these ways, dynastic wealth creates a self-perpetuating aristocracy that runs counter to the ideals we claim to live by.</div><div>
</div><div>Lesson: Dynastic wealth creates a self-perpetuating aristocracy.</div><div>
</div><div>IV. How America dealt with wealth inequality during the First Gilded Age</div><div>
</div><div>The last time America faced anything comparable to the concentration of wealth we face today was at the turn of the 20th century. That was when President Teddy Roosevelt warned that "a small class of enormously wealthy and economically powerful men, whose chief object is to hold and increase their power" could destroy American democracy.</div><div><b>
</b></div><div><b>Roosevelt's answer was to tax wealth. Congress enacted two kinds of wealth taxes. The first, in 1916, was the estate tax — a tax on the wealth someone has accumulated during their lifetime, paid by the heirs who inherit that wealth.</b></div><div>
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 51);">The second tax on wealth, enacted in 1922, was a capital gains tax — a tax on the increased value of assets, paid when those assets are sold.</span></div><div>
</div><div><b>Lesson: The estate tax and the capital gains tax were created to curb wealth concentration.</b></div><div><b>
</b></div><div><b>But both of these wealth taxes have shrunk since then, or become so riddled with loopholes that they haven't been able to prevent a new American aristocracy from emerging.</b></div><div>
</div><div>T<b>he Trump Republican tax cut enabled individuals to exclude $11.18 million from their estate taxes. That means one couple can pass on more than $22 million to their kids tax-free. </b>Not to mention the very rich often find ways around this tax entirely. As Trump's former White House National Economic Council director Gary Cohn put it, "only morons pay the estate tax."</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">What about capital gains on the soaring values of wealthy people's stocks, bonds, mansions, and works of art? Here, the biggest loophole is something called the "stepped-up basis." If the wealthy hold on to these assets until they die, their heirs inherit them without paying any capital gains taxes whatsoever. All the increased value of those assets is simply erased, for tax purposes. This loophole saves heirs an estimated $40 billion a year.</span></div><div>
</div><div>This means that huge accumulations of wealth in the hands of a relatively few households can be passed from generation to generation untaxed — growing along the way — generating comfortable incomes for rich descendants who will never have to work a day of their lives. That's the dynastic class we're creating right now.</div><div>
</div><div><b>Lesson: The estate tax and the capital gains tax have been gutted.</b></div><div><b>
</b></div><div><b>Why have these two wealth taxes eroded? Because, as America's wealth has concentrated in fewer and fewer hands, the wealthy have more capacity to donate to political campaigns and public relations — and they've used that political power to reduce their taxes. It's exactly what Teddy Roosevelt feared so many years ago.</b></div><div>
</div><div>V. How to reduce the wealth gap</div><div>
</div><div>So what do we do? Follow the wisdom of Teddy Roosevelt and tax great accumulations of wealth.</div><div>
</div><div>The ultra-rich have benefited from the American system — from laws that protect their wealth, and our economy that enabled them to build their fortunes in the first place. They should pay their fair share.</div><div>
</div><div>The majority of Americans, both Democrats and Republicans, believe the ultra rich should pay higher taxes. There are many ways to make them do so: closing the stepped up basis loophole, raising the capital gains tax, and fully funding the Internal Revenue Service so it can properly audit the wealthiest taxpayers, for starters.</div><div>
</div><div><b>Beyond those fixes, we need a new wealth tax: a tax of just 2 percent a year on wealth in excess of $1 million. That's hardly a drop in the bucket for centi-billionaires like Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk, but would generate plenty of revenue to invest in healthcare and education so that millions of Americans have a fair shot at making it.</b></div><div>
</div><div>One of the most important things you as an individual can do is take the time to understand the realities of wealth inequality in America and how the system has become rigged in favor of those at the top — and demand your political representatives take action to unrig it.</div><div>
</div><div>Wealth inequality is worse than it has been in a century – and it has contributed to a vicious political-economic cycle in which taxes are cut on the top, resulting in even more concentration of wealth there – while everyone else lives under the cruelest form of capitalism in the world.</div><div>
</div><div>We must stop this vicious cycle — and demand an economy that works for the many, not one that concentrates more and more wealth in the hands of a privileged few.</div></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">=</font></div></div><div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">The speed with which a tax on billionaires <a href="https://www.axios.com/us-wealth-tax-difficulties-fba21625-1e86-4e1d-b8ff-9f576655883b.html" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">came and went</a> as a means to pay for President Joe Biden's economic agenda shows why it's so hard to tax wealth in the U.S.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">Democrats <a href="https://www.axios.com/billionaire-tax-democrats-explain-b6817590-3cb5-4806-b846-b51d9e4e099f.html" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">unveiled their proposal</a> on Oct. 27, 2021, and it was nixed that same day, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/28/upshot/biden-taxes-billionaires-millionaires.html" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">replaced with a surcharge on millionaire incomes</a>.</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The idea of taxing the richest Americans' fortunes has been batted around for some time, and perhaps with good reason from a tax perspective. The total wealth of U.S. billionaires <a href="https://ips-dc.org/u-s-billionaires-62-percent-richer-during-pandemic/" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">soared by US$1.8 trillion during the COVID-19 pandemic</a> as of mid-August. And recent reporting has found that despite their massive riches, <a href="https://www.propublica.org/article/the-secret-irs-files-trove-of-never-before-seen-records-reveal-how-the-wealthiest-avoid-income-tax" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">billionaires tend to pay very little in taxes</a>.</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">As an <a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/cf_dev/AbsByAuth.cfm?per_id=56687" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">expert on tax policy</a>, I have observed that there's a big obstacle standing in the way of a wealth tax: the Constitution.</font></p><h2 style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">Income and wealth inequality</font></h2><p><font face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Concerns about inequality have increased in recent decades.</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Americans <a href="https://www.cbpp.org/research/poverty-and-inequality/a-guide-to-statistics-on-historical-trends-in-income-inequality" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">enjoyed substantial economic growth</a> and broadly shared prosperity from the end of World War II into the 1970s.</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">But in the 1980s, <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/blog/up-front/2017/12/08/what-we-learned-from-reagans-tax-cuts/" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">President Ronald Reagan dramatically slashed taxes on the wealthy</a> – twice – cutting the top rate on wages from 70% to 28%.</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Studies have shown lower income and corporate tax rates, combined with other “trickle-down" policies such as deregulation, <a href="https://www.thebalance.com/trickle-down-economics-theory-effect-does-it-work-3305572" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">have led to steadily rising income for the richest Americans and wealth inequality</a>.</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The most affluent 1% <a href="https://www.cbpp.org/research/poverty-and-inequality/a-guide-to-statistics-on-historical-trends-in-income-inequality" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">controlled 39%</a> of all <a href="https://www.m1finance.com/articles-2/wealth-definition/" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">wealth</a> – including all cash, real estate, stocks, bonds and other investments – in 2016, up from less than 30% in 1989. At the same time, the bottom 90% held less than a quarter of America's wealth, compared with more than a third in 1989.</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Currently, the federal government <a href="https://www.nerdwallet.com/blog/taxes/federal-income-tax-brackets/" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">taxes all income above $518,400</a> at 37% for single filers, with <a href="https://www.thebalance.com/net-investment-income-tax-3192936" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">an additional 3.8% investment tax</a> on incomes over $200,000. Of course, as a ProPublica cache of tax documents shows, loopholes and tax dodges <a href="https://www.propublica.org/article/how-we-calculated-the-true-tax-rates-of-the-wealthiest" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">result in actual income tax rates being</a> significantly lower.</font></p><h2 style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">The problem with taxing wealth</font></h2><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><b>Unlike an income tax, a wealth tax <a href="https://theweek.com/articles/717294/wealth-inequality-even-worse-than-income-inequality" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">reaches the root</a> of both wealth and income inequality.</b></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><b>But there are <a href="https://taxfoundation.org/warren-wealth-tax-constitutionality/" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">strong</a> <a href="http://nymag.com/intelligencer/2019/02/constitutional-concerns-are-a-major-risk-for-a-wealth-tax.html" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">arguments</a> that a federal wealth tax is <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-slaverys-lingering-stain-on-the-us-constitution-spoils-elizabeth-warrens-wealth-tax-proposal-for-now-110964" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">unconstitutional</a>. Wealth taxes violate Article I, Section 2, Clause 3 of the U.S. Constitution, which forbids the federal government from assessing “direct taxes" that aren't <a href="https://constitutingamerica.org/february-24-2011-%E2%80%93-article-1-section-2-clause-3-of-the-united-states-constitution-%E2%80%93-guest-essayist-w-b-allen-havre-de-grace-md-2/" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">apportioned equally among the states</a>.</b></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">A direct tax <a href="https://www.salon.com/2019/02/22/how-slaverys-lingering-stain-on-the-us-constitution-spoils-elizabeth-warrens-wealth-tax-proposal_partner/" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">is a tax on a thing</a>, like property or income. An indirect tax is a tax on a transaction: for example, a sale or a gift.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">The income tax is a direct tax and constitutional <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution/amendmentxvi" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">because of the 16th Amendment</a>, which specifically allows income taxes without apportionment. As for property, you may notice that <a href="https://www.financialsamurai.com/property-taxes-by-state/" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">only states and cities levy real estate taxes</a>. In almost every case, the federal government cannot tax real estate or any other form of wealth absent a transaction.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">Proponents of a wealth tax, such as U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2019-01-30/elizabeth-warren-s-wealth-tax-is-probably-constitutional" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">cite a small group</a> of law professors who back her claim that a wealth tax passes constitutional muster. But the argument against constitutionality is strong enough that a Supreme Court challenge <a href="https://minnlawyer.com/2021/03/03/wealth-tax-problem-its-probably-unconstitutional/" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">is sure to follow any attempt to enact a wealth tax</a>.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">Barring a victory before the conservative-leaning Supreme Court or <a href="https://www.archives.gov/federal-register/constitution" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">an arduous amendment to the Constitution</a>, the federal government is shut out of taxing wealth.</font></p><h2 style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">A rising tide</font></h2><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">I agree with progressive lawmakers that the United States should return to economic policies that <a href="https://www.economist.com/free-exchange/2014/03/04/does-raising-all-boats-lift-the-tide" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">seek to lift all boats</a>.</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">Although American wealth and productivity have surged in the past 40 years, most Americans <a href="https://www.latimes.com/business/lazarus/la-fi-lazarus-economy-stagnant-wages-20180831-story.html" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">have not seen their lot improve nearly as much</a> as the <a href="https://inequality.org/facts/wealth-inequality/" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">richest have</a> – and <a href="https://www.propublica.org/article/you-may-be-paying-a-higher-tax-rate-than-a-billionaire" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">are paying higher tax rates</a>. In 2020 alone, <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/chasewithorn/2020/12/16/the-worlds-billionaires-have-gotten-19-trillion-richer-in-2020/?sh=52eb3f857386" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">America's billionaires saw their wealth increase $560 billion</a>, even as tens of millions <a href="https://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.nr0.htm" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">were unemployed</a> or <a href="https://philanthropynewsdigest.org/news/one-in-seven-americans-rely-on-foodbanks-report-finds" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">depended on food donations</a> to get enough to eat.</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">The U.S. tax system is at least partly responsible for these gaps. While a wealth tax may not be a workable solution, there are other means, such as higher income tax rates for the well-to-do or a <a href="https://www.taxpolicycenter.org/briefing-book/what-are-options-taxing-wealth-transfers" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">wealth transfer tax</a> that focuses on the transfer of wealth to a billionaire's heirs. These approaches could not only help solve the problem of inequality but would pass legal muster too.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">This is an updated version of an <a href="https://theconversation.com/senator-warrens-wealth-tax-might-prevent-billionaires-from-paying-nearly-nothing-in-taxes-but-its-probably-not-constitutional-147893" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">article published</a> on June 9, 2021.<span style="border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial;"><img alt="The Conversation" height="1" src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/170907/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" width="1" style="border: 0px; vertical-align: middle; max-width: 100%;" /></span></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/beverly-moran-681132" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">Beverly Moran</a>, Professor Emerita of Law, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/vanderbilt-university-1293" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">Vanderbilt University</a></font></p></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">=</font></div></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><div><font face="Times New Roman">an 10 21</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" /><div><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></div><div>no lnx twt</div><div>
</div><div><b>'Pelosi absolutely destroyed' the proposed tax on billionaires, says Democratic insider</b></div><div>
</div><div>Kenny Stancil and Common Dreams October 28, 2021</div><div> </div><div>Although right-wing Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin publicly attacked a proposed billionaires' tax almost as soon as it was unveiled, one journalist argued Wednesday that blaming the West Virginia coal baron for shooting down the popular provision is an oversimplification that lets other conservative Democrats—including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who reportedly criticized the measure behind closed doors—off the hook.</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">
</span></div><div><b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">Just hours after Senate Finance Chair Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) introduced his plan to make a few hundred super-rich tax dodgers pay a fairer share</span>, Manchin threw cold water on the idea, calling it divisive to raise hundreds of billions of dollars to fund expanded public benefits and climate action by "targeting"</b> those with $1 billion in assets or $100 million in annual income for three straight years. That led House Ways and Means Chair Richard Neal (D-Mass.) to declare that congressional support for the proposal is insufficient.</div><div>
</div><div>Given that he has done so much to weaken the Build Back Better Act, many believe Manchin alone is responsible for killing the billionaires' tax, but Washington Post columnist Greg Sargent made the case that this emerging narrative ignores the role played by other corporate Democrats.</div><div>
</div><div><b>For example, Pelosi, a multimillionaire from California, "sharply faulted the proposal at a caucus meeting earlier this week, according to a Democratic aide who overheard the remarks," wrote Sargent. "This aide told me Pelosi pronounced it a PR stunt that wouldn't accomplish anything."</b></div><div><b>
</b></div><div><b>"Pelosi absolutely destroyed it," said the aide.</b></div><div>
</div><div>
</div><div>According to Sargent:</div><div>
</div><div>Another senior Democratic aide rejected this idea, saying that Pelosi's criticism was confined to the fact that at the time there was no bill text for the proposal. Democrats coalesced around it only in recent days.</div><div>"The speaker expressed frustration Monday that there was no text and therefore impossible to score," this aide told me. "The thrust of her comments were about it being too late in the process not to have a codified proposal."</div><div>
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 51);">As Common Dreams has reported, the combined net worth of the nation's 745 billionaires skyrocketed by $2.1 trillion over the past year and a half, as millions were devastated by the Covid-19 pandemic and its economic repercussions. Taxing billionaires' unrealized stock gains emerged as a potential revenue-raiser after right-wing Democratic Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (Ariz.)—swimming in campaign cash from Wall Street—single-handedly blew up her party's plan to hike taxes on corporations and wealthy individuals.</span></div><div>
</div><div><b>Sinema and other Big Pharma-bankrolled Democrats, including Sen. Bob Menendez (N.J.) and Reps. Kathleen Rice (N.Y.), Scott Peters (Calif.), and Kurt Schrader (Ore.), have also undermined a proposal to allow Medicare to negotiate lower prescription drug costs</b>, which would have protected Americans from deadly price-gouging and saved the federal government hundreds of billions of dollars per year—leaving the party scrambling to figure out how to pay for its increasingly anemic reconciliation bill.</div><div>
</div><div>Regarding the billionaires' tax, Sargent argued that "other Democrats are waiting in the cloakroom to kill it with no fingerprints."</div><div>
</div><div>Neal, for instance, "has questioned whether it will hold up in court. That would dovetail with Pelosi's private opposition, and both of them working together suggest there may be plenty of other House Democrats privately opposed."</div><div>
</div><div>Moreover, "other Senate Democrats appear to oppose the proposal but don't want to say so openly," Sargent added. "After all, it's not easy to come down on the side of protecting the wealth of billionaires."</div></div><div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font face="Times New Roman">=</font></div></div></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">921</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">aha PIC MIC</font></div><div><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"> Labor Day, we speak with journalist and sociologist Eyal Press about his new book, "Dirty Work: Essential Jobs and the Hidden Toll of Inequality in America." Press profiles workers like prison guards and oil workers — people who make their livelihoods by doing "unethical activity that society depends on and tacitly condones but doesn't want to hear too much" about, he says. "This work is largely hidden, and we rarely hear from the people on the frontlines who are delegated to do it," Press tells Democracy Now! "The powerful and the privileged really don't do the dirty work in America — they not only don't do it, they don't see it"</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><strong>AMY GOODMAN:</strong> This is <em>Democracy Now!</em>, democracynow.org, <em>The War and Peace Report</em>. I'm Amy Goodman.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">This Monday is Labor Day. Today, we spend the rest of the hour looking at <em>Dirty Work: Essential Jobs and the Hidden Toll of Inequality in America</em>. It's the title of a new book by <em>New Yorker</em> writer Eyal Press. He profiles workers like prison guards and oil workers, and two people we'll speak to in a minute: a drone operator and the daughter of poultry plant workers.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">We begin with Eyal Press, who also has a new <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/13/opinion/us-dirty-work.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">opinion piece</a> in <em>The New York Times</em> headlined "America Runs on 'Dirty Work' and Moral Inequality." Eyal is joining us from Buffalo, New York.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">Eyal, welcome back to <em>Democracy Now!</em> You begin your book, Eyal, with a quote from the great writer James Baldwin, who said, "The powerless must do their own dirty work. The powerful have it done for them." Talk about what that means and what you mean by "dirty work."</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><strong>EYAL PRESS:</strong> So, I don't mean the common colloquial expression, which I think leads people to just think of, say, garbage truck workers, who do something that's physically dirty. Dirty work, in my book, means unethical activity that society depends on and tacitly condones but doesn't want to hear too much. So, it is work that's sort of in the shadows, if we think of the work of conducting targeted assassinations in the drone program or the work of running the mental health wards in America's jails and prisons, which, by the way, are the largest mental health institutions in this country, or the work of manning the kill floors in industrial slaughterhouses. All of those things, I argue in the book, are pretty essential to our existing social order, to the American way of life. You really can't imagine fast food, the American industrial food system, without the slaughterhouses I write about. You can't imagine the never-ending wars without the drone program.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">But we very rarely hear from — this work is largely hidden, and we rarely hear from the people on the frontlines who are delegated to do it. And to go back to the Baldwin quote, the book is about inequality, because the powerful and the privileged really don't do the dirty work in America — they not only don't do it, they don't see it. And so I'm particularly honored to be on this show, because you've invited some of the people I've written about to tell their stories. We don't hear those stories enough, and also the family members of people who do this work.</font></p></div><div><p><font face="Times New Roman"> =</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman">// corps lobby ~ infra tax hike</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2021/09/america-s-ultra-wealthy-is-responsible-for-28-of-unpaid-taxes-in-us-report/">https://www.alternet.org/2021/09/america-s-ultra-wealthy-is-responsible-for-28-of-unpaid-taxes-in-us-report/</a></font></p><div style=""><font face="Times New Roman">=</font></div></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font><div><font face="Times New Roman">==</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2021/06/climate-crisis-2653267213/">https://www.alternet.org/2021/06/climate-crisis-2653267213/</a></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">comm dr</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font><div class="body js-expandable clearfix js-listicle-body css-listicle-body-2653267213"><div class="body-description"><p><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><font face="Times New Roman"><strong>New research by global</strong>
insurance giant Swiss RE warns that the looming devastation of runaway
greenhouse gas emissions and the climate crisis could result in economic
retractions twice as potent as the global recession unleashed by
Covid-19—a calamity, unlike the pandemic, which could go on for many
years without end.</font></span></p><p><font face="Times New Roman">Analyzing the figures compiled in a research <a href="https://www.swissre.com/dam/jcr:e73ee7c3-7f83-4c17-a2b8-8ef23a8d3312/swiss-re-institute-expertise-publication-economics-of-climate-change.pdf" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">report</a>
(pdf) by Zurich-based Swiss RE, <b>Oxfam International said while the
world's poorest nations will be hardest hit, even the rich nations—like
those of the G7 meeting this week in the United Kingdom—will not be
spared from the economic pain that will come if world temperatures rise
by 2.6ºC that some scenarios predict.</b></font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman">According to Oxfam,
economies of the G7 nations could see an average loss of 8.5 percent
annually by the middle of the century―equivalent to $4.8 trillion―if
more urgent action to address global warming is not taken immediately.</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman">The
international aid and anti-poverty group said this potential drop in
GDP is double that of the coronavirus pandemic, which resulted in an
average 4.2% reduction among G7 nations, recessions that resulted "in
staggering job losses and some of the largest economic stimulus packages
ever seen." But, Oxfam added, "economies are expected to bounce back
from the short-term effects of the pandemic, the effects of climate
change will be seen every year."</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman">The devastation for poor nations would be enormous.</font></p><p><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><font face="Times New Roman">"The
economic turmoil projected in wealthy G7 countries is only the tip of
the iceberg: many poorer parts of the world will see increasing deaths,
hunger and poverty as a result of extreme weather," <a href="https://www.oxfam.org/en/press-releases/g7-economies-could-lose-85-year-2050-without-more-ambitious-climate-action-oxfam" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">said</a>
Max Lawson, head of Inequality Policy at Oxfam, in a statement. "This
year could be a turning point if governments grasp the challenge to
create a safer more liveable planet for all."</font></span></p><p><font face="Times New Roman">As the group's analysis notes:</font></p><ul class="ee-ul"><li><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><font face="Times New Roman">India could lose 27% from its economy.</font></span></li><li><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><font face="Times New Roman">Australia, South Africa and South Korea are projected to lose 12.5, 17.8 and 9.7% respectively.</font></span></li><li><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><font face="Times New Roman">The Philippines is projected to lose 35%</font></span></li><li><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><font face="Times New Roman">Colombia is projected to lose 16.7%</font></span></li></ul><p><font face="Times New Roman">Jerome Haegeli, a chief economist at Swiss Re involved with the research, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/jun/07/climate-crisis-to-shrink-g7-economies-twice-as-much-as-covid-19-says-research" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">told</a> the <em>Guardian</em>
that: "Climate change is the long-term number one risk to the global
economy, and staying where we are is not an option—we need more progress
by the G7. That means not just obligations on cutting CO2 but helping
developing countries too, that's super-important."</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman">The research from Swiss RE, as Oxfam details,</font></p><blockquote><font face="Times New Roman">modelled
the economic impacts of climate change on 48 countries in four
different temperature paths and used different impact scenarios to
account for the large parameter uncertainty and missing climate impact
channels usually present in the climate economics literature. The
projections used in this press release assume high stress factors and
global warming of 2.6°C by mid-century, which is a level of warming that
could be reached based on current policies and climate pledges from all
countries. All figures relate to real GDP. The GDP projections compare a
warmer world with a world unaffected by climate change.
</font></blockquote><p><font face="Times New Roman">Ahead
of the G7 summit in the U.K., global climate campaigners have continued
to urge the world's richest and most powerful nations—also its largest
emitters—to not only commit to stronger pledges on reducing fossil fuel
pollution<b>, but to increase their financial pledges to the developing
world that have contributed far less to the climate crisis but continue
to face its most devastating impacts.</b></font></p><div class="around-the-web"><div class="from-your-site__headline"><font face="Times New Roman">From Your Site Articles</font></div>
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<font face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/11/climate-change/" class="from-your-site__link" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Climate crisis is the primary cause of 98% of dead Florida coral reef ... ›</a>
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<font face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2021/04/methane-climate-change/" class="from-your-site__link" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Slashing methane emissions must play larger role in fighting climate ... ›</a>
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<font face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2021/06/climate-crisis/" class="from-your-site__link" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Climate crisis and negligent policymakers blamed for 'record ... ›</a>
</font></li></ul></div></div>
</div></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><font face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><div><font face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">How do we prevent America from becoming an aristocracy, while also funding the programs that Americans desperately need?</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">One way is to get rid of a tax loophole you've probably never heard of. It's known as the "stepped-up basis" rule.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">Here's how the stepped-up-basis loophole now works. Take a man named Jeff. At his death, Jeff owns $30 million-worth of stocks he originally bought for a total of $10 million. Under existing law, neither Jeff nor his heirs would owe federal tax on the $20 million of gains because they're automatically "stepped up" to their value when he dies — $30 million.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">Under Biden's proposal, Jeff's $20 million of gains would be taxed. And don't worry: Biden's proposal doesn't touch tax-favored retirement accounts, such as 401-Ks, and it only applies to the very richest Americans.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">As it is now, the stepped-up basis loophole enables the super-rich, like Jeff, to avoid paying <a href="https://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.wsj.com%2Farticles%2Fdeath-and-taxes-biden-wants-to-step-down-the-step-up-on-investment-gains-11619775021&t=MGJmMDdmOTA1OGQwZjFkODNkZjk2YjIyZDE5OWU0Mjk4MjI5M2FjNixCM3RCeTNnWg%3D%3D&b=t%3AhQ9Ds4P3Iv6D7mgEr8WMqg&p=https%3A%2F%2Frobertreich.org%2Fpost%2F651468084798013440&m=1&ts=1621557175" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">more than $40 billion in taxes each year.</a> It has allowed them to skip taxes on the increased values of mansions and artworks as well as shares of stock.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">In fact, it's one of the chief means by which dynastic wealth has grown and been passed from generation to generation, enabling subsequent generations to live off that growing wealth and never pay a dime of taxes on it.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">Unless the stepped-up basis loophole is closed, we will soon have a large class of hugely rich people who have never worked a day in their lives.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><b>Over the next decades, rich baby boomers will pass on an estimated <a href="https://href.li/?https://www.businessinsider.com/millennial-millionaires-baby-boomer-inheritance-wealth-transfer-2019-10" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">$58 trillion</a> of wealth to their millennial children — the largest intergenerational transfer of wealth in history.</b></font></p><p><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" face="Times New Roman">Closing this giant tax loophole for the super-rich is how Biden intends to fund part of his American Families Plan, which would provide every child with 2 years of pre-school and every student with 2 years of free community college, as well as provide paid family and medical leave to every worker.</font></p><p><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" face="Times New Roman">Close this stepped-up basis loophole, and we help finance the programs the vast majority of Americans desperately need and deserve. We also end the explosion of dynastic wealth. It should be a no-brainer.</font></p><div class="around-the-web" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div class="from-your-siteheadline" style="font-weight: 700; text-transform: uppercase;"><font face="Times New Roman">FROM YOUR SITE ARTICLES</font></div><ul class="around-the-weblist" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; display: inline-block; width: 589.446px; list-style: none;"><font face="Times New Roman" /><li class="from-your-siteitem"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2014/12/consequences-american-greed/" class="from-your-sitelink" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s; font-weight: lighter; line-height: normal; display: inline-block; margin-top: 10px;">Think About It: The U.S. Is the Richest Country as Well as the Most ... ›</a></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></li><li class="from-your-siteitem"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2021/04/biden-taxes/" class="from-your-sitelink" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s; font-weight: lighter; line-height: normal; display: inline-block; margin-top: 10px;">Joe Biden's plans would target the ultra-wealthy for more tax dollars ... ›</a></li><li class="from-your-siteitem"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2021/04/tax-the-rich/" class="from-your-sitelink" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s; font-weight: lighter; line-height: normal; display: inline-block; margin-top: 10px;">What would happen if we actually taxed the rich? - Alternet.org ›</a></li></ul><div class="around-the-webheadline" style="font-weight: 700; text-transform: uppercase; margin-top: 10px;"><font face="Times New Roman">RELATED ARTICLES AROUND THE WEB</font></div><ul class="around-the-weblist" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; display: inline-block; width: 589.446px; list-style: none;"><font face="Times New Roman" /><li class="around-the-webitem"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.cbpp.org/research/federal-tax/substantial-income-of-wealthy-households-escapes-annual-taxation-or-enjoys" class="around-the-weblink" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s; font-weight: lighter; line-height: normal; display: inline-block; margin-top: 10px;">Substantial Income of Wealthy Households Escapes Annual ... ›</a></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></li><li class="around-the-webitem"><a href="https://www.accounting-degree.org/accounting-tricks/" class="around-the-weblink" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s; font-weight: lighter; line-height: normal; display: inline-block; margin-top: 10px;">10 Accounting Tricks the 1% Use to Dodge the Taxman - The ... ›</a></li><li class="around-the-webitem"><a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2019/02/21/here-are-5-ways-the-super-rich-manage-to-pay-lower-taxes.html" class="around-the-weblink" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s; font-weight: lighter; line-height: normal; display: inline-block; margin-top: 10px;">Here are 5 ways the super-rich manage to pay lower taxes ›</a></li></ul></div></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">=</font></div></div><div><div><font face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2021/05/gop-slammed-for-gutting-the-irs-and-using-it-for-their-own-agenda/">https://www.alternet.org/2021/05/gop-slammed-for-gutting-the-irs-and-using-it-for-their-own-agenda/</a></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">ME</font></div><div><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><b>The Republican Party is responsible for gutting the U.S. (IRS) and shaping it into a government entity that works in favor of the wealthy,</b> according to a new op-ed.</font></p><p><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" face="Times New Roman">Mother Jones senior editor Michael Mechanic h<a href="https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2021/04/irs-guard-dog-republicans-neutered-it-wealth-tax-enforcement-audits/" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">ighlighted the history of Republican lawmakers' subtle and persistent attacks on the IRS over the last three decades.</a> He noted that the most blatant attacks began in 1994 when Republican lawmakers began "chipping away at its resources and enforcement abilities even as mainstream Republican lawmakers and candidates called for the agency's abolition."</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman"><b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Since Republicans' war against the IRS has been decades in the making, the federal agency has been stripped of many of its resources needed to conduct thorough investigations of the ultrarich. Now, Biden administration officials are moving to restore the agency with a </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">massive $80 billion investment over the next 10 years. While the investment will be costly, it could ultimately yield more than $700 billion for the U.S. Department of the Treasury.</span></b></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">The IRS overhaul comes several years after the number of high-end audits increased under former President Barack Obama's administration. Around that time, Republican lawmakers were angered by the passing of the Affordable Care Act and the taxation it imposed on the ultra-rich. In fact, opposing lawmakers fired back with scathing reactions to the bill.</font></p><p><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" face="Times New Roman">During a 2015 hearing, Rep. Mike Kelly (R-Pa.) sounded off on John Koskinen who served as IRS commissioner under the Obama administration. When Republican lawmakers worked to cut the IRS budget even more, Koskinen hit back in defense of his employees who would be required to "do less with less," as he described the strict budget cuts as "a tax cut for tax cheats."</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">Kelly insisted that his complaints would only make the situation far worse in the long run. Unfortunately, his words were ultimately true. From 2010 to 2018, the IRS faced nearly $3 billion in additional cuts even as it received a 9% increase in tax returns.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">Subsequently, the publication notes: "Investigations of non-filers plummeted and the amount of outstanding tax debt the IRS formally wrote off (based on the 10-year statute of limitations for collections) more than doubled—from less than $15 billion in 2010 to more than $34 billion in 2019."</font></p><p><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" face="Times New Roman">The deep financial cuts have also led to a domino effect of other issues. According to the Treasury Department's Inspector General for Tax Administration's 2020 report, "nearly 880,000 'high income' non-filers from 2014 through 2016 still owed $46 billion, and the IRS was in no condition, resource-wise, to collect. The 300 biggest delinquents owed about $33 million per head, on average."</font></p><div class="around-the-web" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div class="from-your-siteheadline" style="font-weight: 700; text-transform: uppercase;"><font face="Times New Roman">FROM YOUR SITE ARTICLES</font></div><ul class="around-the-weblist" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; display: inline-block; width: 589.446px; list-style: none;"><font face="Times New Roman" /><li class="from-your-siteitem"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2021/03/brian-kemp-2651292980/" class="from-your-sitelink" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s; font-weight: lighter; line-height: normal; display: inline-block; margin-top: 10px;">Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp admits on tape: 'Voter suppression bill ... ›</a></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></li><li class="from-your-siteitem"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2021/04/georgia-governor/" class="from-your-sitelink" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s; font-weight: lighter; line-height: normal; display: inline-block; margin-top: 10px;">Notorious ex-Democrat launches GOP primary challenge to Georgia ... ›</a></li><li class="from-your-siteitem"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2021/03/trump-holdovers/" class="from-your-sitelink" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s; font-weight: lighter; line-height: normal; display: inline-block; margin-top: 10px;">Trump holdovers accused of 'sabotaging' effort to get checks to 30 ... ›</a></li></ul></div></div><div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">=</font></div></div></div><div><div><font face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/12/trickle-down-economics/">https://www.alternet.org/2020/12/trickle-down-economics/</a></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" /><div><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman">Neoliberal gospel says that cutting taxes on the wealthy will eventually benefit everyone by boosting economic growth and reducing unemployment, but a new analysis of fiscal policies in <b>18 countries over the last 50 years reveals that progressive critics of "trickle down" theory have been right all along: supply-side economics fuels inequality, and the real beneficiaries of the right-wing approach to taxation are the super-rich.</b></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></div><div>
</div><div>The Economic Consequences of Major Tax Cuts for the Rich (pdf), a working paper published this month by the International Inequalities Institute at the London School of Economics and written by LSE's David Hope and Julian Limberg of King's College London, examines data from nearly 20 OECD countries, including the U.K. and the U.S., and finds that the past five decades have been characterized by <b>"falling taxes on the rich in the advanced economies," with "major tax cuts... particularly clustered in the late 1980s."</b></div><div>
</div><div>But, according to Hope and Limberg, the vast majority of the populations in those countries have little to show for it, as the benefits of slashing taxes on the wealthy are concentrated among a handful of super-rich individuals—not widely shared across society in the form of improved job creation or prosperity, as "trickle down" theorists alleged would happen.</div><div>
</div><div>"Our research shows that the economic case for keeping taxes on the rich low is weak," Hope said Wednesday. "Major tax cuts for the rich since the 1980s have increased income inequality, with all the problems that brings, without any offsetting gains in economic performance."</div><div>
</div><div>
</div><div>In their study, the pair of political economists note that "economic performance, as measured by real GDP per capita and the unemployment rate, is not significantly affected by major tax cuts for the rich." However, they add, "major tax cuts for the rich increase the top 1% share of pre-tax national income in the years following the reform" by a magnitude of nearly 1%.</div><div>
</div><div>The researchers continue:</div><div>
</div><div><b>Our findings on the effects of growth and unemployment provide evidence against supply-side theories that suggest lower taxes on the rich will induce labour supply responses from high-income individuals</b> (more hours of work, more effort etc.) that boost economic activity. They are, in fact, more in line with recent empirical research showing that income tax holidays and windfall gains do not lead individuals to significantly alter the amount they work.</div><div>Our results have important implications for current debates around the economic consequences of taxing the rich, as they provide causal evidence that supports the growing pool of evidence from correlational studies that cutting taxes on the rich increases top income shares, but has little effect on economic performance.</div><div>Limberg is hopeful that the research could bolster the case for increasing taxes on the wealthy to fund a just recovery from the coronavirus pandemic and ensuing economic fallout.</div><div>
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">"Our results," he said Wednesday, "might be welcome news for governments as they seek to repair the public finances after the Covid-19 crisis, as they imply that they should not be unduly concerned about the economic consequences of higher taxes on the rich.</span>"</div><div><b>
</b></div><div><b>Progressives have argued that America's disastrous handling of the ongoing catastrophe is attributable to several decades of "free-market" ideology and associated policies that exacerbated vulnerabilities and undermined the government's capacity to respond effectively.</b></div><div>
</div><div>
</div><div>According to social justice advocates, taxing billionaires' surging wealth—akin to the "Millionaire's Tax" passed earlier this month in Argentina—could contribute to reversing the trend of intensifying inequality plaguing the nation.</div><div>
</div><div>FROM YOUR SITE ARTICLES</div><div>Robert Reich: Coronavirus won't respond to trickle-down economics ... ›</div><div>Nobel economist: Trump's 'trickle-down' economic plans are not ... ›</div><div>Reich: Every Aspect of Trump's Trickle-Down Economic Plan ... ›</div><div>Trickle-down economics is a cruel hoax. Here's the practical alternative Biden must adopt - Alternet.org ›</div><div>Lawyer for 'QAnon Shaman' defends client's involvement in Capitol riot as he begs for him to be pardoned - Alternet.org ›</div><div>RELATED ARTICLES AROUND THE WEB</div><div>Why are we still pretending 'trickle-down' economics work? | Morris ... ›</div><div>Trickle-Down Economics: Theory, Effect, Does It Work ›</div><div>Trickle-Down Theory Definition ›</div></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">=</font></div></div><div><p><font face="Times New Roman"> =</font></p><p><span times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font face="Times New Roman">aha // hype fear alt reality; in am hist when stress/crisis blame THOSE PPL POC foreigners; 2 america echo bubble, 2 realities, polarization</font></span></p><p><span times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font face="Times New Roman">AHA: polarization, inequality, racism all interlinked, 2 americas, 2 stories, division accel amplify by soc media; working class white ppl see immigrants as threat b/c take jobs, and value of automatic psychic bonus erroding (and now stacy abrams et al are giving POC political power to match increasing # = white genocide.</font></span></p><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">think piece SOLUTIONS REPAIR COMMONS</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2021/02/gop-history/">https://www.alternet.org/2021/02/gop-history/</a></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">...A few minutes later, </span><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/public-safety/sicknick-honor-capitol/2021/02/02/3878d5ae-6578-11eb-8c64-9595888caa15_story.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">President and First Lady Biden arrived</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> at the rotunda to pay their respects. </span><em style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">MSNBC</em><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> and </span><em style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">CNN</em><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> were there.</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> On</span><b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> </span><em style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Fox</em><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">, </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">Laura Ingraham b</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">riefly acknowledged the Bidens' presence </span></b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">but spent most of her airtime not honoring the slain policeman but trashing Dr. Anthony Fauci and</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);"> beginning a story about homicides in Chicago with the phrase, "<b>The BLM-fueled crime wave</b></span><b style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">…</b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">" Black Lives Matter, you see, is just one more manifestation of the imaginary socialist plot to take over America. No wonder their viewers think the world's aflame, a cynical awful place where progressives plotting evil lurk at every corner pizzeria.</span></font></div><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">By the way, Officer Sicknick, a 12-year veteran of the force, was a Trump voter in 2016, although <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/public-safety/brian-sicknick-capitol-police-officer-dies/2021/01/08/5552e036-51bc-11eb-83e3-322644d82356_story.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;"><em>The Washington Post</em> reports</a>, "Those who encountered Sicknick said his political views did not align neatly with one political party." He was against impeachment but supported gun control.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">There hasn't been an official explanation yet as to exactly how Sicknick died but he was attacked and killed while resisting the crazed crowd brainwashed by Trump</font></p><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">...Meanwhile, the rest of us are supposed to buy into the GOP's big con because, you know, unity. Every time truths are spoken that Republicans don't like, they claim that it's for sure dividing the country further.</font></div><p><font face="Times New Roman"><span times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" /></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">So brazen are the attempts at manipulation of truth whether present or past, that in the last months of his term, President Trump and his sycophantic crew appointed a <b>Presidential Advisory 1776 Committee</b>, charged with creating "a definitive chronicle of the American founding." The report partly was a response to <em>The New York Times</em>' award-winning <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/08/14/magazine/1619-america-slavery.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">1619 Project</a>, charting the history of slavery in the United States and our continuing record of racial discrimination....</font></p><p><span times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font face="Times New Roman">=</font></span></p></div><div><div><font face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2021/02/tax-cuts/">https://www.alternet.org/2021/02/tax-cuts/</a></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">covid bill tax brk rich</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">=</font></div></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><div><font face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">commn dr</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2021/01/economy">https://www.alternet.org/2021/01/economy</a></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman"><b>
</b></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman"><b>f<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">or millions of regular Americans, the end of 2020 was marked by economic</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> </span><a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/12/25/shameful-trump-golfs-tweets-election-lies-14-million-set-lose-unemployment-benefits" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">distress</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">, with</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> </span><a href="https://www.epi.org/blog/the-economy-president-elect-biden-is-inheriting-more-than-26-million-workers-15-5-of-the-workforce-are-being-directly-hurt-by-the-coronavirus-downturn/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">millions</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">suffering pandemic-triggered job losses—and thus the</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> </span><a href="https://www.kff.org/policy-watch/how-has-the-pandemic-affected-health-coverage-in-the-u-s/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">loss</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">of their employer-tied health insurance—still</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> </span><a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/12/30/matter-life-and-death-sanders-urges-americans-call-their-senators-and-demand-vote" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">waiting on</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">robust economic relief from federal lawmakers, and facing a</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> </span><a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/08/09/vowing-defend-retirees-biden-denounces-new-reckless-war-social-security-trump" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">weak</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">social safety net.</span></b></font></div><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><b>For the nation's biggest banks, however, the year closed out with reason for celebration, and they're looking to take advantage of the banner year with a feast of stock buybacks.</b></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">As <em>Axios</em> <a href="https://www.axios.com/banks-wall-street-boom-f67df3ea-1380-4e5f-b8da-1efd6e6ebb9d.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">reported</a> Friday,</font></p><blockquote style="margin: 1em 40px 1em -5px; border-left: 4px solid rgb(11, 13, 101); line-height: 32px; padding: 10px 20px 10px 24px; width: 602.543px; background: rgb(245, 245, 245);"><font face="Times New Roman">Banks cashed in on the white-hot IPO market, record debt issuance, and sky-high trading volume—all of which played out as economic peril softened the consumer side of their businesses.
<b>The big picture: Financial results show that banks, which rake in money as middlemen, made a killing thanks to unprecedented action by the Federal Reserve—which caused a rush of activity in financial markets, pushed a slew of companies to issue debt, and led to a flood of others to go public for the first time.</b>
</font></blockquote><p><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" face="Times New Roman">Earnings were <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2021/01/20/goldman-morgan-stanley-and-jpmorgan-make-the-case-for-higher-valuations-by-separating-from-the-pack.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">particularly sweet</a> for banking behemoths including JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs, and Morgan Stanley.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">Reporting from <em>Bloomberg</em> on Tuesday gave a picture of the final quarter:</font></p><blockquote style="margin: 1em 40px 1em -5px; border-left: 4px solid rgb(11, 13, 101); line-height: 32px; padding: 10px 20px 10px 24px; width: 602.543px; background: rgb(245, 245, 245);"><font face="Times New Roman">As the banner year for markets came to a close, JPMorgan Chase & Co. posted record profit in the fourth quarter, helped by a 20% increase in revenue from trading, a business where it already ranked No. 1 heading into the turmoil. At rival Goldman Sachs Group Inc., second only to JPMorgan in dealmaking, a flurry of transactions helped send its quarterly profit soaring 135%.
The results—from JPMorgan on Friday and Goldman on Tuesday—mirrored trends in many corners of industry and society during the shocks set off by Covid-19: The strong got stronger.
</font></blockquote><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">"Big banks' Wall Street business is booming," as the <em>New York Times</em> <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/live/2021/01/22/business/us-economy-coronavirus" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">put it</a> Friday. The banks signaled they may take advantage of that windfall by buying back shares—a practice the Fed last month <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/views/2021/01/17/despite-pain-and-record-death-why-stock-market-so-high" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">allowed</a> to resume last month and which critics <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2019/10/17/house-hearing-highlights-how-corporate-stock-buybacks-enrich-wealthy-while-rigging" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">say</a> simply rewards wealthy shareholders but are essentially "<a href="https://www.ineteconomics.org/perspectives/blog/congress-can-turn-the-republican-tax-cuts-into-new-middle-class-jobs" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">manipulation of the stock market.</a>" From the <em>Times</em>:</font></p><blockquote style="margin: 1em 40px 1em -5px; border-left: 4px solid rgb(11, 13, 101); line-height: 32px; padding: 10px 20px 10px 24px; width: 602.543px; background: rgb(245, 245, 245);"><font face="Times New Roman"><b>What do banks plan to do with all that cash? "We have so much capital, we cannot use it," Jamie Dimon of JPMorgan told investors. The bank's cash pile has doubled over the past year, to more than $500 billion.</b>
It's a similar story at other banks, and now that they've been cleared by regulators to resume share buybacks, "we're going to be aggressively buying back, and consistently," said James Gorman, Morgan Stanley's chief executive.
</font></blockquote><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><b>The reporting came as a new regulatory filing revealed that Dimon, a billionaire, was <a href="https://www.foxbusiness.com/money/jpmorgan-chase-approves-31-5-million-compensation-package-for-ceo-jamie-dimon" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">rewarded</a> in 2020 with the same compensation as in 2019—$31.5 million.</b></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">"In determining Mr. Dimon's compensation, the independent members of the board took into account thefirm's strong performance in 2020 and over the long term, across four broad dimensions: Business Results; Risk, Controls, and Conduct; Client/Customer/Stakeholder; and Teamwork & Leadership," the company said.</font></p><p><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" face="Times New Roman">At a conference call earlier this month, Dimon referenced the nation's growing wealth divide.</font></p><p><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" face="Times New Roman">"We believe that inequality is a real problem," said Dimon, adding that "40% of Americans make $15 an hour or less."</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">Dimon also pointed to the fact with the new Biden administration, "there will be a new set of regulators," whom he expected would "be tougher" than those in the Trump administration.</font></p><p><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" face="Times New Roman">President Joe Biden, according to reporting Friday, is considering naming former Obama Treasury Department official Michael Barr as the nation's top bank cop.</font></p><p><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" face="Times New Roman">As head the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, Barr would have the power to regulate banks like JPMorgan Chase.</font></p><p><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" face="Times New Roman">Progressive groups like People's Action, however, have <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2021/01/22/if-trial-balloon-hopefully-it-fails-biden-warned-against-naming-corporate-tied" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">urged</a> Biden to instead tap Mehrsa Baradaran, who teaches at the University of California at Irvine Law School and is an expert on the racial wealth gap. Bree Carlson, deputy director of People's Action, said in a statement Friday of Barr that "it's hard to imagine a worse pick," citing his ties to Wall Street and Silicon Valley corporations as reasons for his disqualification.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">"President Biden must prove to voters that the government cares about all of us, not just wealthy elites," said Carlson. "If Biden truly wants to 'Build Back Better,' he needs to lock the revolving door and ensure no one with ties to the financial industry is in charge of regulating it."</font></p><div class="around-the-web" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div class="from-your-siteheadline" style="font-weight: 700; text-transform: uppercase;"><font face="Times New Roman">FROM YOUR SITE ARTICLES</font></div><ul class="around-the-weblist" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; display: inline-block; width: 589.446px; list-style: none;"><font face="Times New Roman" /><li class="from-your-siteitem"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2021/01/task-rabbit/" class="from-your-sitelink" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration-line: none; 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</font></div><div><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">=</font></p></div></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">=</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2021/01/market">https://www.alternet.org/2021/01/market</a></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">war of the world </font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">...</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">Remember that, long before Covid-19 hit, the financial crisis of 2008 was met by a <a href="https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2009/12/real-size-bailout-treasury-fed/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">multi-trillion-dollar Wall Street bailout</a>. At the same time, the Federal Reserve cut interest rates to zero, while purchasing U.S. Treasury and mortgage bonds from the very banks that had sparked the disaster. Its own assets then rose from <a href="https://www.federalreserve.gov/monetarypolicy/bst_recenttrends.htm" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">$870 billion to $4.5 trillion</a> between August 2007 and August 2015. </font></p><p><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" face="Times New Roman">On the other hand, the U.S. economy never quite reached a growth level of, on average, more than <a href="https://www.macrotrends.net/countries/USA/united-states/gdp-growth-rate" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">2% annually</a> in the years after that near collapse, even as the stock market regained all its losses and so much more. The Dow Jones Industrial Average, aided by an ultra-loose monetary policy, steadily <a href="https://www.macrotrends.net/1319/dow-jones-100-year-historical-chart" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">rose</a> from a financial-crisis low of <a href="https://www.frbatlanta.org/cenfis/publications/notesfromthevault/0909" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">6,926 on March 5, 2009</a> to <a href="https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/%5EDJI/history?period1=1583020800&period2=1585180800&interval=1d&filter=history&frequency=1d&includeAdjustedClose=true" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">27,090 by March 4, 2020</a>, which was when Covid-19 briefly trashed its rally.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">However, within a month of the market dip that followed widespread shutdowns, its climb was refortified by similar but larger maneuvers, as Federal Reserve policy was once again deployed to save the rich under the auspices of saving the economy. Rally 2.0 took the Dow to a new record of <a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/stock-market-news-today-new-years-eve-dow-wrap-2020-12-1029927511" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">30,606.48</a> as 2020 closed.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">On the other side of reality, I'm sure you won't be surprised to learn that, according to recent Federal Reserve <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/tommybeer/2020/10/08/top-1-of-us-households-hold-15-times-more-wealth-than-bottom-50-combined/?sh=74794c125179" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">reports</a>, the U.S. wealth gap continued to widen dramatically as economic inequality increased yet again in 2020 thanks to the coronavirus pandemic. That's because the health and economic devastation it inflicted affected low-wage service workers, low-income earners, and people of color <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2020/business/coronavirus-recession-equality/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">so much more</a> than the upper-middle class and elite upper class.</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">Meanwhile, as 2020 ended, the richest 10% of Americans owned <a href="https://www.federalreserve.gov/releases/z1/dataviz/dfa/distribute/table/#quarter:123;series:Corporate%20equities%20and%20mutual%20fund%20shares;demographic:networth;population:1,3,5,7;units:shares" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">more than 88%</a> of the outstanding shares of companies and mutual funds in the U.S. The top 1% also controlled more than <a href="https://www.federalreserve.gov/releases/z1/dataviz/dfa/distribute/table/#quarter:123;series:Corporate%20equities%20and%20mutual%20fund%20shares;demographic:networth;population:1,3,5,7;units:shares" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">88 times</a> the wealth of the bottom 50% of Americans</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">. S<b>imply put, the less you had, the less you could afford to lose any of it. Indeed, the combined net worth of the top 1% of Americans was $</b></span><b><a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/tommybeer/2020/10/08/top-1-of-us-households-hold-15-times-more-wealth-than-bottom-50-combined/?sh=4b7d72b51795" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">34.2 trillion</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> (about one-third of all U.S. household wealth), while the total for the bottom half was </span><a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/tommybeer/2020/10/08/top-1-of-us-households-hold-15-times-more-wealth-than-bottom-50-combined/?sh=4b7d72b51795" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">$2.1</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> trillion (or 1.9% of that wealth).</span></b></font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman"><b style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">And yet, American billionaires scored monumentally during the pandemic, </b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">due particularly to their lofty position in the stock market. The planet's 2,200 or so</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">billionaires got wealthier by <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/chasewithorn/2020/12/16/the-worlds-billionaires-have-gotten-19-trillion-richer-in-2020/?sh=6746df687386" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">$1.9 trillion</a> in 2020 alone and were worth about $11.4 trillion in mid-December 2020 (up from $9.5 trillion a year earlier)</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">. Twenty-first-century tycoons like Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos raked it in specifically because of all the money pouring into shares of their stock. Even bipartisan congressional stimulus measures meant for necessary relief turned into a chance to </span><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/22/us/politics/whats-in-the-covid-relief-bill.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">elevate</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> fortunes at the highest echelons of society.</span></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">If you want to grasp inequality in the pandemic moment, consider this: while the market soared, more than <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/sarahhansen/2020/10/08/unemployment-claims-remain-high-after-trump-stymies-covid-relief-talks/#604453c75cdf" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">25.5 million</a> Americans were the recipients of federal unemployment benefits. The S&P 500 stock market index added a total of <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-12-31/from-tech-to-tesla-stocks-get-14-trillion-boost-in-covid-year" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">$14 trillion</a> in market value in 2020. In essentially another universe, the number of people who lost their jobs due to the pandemic and didn't regain them was <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2020/12/08/the-us-has-10-million-fewer-jobs-now-than-before-the-pandemic.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">about 10 million</a>. And that figure doesn't even count people who can't go to work because they have to take care of others, their workplace is restricted, or they're home-schooling their kids.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><strong><font face="Times New Roman">The Martians and the Inequality Gap</font></strong></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">In <em>The War of the Worlds</em>, H.G. Wells evokes a species — humanity — rendered helpless in the face of a force greater than itself and beyond its control. His depiction of the grim relationship between the Martians and the humans they were suppressing (meant to remind readers of the relationship between British imperialists and those they suppressed in distant lands) cast an eerie light on the power and wealth gap in Great Britain and around the world at the turn of the twentieth century.</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">The book was written in the Gilded Age, when rapid economic growth, particularly in the United States, bred a new class of "robber barons." Like the twenty-first-century version of such beings, they, too, made money from their money, while the economic status of workers slipped ever lower. It was an early version of a zero-sum game in which the spoils of the system were increasingly beyond the reach of so many. Those at the top ferociously accumulated wealth, while the majority of the rest of the population barely got by or drowned.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><b>A crisis of inequality had been sparked by the Industrial Revolution itself, which started in England and then crossed the Atlantic.</b> By the late nineteenth century, America's "robber barons" were insanely wealthy. As economist Thomas Piketty <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/12/business/economy/a-relentless-rise-in-unequal-wealth.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">wrote</a>, there was a steeper increase in wealth inequality during the Gilded Age than ever before in American history. In 1810, the top 1% of Americans held 25% of the country's total wealth; between 1870 and 1910 that share leapt to 45%.</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Today, the top 1% of Americans possess more wealth than the whole of the middle class, a phenomenon first true in 2010 and still the reality of our moment. By 2018, about <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/blog/up-front/2019/06/25/six-facts-about-wealth-in-the-united-states/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">75%</a> of the <a href="https://www.federalreserve.gov/releases/z1/20190606/html/b101h.htm" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">$113 trillion</a> in aggregate U.S. household assets were financial ones;</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> that is, tied up in stocks, ETF's, 401Ks, IRAs, mutual funds, and similar investments. The majority of </span><a href="https://www.federalreserve.gov/releases/z1/20190606/z1.pdf" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">nonfinancial assets</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> in that mix was in real estate.</span></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><b>Its ultra-loose policies made it cheaper to borrow money, but not as attractive to invest it in low-interest-rate, less risky securities like Treasury bonds. As a result, the Fed incentivized those with extra money to grow it through quicker, often <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-12-21/stock-market-in-2020-bear-market-for-humans-while-dow-and-nasdaq-hit-records" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">riskier investments</a> in the stock market or real estate</b>. By 2020, there were bidding wars for suburban houses by urbanites seeking refuge from coronavirus-stricken cities with <a href="https://realtybiznews.com/rise-in-cash-offers-negatively-impacts-traditional-buyers/98760794/" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">all-cash offers</a>, something beyond the reach of most traditional buyers.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><b>Even before the pandemic, only the richest 20% of American households had recovered fully</b> (or, in the case of the truly wealthy, more than fully) from the financial crisis. That's mostly because since that crisis, <a href="https://www.federalreserve.gov/econres/notes/feds-notes/asset-ownership-and-the-uneven-recovery-from-the-great-recession-20180913.htm" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">fewer households</a> had participated in the stock market or owned real estate and so had no chance to capitalize on increases in the values of either.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">Much of the appreciation in stock market and real-estate values has been directly or indirectly related to the Fed's actions. By the end of December 2020, its balance sheet had increased by <a href="https://www.federalreserve.gov/releases/h41/current/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">$3.164 trillion</a>, reaching a total <a href="https://www.federalreserve.gov/releases/h41/current/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">of $7.35 trillion</a>, 63% more than its book at the height of the decade following the 2008 disaster.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">Though Congress passed two much-needed <a href="https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/531223-congress-passes-23t-coronavirus-relief-government-funding-deal" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">Covid-related stimulus packages</a> that extended unemployment benefits, while offering two one-off payments and a Paycheck Protection Program support for smaller businesses, the impact of those acts <a href="https://www.tomdispatch.com/post/176706/tomgram%3A_nomi_prins%2C_a_rendezvous_with_destiny/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">paled in comparison</a> to the <a href="https://www.propublica.org/article/the-cares-act-sent-you-a-1-200-check-but-gave-millionaires-and-billionaires-far-more" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">tax breaks</a> and power of investment the stock market provided the well-off and corporate kingpins.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">While markets leapt to record highs, <a href="https://harris.uchicago.edu/files/monthly_poverty_rates_updated_thru_november_2020_final.pdf" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">poverty</a> in the United States also rose last year from 9.3% in June to 11.7% in November 2020. That added nearly eight million Americans to the ranks of the poor, even as America's <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/business/business-news/wall-street-s-best-year-ever-why-pandemic-has-been-n1252512" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">659 billionaires</a> held double the wealth of the 165 million poorest Americans.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><strong><font face="Times New Roman">The Martians Are Here</font></strong></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">The gap between incoming and outgoing federal funds rose, too. The U.S. deficit increased by $3.3 trillion during 2020. The size of the public debt issued by the Treasury Department reached <a href="https://fiscaldata.treasury.gov/datasets/debt-to-the-penny/debt-to-the-penny" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">$27.5 trillion</a>. Total federal revenue was $3.45 trillion, while the corporate tax part of that was just $221 billion, or a paltry 6.4%. What that means is that in an ever more unequal America, 93.6% of the money flowing into the government's till comes from individuals, not corporations.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">And though many larger and mid-size corporations filed for bankruptcy protection due to coronavirus related shutdowns, the brunt of <a href="https://smallbiztrends.com/2020/12/alignable-survey-48-percent-small-businesses-fear-closing-for-good.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">absolute closures</a> hit smaller local businesses — from restaurants to hair salons to health-and-wellness shops — much harder, only exacerbating economic disparity at the community level.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">In other words, the real problem when it comes to inequality isn't the total amount of taxes received versus money spent in a time of crisis, but the composition of federal revenue that's wildly out of whack (something the pandemic has only made worse). Take the defense sector, for example. The U.S. government doled out <a href="https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/security/reports/2020/05/06/484620/pentagons-fiscal-year-2021-budget-meets-u-s-national-security-needs/#::text=When%20the%20Trump%20administration%20unveiled,Department%20of%20Defense%20(DOD)%20received" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">$738 billion</a> to the Pentagon for fiscal year 2020. The contracts to defense-related private companies in the last year for which data was available, fiscal year 2018, totaled roughly 62% of a full defense budget of <a href="https://www.pewtrusts.org/en/research-and-analysis/articles/2020/07/20/spending-on-contracts-drives-growth-in-federal-defense-dollars-to-states" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">$579 billion</a>, or $358 billion. Now imagine this: that amount alone dwarfed the total of all corporate taxes flowing into the U.S. Treasury in 2019.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">....</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"></font></p></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">now 1220 4 centabilioaires</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">fresh aire weds 12/20 chuck collins Inst for Pol studies</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.17647em; padding: 0px 15px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.70588; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 680px; position: static; float: none; width: auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">This is FRESH AIR. I'm Terry Gross. While millions of Americans have lost their jobs because of the pandemic, the combined wealth of just 10 billionaires has increased by more than $127 billion since the beginning of the pandemic. Those billionaires include the principal owners of Amazon, Instacart, Walmart and Tyson Foods. My guest, Chuck Collins, has been writing about that and how the pandemic has increased income inequality in the U.S. Economic inequality has been his subject since he was 26 and gave away his inheritance. Collins is the great-grandson of Oscar Mayer, the founder of the meatpacking company famous for its hot dogs, the Oscar Mayer wiener, and the Wienermobile.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.17647em; padding: 0px 15px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.70588; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 680px; position: static; float: none; width: auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">Collins is the director of the Program on Inequality and the Common Good at the Institute for Policy Studies, where he co-edits inequality.org. His books include "Born On Third Base: A One Percenter Makes The Case For Tackling Inequality, Bringing Wealth Home, And Committing To The Common Good" and the forthcoming "The Wealth Hoarders: How Billionaires Pay Millions To Hide Trillions." That book is scheduled for publication in March. Chuck Collins, welcome to FRESH AIR. It's a pleasure to have you on our show.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.17647em; padding: 0px 15px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.70588; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 680px; position: static; float: none; width: auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">CHUCK COLLINS: Thanks for having me.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.17647em; padding: 0px 15px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.70588; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 680px; position: static; float: none; width: auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">GROSS: Who are the billionaires who made the most money since the start of the pandemic?</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.17647em; padding: 0px 15px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.70588; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 680px; position: static; float: none; width: auto;"><font style="" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">COLLINS: </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Well, there's an overall trend. You know, 657 billionaires have seen their combined wealth go up a trillion since mid-March. But there's a couple that have just seen their wealth surge. Elon Musk seen his wealth go up almost 500%, 120 billion. Jeff Bezos has seen his wealth go up about 74 billion, an increase of 65%. And there's a guy, Dan Gilbert, who's the Quicken Loans founder, CEO, his wealth has gone up 600% - almost 38 billion. So it's a surge of wealth for some. You know, some have ridden the stock market. But others have just seen - they've kind of delinked from the amount of wealth they had before.</span></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.17647em; padding: 0px 15px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.70588; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 680px; position: static; float: none; width: auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">GROSS: So is the numbers that you're giving us, is that linked to the stock market? - because the stock market fluctuates so much. It can go up, you know, hundreds of points or go down hundreds of points.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.17647em; padding: 0px 15px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.70588; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 680px; position: static; float: none; width: auto;"><font style="" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">COLLINS: Yeah. The stock market has been steadily going up as well. But some of these billionaires have just seen their wealth surge, you know, in the double digits or much higher than the market itself. </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">I mean, four billionaires - Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg - now have a net worth of about 550 billion combined. And the whole group of U.S. billionaires now has a combined wealth of 4 trillion, which is double the wealth of the bottom half of all U.S. households, you know, in the United States. So they are <b>seeing their fortunes accelerate </b>during the pandemic....</span></font></p></div><div><div><font face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://marker.medium.com/welcome-to-the-hunger-games-economy-7e44665d88e1">https://marker.medium.com/welcome-to-the-hunger-games-economy-7e44665d88e1</a></font></div><div><div class="" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><h1 id="c12d" class="ga gb gc gd b ge gf gg gh gi gj gk gl gm gn go gp gq gr gs gt gu gv gw gx gy gz" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0.6em 0px -0.27em; font-weight: 400; line-height: 56px; letter-spacing: -0.011em;"><font face="Times New Roman">Welcome to the Hunger Games Economy</font></h1></div><h2 id="ea4d" class="ha gb gc ba b hb hc hd he hf hg hh hi hj hk hl hm hn ho hp hq dw" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0.92em 0px -0.42em; font-weight: 400; line-height: 28px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">An exclusive excerpt from Scott Galloway’s new book, ‘<span class="hr" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-style: inherit;">Post Corona’</span></font></h2></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">s<a href="https://medium.com/@profgalloway?source=post_sidebar--------------------------post_sidebar-----------" class="el em bz ca cb cc cd ce cf bl en eo cg ep eq" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: inherit; letter-spacing: inherit; font-weight: inherit; padding: 0px; margin: 0px; fill: inherit;" /></font><h2 class="ba lr dm bc gb gz fv" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px; line-height: 20px; word-break: break-word; letter-spacing: 0px; font-weight: 500; display: inline !important;"><a href="https://medium.com/@profgalloway?source=post_sidebar--------------------------post_sidebar-----------" class="el em bz ca cb cc cd ce cf bl en eo cg ep eq" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: inherit; letter-spacing: inherit; font-weight: inherit; padding: 0px; margin: 0px; fill: inherit;"><font face="Times New Roman" /></a><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://medium.com/@profgalloway?source=post_sidebar--------------------------post_sidebar-----------" class="el em bz ca cb cc cd ce cf bl en eo cg ep eq" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: inherit; letter-spacing: inherit; font-weight: inherit; padding: 0px; margin: 0px; fill: inherit;" /><a href="https://medium.com/@profgalloway?source=post_sidebar--------------------------post_sidebar-----------" class="el em bz ca cb cc cd ce cf bl en eo cg ep eq" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: inherit; letter-spacing: inherit; font-weight: inherit; padding: 0px; margin: 0px; fill: inherit;" /><a href="https://medium.com/@profgalloway?source=post_sidebar--------------------------post_sidebar-----------" class="el em bz ca cb cc cd ce cf bl en eo cg ep eq" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: inherit; letter-spacing: inherit; font-weight: inherit; padding: 0px; margin: 0px; fill: inherit;" /><a href="https://medium.com/@profgalloway?source=post_sidebar--------------------------post_sidebar-----------" class="el em bz ca cb cc cd ce cf bl en eo cg ep eq" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: inherit; letter-spacing: inherit; font-weight: inherit; padding: 0px; margin: 0px; fill: inherit;" /><a href="https://medium.com/@profgalloway?source=post_sidebar--------------------------post_sidebar-----------" class="el em bz ca cb cc cd ce cf bl en eo cg ep eq" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: inherit; letter-spacing: inherit; font-weight: inherit; padding: 0px; margin: 0px; fill: inherit;">cott Galloway</a></font></font></font></font></h2></div><div class="nz s" style="box-sizing: inherit; padding-top: 2px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><h4 class="ba b bb bc dw" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px; font-weight: 400; line-height: 20px;"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman">Prof Marketing @NYUStern · Founder @L2_digital @redenvelope @prophetBrand · Contributor @bloombergtv ·</font></font></font></font></font></font></font></h4></div><div><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman">The <span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); letter-spacing: -0.003em;"> </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); letter-spacing: -0.003em;">logical alternative to capitalism is socialism, and on its face, there is a lot to like. Socialism is rooted in altruism and humanism; it seeks to build up community rather than the atomized individual. These are noble goals. But the sacrifice in productivity is immense, especially with the compounding effects of time. Capitalism creates dramatically many more spoils, so any of those noble goals have more to work with.</span></font></font></font></font></div><p id="b69b" class="jt ju gc jv b hb jw jx jy he jz ka kb kc kd ke kf kg kh ki kj kk kl km kn ko fv gz" data-selectable-paragraph="" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word; line-height: 32px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman">The toxic cocktail, however, i<span id="rmm" style="box-sizing: inherit;">s</span> to combine the worst of both systems. For the last 40 years, we’ve been doing this in the United States. We have capitalism on the way up. If you can create value in this country, you can be rewarded with spoils vastly beyond anything comparable in history. If you can’t create value — if you’re born into the wrong family or you catch a bad break — you’ll likely live on the edge and pay dearly for your mistakes. A Hunger Games economy.</font></font></font></font></p><p id="4ee8" class="jt ju gc jv b hb jw jx jy he jz ka kb kc kd ke kf kg kh ki kj kk kl km kn ko fv gz" data-selectable-paragraph="" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word; line-height: 32px; letter-spacing: -0.003em;"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" face="Times New Roman">Should you reach the heights of wealth (or more likely, be born into them), circumstances change. Despite our rhetoric about personal responsibility and freedom, we’ve embraced socialism — at the top and on the way down. We don’t tolerate failure here in our socialist paradise. Rather than let companies fail — a defining and essential feature of capitalism — we have bailouts. But bailouts are hate crimes against future generations, sticking our children and grandchildren with the resulting debt.</font></font></font></font></p><p id="355d" class="jt ju gc jv b hb jw jx jy he jz ka kb kc kd ke kf kg kh ki kj kk kl km kn ko fv gz" data-selectable-paragraph="" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word; line-height: 32px; letter-spacing: -0.003em;"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" face="Times New Roman">Crisis after crisis, our rationales vary: After 9/11 it was national security. In 2008 it was liquidity, and in 2020 it was protecting the vulnerable. But our response is always the same. Protect the shareholder class, protect the executive class. Keep these firms on life support so their owners and managers don’t suffer. Pay for it with debt, a burden to be borne by middle-class taxpayers and, ultimately, by our children. However, history tells us, nearly every bailout, whether it’s <a href="https://www.investopedia.com/articles/economics/chrysler-bailout.asp" class="el ky" rel="noopener nofollow" style="box-sizing: inherit; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;">Chrysler</a> or <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/the-fall-of-long-term-capital-management-2014-7" class="el ky" rel="noopener nofollow" style="box-sizing: inherit; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;">Long-Term Capital Management</a>, only creates a moral hazard that results in a bigger failure and a more costly bailout. Every time, we’re told “this is different, historic, and requires intervention” and that taxpayers should bail out shareholders.</font></font></font></font></p><blockquote class="kz" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px; padding-left: 30px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><p id="88f3" class="la lb gc gd lc ld le lf lg lh li ko dw" data-selectable-paragraph="" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 1.75em 0px -0.46em; line-height: 40px; letter-spacing: -0.009em;"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><mark class="zd ze ey" style="box-sizing: inherit; cursor: pointer; background-color: rgb(225, 248, 221);"><font face="Times New Roman">Corporations are simply abstractions. They feed nobody, house nobody, educate nobody.</font></mark></font></font></font></p></blockquote><p id="b16d" class="jt ju gc jv b hb lj jx jy he lk ka kb kc ll ke kf kg lm ki kj kk ln km kn ko fv gz" data-selectable-paragraph="" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 2.48em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word; line-height: 32px; letter-spacing: -0.003em;"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">But so too is an 11-year bull market a historical event. <em class="lo" style="box-sizing: inherit;">That </em>was the unique event that accrued unprecedented wealth to a fraction of the population. And the corporations that benefited didn’t save for a rainy day — which always comes — or pay it out to their workers so they could build up a protective cushion of wealth, or invest in capital projects that would grow the economy. Instead, they poured it into dividends and stock buybacks, juicing executive compensation (from 2017 to 2019 the CEOs of Delta, American, United, and Carnival Cruises earned over $150 million in total compensation) and shareholder returns.<b> </b></span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>Since 2000, U.S. airlines have declared bankruptcy 66 times</b>.</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> Despite the obvious vulnerability of the sector, boards and CEOs of the six largest airlines have spent 96% of their free cash flow on share buybacks. That bolstered the share price and compensation of management but left these companies dangerously exposed to a crisis.</span></font></font></font></font></p><p id="ff3d" class="jt ju gc jv b hb jw jx jy he jz ka kb kc kd ke kf kg kh ki kj kk kl km kn ko fv gz" data-selectable-paragraph="" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word; line-height: 32px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman">Now that the crisis is upon us, this small population of rich people has found socialism, and they have their hand out. That hand should go back in their damn pocket.</font></font></font></font></p><h1 id="10f8" class="lp lq gc ba lr ls lt jx lu lv lw ka lx ly lz ma mb mc md me mf mg mh mi mj mk gz" data-selectable-paragraph="" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 1.95em 0px -0.28em; line-height: 36px; font-weight: 500; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><span class="cd" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: inherit;"><font face="Times New Roman">The virtues of failure</font></span></font></font></font></h1><p id="35a6" class="jt ju gc jv b hb ml jx jy he mm ka kb kc mn ke kf kg mo ki kj kk mp km kn ko fv gz" data-selectable-paragraph="" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0.86em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word; line-height: 32px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman">Failure, and its consequences, is a necessary part of the system. Economic dislocation and crises have real costs, but they are also opportunities for renewal. Old relationships are severed, assets are freed up, and innovation demanded. A forest fire brings life as it destroys — so too, economic upheavals create light and air for innovation to flourish. The 1918 influenza epidemic was devastating, but it was followed by the Roaring ’20s. The strongest businesses are those that are started in lean times. <b>Wages rise after disruptions like pandemics — <em class="lo" style="box-sizing: inherit;">if </em>the natural cycles of disruption and renewal are allowed to function.</b></font></font></font></font></p><p id="087f" class="jt ju gc jv b hb jw jx jy he jz ka kb kc kd ke kf kg kh ki kj kk kl km kn ko fv gz" data-selectable-paragraph="" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word; line-height: 32px; letter-spacing: -0.003em;"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);" face="Times New Roman">We’ve let ourselves confuse corporations with the things they own and the people they employ. Corporations are simply abstractions. They feed nobody, house nobody, educate nobody. When a corporation fails, those who have risked their capital to support it lose their investment, but the workers are still capable of work, the assets remain available, and whatever need the corporation was filling remains....</font></font></font></font></p></div><div><div><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">=</span></font></font></font></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/12/19-vaccines-were-made-possible-by-socialism-and-years-of-public-sector-funding-journalist/">https://www.alternet.org/2020/12/19-vaccines-were-made-possible-by-socialism-and-years-of-public-sector-funding-journalist/</a></span></font></font></font></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</span></font></font></font></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">alexh</span></font></font></font></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</span></font></font></font></font></div><div><p><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" face="Times New Roman">The coronavirus pandemic has had its deadliest days yet in December 2020, but the arrival of COVID-19 vaccines from Pfizer, Moderna and others offer hope that life might start returning to some degree of normal in 2021. Journalist <a href="https://jacobinmag.com/2020/12/socialism-vaccine-capitalism-distribution" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">Leigh Phillips</a>, in an article for the democratic socialist website Jacobin, praises the arrival of the vaccines but expresses strong concerns about the ways in which they will be distributed.</font></font></font></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman">"A jaw-dropping marvel of science, economic planning and selfless, humanist cooperation by thousands of researchers around the globe, the development of this and other vaccines hot on Pfizer's heels has taken a mere nine months since the discovery of the disease, rather than the years or even decades such medical research and development (R&D) normally takes," Phillips explains. "They offer a glimpse of how much more an egalitarian, rationalist world could produce and achieve, freed from the fetters of profit."</font></font></font></font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);" face="Times New Roman">Phillips argues that the COVID-19 vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna <b>shouldn't be hailed as a "triumph for capitalism," as the companies relied heavily on "years of public-sector funding." The companies, Phillips notes, "relied on state shepherding and bankrolling of the vaccine development process."</b></font></font></font></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><b>Phillips adds that distribution of the vaccines will underscore the harsh inequalities in the U.S. and other countries.</b>
</font></font></font></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman">"Before we get out the champagne and toast our genuinely heroic scientists and clinicians," Phillips writes, "we have to recognize that while these vaccines are indeed a light at the end of a very long tunnel, that same tunnel will be yet longer than it needs to be, thanks once again to the irrationality, inefficiency and injustice of capitalism. It will be especially unfair for those in the developing world — and even in many poorer, less populous parts of the developed West, there will be cruelties for those who live outside the metropolitan core, as there already have been throughout 2020 in the United States especially."</font></font></font></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman">Phillips wraps up the article by stressing that the public sector will be crucial in fighting future pandemics.</font></font></font></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman">"Looking beyond the horizon of COVID-19, the threat of future pandemics — and among them will be ones nowhere near as forgiving as this coronavirus — requires, at some point, a serious discussion of how global democracy can be constructed from the bottom up, and how in such a democracy, worldwide economic planning can tame the inefficiencies, irrationalities and injustices of markets," Phillips writes. "Because no one is safe until we are all safe."</font></font></font></font></p><div class="around-the-web" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div class="from-your-siteheadline" style="font-weight: 700; text-transform: uppercase;"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman">FROM YOUR SITE ARTICLES</font></font></font></font></div><ul class="around-the-weblist" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; display: inline-block; width: 589.446px; list-style: none;"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" /></font><li class="from-your-siteitem"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/11/this-scientist-paved-the-way-for-the-pfizer-19-vaccine/" class="from-your-sitelink" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s; font-weight: lighter; line-height: normal; display: inline-block; margin-top: 10px;">This scientist paved the way for the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine ... ›</a></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></li><li class="from-your-siteitem"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/12/flu-vaccine-shortage/" class="from-your-sitelink" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s; font-weight: lighter; line-height: normal; display: inline-block; margin-top: 10px;">Experts express concern about mysterious shortage of promised ... ›</a></li><li class="from-your-siteitem"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/12/gop/" class="from-your-sitelink" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s; font-weight: lighter; line-height: normal; display: inline-block; margin-top: 10px;">GOP under fire for blocking necessary funds as COVID vaccine ... ›</a></li></ul><div class="around-the-webheadline" style="font-weight: 700; text-transform: uppercase; margin-top: 10px;"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman">RELATED ARTICLES AROUND THE WEB</font></font></font></div><ul class="around-the-weblist" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; display: inline-block; width: 589.446px; list-style: none;"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" /></font><li class="around-the-webitem"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.mayoclinic.org/coronavirus-vaccine/art-20484859" class="around-the-weblink" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s; font-weight: lighter; line-height: normal; display: inline-block; margin-top: 10px;">Get the facts about COVID-19 vaccines - Mayo Clinic ›</a></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></li><li class="around-the-webitem"><a href="https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2020/12/suspicions-grow-nanoparticles-pfizer-s-covid-19-vaccine-trigger-rare-allergic-reactions" class="around-the-weblink" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s; font-weight: lighter; line-height: normal; display: inline-block; margin-top: 10px;">Suspicions grow that nanoparticles in Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine ... ›</a></li></ul></div></div><div><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</span></font></font></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">=</span></font></font></font></div></div><div><div><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">=</span></font></font></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/12/vaccine-2649583881">https://www.alternet.org/2020/12/vaccine-2649583881</a></span></font></font></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</span></font></font></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" /></font><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman">no lnx</font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>The wealthiest people in this country are pushing to the front of the line to get vaccinated</b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Dartagnan and Daily Kos December 21, 2020</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> </div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">More than any single event in recent memory, the COVID-19 pandemic revealed the gaping chasms of inequality in American society. From the very outset it was accepted wisdom that "essential workers," i.e., those forced to risk their lives in unsafe workplaces throughout the country, would include not only medical personnel such as doctors, nurses, and hospital orderlies; not only police, firefighters and first responders; not only operators of public transportation and critical government services such as postal workers; but also the folks who worked behind cash registers at the Lowe's, the 7-11, and those whose jobs involved the processing, delivery, preparation and transportation of food items and consumer goods that kept the moribund economy from congealing into a second Great Depression.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The "essential" nature of these workers was loudly touted by companies from Amazon to WalMart to Domino's pizza, who extolled the selfless bravery of their employees in warm and touching TV ads, ads that served as a new type of PR for those same companies with sordid past track records about treatment of workers. Meanwhile, the highly compensated officers and executives of these companies bore the brunt of the pandemic not by interacting daily with a stressed and potentially infected public, but from their snug and expansive estates and second homes where they continued to bark orders and issue their edicts remotely.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">And this was also the case with the so-called "professional class," as six-figure income lawyers and corporate managers developed new ways to work from home, reallocating firm IT services and equipment while the lower-tiered employees such as clerks and secretaries were mostly told to return to the office, if they were to keep their jobs at all. Probably the most telling example of the disparities in treatment afforded between high managerial and service-level, clerical employees is the current, never-ending circus continuing to unfold in our Congress this weekend, in which financial and rent assistance to ordinary middle and lower income Americans is being held hostage to liability protections insisted upon by the corporate "owner" class in the persona of Republican Senate Majority leader Mitch McConnell.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">In short, this was never going to be an "equal opportunity" pandemic. Its inherent unfairness has been even more apparent in the medical treatment received by the wealthy as opposed to ordinary Americans, personified by no less than Donald Trump and his White house cronies who, being infected with the COVID-19 virus through their own carelessness and recklessness, nonetheless have instantly received the quickest, most cutting edge care available. Nor are they alone—as described by Mark Sumner here, the gross disparity between medical treatment available to this countries' richest citizens and its less fortunate (but so "essential") workers, mostly those people of color who couldn't work from home due to the very nature of their jobs, often with substandard health insurance, if any, was bound to surface before too long.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">And now that multiple vaccines are looming, we are seeing the same sense of natural entitlement among the top 1% playing out, as reports emerge daily of attempts by these same people to bribe their way to the front of the line for vaccination, the better to allow themselves to carry on with their lives as soon as possible, with an eye to traveling and frolicking amongst their islands (both metaphorical and real ones) while the rest of Americans prepare to stand in line for months.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">As reported by the Los Angeles Times:</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>They're offering tens of thousands of dollars in cash, making their personal assistants pester doctors every day, and asking whether a five-figure donation to a hospital would help them jump the line</b>.</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The COVID-19 vaccine is here — and so are the wealthy people who want it first.</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">"We get hundreds of calls every single day," said Dr. Ehsan Ali, who runs <b>Beverly Hills Concierge Doctor. His clients, who include Ariana Grande and Justin Bieber, pay between $2,000 and $10,000 a year for personalized care. "This is the first time where I have not been able to get something for my patients."</b></span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">A few years ago, in what came as a bit of a surprise to my woefully provincial sensibilities, I first heard the term "concierge medicine." It refers to health care offered—at substantial cost—by an elite network of physicians and other medical providers designed to allow wealthier Americans (who may not wish to dirty their hands with the type of medical care provided to the vast majority of us) access to the best medical treatment money can buy. As described by Hayley Fowler, writing for the Miami Herald:</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Many wealthy Americans pay for concierge medical services — a "kind of high-quality, primary care most Americans can't afford," the Los Angeles Times reported. Some of those services have already procured the expensive freezers needed to store the vaccine and put their patients on wait lists as soon as it becomes available for widespread distribution.</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The cost of such "concierge care" can run in excess of $250,000 per year, and guarantees, as noted in the LA Times article, personalized 24-hour access to physicians who provide their services to a small segment of wealthy clients. These physicians' groups have the financial wherewithal, for example to have immediately secured the types of freezers necessary to hold the Pfizer vaccine in cold storage at -94 degrees Fahrenheit for significant lengths of time. That in itself provides these groups with a leg up on receiving the vaccine, despite whatever state restrictions may be in place as to who receives it.</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Doctors in boutique practices say they'll adhere to public health guidelines in determining who gets priority. But being on a waiting list at a practice that has special freezers and other high-quality resources means you're already near the front of the line once the supply opens up.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>Doctors in these "boutiques" confirm this. One co-founder of a "concierge" medical service "with clinics in New York, the Hamptons and Beverly Hills" told the LA Times that his group started soliciting these expensive deep-cold freezers as soon as it was apparent the vaccine would be on the market.</b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">While the Trump administration has not yet been caught offering the vaccine for private distribution, these physicians groups feel it is just a matter of time before such allocations are made, in part due to the demanding and entitled nature of their patrons. The LA Times specifically refers to instances of these "concierge" patients offering huge payments to these groups for the privilege of jumping to the first in line.<b> In one case a person asked if he could accelerate his receipt of the vaccine by making a $25,000 "donation" to a hospital. And, as CNN reports, other physicians with "A-list" clients have been fielding hundreds of calls, all conveying the message, of course, that their money should give them priority:</b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Dr. David Nazarian, of My Concierge MD in Beverly Hills, said a number of his A-list clients are contacting him, saying that money is no object if it helps them get the vaccine early. "They wanted it yesterday," said Nazarian. "We will play by the rules but are doing everything we can to secure and distribute the vaccine when its available to us."</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">State officials quoted through these articles are adamant that they will do everything they can to prevent such "line jumping" and they are obviously sincere in that intent. <b>The LA Times article cites no instances yet of physicians succumbing to these types of pressures, but that is likely because the vaccine rollout has just begun, and also because physicians fear the public consequences if they are found out providing the vaccine to those people whose only qualification to receive it is that they are not familiar with taking "no" for an answer.</b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>Another concern described by the Times is the potential for wealthier people to arrange to have their symptoms "fudged" so that a minor history of asthma, for example, could be highlighted or stressed by their doctor for the purpose of receiving the vaccine on a priority basis</b>. And there are always those people closely connected with pharmaceutical executives who believe they ought to warrant special treatment due to the nature of those relationships. Beyond this, as reported by Stat News here, <b>once a vaccine is developed that does not require such stringent storage, there is virtually no doubt that a "black market" will develop for it, with access provided to the highest bidder</b>.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>As bluntly emphasized by Timothy Egan this week, writing for the New York Times, this pandemic is hardly close to reaching its conclusion. The next three months are going to be a living hell, with American deaths by March now expected to reach or exceed 500,000.</b> We already know that the Trump administration will pay scant if any attention to the way this vaccine is allotted once it finally gets its act together on distribution. It is the individual states that will ultimately determine the priority of how the vaccine is dispensed, at least officially.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Which brings us back to those so-called "essential workers." If they were as essential as they were roundly described in all of those solemn advertisements, one would expect that, after health care workers (which seems obvious) they would be the first to receive the vaccine, right?</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">As reported by Stat News, not necessarily:</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">"Essential workers" are expected to receive early access to the vaccine, and the definition of this category is open to interpretation by state health departments, creating a means for influential industries to lobby for priority. "The devil's going to be in the details of how the state runs their program," Lang said he tells his patients.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Members of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), the federal panel recommending how to distribute the vaccines, want to prioritize essential workers to help ensure people of color, who are often the hardest hit by the virus, get early access. But the predominantly white workers in the financial services industry are also considered essential, according to guidance from the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, which was referenced by ACIP, as well as executive orders from several states including New York, Illinois, Colorado, and California. Public-facing bank tellers face contagion risks in their work, but aren't the only financial services employees included.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">"It was left a little bit nebulous but basically covered people who oil the movement of money, so exchanges, trading floors, trading operations, and people who keep money moving at the retail [banking] level," said Lang.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Again, it seems that the people who have the money will be prioritized to receive the vaccine, as well as—not coincidentally-- the people whose job it is to move money for those same people.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">A more telling verdict on our society's priorities could hardly be imagined.</div></div></div><div><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman">=</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/12/republican-party-funding/" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">https://www.alternet.org/2020/12/republican-party-funding/</a></font></font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><b>it's time to defund the GOP, and there's precedent and strategy for the effort.</b></font></font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" face="Times New Roman">The need to cut the party's access to both private and government money is seen in the reaction by some extremist Republicans to news like a New York State lawmaker's proposal to <a href="https://www.fox5ny.com/news/new-york-legislation-would-make-covid-19-vaccination-mandatory" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">make vaccination against COVID-19 mandatory</a>. Predictably, the far right is freaking out. "Freedom!" they scream as they run around maskless, assaulting their fellow citizens with potentially virus-laden breath.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman">Large parts of the Republican base now join conspiracists in the misguided belief that <b>vaccine manufacturers are participating in <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/factcheck/2020/06/12/fact-check-bill-gates-isnt-planning-implant-microchips-via-vaccines/3171405001/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">mind-control experiments</a> </b>and that public health measures like masks are "un-American," while we're being sickened and dying from the <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/12/opinions/coronavirus-us-death-toll-trump-sachs-opinion/index.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">highest rates of COVID-19</a> infection and death in the developed world.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" face="Times New Roman">Republicans on the <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/11/26/politics/supreme-court-religious-restrictions-ruling-covid/index.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">Supreme Court even say</a> the founders of our republic and the framers of the Constitution would <em>never</em> go along with preventing churches and synagogues from holding superspreader events during a pandemic, but, like so many things GOP, it's a lie.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" face="Times New Roman">In 1798, President John Adams signed <a href="https://bit.ly/2LAQnta" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">the first public health care legislation</a>—it was to pay for medical care and hospitalization not just for the Navy but also for <em>civilian</em> sailors. And both he and <a href="https://tinyurl.com/y8jhbhtj" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">President George Washington</a> had participated in quarantine events during epidemics in the summers of 1793 and 1798, and both <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1775%E2%80%931782_North_American_smallpox_epidemic#Quarantine_methods" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">promoted inoculation</a> against smallpox.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman">From 1790 to 1800, Philadelphia was the nation's capital. When the <a href="https://www.history.com/news/yellow-fever-outbreak-philadelphia" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">yellow fever epidemic of 1793</a> recurred in <a href="https://quod.lib.umich.edu/e/evans/N26572.0001.001/1:5?rgn=div1;view=fulltext" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">1798, that city's board of health</a>, with no objections raised by President John Adams or any member of Congress, ordered a block-by-block evacuation of parts of Philadelphia.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><b>Most signers of the Declaration and Constitution were still alive, and many were in Congress and on the Supreme Court. <a href="https://journals.psu.edu/phj/article/download/25548/25317/0" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">None opposed the lockdown</a>. Churches not only couldn't meet; a few in the quarantine areas were closed down entirely for much of the year in America's capital city.</b></font></font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);" face="Times New Roman">From their bans on teaching <a href="https://rewirenewsgroup.com/article/2015/07/08/house-republicans-sneak-sex-ed-restriction-child-left-behind-rewrite/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">sex education</a> and <a href="https://www.patheos.com/blogs/godzooks/2019/02/darwin-day-republicans-evolution/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">evolution</a> in our schools, to <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/12/opinion/climate-change-republicans.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">denying climate change</a>, to this latest campaign against public health, far-right Republicans' fight against science has damaged America's standing in the world and destroyed the lives of millions.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman">Thomas Paine, in his time, wrote about "<a href="https://www.ushistory.org/Paine/reason/reason1.htm" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">The Age of Reason</a>." Today we have "The Age of Intentional Republican Stupidity." And they don't just embrace it for themselves; they're hell-bent on imposing it on every American, from schoolchildren on up.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman">They have rigged elections by making it <a href="https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2020/11/republicans-are-laying-the-groundwork-to-make-it-harder-to-vote/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">hard to vote</a>, seditiously tried to <a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/106-republican-members-of-congress-sign-on-to-shambolic-texas-lawsuit-looking-to-overturn-2020-election?scrolla=5eb6d68b7fedc32c19ef33b4" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">overturn the 2020 election</a>, promoted <a href="https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2020/08/racism-republican-party-stuart-stevens/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">racial</a> and <a href="https://www.huffpost.com/entry/gop-defends-amy-coney-barretts-religion-stayed-silent-on-muslims_n_5f86245bc5b6c4bb5470b27b" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">religious</a> bigotry and violence, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/dec/27/betsy-devos-trump-republicans-education-secretary" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">destroyed our public school</a> systems, gutted our <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/views/2020/10/23/why-republican-party-wants-destroy-labor-unions" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">unions</a>, and rewritten our tax system to <a href="https://www.fatherly.com/love-money/trump-gop-tax-plan-middle-class-parents-refund/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">screw the middle class</a>.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><b>Since the election of Ronald Reagan, Republicans have <a href="https://www.salon.com/2020/09/19/trumps-destruction-of-america-started-with-ronald-reagan_partner/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">damaged America more in 40 years</a> than our worst enemies could have dreamed of by other means.</b></font></font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman">These Republicans are not patriots; they're traitors to reason, science, education, human rights, democracy and now, unbelievably, public health. They're traitors to humanity itself.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><b>The only way to deal with a death-dealing cult is to end it; thus, we must embark on a campaign to defund the Republican Party.</b></font></font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);" face="Times New Roman">Back in 1981, the Republican Party decided to defund the Democratic Party, and actually pulled it off.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);" face="Times New Roman">While the Republican Party had principally been funded by rich people and big business since the 1920s, the <a href="https://inthesetimes.com/features/listen-liberal-thomas-frank-democratic-party-elites-inequality.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">Democrats were largely reliant on the labor unions</a>. So Ronald Reagan, as part of his "Reagan Revolution," figured the best way to destroy the Democratic Party was to destroy America's unions.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);" face="Times New Roman">His first shot was to <a href="https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/winging-it-battle-between-reagan-and-patco/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">destroy PATCO</a>, the air traffic controllers' union, and he did it in less than a week in August of 1981. He, along with Republicans in Congress and conservatives on the Supreme Court, then embarked on a <a href="https://bit.ly/3oPqlAD" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">campaign to eliminate unions</a> from the American landscape, thus gutting the Democratic Party's ability to win elections.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" face="Times New Roman">It worked, and by 1992, American union membership, and union's ability to fund elections, had collapsed so severely that <a href="https://www.salon.com/2019/12/18/how-america-broke-up-with-the-democratic-party_partner/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">Bill Clinton and the Democratic Party turned</a> to giant corporations and billionaires to win that election year.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" face="Times New Roman">Reagan's plan not only kneecapped the Democratic Party for the next 40 years but also changed the party at its core, turning it from President Lyndon B. Johnson's Great Society party into Bill Clinton's corporate-friendly <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2013/12/recruiting-bill-clinton/281946/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">Democratic Leadership Council/New Democrats</a>, now in bed with big banks, insurance companies, etc.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman">Defunding the Republican Party may even force it to start focusing on the needs of regular people rather than just billionaires and corporations, which only adds to the urgency of the job. There are just a few steps through the process, which include:</font></font></font></p><ul class="ee-ul" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; display: inline-block; width: 589.446px;"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" /></font><li><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman">End "Red State Welfare." </font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></li><li><a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/shaharziv/2020/05/12/blue-state-bailout-red-state-residents-received-largest-stimulus-checks-and-millions-in-federal-aid/?sh=3445f5798352" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">Kentucky gets $2.41</a> for every dollar they send to Washington, D.C. Most other red states are similarly "taker" states, so let's fight for a law limiting states to no more than, say, $1.50 for every buck they sent to D.C. in tax revenues. Call it <a href="https://www.salon.com/2019/12/18/how-america-broke-up-with-the-democratic-party_partner/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">welfare reform</a>!</li><li>
</li><li><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><b>End corporate welfare that gets recycled to GOP politicians.</b> This <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/walvanlierop/2019/12/06/yes-fossil-fuel-subsidies-are-real-destructive-and-protected-by-lobbying/?sh=412710c8417e" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">includes $700 billion a year to fossil fuel companies</a>, and nearly $1 trillion a year we give to <a href="https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/democracy/reports/2019/08/30/473911/big-pharma-reaps-profits-hurting-everyday-americans/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">Big Pharma</a>, as well as support for insurance companies (like subsidies for the <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2020/9/14/1977397/-Beyond-the-Medicare-Advantage-Scam" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">"Medicare Advantage" scam</a>) and "<a href="https://www.heritage.org/budget-and-spending/report/how-farm-subsidies-became-americas-largest-corporate-welfare-program" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">Big Ag</a>."</span></li><li>
</li><li><b>End corporate monopolies.</b> Break up giant corporations and make America safe again for small businesses while rejuvenating local economies. From airlines to tech to banking and retail, <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Hidden-History-Monopolies-Business-Destroyed/dp/1523087730/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">giant monopolies rip off working-class Americans</a> and use some of that money to fund the GOP.</li><li>
</li><li><b>Bring back Eisenhower's 91 percent top tax rate,</b> or at least something north of 50 percent. America's strongest economy was during the 30 years from 1950 to 1980, with <a href="https://web.stanford.edu/class/polisci120a/immigration/Federal%20Tax%20Brackets.pdf" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">a top tax rate of 91 percent to 74 percent</a>. Progressive taxation on the super-wealthy was openly supported by Republican presidents like Eisenhower, Nixon, and Ford. With that tax revenue, we built highways, schools and hospitals, and put men on the moon, while the best way CEOs could avoid the tax was to use the money to pay their workers better wages. Reagan <a href="https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/reagan-signs-economic-recovery-tax-act-erta" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">cut that top rate to less than 30 percent,</a> and the billionaires it produced now pour money into the GOP to keep it that way.</li><li>
</li><li><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Follow Europe's example and <a href="https://www.huffpost.com/entry/norway-wealth-tax-what-america-can-learn_n_5fac2082c5b68707d1fb6391" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">impose a wealth tax</a> on great fortunes. Average Americans pay a wealth tax every year—the property tax on their largest store of wealth, their homes. Billionaires should pay a similar annual tax on their money bins.</span></li><li><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</span></li><li><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">End campaign contributions from corporations, end super PACs, and limit billionaires' ability to skew our politics with their money</span>. We did this <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Federal-Election-Campaign-Act" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">in the 1970s</a> after the Nixon bribery scandals, but the Supreme Court blew it up. There are multiple ways around that, and the Democratic Party should make this job one.</li></ul><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman">These simple "<b>Progressive <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contract_with_America" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">Contract with America</a>"</b> steps, along with restoring the ability of American workers to unionize, will not only revive the Democratic Party, but also restore America to economic greatness and give us a far more honest political system.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman">Thom Hartmann is America's <a href="https://tinyurl.com/v2xzs8v" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">number one</a> progressive <a href="https://www.thomhartmann.com/" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">talk-show host</a> and the New York Times bestselling author of <a href="https://smile.amazon.com/Hidden-History-American-Oligarchy-Reclaiming/dp/1523091584/?tag=alternorg08-20" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">The Hidden History of American Oligarchy</a> and more than <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Thom-Hartmann/e/B000AQ449C" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">30 other books in print</a>. His online writings are compiled at <a href="https://hartmannreport.com/" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">HartmannReport.com</a>. He is a writing fellow at the <a href="https://independentmediainstitute.org/" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">Independent Media Institute</a>.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman">=</font></font></font></p></div><div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman">=</font></font></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/12/conservatism/" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">https://www.alternet.org/2020/12/conservatism/</a></font></font></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman">common dr</font></font></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></div><div style=""><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font style="" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">What is a conservative? We've seen a lot of them in 2020, refusing to respect the needs of society.</span>
<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The Heritage Foundation </span><a href="https://www.heritage.org/conservatism/commentary/what-conservatism" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">says</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">: "Foremost among [conservatism's] transcendent values is the individual's use of his God-given free will, whence derives his right to be free from the restrictions of arbitrary force." Stanford University </span><a href="https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/conservatism/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">adds</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">: "For conservatives, individuals and local communities are better assessors of their own needs and problems than distant bureaucrats."</span><b style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> A 2003 study for the American Psychological Association </span><a href="http://www.sulloway.org/PoliticalConservatism(2003).pdf" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-line: none; outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">stated</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">: "The core ideology of conservatism stresses resistance to change and</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);"> justification of inequality.</span></b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">"</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> There are many other forms and definitions of </span><a href="https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conservatism" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">conservatism</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> as political, economic, and social philosophies. The usage here may best be understood as the </span><a href="https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/can-europe-make-it/the-new-right-is-not-a-reaction-to-neoliberalism-but-its-offspring/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">evolving</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> </span><a href="https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-4-431-55181-2_5" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">marriage</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> of individualism and neoliberalism (privatization, deregulation, low taxes, austerity) since the 1970s.</span></font></font></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman">Conservatism has made 'social' a dirty word. Here are some of the details of fifty years of damage inflicted on America.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font style="" face="Times New Roman"><strong style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The Disastrous Effect of Placing Individuals Over Society
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<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The anti-government, "all about freedom" individuality of conservatives has failed terribly in a time of national emergency. How did the misdirected mindset get its start? With Friedrich Hayek and Milton Friedman, who are commonly referenced with connection to </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neoliberalism" target="blank" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">neoliberalism</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">. Friedman is the author of some remarkable <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/69390-when-unions-get-higher-wages-for-their-members-by-restricting" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">quotes</a>: "The free market system distributes the fruits of economic progress among all people." And, according to guk <span style="transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">The Guardian</span>: "There is evidence that a democratic society, once established, destroys a free economy."
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<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Then came Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher. The former UK Prime Minister </span><a href="https://www.margaretthatcher.org/document/106689" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">said</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> about society: "There is no such thing! There are individual men and women and there are families."Reagan, whose campaign slogan was, familiarly, "Let's make America great again," famously stated that "Government is not the solution to our problem; government IS the problem."</span>
<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">So now, at a time when we need to work together as a society rather than as a crowd of individuals, we've been betrayed by conservatism. As historian Neil J. Young <a href="https://theweek.com/articles/952636/reagans-shows-roots-americas-individualism-problem" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">puts it</a>, "Now, 40 years later amid a global pandemic, that unbridled individualism has shown its deadly dimensions in Trump and the Republicans' lack of response to COVID-19...it's evident in the millions of Americans who—in refusing to wear masks, practice social distance, and momentarily deny their self-gratification—have selfishly exploited the language of 'individual responsibility' as license for their own recklessness."</span>
<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Just as frightening is the recent conservative Supreme Court church-gathering </span><a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2020/11/26/religious-freedom-supreme-court-blocks-covid-limits-n-y-churches/3767379001/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">decision</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> that "placed religious freedom before pandemic precautions."</span>
<strong style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Deregulation and Subsidies: Corporations Running Rampant
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<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);"><b>The euphemistically-named <em><a href="http://www.citizensunited.org/what-we-do.aspx" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">Citizens United</a> </em>(CU) </b>is an example of the deceptive measures used by conservatives. CU refers to an initiative that "seeks to reassert the traditional American values of limited government, freedom of enterprise, strong families, and national sovereignty and security." But it helps corporations, not citizens, by allowing unlimited funding for corporate-friendly candidates.</span>
<b style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Conservatives argue for less government intervention—except when it comes to subsidies</b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">. Leading the pack of favor-seeking </span><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/federal-lobbying/industries" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">lobbyist</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> groups is the pharmaceutical industry. Few companies have benefited more than Pfizer, whose former CEO Ian Read once </span><a href="http://fortune.com/2015/11/25/pfizer-allergan-ian-read/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">complained</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> that U.S. taxes had his company fighting "with one hand tied behind our back." In </span><a href="https://www.sec.gov/ix?doc=/Archives/edgar/data/78003/000007800320000014/pfe-exhibit13x12312019.htm" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">2019</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> Pfizer made nearly half of its $17.7 billion in profits in the U.S., yet the company claimed $1.8 billion in federal and state tax refunds. And it takes from America in another way. In recent years Pfizer has </span><a href="https://welch.house.gov/sites/welch.house.gov/files/Pfizer%20Price%20Gouger%20Tax%20Dodger%20Report%20FINAL.pdf" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">increased</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> the </span><a href="https://americansfortaxfairness.org/issue/pfizer-myth-not-lowered-prices/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">prices</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> of dozens of prescription drugs at over ten times the rate of inflation.</span>
<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Now Pfizer is basking in the glow of media coverage for the so-called "Pfizer Vaccine." The company deserves credit for its all-out efforts to distribute the medication to millions of people. But the vaccine was <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/11/10/europe/biontech-pfizer-vaccine-team-couple-intl/index.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">created</a> by the Turkish/German founders of BioNTech, Ugur Sahin and Ozlem Tureci, who guided the development of the messenger RNA process that triggers an immune reaction against Covid. The groundwork for the relatively rapid production of the vaccine was <a href="https://www.tampabay.com/news/health/2020/12/07/how-did-we-get-a-coronavirus-vaccine-so-fast-years-of-research/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">laid in place</a> at the National Institutes of Health and the University of Pennsylvania by research on the prior SARS and MERS outbreaks. More <a href="https://www.hhs.gov/coronavirus/explaining-operation-warp-speed/index.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">expertise</a> came from the taxpayer-funded Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and Centers for Disease Control (CDC). According to Dr. Anthony Fauci, "The speed is a reflection of years of work that went before." Indeed, a successful vaccine is the product of long-term social cooperation, not individualism.</span>
<strong style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Inequality: Going Viral
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<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Thanks to the insidious </span><a href="https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2019-08-19/column-trickle-down-is-a-lie" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102); text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">conservative-minded</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> 50-year-old "trickle-down" philosophy—which astoundingly continues to be preached by many of the super-rich—</span><b style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">inequality</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> has stretched our nation nearly to the </span><a href="https://www.commondreams.org/views/2020/11/30/inequality-gone-viral-obscene-numbers" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102); text-decoration-line: none; outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">breaking point</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">.</span></b>
<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">At </span><a href="https://www.commondreams.org/views/2020/11/30/inequality-gone-viral-obscene-numbers" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102); text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">one end</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">, the 25 million adults who make up the richest 10% of America increased their wealth in this pandemic year by an average of $200,000 each.</span>
<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">At the other end: it is </span><a href="https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/nation/millions-in-u-s-heading-into-the-holidays-unemployed-and-over-5000-behind-on-rent/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102); text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">estimated</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> by Moody's Analytics that nearly 12 million American renters will owe an average of $5,850 in back rent and utilities by the beginning of 2021. Little of America's surging </span><a href="https://aspe.hhs.gov/system/files/pdf/154286/50YearTrends.pdf" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102); text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">income and wealth</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> since the 1970s has gone to the poorest 50%.</span>
<strong style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Some Hope?
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<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Philosopher and political economist </span><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/1486818-conservatives-are-not-necessarily-stupid-but-most-stupid-people-are" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">John Stuart Mill</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> once said, "Conservatives are not necessarily stupid, but most stupid people are conservatives."</span>
<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">As Mill made clear, smart people have also gravitated to the conservative side. Among them were the aforementioned anti-government crusaders Friedrich Hayek and Milton Friedman, who expressed </span><a href="https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/why-legendary-economists-liked-universal-basic-income-1.1216387" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">support</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> for a Universal Basic Income. In fact, the UBI concept has been promoted by both political parties over the years. But it will take the will and fortitude of Congress to make it a reality. And Congress is overflowing with John Stuart Mill's conservatives.</span></font></font></font></p></div></div><div><div><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"></font></font></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/11/billionaire-tax/">https://www.alternet.org/2020/11/billionaire-tax/</a></font></font></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman">
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</font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></div><div><b>$427 billion lost each year to tax dodging by corporations and the rich: landmark study</b></div><div>
</div><div>Julia Conley and Common Dreams November 23, 2020</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> </span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">A first-of-its-kind international report released Friday shows how wealthy countries are the primary drivers of tax revenue loss each year—contributing to $427 billion in losses to public funding annually and affecting the ability of countries all over the world, including developing nations, to provide services to the public.</span></div><div>
</div><div>The Tax Justice Network's inaugural State of Tax Justice report is the first study to thoroughly measure how much money each country loses each year to corporate tax abuse and private tax evasion, using data that was self-reported by corporations to tax authorities.</div><div>
</div><div><b>The report notes that in light of the global coronavirus pandemic, the loss of revenue to tax abuse and evasion has major implications for public health efforts. One nurse's annual salary is lost every second to tax havens—the equivalent of 34 million nurses' salaries each year.</b></div><div>
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">"A global tax system that loses over $427 billion a year is not a broken system, it's a system programmed to fail</span>," said Alex Cobham, chief executive of the Tax Justice Network.</div><div>
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">"Under pressure from corporate giants and tax haven powers like the Netherlands and the U.K.'s network, our governments have programmed the global tax system to prioritize the desires of the wealthiest corporations and individuals over the needs of everybody else," he continued. "The pandemic has exposed the grave cost of turning tax policy into a tool for indulging tax abusers instead of for protecting people's wellbeing."</span></div><div>
</div><div><b>Lower-income countries are particularly affected by tax evasion during public health crises like the current pandemic, with losses are equivalent to 52% of their public health budgets. While rich countries lose hundreds of billions more dollars each year to tax evasion and abuse, their losses only make up about 8% of their public health budgets.</b></div><div>
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Latin America and Africa's tax losses are equivalent to about 20.4% and 52.5% of their public health budgets, respectively.</span></div><div>
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Contrary to data compiled in the European Union's "highly politicized blacklist" of tax havens, the Tax Justice Network said, high income countries are behind a vast majority of global tax abuse. <b>The British territory Cayman Islands</b> is responsible for other countries losing $70 billion in public funding each year, while the U.K.'s tax laws take away more than $42 billion<b>. The U.S. is in fifth place globally, robbing other countries of $23.6 billion each year.</b></span></div><div>
</div><div>While countries including Palau and Trinidad and Tobago are on the EU's blacklist and are not cooperative with international tax regulations, the Tax Justice Network reported, they "did not create any observable tax losses for other countries."</div><div>
</div><div>Meanwhile, high-income countries are behind 98% of public funding losses around the world, contributing to a loss of $419 in annual tax revenues.</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><b>Corporate abuse by multinational corporations is directly responsible for the loss of $245 billion each year,</b> with companies shifting $1.38 trillion in profits out of the countries where those profits were earned into tax havens, the report said. Private tax evaders also stored a total of $10 trillion in offshore accounts, leading to a loss of $182 billion in public funding.</span></div><div>
</div><div>Joe Boughner, public affairs director for Canada-based labor union ACFO-ACAF, tweeted that corporations which penalize workers for "crippling our economy" by taking time off should focus far more on the $5.7 billion lost each year to tax evasion and corporate abuse.</div><div>
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</div><div>Rosa Pavanelli, general secretary of the global labor union Public Services International, who took part in Tax Justice Network's webinar launching the report, pointed to the notion of "building back better" after crises like the pandemic, which has been adopted by the United Nations and U.S. President-elect Joe Biden.</div><div><b>
</b></div><div><b>"If you really believe in building back better then pay your taxes!" Pavanelli tweeted. "If governments don't act now our democracies are really in trouble."</b></div><div>
</div><div>To ensure countries around the world don't continue to lose hundreds of billions of dollars each year which could go to strengthening their public health, infrastructure, and education systems, the Tax Justice Network said<b>, governments must promptly take three far-reaching actions:</b></div><div>
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Introduce an excess profit tax on multinational corporations making excess profits during the pandemic, such as global digital companies, in order to cut through profit shifting abuses.</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</span></div><div><b>Introduce a wealth tax to fund the Covid-19 response and address the long term inequalities the pandemic has exacerbated,</b> with punitive rates for opaquely owned offshore assets and a commitment between governments to eliminate this opacity.</div><div>
</div><div>Establish a UN tax convention to ensure a global and genuinely representative forum to set consistent, multilateral standards for corporate taxation, for the necessary tax cooperation between governments, and to deliver comprehensive, multilateral tax transparency.</div><div>
</div><div><b>The report also called on G20 member countries, which are collectively responsible for 26.7% of global tax losses and cost countries $114 billion each year through their tax laws and loopholes for the wealthy, to address the issue at their summit this weekend </b>and require the publication of individual multinational companies' tax reporting, "so that corporate tax abusers and the jurisdictions that facilitate them can be identified and held to account."</div><div>
</div><div>"Now more than ever we must reprogram our global tax system to prioritize people's health and livelihoods over the desires of those bent on not paying tax," Cobham said.</div><div>
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</font></font></font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman">aha this is a kind of extraction, pvtize profits, socialize costs; corps are tax dodgers thus leeches</font></font></font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman">https://www.alternet.org/2020/11/bernie-sanders/</font></font></font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman">'The Walton family is the real welfare queen': GAO report details how taxpayers subsidize corporate giants' low wages</font></font></font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman">pinpointing a reality denounced as "morally obscene" by Sen. Bernie Sanders, a new government study shows how some of the nation's largest and most profitable corporations—including Walmart, McDonald's, Dollar General, and <b>Amazon—feast upon taxpayer money by paying their employees such low wages that huge numbers of those workers throughout the year are forced to rely on public assistance programs such as Medicaid and food assistance just to keep themselves and their families afloat.</b></font></font></font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" /></font></font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman">According to a statement from Sanders' office, the study he commissioned the G<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">overnment Accountability Office to carry out—titled "Millions of Full-time Workers Rely on Federal Health Care and Food Assistance Programs"—found that an estimated 5.7 million Medicaid enrollees and 4.7 million SNAP(Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) recipients who worked full-time for 50 or more weeks in 2018 earned wages so low that they qualified for these federal benefits</span>. In addition, an estimated 12 million wage-earning adults enrolled in Medicaid and 9 million wage-earning adults living in households receiving SNAP benefits worked at some point in 2018.</font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman">...</font></font></font></font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman">Upon the study's release Wednesday, Warren Gunnels, staff director and policy adviser for Sen. Sanders, tweeted: "T<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">he real looting in America is the Walton family becoming $63 billion richer during a pandemic, </span>while paying wages so low that 14,541 of their workers in 9 states need food stamps—all subsidized by U.S. taxpayers. Yes. The Walton family is the real welfare queen in America."....</font></font></font></font></p><div><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman">=</font></font></font></font></div></div><div><div><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman">=</font></font></font></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman">aha: authoritarian/ coup needs either massice econ failure or mult failures/crises? (death spiral?); massive and growing inequality amplifed (accel) by covid; note below two stories: </font><span style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"> economic factors were probably a "wash" in terms of the 2020 election, with some American voters likely blaming Trump for the current bad economy (<a href="https://www.salon.com/2020/06/03/the-science-is-clear-trump-bungled-the-pandemic-response/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">and correctly so</a>) while others may have blamed the COVID-19 lockdowns and supported Trump's opposition to them</span><span style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">.</span></font></font></font></div><p><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" face="Times New Roman">"He's taken advantage of being president to further his white nationalism, but I don't think that's his main goal," Wilderquist told Salon. <b>"I think Trump's main goal for his entire life is to convince as many people as possible that he's a winner that he wins and wins and wins, and that he's the world's biggest winner. </b>And like a lot of us, he doesn't want to be a loser. The way to step down without feeling like a loser is to convince his echo chamber that he didn't lose. He won and that it was stolen from him. He doesn't need a coup to do that. He just needs to complain a lot."</font></font></font></font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" face="Times New Roman">aha K: story 1 capitaLISM is awesome and so is USAUSA, so if we are not winning it is b/c limp lefties betrayed us in trade talks so our natural inevitable winners hobbled. Story 2: we used to be the colinial imperal power sole superpower but [corp dems]either antiipinko BS kept us from having a nat'l econ strategy like Japan and now china, or corps so corrupted politics that rules favoered max profit = outsourcing, so now (rural?) am abandoned or colonized (no unions in So).</font></font></font></font></p><div><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/11/experts-explain-the-economic-situations-that-beget-successful-coups/">https://www.alternet.org/2020/11/experts-explain-the-economic-situations-that-beget-successful-coups/</a></font></font></font></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman">matt r</font></font></font></font></div><div><p><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" face="Times New Roman"><b>Throughout history, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/11/world/europe/trump-autocrats-dictators.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">coups and coup attempts</a> are more often than not linked to economic distress: the coup's leaders side with one group of industrialists or power-brokers, and opposition groups are supported by another</b>. Now, Trump's own <a href="http://www.yahoo.com/news/the-2020-election-wasnt-stolen-here-are-all-the-facts-that-prove-it-184623754.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">refusal to concede in the 2020 presidential election</a> after a legitimate election loss, and his machinations to remain in power, have led to public debate over whether he is trying to perform a coup — or if that's even possible given the political and economic climate.</font></font></font></font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" face="Times New Roman">Salon reached out to economists who explained the ways in which <a href="https://www.salon.com/2020/09/09/the-us-is-experiencing-a-k-shaped-economic-recovery-heres-what-that-means/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">current America's economic struggles</a> have, and have not, created the climate in which Trump's coup attempt is possible. The verdict? <b>The situation may not be quite right for Trump to be successful — with some caveats</b>.</font></font></font></font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" face="Times New Roman">Because of Trump's political disposition, his <em>coup d'etat</em> would epitomize a right-wing coup — in which an authoritarian seizes control to consolidate their power on behalf of the ruling classes, from which Trump originates. <b>Disregarding the legal and (possibly) military elements required for success, Trump could very well have popular support from his base were he to seize power. Indeed, polls show that <a href="https://www.salon.com/2020/11/10/can-trump-really-stage-a-coup-experts-weigh-in-on-whether-its-possible/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">70 percent of Republicans</a> accept Trump's disinformation about the election not being "free and fair," and seem willing and ready to <a href="https://www.salon.com/2020/11/12/dont-panic-trumps-coup-will-fail--but-hes-turning-gop-voters-against-democracy/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">turn against the concept of democracy</a>.</b></font></font></font></font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" face="Times New Roman">"As for the broader question, there are tensions," Dr. Ioana Marinescu, assistant professor of economics at the University of Pennsylvania's School of Social Policy & Practice, wrote to Salon. "Rising inequality and stagnation of wages among the less educated should have empowered the left, but the <a href="https://www.salon.com/2018/03/27/pikettys-new-paper-vindicates-bernie-sanders-electoral-strategy/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">left has increasingly become the party of the educated elites</a> so they were not able to fully capitalize on this."</font></font></font></font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Marinescu noted that economist Dr. Thomas Piketty explored these themes last year in his book </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">"<a href="https://bookshop.org/a/2464/9780674980822" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">Capital and Ideology</a>,"</span></b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> then added that "the populist or conservative right has then been able in some cases to speak to disaffected workers (those for example who lost their jobs to the <a href="https://chinashock.info/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">China shock</a>) by showing more respect for them and their values, and by promising a return to the prior state of the world (bring back manufacturing, something that is pretty hopeless given the economics)."</span></font></font></font></font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" face="Times New Roman"><b>Dr. Richard D. Wolff, </b>professor emeritus of economics at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, talked to Salon about how economic factors can usually be found in coups and attempted coups, although it would be a mistake to assume they are the only relevant variables.</font></font></font></font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" face="Times New Roman">"These are always multi-causal, multi-dimensional events," Wolff told Salon. "We can talk about the economics, but the economic aspects — and that's what they are — are never alone, or are never the only significant factor. . . . Economics always contributes to the attempt to make a coup, whether or not it's successful, and economics are always affected by a coup — again, whether it's successful or not. It's part of the story, but it's never some kind of dominating part, at least not in my experience. . . . but it's never absent either, and it wouldn't be here in the United States."</font></font></font></font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" face="Times New Roman">Wolff proceeded to explain to Salon that the United States "is in an extreme economic turmoil situation, fraught with enormous suffering coming at the end of a period of very profound changes and confronting [t]he upsurge in coronavirus cases all over the country." He noted that these conditions can make people either more politically active or resign themselves to political inactivity. The last occasion when America faced levels of unemployment, income inequality and lack of economic opportunity for young people was during the Great Depression in the 1930s, Wolff pointed out.</font></font></font></font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">"</span><b style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Interestingly, during that Great Depression, the reaction of the mass of people was to become more politically active, not less so</b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">," </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Wolff said. "What struck so many of us was that, already at the period in 2008 and 2009 when we had the so-called Great Recession, was the level of non-activism. The fact that you didn't have the rise of a massive union organizing movement, the way you did in the 1930s with the CIO. You didn't have a mass upsurge of people joining two socialist and one communist party this time. You did have a <a href="https://www.salon.com/2017/08/05/the-democratic-socialists-of-america-hit-25000-members-heres-why-this-is-a-big-deal/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">bump up with the Democratic Socialists of America</a>, but it was much smaller, much more modest, much more isolated, than what you had in the 1930s."</span></font></font></font></font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" face="Times New Roman"><b>He added, "Now we have record-breaking inequality before and during the COVID-19 crisis, at least since it hit in March. The Bezoses of the world have <a href="https://www.salon.com/2020/05/28/the-richest-billionaires-became-vastly-richer-during-pandemic-even-as-markets-tumbled/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">gotten way richer</a>, the mass of people the opposite, et cetera, et cetera. I think you've had pretty much the resignation of the mass of people,</b> with the exception of a few signs, but I don't think they've congealed yet to give you the mass progressive upsurge that you had in the 1930s."</font></font></font></font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" face="Times New Roman">By contrast, America is finding itself in a situation now where a far right-winger like Trump is able to undermine the core institutions of democracy, although Wolff stopped short of saying that it will amount to a full-fledged coup.</font></font></font></font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" face="Times New Roman">"The bottom line of what I'm telling you is that the things that make coups happen, that have any kind of traction, don't seem to me to be present here," Wolff said, pointing out how American right-wingers misread public sentiment when attempting to pull off recent coups in other countries like Venezuela and <a href="https://www.salon.com/2020/10/20/elon-musk-becomes-twitter-laughingstock-after-bolivian-socialist-movement-returns-to-power/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">Bolivia</a>.</font></font></font></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman">"My reading of the United States — and I'm frightened by it all too, so I'm not sitting on some pedestal of of self-assuredness — but I don't read a situation that would allow [Trump] to get away with anything more than either a quiet exit or, if that's not available, a blustery exit," Wolff explained. "If he's not smart enough to see that's his best option,<b> some kind of coup-type event about which Stephen Colbert will have a lot of fun."</b></font></font></font></font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Dr. Karl Widerquist, a professor of philosophy at Georgetown University–Qatar who has doctorates in political theory and economics, told Salon that economic factors were probably a "wash" in terms of the 2020 election, with some American voters likely blaming Trump for the current bad economy (<a href="https://www.salon.com/2020/06/03/the-science-is-clear-trump-bungled-the-pandemic-response/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">and correctly so</a>) while others may have blamed the COVID-19 lockdowns and supported Trump's opposition to them</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">.</span></font></font></font></font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" face="Times New Roman">"He's taken advantage of being president to further his white nationalism, but I don't think that's his main goal," Wilderquist told Salon. <b>"I think Trump's main goal for his entire life is to convince as many people as possible that he's a winner that he wins and wins and wins, and that he's the world's biggest winner. </b>And like a lot of us, he doesn't want to be a loser. The way to step down without feeling like a loser is to convince his echo chamber that he didn't lose. He won and that it was stolen from him. He doesn't need a coup to do that. He just needs to complain a lot."</font></font></font></font></p><div class="around-the-web" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div class="from-your-siteheadline" style="text-transform: uppercase;"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman">FROM YOUR SITE ARTICLES</font></font></font></font></div><ul class="around-the-weblist" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; display: inline-block; width: 589.446px; list-style: none;"><font face="Times New Roman" /><li class="from-your-siteitem"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/07/teetering-on-the-edge-of-autocracy-trump-critics-warn-of-a-coup-in-the-making/" class="from-your-sitelink" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s; line-height: normal; display: inline-block; margin-top: 10px;">'Teetering on the edge of autocracy': Trump critics warn of a 'coup in ... ›</a></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></li><li class="from-your-siteitem"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/11/trumps-coup-attempt-is-very-real-but-there-are-several-gaping-holes-in-the-plan/" class="from-your-sitelink" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s; line-height: normal; display: inline-block; margin-top: 10px;">Trump's coup attempt is very real — but there are several gaping ... ›</a></li><li class="from-your-siteitem"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/11/trumps-limp-coup-is-falling-apart-but-right-wing-media-and-certain-gop-politicians-dont-know-when-to-cut-bait/" class="from-your-sitelink" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s; line-height: normal; display: inline-block; margin-top: 10px;">Trump's limp coup is falling apart — and right-wing media is losing it ... ›</a></li><li class="from-your-siteitem"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2019/08/neoliberalism-political-success-economic-failure/" class="from-your-sitelink" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s; line-height: normal; display: inline-block; margin-top: 10px;">Neoliberalism: Political success, economic failure - Alternet.org ›</a></li><li class="from-your-siteitem"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/08/anger-grows-at-gop-over-economic-pain-i-blame-mitch-mcconnell-the-most/" class="from-your-sitelink" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s; line-height: normal; display: inline-block; margin-top: 10px;">Anger grows at GOP over economic pain: 'I blame Mitch McConnell ... ›</a></li></ul></div></div><div><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman">=</font></font></div></div><div><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman">=</font></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/10/billionaire-wealth-has-surged-by-nearly-1-trillion-during-7-months-of-and-economic-collapse/">https://www.alternet.org/2020/10/billionaire-wealth-has-surged-by-nearly-1-trillion-during-7-months-of-and-economic-collapse/</a></font></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman">jake j</font></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></div><div><div id="sPost_0_0_5_0_7_3_1_0_0_0_1_0" class="post-partial articlesplash-custom" style="overflow: hidden !important; margin-bottom: 40px; position: relative;"><div class="post-splash-custom clearfix" data-attr-layout_copylink="inactive" data-attr-show_around_the_web="true" data-attr-all_element_order="headline,photo_caption,photo_credit,author,date,post_shares,body,primary_tag,subheadline,section,tags,page_views,badges,badges_sponsored,snark_line,like_button,source_link,collection_button,community_comments,follow_button,main_author,community_name,all_sections,date_modified,custom_field_covid_guidelines,custom_field_covid_ann_location_name,custom_field_covid_ann_location_url,custom_field_covid_ann_location_address_more,custom_field_covid_tested_info_url,custom_field_covid_ann_location_address,custom_field_covid_prevention_info_url,custom_field_covid_government_benefits_url,custom_field_covid_expires,custom_field_hide_iterable_takeover,custom_field_covid_government_benefits_service_type_url,custom_field_covid_government_benefits_name,custom_field_covid_government_benefits_audience_name,custom_field_covid_travel_bans,custom_field_covid_government_benefits_provider_name,custom_field_covid_desease_statistics_url,custom_field_covid_covid_updates_guidelines,custom_field_covid_transport_closures" data-attr-layout_all_date_format="%B %d, %Y" data-attr-layout_whatsapp="active" data-attr-layout_separator="inactive" data-attr-layout_slack="inactive" data-attr-layout_date="bottom" data-attr-layout_flipboard="active" data-attr-show_more_button_text="Read More" data-attr-layout_photo_credit="over" data-attr-layout_linkedin="inactive" data-attr-layout_post_shares="bottom" data-attr-layout_pinterest="inactive" data-attr-layout_author="bottom" data-attr-show_full_post_body="true" data-attr-layout_photo_caption="over" data-attr-layout_reddit="inactive" data-attr-layout_body="bottom" data-attr-id="sPost_0_0_5_0_7_3_1_0_0_0_1_0" data-attr-all_share_buttons="Flipboard,Facebook,Twitter,Email,Linkedin,SMS,Separator,Slack,GooglePlus,Pinterest,Whatsapp,Reddit,CopyLink,Tumblr" data-attr-layout_headline="top" data-attr-format="splash-custom" data-attr-layout_tumblr="inactive" data-attr-layout_sms="active" data-attr-layout_all_image_crop="16x9" data-attr-layout_googleplus="inactive" data-attr-layout_quality="7" data-attr-header_template="jinja/post/custom-css.html" style="position: relative;"><article elid="2648424617" data-is-frozen="false" class="clearfix image-article sm-mb-1 quality-MD post-2648424617"><div class="row px10" style="margin-bottom: -40px; margin-left: -10px; margin-right: -10px; overflow: hidden;"><div id="col-center" class="col sm-mb-1" style="line-height: 1.4; margin-bottom: 40px; float: left; box-sizing: border-box; padding-left: 10px; padding-right: 10px; width: 838.693px;"><div class="widgetbody clearfix sm-mt-1" style="margin-bottom: 10px;"><div class="body js-expandable clearfix js-listicle-body css-listicle-body-2648424617" style="margin: auto; width: 654.943px; line-height: 31px;"><div class="body-description" style=""><p style=""><font face="Times New Roman"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" face="Times New Roman">Over just the past seven months—as millions lost their jobs and <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/09/28/we-need-medicare-all-tens-millions-more-expected-lose-employer-based-insurance-2021" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">health insurance</a>, tens of thousands of small businesses shuttered permanently, and more than 200,000 Americans were killed by the coronavirus—U.S. billionaires saw their combined net worth surge by more than $930 billion, bringing the collective wealth of just 644 people to a staggering $3.88 trillion.</font></font></p><p style=""><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman">That's according to an <a href="https://americansfortaxfairness.org/issue/since-pandemic-began-u-s-billionaires-net-worths-jump-931-billion-nearly-one-third-working-families-suffer/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">analysis</a> released Tuesday morning by Americans for Tax Fairness (ATF) and the Institute for Policy Studies (IPS), progressive organizations that have been tracking the explosion of billionaire wealth since the start of coronavirus lockdowns in mid-March. (See the groups' compilation of billionaire wealth data <a href="https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1GcxHDqshl4b57ZgZd8OZ9O1d-BhyqTLcWo_emqVYvP0/edit#gid=0" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">here</a>.)</font></font></p><p style=""><font face="Times New Roman"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" face="Times New Roman">The new analysis shows that the <b>collective wealth of America's billionaires grew by $931 billion—or nearly 33%</b>—between March 18 and October 13, a period that <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/10/07/trump-kills-covid-19-relief-talks-census-data-shows-millions-americans-expecting" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">also saw</a> unprecedented job loss, a nationwide surge in hunger, and a sharp increase in housing insecurity.</font></font></p><p style=""><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman">The groups noted that the jump in billionaire wealth over the past seven months exceeds the size of both Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell's (R-Ky.) <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/09/03/gop-under-fire-offering-emaciated-covid-relief-plan-record-layoffs-continue-and-mass" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">so-called "skinny" Covid-19 relief bill</a> and the estimated two-year budget gaps of all state and local governments, which have been forced to lay off <a href="https://www.pewtrusts.org/en/research-and-analysis/articles/2020/06/16/how-covid-19-is-driving-big-job-losses-in-state-and-local-government" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">more than a million</a> public-sector workers due to revenue shortfalls caused by the coronavirus crisis.</font></font></p><p style=""><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><b>"Sadly, the Gilded Age is here again,</b>" ATF executive director Frank Clemente said in a <a href="https://americansfortaxfairness.org/issue/since-pandemic-began-u-s-billionaires-net-worths-jump-931-billion-nearly-one-third-working-families-suffer/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">statement</a>. "We have extraordinary gains in wealth by a small sliver of the population while millions suffer, this time from the ravages of the pandemic, much of which could have been avoided."</font></font></p><p style=""><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman">"In the short-term we need a robust pandemic relief package that meets the urgency of the moment, not Senator McConnell's skinny bill that offers political cover," Clemente continued. "In the long-term we need major reform that taxes the extraordinary wealth of the billionaires and millionaires and uses that wealth to create an economy that works for all of us."</font></font></p><p style=""><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman">[twt</font></font></p><p style=""><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><b>The total wealth of all U.S. billionaires today ($3.88 trillion) is nearly DOUBLE the $2.1 trillion in total wealth held by the bottom half of the population.</b></font></font></p><p style=""><font face="Times New Roman"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" face="Times New Roman">Billionaires' $931 billion gain far exceeds the $300 billion in new pandemic relief proposed by McConnell in September.</font></font></p><p style=""><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman">Americans For Tax Fairness</font></font></p><p style=""><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman">@4TaxFairness</font></font></p><p style=""><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><b style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">How have working families fared?</b></font></font></p><p style=""><font face="Times New Roman"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" face="Times New Roman">??Nearly 8.2 million fell ill</font></font></p><p style=""><font face="Times New Roman"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" face="Times New Roman">??Nearly 62 million lost work</font></font></p><p style=""><font face="Times New Roman"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" face="Times New Roman">??98,000 businesses have permanently closed</font></font></p><p style=""><font face="Times New Roman"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" face="Times New Roman">??12 million lost employer-sponsored health insurance</font></font></p><p style=""><font face="Times New Roman"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" face="Times New Roman">??22 million reported not having enough food</font></font></p><p style=""><font face="Times New Roman"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" face="Times New Roman">??1/6 renters reported being behind on rent]</font></font></p><p style=""><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman">the new analysis shows that a handful of billionaires "have seen a particularly astonishing increase in wealth" over the past seven months:</font></font></p><ul class="ee-ul" style="margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; display: inline-block; width: 589.446px;"><font face="Times New Roman" /><li><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><b>Jeff Bezos' </b>wealth grew from<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> $113 billion on March 18 to $203 billion on October 13, an increase of 80%. Adding in his ex-wife MacKenzie Scott's wealth of $65.7 billion on that day and the two had a combined wealth of more than a <b>quarter of a trillion dollars thanks to their Amazon stock.</b></span></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></li><li>Mark<b> Zuckerberg's wealth grew from $54.7 billion on March 18 to $101 billion</b> on October 13, an <span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">increase of 85%, fueled by his Facebook stock.</span></li><li>Elon Musk's wealth grew from $24.6 billion on March 18 to $92.8 billion on October 13, an<b> increase of 277%, boosted by his Tesla stock.</b></li><li>Dan Gilbert, chairman of Quicken Loans, saw his wealth rocket by 656%, to $49.2 billion from $6.5 billion seven months earlier.</li></ul><p style=""><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman">"<b>With Mitch McConnell's Senate paralyzed with inaction, U.S. society is kicking into inequality overdrive, with wealth surging up to U.S. billionaires,</b>" said Chuck Collins, director of IPS' Program on Inequality. "The juxtaposition between surging billionaire wealth and the imploding livelihoods of ordinary Americans is grotesque and unseemly."</font></font></p></div></div><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><span class="" data-elid="2648424617" data-post-url="https://www.alternet.org/2020/10/billionaire-wealth-has-surged-by-nearly-1-trillion-during-7-months-of-and-economic-collapse/" data-authors="Jake Johnson, Common Dreams" data-headline="Billionaire wealth has surged by nearly $1 trillion during 7 months of pandemic and economic collapse" style="margin-top: 10px;" /></font></font></div></div></div></article></div></div><div class="" id="sPost_0_0_5_0_7_3_1_0_0_1" style="margin: auto; width: 654.943px;"><div id="lightbox-inline-form-ae0a1a76-b06b-45e5-9d44-8cc41de9ef21" align="center"><div class="" id="sPost_0_0_5_0_7_3_1_0_0_2" style="margin: auto; width: 654.943px;"><font face="Times New Roman"><a id="sPost_0_0_5_0_7_3_1_0_0_2_0" class="display-block image-element" href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/09/survey-do-you-think-trump-purposely-downplayed-covid-19-pandemic-to-win-the-election/" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s; display: block; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" /></font></div></div><div><a id="sPost_0_0_5_0_7_3_1_0_0_2_0" class="display-block image-element" href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/09/survey-do-you-think-trump-purposely-downplayed-covid-19-pandemic-to-win-the-election/" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s; display: block; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" /></a><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><a id="sPost_0_0_5_0_7_3_1_0_0_2_0" class="display-block image-element" href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/09/survey-do-you-think-trump-purposely-downplayed-covid-19-pandemic-to-win-the-election/" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s; display: block; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" /></a><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><a id="sPost_0_0_5_0_7_3_1_0_0_2_0" class="display-block image-element" href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/09/survey-do-you-think-trump-purposely-downplayed-covid-19-pandemic-to-win-the-election/" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s; display: block; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></a></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></div><div><div><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><a id="sPost_0_0_5_0_7_3_1_0_0_2_0" class="display-block image-element" href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/09/survey-do-you-think-trump-purposely-downplayed-covid-19-pandemic-to-win-the-election/" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s; display: block; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">=</font></a></font></font></font></font></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><a id="sPost_0_0_5_0_7_3_1_0_0_2_0" class="display-block image-element" href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/09/survey-do-you-think-trump-purposely-downplayed-covid-19-pandemic-to-win-the-election/" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s; display: block; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" /></a><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/10/billionaires-rich/">https://www.alternet.org/2020/10/billionaires-rich/</a></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></font></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman">igor salon</font></font></font></font></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></font></font></div><div><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><b>Billionaire wealth increased to $10.2 trillion through the end of July, setting a new record amid the coronavirus pandemic even as millions of unemployed people fall into poverty.</b></font></font></font></font></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman">Wealth held by billionaires around the world rose to $10.2 trillion in July, up from the previous record of $8.9 trillion in 2017, according to an <a href="https://www.pwc.ch/en/publications/2020/UBS-PwC-Billionaires-Report-2020.pdf" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">analysis by Swiss bank UBS and consulting firm PwC</a>.</font></font></font></font></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><b>The number of billionaires also rose from 2,158 in 2017 to 2,189 this summer, according to the report.</b></font></font></font></font></font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" face="Times New Roman">Not all billionaires saw their wealth increase, though some saw their wealth rise by close to 50%. Health care billionaires, for example, saw their wealth increase by 50%. Technology billionaires saw their wealth rise by 42.5%. Billionaires in the entertainment, financial services, materials, and real estate sectors saw increases of 10% or less.</font></font></font></font></font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" face="Times New Roman">While the UBS analysis looked at billionaires around the world, a separate <a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/16POHUoDL878UbxHqdZgnXL8IL4sEhfk9/view" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">analysis by the Institute for Policy Studies and Americans for Tax Fairness</a> found that billionaire wealth in the United States has grown by $792 billion, or 27%, since the beginning of coronavirus lockdowns in March. The combined wealth of American billionaires now tops $3.7 trillion.</font></font></font></font></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><b>Some prominent billionaires have done particularly well. Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos has seen his wealth rise more than 60% during the pandemic to $195 billion through late August, according to the analysis. Tesla CEO Elon Musk saw his wealth more than triple to $85 billion over that time frame.</b></font></font></font></font></font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);" face="Times New Roman">The study pointed to President Donald Trump's 2017 tax cuts, which <a href="https://www.salon.com/2020/09/07/the-ugly-numbers-are-finally-in-on-the-2017-trump-tax-rewrite_partner/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">helped billionaires</a> keep more of their earnings. The UBS study noted that Trump's desired capital gains tax cut, billed as a pandemic-related stimulus, would <a href="https://www.salon.com/2020/05/30/about-75-of-trumps-proposed-coronavirus-capital-gains-tax-cut-would-go-to-the-top-1-of-earners/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">overwhelmingly favor the richest Americans</a>.</font></font></font></font></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><b>"For billionaires, this is a heads-we win, tails-you-lose economy, boosted by Trump policies to funnel wealth to the top,</b>" Chuck Collins, the head of the Institute for Policy Studies' Program on Inequality, <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/newswire/2020/08/26/5-months-pandemic-billionaires-total-wealth-has-ballooned-nearly-800-billion" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">said in a news release</a>.</font></font></font></font></font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">"The pandemic profiteering of America's billionaires shows taxes on the wealthy must go up substantially to narrow the wealth gap and raise revenue vital for our big climb back from disaster," added Frank Clemente, executive director of Americans for Tax Fairness.</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> "</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">By demanding even more tax cuts for the rich at this crucial moment President Trump shows he is as out of touch with our nation's needs as America's billionaires are disconnected from our nation's misery."</span></font></font></font></font></font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" face="Times New Roman">Some executives, like Zoom CEO Eric Yuan and Bezos, have profited from a boom in business caused by the lockdowns. Others have profited directly from <a href="https://www.whitehouse.senate.gov/news/release/whitehouse-doggett-release-new-analysis-showing-gop-tax-provisions-in-cares-act-overwhelmingly-benefit-million-dollar-plus-earners" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">government aid</a> distributed to their companies. But most billionaires saw their wealth increase due to rising investments, buoyed by a stock market surge <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2020/07/16/fed-corporate-intervention-worry-365047" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">propped up by government assistance</a>.</font></font></font></font></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><b>The rising wealth amid an economically devastating pandemic threatens to deepen longstanding inequalities.</b></font></font></font></font></font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">"Extreme wealth concentration is an ugly phenomenon from a moral perspective, but it's also economically and socially destructive,"</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> Luke Hilyard, the executive director of the High Pay Center, a think tank that focuses on excessive executive pay, told </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">The Guardian</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">.guk "Anyone accumulating riches on this scale could easily afford to raise the pay of the employees who generate their wealth, or contribute a great deal more in taxes to support vital public services, while remaining very well rewarded for whatever successes they've achieved. The findings from the UBS report showing that the super-rich are getting even richer are a sign that capitalism isn't working as it should."</span></font></font></font></font></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman">UBS executive Josef Stadler also acknowledged that billionaires could face societal backlash over their growing wealth as many people face months if not years of struggles.</font></font></font></font></font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);" face="Times New Roman">"We're at an inflection point," he told the outlet. "Wealth concentration is as high as in 1905, this is something billionaires are concerned about. <b>The problem is the power of interest on interest – that makes big money bigger</b> and, the question is to what extent is that sustainable and at what point will society intervene and strike back?"</font></font></font></font></font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" face="Times New Roman">But it's far from the first time that billionaires profited while millions suffered. The <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/28/perspectives/inequality-coronavirus-billionaires/index.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">Institute for Policy Studies</a> found that the <b>wealthiest 400 billionaires in the US not only recovered from the 2008 recession within three years but increased their wealth by 80% over the following decade. By comparison, the bottom 80% of earners have still not recovered.</b></font></font></font></font></font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">While government intervention has helped billionaires accumulate even more wealth, the lack of government action since the spring has resulted in an <a href="https://www.salon.com/2020/10/15/8-million-americans-fall-into-poverty-after-republicans-let-coronavirus-aid-expire-study/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">estimated 8 million Americans</a> falling into poverty since May,</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> according to a </span><a href="https://www.povertycenter.columbia.edu/news-internal/2020/covid-projecting-monthly-poverty" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">study from researchers at Columbia University</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">. The lack of additional stimulus payments and the expiration of enhanced federal unemployment benefits has resulted in 6 million Americans falling into poverty over just the last three months, according to a study from researchers at the </span><a href="http://povertymeasurement.org/covid-19-poverty-dashboard/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">University of Chicago and Notre Dame</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">.</span></font></font></font></font></font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" face="Times New Roman"><b>The problem has been even worse globally.</b> Between 88 million and 114 million people around the world have fallen into extreme poverty, defined as living on less than $1.90 per day, since the pandemic hit, according to the <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/coronavirus-has-thrown-around-100-million-people-into-extreme-poverty-world-bank-estimates-11602086400" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">World Bank</a>. There are now more than 700 million people living in extreme poverty and researchers expected that number to keep rising.</font></font></font></font></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman">"This is the worst setback that we've witnessed in a generation," Carolina Sánchez-Páramo, the global director of the World Bank's Poverty and Equity Global Practice, told <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/coronavirus-has-thrown-around-100-million-people-into-extreme-poverty-world-bank-estimates-11602086400" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">The Wall Street Journal</a>.</font></font></font></font></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><b>World Bank Group President David Malpass <a href="https://www.worldbank.org/en/news/speech/2020/10/05/reversing-the-inequality-pandemic-speech-by-world-bank-group-president-david-malpass" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">argued in a speech</a> this month that the problem is worse in developing economies because "rich countries" have the resources to expand sweeping "government spending programs" while poorer economies have few tools to mitigate the economic damage.</b></font></font></font></font></font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);" face="Times New Roman">The US, by contrast, should be doing better if not for <a href="https://www.salon.com/2020/10/16/mcconnell-expects-trump-to-lose-mitch-shoots-down-stimulus-compromise-between-trump-and-democrats/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">Republican reluctance to increased government relief</a>. Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell warned Congress last month that inaction in the face of <b>growing inequality would be highly damaging to the economic recovery.</b></font></font></font></font></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman">"Those are things that hold back our economy," <a href="https://apnews.com/article/virus-outbreak-prices-inflation-archive-be741aefe99dea470a504c74b67700da" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">he said at a news conference</a>. "If we want to have the highest potential output and the best output for our economy, we need that prosperity to be very broadly spread."</font></font></font></font></font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" face="Times New Roman">Many analysts have also faulted Powell and the Fed for contributing to the growing inequality with policies "disproportionately benefiting stockholders," according to the <a href="https://apnews.com/article/virus-outbreak-stock-prices-financial-markets-stock-markets-archive-28a44dd1a025d9b9af5a8d4ff8c5a033" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">Associated Press</a>.</font></font></font></font></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman">Just as the coronavirus has <a href="https://www.salon.com/2020/04/12/higher-rates-of-air-pollution-linked-to-more-covid-19-deaths-study-shows/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">exposed longstanding health disparities</a> between the richest and poorest Americans, the growing inequality is largely the result of a "catastrophic failure to tackle inequality" well before the pandemic struck, according to a <a href="https://www.oxfam.org/en/press-releases/new-global-index-shows-catastrophic-failure-tackle-inequality-left-majority-worlds" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">report from Oxfam International</a>.</font></font></font></font></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman">"Governments' catastrophic failure to tackle inequality meant the majority of the world's countries were critically ill-equipped to weather the pandemic," said Oxfam interim executive director Chema Vera. "No country on earth was trying hard enough to reduce inequality and ordinary people are bearing the brunt of this crisis as a result. Millions of people have been pushed into poverty and hunger and there have been countless unnecessary deaths."</font></font></font></font></font></p><div class="around-the-web" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div class="from-your-siteheadline" style="text-transform: uppercase;"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman">FROM YOUR SITE ARTICLES</font></font></font></font></font></div><ul class="around-the-weblist" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; display: inline-block; width: 589.446px; list-style: none;"><font face="Times New Roman" /><li class="from-your-siteitem"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/05/economist-thomas-piketty-coronavirus-pandemic-has-exposed-the-violence-of-social-inequality/" class="from-your-sitelink" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s; line-height: normal; display: inline-block; margin-top: 10px;">Economist Thomas Piketty: Coronavirus pandemic has exposed the ... ›</a></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></li><li class="from-your-siteitem"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/04/no-were-not-all-in-this-together-the-super-rich-are-cheating-america/" class="from-your-sitelink" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s; line-height: normal; display: inline-block; margin-top: 10px;">No, we're not all in this together — the super-rich are cheating America ›</a></li><li class="from-your-siteitem"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/07/trump-is-overseeing-a-historic-transfer-of-wealth-to-the-super-rich-as-covid-19-deaths-hit-record-numbers/" class="from-your-sitelink" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s; line-height: normal; display: inline-block; margin-top: 10px;">Trump is overseeing a historic transfer of wealth to the super-rich as ... ›</a></li></ul><div class="around-the-webheadline" style="text-transform: uppercase; margin-top: 10px;"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman">RELATED ARTICLES AROUND THE WEB</font></font></font></div><ul class="around-the-weblist" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; display: inline-block; width: 589.446px; list-style: none;"><font face="Times New Roman" /><li class="around-the-webitem"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/business/2020/sep/17/wealth-of-us-billionaires-rises-by-nearly-a-third-during-pandemic" class="around-the-weblink" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s; line-height: normal; display: inline-block; margin-top: 10px;">Wealth of US billionaires rises by nearly a third during pandemic ... ›</a></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></li><li class="around-the-webitem"><a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2020/05/21/american-billionaires-got-434-billion-richer-during-the-pandemic.html" class="around-the-weblink" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s; line-height: normal; display: inline-block; margin-top: 10px;">American billionaires got $434 billion richer during the pandemic ›</a></li><li class="around-the-webitem"><a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/28/perspectives/inequality-coronavirus-billionaires/index.html" class="around-the-weblink" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s; line-height: normal; display: inline-block; margin-top: 10px;">Billionaires are getting even richer from the pandemic. Enough is ... ›</a></li></ul></div></div><div><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman">=</font></font></font></div></div><div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman">=</font></font></font></div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/10/heading-off-the-prospects-of-a-dark-and-tumultuous-future"><font face="Times New Roman">https://www.alternet.org/2020/10/heading-off-the-prospects-of-a-dark-and-tumultuous-future</font></a></font></font></div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman">quite long, see post-trump</font></font></font></div></div><div><div><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"></font></font></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/10/pope-calls-on-global-community-to-confront-destructive-effects-of-empire-of-money/"><font face="Times New Roman">https://www.alternet.org/2020/10/pope-calls-on-global-community-to-confront-destructive-effects-of-empire-of-money/</font></a></font></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></div><div><div><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman">no lnx </font></font></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><b>Pope calls on global community to confront 'destructive effects of empire of money'</b></font></font></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman">Julia Conley and Common Dreams October 05, 2020</font></font></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"> </font></font></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><b>In his third encyclical Sunday morning, Pope Francis denounced free market capitalism and the "magic" theory of trickle-down economics, saying the coronavirus pandemic has once and for all disproven the notion that economic policies that are aimed at benefiting the already-rich will benefit low-income people through job creation and investments.</b></font></font></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" face="Times New Roman">The 45,000 word document, titled "Fratelli Tutti" meaning "Brothers All" or "Brothers and Sisters All," indicated the pope's belief that the pandemic has shown that a major overhaul of global economic systems is needed, as the crisis has disproportionately affected the poor in countries including the U.S., Brazil, and the U.K.; revealed the<b> divide between low-income workers all over the world who have had limited access to government aid and professionals who are able to work from home; and caused the "most unequal" recession in modern U.S. history.</b></font></font></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" face="Times New Roman">"Anyone who thinks that the only lesson to be learned was the need to improve what we were already doing, or to refine existing systems and regulations, is denying reality," Pope Francis said.</font></font></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" face="Times New Roman">"The<b> fragility of world systems</b> in the face of the pandemic has demonstrated that not everything can be resolved by market freedom," the encyclical continued.</font></font></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><b>The document implicitly rebuked conservative and neo-liberal views in the U.S. and other wealthy nations.</b> In the U.S., the pandemic has so far eliminated low-paying jobs at eight times the rate of high-wage jobs, and Republican leaders in the Senate have scoffed at Democrats' proposal to continue the $600-per-week unemployment benefit introduced in March, despite evidence that it had a measurable positive impact on poverty levels in the United States for several months this year. Instead, the GOP has prioritized protecting corporations from liability should their employees contract the coronavirus after returning to work.</font></font></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><b>Previous economic crises, such as the recession in 2008 and 2009, have ultimately "increased freedom for the truly powerful, who always find a way to escape unscathed," Pope Francis remarked. Now, he said, society must confront "the destructive effects of the empire of money."</b></font></font></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" face="Times New Roman">Those with economic power must "administer it for the good of all" rather than hoarding wealth, he said, suggesting that this applies both to individual countries like the<b>U.S.—where a recent analysis by the People's Policy Project showed that nearly 80% of wealth is currently owned by millionaires and billionaires, who make up just 12% of the population</b>—and to the global community, where leaders of developing countries recently asked if their populations will be "left to die" after the U.S., Russia, and Brazil refused to commit to a global effort to make a Covid-19 vaccine available to all.</font></font></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);" face="Times New Roman">Private property cannot be considered a right if a select few in a society live in luxury while others have nothing, the pope added.</font></font></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman">Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove, a spiritual writer and leader of the Poor People's Campaign in the U.S., interpreted Pope Francis's words as a call for an "international Poor People's Campaign."</font></font></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman">"There seems to be no place for popular movements that unite the unemployed, temporary and informal workers, and many others who do not easily find a place in existing structures," said the Pope.</font></font></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><b>Rev. Dr. William Barber II, co-chair of the Poor People's Campaign, thanked the pope </b>for "calling the church to stand with poor people's movements around the world" in the midst of the pandemic and beyond.</font></font></font></div></div><div><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman">
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</font></font></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/10/rep-katie-porter-brilliantly-grills-a-pharma-ceo-and-exposes-his-horrifying-earnings/">https://www.alternet.org/2020/10/rep-katie-porter-brilliantly-grills-a-pharma-ceo-and-exposes-his-horrifying-earnings/</a></font></font></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman">
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</font></font></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman">= </font></font></font></div></div><div><div><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman">=</font></font></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/09/experts-lawsuit-heading-to-supreme-court-would-lead-to-massive-transfer-of-wealth-from-middle-class-to-richest-americans/">https://www.alternet.org/2020/09/experts-lawsuit-heading-to-supreme-court-would-lead-to-massive-transfer-of-wealth-from-middle-class-to-richest-americans/</a></font></font></font></div><div><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><b>Republican lawsuit that seeks to strike down the Affordable Care Act would save the richest one-tenth of 1 percent of Americans an average of $198,000 per year,</b>according to an analysis by the <a href="https://www.cbpp.org/research/health/aca-repeal-lawsuit-would-cut-taxes-for-top-01-percent-by-an-average-of-198000" rel="noopener" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">Center on Budget and Policy Priorities</a>.</font></font></font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The case, which was <a href="https://www.salon.com/2020/05/06/william-barr-warns-trump-administration-to-back-off-lawsuit-seeking-to-kill-obamacare-report/" rel="noopener" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">initiated by 18 state attorneys general and backed by the Trump administration</a>, is scheduled to be heard by the Supreme Court a <a href="https://www.salon.com/2020/09/21/rbgs-death-means-obamacare-may-be-doomed--even-if-trump-doesnt-get-another-supreme-court-pick/" rel="noopener" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">week after the November election</a></span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">. A Texas judge ruled in 2018 that the </span><a href="https://www.salon.com/2018/12/14/a-federal-judge-in-texas-just-ruled-the-affordable-care-act-unconstitutional/" rel="noopener" target="blank" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">entire Obamacare law was unconstitutional</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">, after the Republican-led Congress eliminated the individual mandate penalty in its 2017 tax bill and an appeals court then sent the case back for the judge to decide whether the entire law needed to be struck down.</span></font></font></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman">Legal experts have called the idea that the individual mandate rendered the entire law unconstitutional <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/6/8/17441512/obamacare-lawsuit-texas-trump" rel="noopener" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">“ridiculous”</a> and a <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/15/opinion/obamacare-ruling-unconstitutional-affordable-care-act.html" rel="noopener" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">“mockery of the rule of law.”</a> But conservatives currently hold a 5-3 majority on the Supreme Court, which <a href="https://www.salon.com/2020/09/21/rbgs-death-means-obamacare-may-be-doomed--even-if-trump-doesnt-get-another-supreme-court-pick/" rel="noopener" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">could soon swell to a 6-3 majority</a> if President Trump successfully replaces the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, putting the fate of the law and health coverage and protections for tens of millions of Americans in doubt.</font></font></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><b>Repealing Obamacare would be a boon for the richest Americans, however, because of the taxes imposed by the law. Obamacare imposed a 0.9% tax on earnings over $200,000 for individuals </b>and $250,000 for couples, along with an additional 3.8% tax on unearned income like capital gains and royalties. The analysis also includes other Obamacare revenue streams, like a<b> $2.8 billion annual fee on pharmaceutical companies </b>and the law’s employer mandate. These taxes were used to cover the cost of the Medicaid expansion and subsidies for those buying health care on the exchanges created by the law.</font></font></font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" face="Times New Roman">The top 0.1% of earners, who make more than $3 million per year, would see a tax savings of about $198,000 per year, according to the CBPP analysis. Households earning more than $1 million per year would get tax cuts of about $42,000 per year.</font></font></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><b>Households in the bottom 80% would see average tax cuts of less than $80 a year. The top 0.1% would receive 42% of the tax benefits from the law’s repeal.</b></font></font></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman">Tax cuts for households with incomes above $200,000 per year would cost the government about $30 billion per year, enough to cover the cost of the Medicaid expansion for more than 4 million people, according to the analysis.</font></font></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman">“In effect, the Administration and the state attorneys general are seeking a massive transfer of resources from low- and moderate-income people to those at the top of the income scale,” the CBPP researchers wrote. “The lawsuit would also widen racial gaps, with Black and Hispanic people disproportionately likely to lose health coverage and the overwhelming share of the tax cuts flowing to white people.”</font></font></font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" face="Times New Roman">Based on estimates from the <a href="https://www.urban.org/research/publication/how-covid-19-recession-could-affect-health-insurance-coverage" rel="noopener" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">Urban Institute</a>, the analysis found that nearly 10% of non-elderly Black people and 10% of Hispanic people would lose health coverage if the law were repealed. About one of every 16 white people would also lose coverage.</font></font></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><b>“Meanwhile, the tax cuts that would result from striking down the law would flow disproportionately to white households, which are three times likelier than Black or Hispanic households to be in the top 1 percent of the income scale,” the researchers wrote.</b></font></font></font></p></div><div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman">=</font></font></font></div></div></div><div><div><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"></font></font></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman">9/20 oxfam? 1% 2x CO2 ghg than bottom 1/2</font></font></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></div><div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman">---</font></font></font></div></div></div><div><div><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman">=</font></font></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman">DN 920</font></font></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.democracynow.org/2020/9/18/headlines/us_billionaires_added_845b_to_net_worth_since_march_as_pandemic_exposed_racial_inequities">https://www.democracynow.org/2020/9/18/headlines/us_billionaires_added_845b_to_net_worth_since_march_as_pandemic_exposed_racial_inequities</a></font></font></font></div><div><ul style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 20px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center; background-color: rgb(241, 242, 243);"><li class="hidden-xs" style="text-align: left; box-sizing: border-box; list-style-type: none; padding: 0px 0px 23px; line-height: 1.33;"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><a data-ga-action="Home Headlines: Headline" href="https://www.democracynow.org/2020/9/18/headlines/us_billionaires_added_845b_to_net_worth_since_march_as_pandemic_exposed_racial_inequities" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; border: 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman">U.S. Billionaires Added $845B to Net Worth Since March as Pandemic Exposed Racial Inequities</font></a></font></font></li></ul></div><div><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"></font></font></font></div></div><div><div><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">=</span></font></font></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">an 920</span></font></font></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</span></font></font></font></div><div><div class="header-list-style" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><h2 class="entry-title grid-title" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; letter-spacing: 1px;"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman">r<a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/09/rich-nations-are-hoarding-potential-19-vaccine-doses-oxfam/" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer; letter-spacing: 0px;">ich nations are hoarding potential COVID-19 vaccine doses: Oxfam</a></font></font></font></h2><div class="grid-post-box-meta" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 12px 0px 0px; padding: 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><span class="author-italic author vcard" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/author/andrea-germanos/" title="Posts by Andrea Germanos" class="author url fn" rel="author" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">Andrea Germanos</a> / <a href="https://www.alternet.org/author/common-dreams/" title="Posts by Common Dreams" class="author url fn" rel="author" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">Common Dreams</a> </span><span style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">September 17, 2020</span></font></font></font></div></div><div class="item-content entry-content" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 18px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman">Oxfam on Thursday reiterated its call for a “people’s vaccine” as the anti-poverty group released a new analysis showing that a handful of rich nations representing just 13 percent of…</font></font></font></p></div></div><div><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><strong><font face="Times New Roman">=</font></strong></font></font></p></div></div><div><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman">==</font></font></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/09/analysis-of-irs-data-shows-trumps-presidency-has-been-very-good-for-the-richest-americans/">https://www.alternet.org/2020/09/analysis-of-irs-data-shows-trumps-presidency-has-been-very-good-for-the-richest-americans/</a></font></font></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></div><div><div class="header-standard header-classic single-header" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 26px; padding: 0px; position: relative; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div class="post-box-meta-single" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 6px 0px 0px; padding: 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><span class="author-post byline" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 6px 0px 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="author vcard" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> <span class="coauthors 210" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/author/david-cay-johnston/" title="Posts by David Cay Johnston" class="author url fn" rel="author" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 6px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer; text-transform: capitalize;">David Cay Johnston</a> / <a href="https://www.alternet.org/author/dc-report/" title="Posts by DC Report" class="author url fn" rel="author" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 6px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer; text-transform: capitalize;">DC Report
If you are in the 99% here is how well you are faring under Trump policies compared to the 1%: for each dollar of increased income that you earned in 2018, each One-Percenter got $88 more income.</a></span></span></span></font></font></font><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font style="" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Huge as that ratio is, it’s small change compared to the super-rich, the 0.01% of Americans with incomes of $10 million and up. That ratio is $1 for you and $2,215 for each super-rich American household.</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> Let’s call them the Platinum-Premiere-Point-Zero-One-Percenters</span></font></font></font></p><blockquote style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 10px 20px 10px 24px; position: relative; line-height: 1.7; overflow: hidden; border: none !important;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.7;"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);" face="Times New Roman">The slice of American income pie going to the poor shrank under Trump by the same amount that it grew for the super-rich.</font></p></blockquote><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font face="Times New Roman">Ponder that.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font face="Times New Roman">For each additional dollar you earned in 2018 compared to 2016, each of the Platinum-Premiere crowd got an additional $2,215.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><span style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large"><font face="Times New Roman">the bottom line: with Trump as president it’s good to be rich.</font></span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" face="Times New Roman">The average Platinum-Premiere American enjoyed is $7.1 million more income under Trump in 2018 than in 2016, the last year that Barack Obama was president. For the Ninety-Nine-Percenters, in contrast, average income rose just $3,360 with most of that gain among those making $200,000 to $500,000.</font></p><h3 style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: 1.3em;"><font face="Times New Roman">Not Widely Reported</font></h3><div id="attachment_20255" class="wp-caption alignright" style="background: none; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 5px 0px 17px 30px; padding: 0px; float: right; border: none; max-width: 100%; text-align: center; position: relative; overflow: hidden;"><p id="caption-attachment-20255" class="wp-caption-text" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 11px 10px; line-height: 1.4; font-style: italic; position: absolute; bottom: 0px; left: 0px; width: 20px; background: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.5); transition: all 0.4s ease 0s;" /></div><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font face="Times New Roman">You haven’t heard these numbers on the nightly news or read them in your morning newspaper because no one announced them. I distilled them from an official government report known as <a href="https://www.irs.gov/statistics/soi-tax-stats-individual-statistical-tables-by-size-of-adjusted-gross-income" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">IRS Table 1.4</a>, a task I’ve repeated annually for a quarter-century.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" face="Times New Roman">At DCReport we don’t attend press conferences,<b> we don’t rewrite press releases</b> and we don’t depend on access to officials because other journalists do that just fine. Instead, we scour the public record for news that oozes, news that no one announced.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font face="Times New Roman">Last week I reported <a href="https://www.dcreport.org/2020/09/05/the-ugly-numbers-are-finally-in-on-the-2017-trump-tax-rewrite/" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">my preliminary analysis of Table 1.4</a>, showing that 57% of American households were better off under Obama. That contradicted Trump’s naked claim, repeated uncritically and often in news reports, that he created the best economy ever until the coronavirus pandemic.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font face="Times New Roman">This week’s focus is on the big changes in how the American income pie is being divvied up.</font></p><h3 style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: 1.3em;"><font face="Times New Roman">More for the Top</font></h3><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font face="Times New Roman">The rich and super-rich are enjoying a bigger slice of the American income pie.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" face="Times New Roman">On the other hand, this is a truly awful time to be poor. Trump policies are narrowing the pockets of the poor, the third of Americans make less than $25,000. In 2018 their average income was just $12,600, a dollar a day less than in 2016.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font face="Times New Roman">Trump & Co. has numerous plans afoot to reduce incomes of the poor even more and take away government benefits, as we have been <a href="https://www.dcreport.org/?s=poor&search_button=Search" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">documenting at DCReport</a>.</font></p><h3 style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: 1.3em;"><font face="Times New Roman">Less for the Bottom</font></h3><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font face="Times New Roman">The poor saw their slice of the national income pie shrink by 1 percentage point from 6.5% to 5.5%. In a mirror image of that change, the super-rich saw their share of income pie grow by the same 1 percentage point, from 4.5% to 5.7% of all income.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font face="Times New Roman">That means the richest 22,122 households now collectively enjoy more income than the poorest 50 million households.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font face="Times New Roman">What these huge disparities make clear is that the sum of all Trump policies not only makes the poor worse off, but their losses are transformed into the gains of the super-rich.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" face="Times New Roman">The economic growth that began in early 2010 when Obama was president continued under Trump, albeit at a <a href="https://www.dcreport.org/2019/04/29/why-trump-gets-a-c-on-the-economy/" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">slower pace as DCReport showed last year</a>. Pre-pandemic Trump underperformed Reagan, Clinton, Carter and the last six years of Obama, who inherited the worst economy in almost a century.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font face="Times New Roman">The continuing upward trajectory for the economy meant that overall Americans made more money in 2018 than in 2016 even after adjusting for inflation of 4.1% over two years. Total income grew by almost $1 trillion to $11.6 trillion.</font></p><h3 style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: 1.3em;"><font face="Times New Roman">Half-Trillion for the One-Percenters</font></h3><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" face="Times New Roman">Almost half of the increase went to the 1%. They enjoyed $487 billion more money. The rest of America, a group 99 times larger, divvied up $511 billion.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font face="Times New Roman"><b>The big winners, though, were the super-rich, the $10 million-plus crowd. That group consists of just one in every 7,000 taxpayers yet they captured every sixth dollar of increased national income, a total gain of $157 billion.</b></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font face="Times New Roman">So, if you are among the 152 million American taxpayers in the 99% ask yourself whether Trump administration policies are good for you. Do you want a government of the rich, by the rich and overwhelmingly for the rich? Or would you prefer a government that benefits all Americans?</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font face="Times New Roman">And see what you can do to make sure more Americans know about the big shifts in the way America’s income pie is being sliced up.</font></p></div></div></div><div><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></div><div><div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman">=</font></font></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman">aha: capitalism built on myth/story /schema of spot transaction/barter, not found in real world?</font></font></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman">aha: trump is just apotheosis: invis hand me vs we short vs long term: $ = winner, vs losers who deserve poverty, corruption/crony capitalism is natural inevitable outcome</font></font></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman">---</font></font></font></div></div><div style=""><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman">// metaphor; immune sys digestive sys goes on overdrive?</font></font></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></div><div><div><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">aha: reduction = retaliation = transaction </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">[extraction is just a more extreme form where other has no power] <b>INEQUALITY</b></span></font></font></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman">terministic screen/tunnel vision limits to small number of visible things right here and now <span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">self-ish </span><b>vs larger complex system/ long term</b>; also zero sum</font></font></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman">long term means more entities, more events thus more complexity (tho a <span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">story</span> can simplify/screen/ change emphasis, make a pattern (even where none exists, eg qanon) thus meaning, which then acts as term screen filter to repell conflicting/anomalous/dissonance info ); but fills vacuum need, that previously would have been filled by experts/textbooks/teachers/leaders/pastors?</font></font></font></div></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman">----</font></font></font></div></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman">aha: reduction = retaliation = transaction</font></font></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman">terministic screen/tunnel vision limits to small number of visible things right here and now vs larger complex system/ long term</font></font></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/09/americas-enemies-perceive-weakness-in-donald-trump-foreign-policy-expert-explains-how-the-president-squandered-us-exceptionalism/" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">https://www.alternet.org/2020/09/americas-enemies-perceive-weakness-in-donald-trump-foreign-policy-expert-explains-how-the-president-squandered-us-exceptionalism/</a></font></font></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" /><div><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman">no lnx audio</font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></div><div> c de v</div></div></div><div><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman">=</font></font></font></p></div></div><div><div><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman">=</font></font></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/09/experts-us-is-experiencing-a-k-shaped-recovery-that-has-troubling-implications-for-the-future-of-americas-economy">https://www.alternet.org/2020/09/experts-us-is-experiencing-a-k-shaped-recovery-that-has-troubling-implications-for-the-future-of-americas-economy</a></font></font></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></div><div><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman">During a Sunday appearance on “Fox News Sunday,” Symone Sanders, a senior campaign adviser to Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden, lamented how recent economic gains were distributed unequally. “It is going well for folks at the top, but for folks who are middle class or below, it’s going down,” Sanders told host <a href="https://www.salon.com/topic/bret_baier" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">Bret Baier</a>. “The question really is, is this [economy] working for working families, and the answer is no.”</font></font></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman">The economic pickle Sanders described is sometimes called a <b>“K-shaped” recovery — meaning one in which the wealthy benefit from the recovery while everyone else continues to suffer. Regardless of one’s feelings about the Biden campaign, Sanders’ analysis is echoed by economists — who say that the nascent K-shaped recovery has troubling implications for the future of America’s economy.</b></font></font></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman">“I do think the USA is seeing a K-shaped recovery,” Dr. Gabriel Mathy, a macroeconomist at American University, told Salon by email. “The working class has to continue working, and the government transfers and additional unemployment insurance payments are falling. They must work outside the home, exposing themselves to the virus, and with schools opening they must find childcare. Richer groups have seen their stock portfolios rise and they are working from home, doing okay.”</font></font></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman">Indeed, as <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2020/09/04/worries-grow-over-a-k-shaped-economic-recovery-that-favors-the-wealthy.html" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">CNBC recently reported</a>, the wealthiest Americans are prospering as <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2020/09/09/stanley-druckenmiller-says-were-in-a-raging-mania-and-the-next-3-to-5-years-will-be-challenging.html" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">the stock market rallies</a> but millions of Americans <a href="https://www.salon.com/2020/07/09/millions-of-americans-may-face-long-term-unemployment-report/" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">face the prospect of long-term unemployment</a>. If the current trends continue, it is entirely possible that Wall Street banks and large retail outlet chains will flourish while small business owners, restaurants and service profession workers suffer. Likewise, billionaires have seen tremendous gains during the pandemic: SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk saw his net worth rise to $82.3 billion, a 27.5 billion rise since the beginning of 2020. Jeff Bezos’ fortune <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/billionaires/" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">rose</a> $71.1 billion, and he is now worth $186 billion; he started the year at $115 billion.</font></font></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><span style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large"><font face="Times New Roman">in other words, the recession is over for the richest among us — or, in some cases, they never experienced a recession at all.</font></span></font></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman">Dr. Karl Widerquist, an American political philosopher and economist at Georgetown University in their Qatar campus, echoed Mathy’s perspective.</font></font></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" face="Times New Roman">“Although employment has come back unusually fast, it has not come back nearly as fast as the stock market, which has completely recovered, and the real estate market, which doesn’t even seem to have slowed down,” Widerquist wrote to Salon. “People used to tell a joke: ‘The stock market has predicted nine of the past five recessions’ (usually attributed to Paul Samuelson). They won’t be telling that joke again any time soon. This rise in asset prices is coming as poverty is unusually high, food insecurity is rising, and perhaps in most stark contrast to rising real estate prices, a very large number of Americans are unable to pay their rent or their mortgages.”</font></font></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><b>Dr. Richard D. Wolff, professor emeritus of economics at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, wrote to Salon that the K-shaped recovery shouldn’t come as a surprise. If anything, America’s economic system was designed decades ago to guarantee unequal wealth redistribution.</b></font></font></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><b style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">“The whole system is set up to achieve this end, which is why the last 40 years have seen widening gap of rich and poor,</b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">” Wolff explained. </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">“The rich and corporations use their wealth to shape politics, so it does not undo the results of an economy geared to inequality. In a political world of universal suffrage where capitalism pits an employer minority against an employee majority, such political corruption by money follows.”</span></font></font></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" face="Times New Roman">Wolff noted that sometimes the poor and working classes revolt and force systemic changes that temporarily reduce income inequality — the most prominent instance being during <a href="https://www.salon.com/2018/04/04/fdrs-forest-army-how-the-new-deal-helped-seed-the-modern-environmental-movement-85-years-ago_partner/" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">Roosevelt’s presidency</a> in the 1930s, which is no doubt why Biden is <a href="https://www.salon.com/2020/06/28/joe-biden-wants-to-be-the-next-fdr--but-that-wont-be-enough-to-solve-our-crises/" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">promising</a> to emulate that administration — but Wolff pointed out that “once the crisis is past, the resumption of ‘normal capitalism’ likewise resumes the deepening of economic inequalities.”</font></font></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman">Economists say if America wishes to halt the unequal recovery and create an economy that benefits all Americans, drastic reforms are needed — starting with a continuation of the <a href="https://www.salon.com/2020/07/31/30-million-families-to-lose-federal-unemployment-benefits-as-senate-gop-skips-town-for-long-weekend/" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">temporary stimuli</a> implemented in the immediate aftermath of the economic shutdown, but which have <a href="https://www.salon.com/2020/07/31/30-million-families-to-lose-federal-unemployment-benefits-as-senate-gop-skips-town-for-long-weekend/" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">subsequently been allowed to expire</a>.</font></font></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman">“I think continuation of unemployment insurance benefits at the 600 dollar level is essential,” Dr. Mouhcine Guettabi, an associate professor of economics at the University of Alaska Anchorage, wrote to Salon. “This should be accompanied with aid to states and local governments so that we don’t see a second wave of layoffs due to budgetary pressures. Additionally, there should be <a href="https://www.salon.com/2020/09/05/900000-pennsylvanians-could-face-eviction-this-fall-if-government-fails-to-act/" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">extensions on the eviction moratoriums</a> to ensure that the jobs crisis does not turn into a housing/homelessness crisis.”</font></font></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman">Mathy expressed a similar thought to Salon, writing that “reauthorizing the pandemic assistance is important, and having additional transfers to households would help too. The <a href="https://www.salon.com/2020/07/30/yale-study-on-600-unemployment-lifeline-championed-by-democrats-destroys-favorite-gop-talking-point_partner/" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">CARES Act</a> should have never expired, and additional help should be focused on struggling small businesses and poorer households.”</font></font></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman">Widerquist told Salon that wealth <a href="https://www.salon.com/2014/01/07/the_great_redistribution_is_not_what_you_would_expect_partner/" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">redistribution</a> on a large scale will also be necessary.</font></font></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><b style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">“The solution to increasing economic inequality is simple: taxation and redistribution,</b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">” Widerquist explained. “</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">We need taxes on people who own assets — on the people who own all the things we make out of our land and natural resources — to support redistribution to everyone. With that in place, we all pay for resources we use and we all get paid for the resources everyone else owns or uses. As it is now, the people who own stuff get paid almost no matter what happens.”</span></font></font></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" face="Times New Roman"><b>One major obstacle to doing this, Widerquist observed, is that the current economy is “increasingly controlled by super-dominant corporations</b>.” As one example, he drew attention to how almost all social media platforms depend on content provided by its users, even though those same people <a href="https://www.salon.com/2017/08/05/could-co-ops-replace-ridesharing-companies-like-uber/" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">rarely have any ownership</a> over what they produce.</font></font></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman">“It might be necessary to transform them into users’ cooperatives, or into partnerships between users and the administration,” Widerquist argued. “Similarly online sales, streaming, and download services like Amazon, Netflix, Audible, Spotify, and Hulu should perhaps be partnerships between four stakeholders: users, content creates, the administration, and the workers. This may become essential to overcoming an enormous power imbalance developing in America.”</font></font></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman">Wolff offered a different possibility when speaking to Salon — namely, that alternatives like worker cooperatives (where workers own a business and reap rewards for its financial success based on the extent of their contributions) should be considered, and that the types of reforms implemented by Roosevelt in the 1930s are not enough.</font></font></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman">“Without basic system change, policies of reform either fail or else achieve victories,” Wolff explained, citing the New Deal as an example of something that worked well to reduce inequality but was slowly undone over the next half-century. Wolff advocated for a “basic system change” — specifically, “transition to a <a href="https://truthout.org/articles/worker-coops-and-left-strategy/" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">worker-coop based economic system</a> whose democratic decision-making in each enterprise would never distribute income as unequally as capitalism normally does. That would the obviate the need for socially divisive redistributions.”</font></font></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman">Trump’s opponent, Biden, is not advocating for such a systemic change, but rather a modest Keynesian stimulus akin to a smaller version of the New Deal. Specifically, Biden has advocated for stimulus legislation “a hell of a lot bigger” than the $2 trillion Congress initially spent in response to the recession, investing in a Pandemic Testing Board, creating a 100,000-plus worker Public Health Jobs Corps, passing new regulations on banks and the financial sector, requiring businesses to provide paid emergency sick leave, increasing Social Security checks by up to $200 a month and likewise increasing the size of the relief checks sent to families.</font></font></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman">Yet politicians <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/politics/obama-promises/" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">rarely</a> follow through on all their promises, whether due to congressional pushback or a lack of political will. In any case, as America’s K-shaped recovery shows no signs of slowing, the gulf between rich and poor will continue to widen. The only question is how long Americans will stomach it.</font></font></font></p></div><div><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman">=</font></font></font></div></div><div><div><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" face="Times New Roman"></font></font></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/09/scientists-explain-why-the-wealthy-struggle-with-empathy/">https://www.alternet.org/2020/09/scientists-explain-why-the-wealthy-struggle-with-empathy/</a></font></font></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman">matt r salon</font></font></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></div><div><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><b>a new study reveals that people from higher income backgrounds struggle with certain aspects of empathy when compared to individuals who have lower incomes, who are better at reading people’s emotions.</b></font></font></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman">The <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0146167220914116" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">research paper</a>, which was published in the “Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin,” asked individuals from different class backgrounds to infer others’ emotional states by looking at images of their eyes and to attempt to assume the visual perspective of other people.</font></font></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman">The findings suggest that our socioeconomic status may affect the way we see and interact with other people.</font></font></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman">Researchers know that there are many things can make it difficult for one person to effectively empathize with another, including neurological conditions like autism and psychological illnesses like schizophrenia. In their study, researchers Pia Dietze of the University of California, Irvine and Eric D. Knowles of New York University attempted to better understand how social class specifically influences Theory of Mind.</font></font></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><span times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large"><font face="Times New Roman">"[Theory of Mind] encompasses a range of competencies that together enable people to solve problems in a world full of other minds,” the authors explain. “Examples of ToM include our ability to infer people’s emotions, understand others’ visual perspectives, trace behavior to actors’ underlying intentions and desires, and grasp the fact that others’ beliefs might misportray reality. We focus on two facets of [Theory of Mind] in this work: emotion perception and visual perspective taking.”</font></span></font></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" face="Times New Roman">The authors concluded, both from their research and by analyzing previous research (some of which they felt was unreliable), that “higher social class is associated with attenuated [theory of mind] performance,” with individuals from higher income backgrounds struggling more to ascertain the emotions and empathize with the visual points of view of other people. One possible explanation for this is that “lower-class individuals—owing to their greater levels of cultural interdependence—may appraise other human beings as more relevant to their goals and well-being than do higher-class individuals.”<b> This would also help people from lower classes to “spontaneously calculate other people’s perspectives.”</b></font></font></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" face="Times New Roman"><b>Dietze and Knowles also point out that their conclusion “stands in clear contrast to the common discourse concerning neurocognitive deficits among the lower classes.”</b> They also note that “decades of research documents that lower-class individuals are more likely to exhibit attentional deficits and display impaired working-memory performance. The evidence provided here suggests that these deficits may be domain-specific. Indeed, we show that lower-class performance outcomes are reversed in the social realm.” The term “domain-specific” refers to the theory of learning which holds that there are multiple forms of intelligence rather than a single way to assess where one has cognitive strengths and/or weaknesses.</font></font></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">This is not the only new research which sheds light on how being wealthy can lead to harmful psychological behaviors and personal habits. In July a </span><a href="https://www.salon.com/2020/07/13/the-affluent-are-in-denial-about-their-class-privilege-research-says/" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">different study</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology found that </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">individuals from affluent backgrounds would often deny their class privilege by “increasing their claims of personal hardships and hard work, to cover [their] privilege in a veneer of meritocracy.”</span></font></font></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><b>“Flying in the face of meritocratic prescriptions, evidence of privilege threatens recipients’ self-regard by calling into question whether they deserve their successes,” the authors wrote in their study. “Evidence of class privilege demonstrates that many life outcomes are determined by factors not attributable to individuals’ efforts alone, but are caused in part by systemic inequities that privilege some over others.”</b></font></font></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Another </span><a href="https://www.salon.com/2020/06/23/the-affluent-are-consuming-the-planet-to-death-study/" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">study</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">, this one published in June in the journal Nature Communications, argued that the </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">consumption patterns of the affluent are so egregiously unsustainable from an ecological standpoint that only a concerted effort by the wealthy to consume less can prevent catastrophes like global warming, pollution and biodiversity loss.</span></font></font></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">“The affluent citizens of the world are responsible for most environmental impacts and are central to any future prospect of retreating to safer environmental conditions,” the authors wrote, adding that “existing societies, economies and cultures incite consumption expansion and the structural imperative for growth in competitive market economies inhibits necessary societal change.” They advocated “a global and rapid decoupling of detrimental impacts from economic activity,” pointing out that <b>“the </b></span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);"><b>world’s top 10% of income earners are responsible for between 25 and 43% of environmental impact” while “the world’s bottom 10% income earners exert only around 3–5% of environmental impact.”</b></span></font></font></font></p></div><div><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" face="Times New Roman">
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</font></font></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman">=</font></font></font></div></div><div><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"></font></font></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/09/when-a-tax-cut-isnt-a-tax-cut-at-all/">https://www.alternet.org/2020/09/when-a-tax-cut-isnt-a-tax-cut-at-all/</a></font></font></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></div><div><p><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"> =</font></font></font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/08/economist-paul-krugman-lays-into-the-clueless-gop-s-on-california/"><font face="Times New Roman">https://www.alternet.org/2020/08/economist-paul-krugman-lays-into-the-clueless-gop-s-on-california/</font></a></font></font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman">no twt charts</font></font></font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman">California was a red state before the 1990s, but it has become increasingly Democratic since then and is now one of the states far-right Republicans love to demonize. A resident of the East Coast, liberal economist and New York Times columnist Paul Krugman lays out some of the reasons why Republicans are clueless about California in an informative Twitter thread posted on August 31.</font></font></font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman">Krugman posted the thread in response to a Politico article that was written by journalist Carla Marinucci and published on August 30. Marinucci’s piece outlines some of the ways in which “<b>California-bashing” is part of the GOP’s strategy this election year</b> — <span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">for example, trying to vilify the California native who 2020 Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden chose as his running mate: Sen. Kamala Harris, who served as California’s attorney general before becoming a U.S. senator.</span></font></font></font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><b>“Not that rationality has anything to do with this, but the GOP attack on CA really involves denial of plain facts,” Krugman tweets. “The state has problems — but not the ones conservatives claim.</b>”</font></font></font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);" face="Times New Roman">While Republicans often attack California from a health care standpoint, Krugman points out that California has been “an enthusiastic and effective adopter of Obamacare, sharply cutting its number of uninsured.” And the economist backs that up with hard data, posting a graph that shows the number of Californians who lack health insurance compared to other states. Way too many Americans still lack health insurance, but as Krugman demonstrates, California’s willingness to fully embrace the Affordable Care Act of 2010, a.k.a. <b>Obamacare, is why, per capita, it has more people with health insurance than other states.</b></font></font></font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman">In other words, California still has a long way to go before it measures up to France, Germany or Italy in terms of access to health care, but it is way ahead of red states like Alabama and Mississippi.</font></font></font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman">Krugman, however, criticizes California for its lack of affordable housing, but argues that a Trump-like approach would make the crisis even worse.</font></font></font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><b>“CA’s biggest policy problem is housing unaffordability, which can be traced to NIMBYism and hence restrictive zoning,” Krugman writes. “But those are exactly the policies Trump insists we keep, to preserve the Suburban Lifestyle Dream!”</b></font></font></font></p><div><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman">=</font></font></font></div></div><div><div><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman">=</font></font></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/08/heres-how-american-billionaires-have-profiteered-off-the-robert-reich/">https://www.alternet.org/2020/08/heres-how-american-billionaires-have-profiteered-off-the-robert-reich/</a></font></font></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" face="Times New Roman">Since the start of the pandemic, American billionaires have been cleaning up. As more than 50 million Americans filed for unemployment insurance, billionaires became <a href="https://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.businessinsider.com%2Fbillionaires-net-worth-increases-coronavirus-pandemic-2020-7&t=ZDU3YjJjNDcwNTZjY2NiNGNhYmE4YmIxNmU2NWI2NmI2MmJmMGFkMSx5VFJ5UEhMSQ%3D%3D&b=t%3AhQ9Ds4P3Iv6D7mgEr8WMqg&p=https%3A%2F%2Frobertreich.org%2Fpost%2F626455912922693632&m=1&ts=1597492879" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">$637 billion richer</a>. Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg’s wealth has ballooned <a href="https://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.businessinsider.com%2Ffacebook-mark-zuckerberg-net-worth-priscilla-chan-2017-10&t=MWJhOTc3MGQ1ZGFlYTM2ZjA1MmE0MDI4NWU5OWQ3NTVkYmM3MmUwYix5VFJ5UEhMSQ%3D%3D&b=t%3AhQ9Ds4P3Iv6D7mgEr8WMqg&p=https%3A%2F%2Frobertreich.org%2Fpost%2F626455912922693632&m=1&ts=1597492879" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">59 percent</a>. Amazon’s Jeff Bezos’s, <a href="https://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.entrepreneur.com%2Farticle%2F353647&t=N2MxN2ZmMTA3NzVjNTQ2NDU0YWQ1ZDg3MWU5MTM5MjQ5YWM3ZmNjZix5VFJ5UEhMSQ%3D%3D&b=t%3AhQ9Ds4P3Iv6D7mgEr8WMqg&p=https%3A%2F%2Frobertreich.org%2Fpost%2F626455912922693632&m=1&ts=1597492879" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">39 percent</a>. Walmart’s Walton family has added <a href="https://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.bloomberg.com%2Ffeatures%2Frichest-families-in-the-world%2F%3Fsref%3D0KUfhQHv&t=NTcxZGFiM2Q1ZTJiNTBiZGNiYWNiNWQyOTFlNWViZWI1NjcxYzE0MCx5VFJ5UEhMSQ%3D%3D&b=t%3AhQ9Ds4P3Iv6D7mgEr8WMqg&p=https%3A%2F%2Frobertreich.org%2Fpost%2F626455912922693632&m=1&ts=1597492879" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">$25 billion</a>.</font></font></font></div><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman">Big drug company CEOs and their major investors are doing nicely, too. Since the start of the pandemic, Big Pharma has raised prices on over <a href="https://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.aarp.org%2Fpolitics-society%2Fadvocacy%2Finfo-2020%2Fcovid-drug-prices-increase.html&t=ZDcyM2YzNzI2NmNhN2MzZmIzODRhMDBmMGEyZWQ0MDFiYTA4ZjA4Zix5VFJ5UEhMSQ%3D%3D&b=t%3AhQ9Ds4P3Iv6D7mgEr8WMqg&p=https%3A%2F%2Frobertreich.org%2Fpost%2F626455912922693632&m=1&ts=1597492879" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">250</a> prescription drugs, <a href="https://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.aarp.org%2Fpolitics-society%2Fadvocacy%2Finfo-2020%2Fcovid-drug-prices-increase.html&t=ZDcyM2YzNzI2NmNhN2MzZmIzODRhMDBmMGEyZWQ0MDFiYTA4ZjA4Zix5VFJ5UEhMSQ%3D%3D&b=t%3AhQ9Ds4P3Iv6D7mgEr8WMqg&p=https%3A%2F%2Frobertreich.org%2Fpost%2F626455912922693632&m=1&ts=1597492879" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">61</a> of which are being used to treat Covid-19.</font></font></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman">Apologists say this is the “free market” responding to supply and demand – the barons of Big Tech, online retailing, and Big Pharma merely providing what consumers desperately need during the pandemic.</font></font></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><b>But the market also operates under laws that ban profiteering, price gouging, and monopolizing, and that tax excess profits in wartime. Where did they go?</b></font></font></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><span style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large"><b><font face="Times New Roman">the Trump administration hasn’t enforced them.</font></b></span></font></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman">Trump is also ignoring laws that ban trades on insider information. The White House is distributing billions in subsidies and loans to select corporations – enabling CEOs and boards to load up on stocks and stock options just before deals are announced, then rake in fat profits after stock prices surge.</font></font></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman">Insiders from at least 11 companies have sold shares worth over $1 billion after such announcements, according to an <a href="https://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nytimes.com%2F2020%2F07%2F27%2Fbusiness%2Fthe-race-for-a-coronavirus-vaccine-is-making-some-corporate-insiders-very-rich.html&t=MWFiMTkyZmE2ZjEwYjlmNjhiOTQzYzI1ZGUyYmI5MDdjOTcxMTBhYix5VFJ5UEhMSQ%3D%3D&b=t%3AhQ9Ds4P3Iv6D7mgEr8WMqg&p=https%3A%2F%2Frobertreich.org%2Fpost%2F626455912922693632&m=1&ts=1597492879" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">analysis</a> by the <em style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">New York Times</em>.</font></font></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman">In late June, a San Francisco company called Vaxart announced that the Trump administration had selected it to develop a coronavirus vaccine. Presto<b>. The value of stock options distributed to company insiders just weeks before increased <a href="https://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nytimes.com%2F2020%2F07%2F25%2Fbusiness%2Fcoronavirus-vaccine-profits-vaxart.html&t=MzM4MGIwYWVjMWMwY2FhMzI5MWIzYWYwM2VhNTNjNjEyYjBlOWE4Zix5VFJ5UEhMSQ%3D%3D&b=t%3AhQ9Ds4P3Iv6D7mgEr8WMqg&p=https%3A%2F%2Frobertreich.org%2Fpost%2F626455912922693632&m=1&ts=1597492879" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">six-fold</a></b>. Stock options held by Vaxart’s CEO went from <a href="https://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nytimes.com%2F2020%2F07%2F25%2Fbusiness%2Fcoronavirus-vaccine-profits-vaxart.html&t=MzM4MGIwYWVjMWMwY2FhMzI5MWIzYWYwM2VhNTNjNjEyYjBlOWE4Zix5VFJ5UEhMSQ%3D%3D&b=t%3AhQ9Ds4P3Iv6D7mgEr8WMqg&p=https%3A%2F%2Frobertreich.org%2Fpost%2F626455912922693632&m=1&ts=1597492879" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">$4.3 million to more than $28 million.</a></font></font></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" face="Times New Roman">Moderna, based in Cambridge, Mass., has never brought a vaccine to market, but company insiders have sold some $248 million of shares – most of them after the company <a href="https://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=https%3A%2F%2Finvestors.modernatx.com%2Fnews-releases%2Fnews-release-details%2Fmoderna-announces-award-us-government-agency-barda-483-million&t=NDQ5YzRjMTQ4N2M1MzY0YjIyMWNlZGM4NmE1YjA2NzAyYjYwYmI2Yyx5VFJ5UEhMSQ%3D%3D&b=t%3AhQ9Ds4P3Iv6D7mgEr8WMqg&p=https%3A%2F%2Frobertreich.org%2Fpost%2F626455912922693632&m=1&ts=1597492879" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">was selected in April</a> to receive Trump funding. (Moderna plans to sell its vaccine for profit although taxpayers have footed its research and development.)</font></font></font></p><div class="clearfix" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; clear: both; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><b>The most blatant involves the venerable old camera and film maker, Kodak. On July 28, Trump announced a <a href="https://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.dallasnews.com%2Fnews%2Fwatchdog%2F2020%2F08%2F06%2Fas-millions-worry-about-unemployment-benefits-kodak-get-a-765-million-loan-via-the-white-house%2F&t=NWE4MjcxZDE2NjRhZTgzODU1ZmU4OWFmZWI3NjY1ZGIwNzZkNDI1MCx5VFJ5UEhMSQ%3D%3D&b=t%3AhQ9Ds4P3Iv6D7mgEr8WMqg&p=https%3A%2F%2Frobertreich.org%2Fpost%2F626455912922693632&m=1&ts=1597492879" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">$765 million deal</a> with the firm to bring drug production back to the United States. He called it “one of the most important deals in the history of the U.S. pharmaceutical industries,” even though Kodak isn’t even a pharmaceutical company.</b></font></font></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Before the announcement, Kodak had handed its board of directors </span><a href="https://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nytimes.com%2F2020%2F07%2F31%2Fbusiness%2Fkodak-ceo-stock-options.html&t=YWI4YTkxY2FlYTk3Y2RiOWQ2ZDQ5N2I3N2UzNjRhNjU2YmZiMmYzMCx5VFJ5UEhMSQ%3D%3D&b=t%3AhQ9Ds4P3Iv6D7mgEr8WMqg&p=https%3A%2F%2Frobertreich.org%2Fpost%2F626455912922693632&m=1&ts=1597492879" target="blank" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">240,000</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> stock options, and just the day before had given its CEO </span><a href="https://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nytimes.com%2F2020%2F07%2F31%2Fbusiness%2Fkodak-ceo-stock-options.html&t=YWI4YTkxY2FlYTk3Y2RiOWQ2ZDQ5N2I3N2UzNjRhNjU2YmZiMmYzMCx5VFJ5UEhMSQ%3D%3D&b=t%3AhQ9Ds4P3Iv6D7mgEr8WMqg&p=https%3A%2F%2Frobertreich.org%2Fpost%2F626455912922693632&m=1&ts=1597492879" target="blank" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">1.75 million stock options</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">. After Trump’s announcement,</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> Kodak shares shot up more than <a href="https://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.cnn.com%2F2020%2F08%2F05%2Fbusiness%2Fkodak-sec-investigation-trnd%2Findex.html&t=ZWU3MTAxYzY5MGU5MzRiZDc4NDBkZjAzZjA5M2Y5ZDY1NDI0NWJlNyx5VFJ5UEhMSQ%3D%3D&b=t%3AhQ9Ds4P3Iv6D7mgEr8WMqg&p=https%3A%2F%2Frobertreich.org%2Fpost%2F626455912922693632&m=1&ts=1597492879" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">2,757 percent</a>. Suddenly, the board’s stock options were worth about $4 million, and the CEO’s, about <a href="https://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nytimes.com%2F2020%2F07%2F31%2Fbusiness%2Fkodak-ceo-stock-options.html&t=YWI4YTkxY2FlYTk3Y2RiOWQ2ZDQ5N2I3N2UzNjRhNjU2YmZiMmYzMCx5VFJ5UEhMSQ%3D%3D&b=t%3AhQ9Ds4P3Iv6D7mgEr8WMqg&p=https%3A%2F%2Frobertreich.org%2Fpost%2F626455912922693632&m=1&ts=1597492879" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">$50 million</a>.</span></font></font></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman">Is this sort of insider trading against the law? You bet. The Securities and Exchange Commission is looking into the deal, now temporarily on hold.</font></font></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman">But the SEC’s co-director of enforcement, Steven Peikin, who had been investigating several of the deals involving the White House and corporate insiders – including Kodak – has resigned, without explanation. Another in the lengthening list of independent regulators and inspectors general forced out by Trump?</font></font></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman">This much is clear: Trump and his Republican enablers won’t provide $600 per week to tens of millions of Americans who need the money to survive the pandemic, because Trump and the GOP believe the money undermines incentives to work.</font></font></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><b>Yet Trump has no problem letting billionaires illegally profit off the pandemic. He thinks that as long as they buoy the stock market, they’re helping the American economy.</b></font></font></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><b style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">That’s pure rubbish. The stock market is not America.</b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);"> The richest <a href="https://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=https%3A%2F%2Ffinance.yahoo.com%2Fnews%2Fthe-richest-1-own-50-of-stocks-held-by-american-households-150758595.html&t=N2FlN2U5ZTFkYmZhZjMyNmE5MzJlMzhhNzJhMDM1ZDkyMDY0OTBjOSx5VFJ5UEhMSQ%3D%3D&b=t%3AhQ9Ds4P3Iv6D7mgEr8WMqg&p=https%3A%2F%2Frobertreich.org%2Fpost%2F626455912922693632&m=1&ts=1597492879" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">1 percent of Americans own half</a> the value of all shares of stock held by American households</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">. <b>The richest </b></span><a href="https://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=https%3A%2F%2Ffinance.yahoo.com%2Fnews%2Fthe-richest-1-own-50-of-stocks-held-by-american-households-150758595.html&t=N2FlN2U5ZTFkYmZhZjMyNmE5MzJlMzhhNzJhMDM1ZDkyMDY0OTBjOSx5VFJ5UEhMSQ%3D%3D&b=t%3AhQ9Ds4P3Iv6D7mgEr8WMqg&p=https%3A%2F%2Frobertreich.org%2Fpost%2F626455912922693632&m=1&ts=1597492879" target="blank" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;"><b>10 percent owns 92 percent</b></a><b style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">. </b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">For years now, stock prices have risen largely because <a href="https://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=https%3A%2F%2Fpapers.ssrn.com%2Fsol3%2Fpapers.cfm%3Fabstract_id%3D3375822&t=M2E5NDY0MTU5NDlmNzM3ZWRiMDZhMTliNDcwNWQzMWFiYmZjMTdhNix5VFJ5UEhMSQ%3D%3D&b=t%3AhQ9Ds4P3Iv6D7mgEr8WMqg&p=https%3A%2F%2Frobertreich.org%2Fpost%2F626455912922693632&m=1&ts=1597492879" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">profits have been siphoned from the wages</a> of ordinary workers.</span></font></font></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman">In the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, stock prices are almost back to where they were before the pandemic began. Big corporations and major investors are doing fine. Billionaires are doing better than ever. But most Americans are sinking fast.</font></font></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman">This isn’t just unfair. Much of it is illegal.</font></font></font></p><div><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"></font></font></font></div></div><div><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"></font></font></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/05/how-americas-wealthiest-are-profiting-in-the-time-of-the-pandemic/">https://www.alternet.org/2020/05/how-americas-wealthiest-are-profiting-in-the-time-of-the-pandemic/</a></font></font></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></div><div><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"> is understandably tempting to drop all the blame for America’s catastrophic response to COVID-19 on the big desk in the Oval Office. But there’s more to the story than epic incompetence, grift and delusion at the highest levels of government. The stark divide in the level of health care from testing to treatment is divided by wealth and the legacy of systemic racism.</font></font></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman">In <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2020/09/coronavirus-american-failure/614191/?utm_source=email-promo&utm_medium=cr&utm_campaign=ed-yong-cover-actives&utm_content=20200803&utm_term=sep-20&silverid=NjQyNTQ5Mzk0OTM0S0" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">the words of Ed Yong of the Atlantic</a>: “Chronic underfunding of public health neutered the nation’s ability to prevent the pathogen’s spread. A bloated, inefficient health-care system left hospitals ill-prepared for the ensuing wave of sickness. Racist policies that have endured since the days of colonization and slavery left Indigenous and Black Americans especially vulnerable to COVID-19.” Yong could also add <a href="https://www.propublica.org/article/it-cost-me-everything-in-texas-covid-19-takes-a-devastating-toll-on-hispanic-residents?utm_source=sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=majorinvestigations&utm_content=river" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">Hispanics</a> to that list, along with virtually any person of limited economic means, regardless of race.</font></font></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman">In the land of the free and the home of the brave, <a href="https://www.wired.com/story/your-income-predicts-how-well-you-can-socially-distance/" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">income and zip code determine everything.</a> And this is not a new phenomenon. In a recent article in <a href="https://mondediplo.com/2020/08/02populism-expertise" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">Le Monde Diplomatique</a>, historian <a href="https://tcfrank.com/" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">Thomas Frank</a> quotes physician <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Shadid" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">Dr. Michael A. Shadid</a>, who was a longtime advocate for cooperative health care from the 1920s onward until his death. <b>In his 1947 book, <a href="https://catalog.loc.gov/vwebv/search?searchCode=LCCN&searchArg=med47000058&searchType=1&permalink=y" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Doctors of Today and Tomorrow</span></a>, Shadid made the case for socialized medicine on the grounds that “[p]oor people get sick quicker, stay sick longer, need medical aid most, get it least. Some are poor because they are sick. Others are sick because they are poor.”</b></font></font></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman">Nothing has fundamentally changed since Shadid’s time. The United States continues to have the most expensive health care system in the world, yet a <a href="https://www.axios.com/the-us-health-care-system-is-not-the-best-in-the-world-9369a2bf-70b7-4222-b428-c7024a6875f3.html" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">2019 comparison of health indicators</a> in the United States versus those of Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development member countries’ average<b> reveals a system that persistently produces inferior outcomes relative to other nations (in spite of higher expenditures) and has done so for decades.</b></font></font></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><span style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large"><font face="Times New Roman"><b>cOVID-19 has both amplified and revealed these long-standing flaws</b>, tragically reflected in its death count, but it is by no means a historical anomaly. Earlier pandemics reveal a similar pattern, suggesting a more widespread systemic problem: namely, that the high death counts relative to the rest of the world are an inescapable consequence of our for-profit, pervasively oligopolistic health care system. The problems of a for-profit health care system are exacerbated by the diversion of resources and skills into militarism, and unequal food distribution systems’ effect on diet and obesity. All of these pre-existing problems contribute to higher mortality rates, as does access to proper medical care, which is heavily circumscribed by income.</font></span></font></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman">In terms of fatalities, COVID-19 now ranks as one of the most severe <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/flu/pandemic-resources/basics/past-pandemics.html" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">pandemics in modern history</a>, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The most deadly was the <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/flu/pandemic-resources/1918-pandemic-h1n1.html" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">1918 influenza pandemic</a>: 50 million deaths globally out of a worldwide population of <a href="https://ourworldindata.org/spanish-flu-largest-influenza-pandemic-in-history" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">1.8 billion</a>, or 2.7 percent, while the U.S. recorded <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/flu/pandemic-resources/1918-pandemic-h1n1.html" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">675,000</a> fatalities, or 0.65 percent on a per capita basis out of a population of <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2740912/#::text=The%20estimated%20population%20of%20the,generally%20put%20at%2020%20million." target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">103 million</a>. The only “good” thing that can be said about the 1918 tragedy is that the United States fared relatively better than the rest of the world, by this measure.</font></font></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman">By contrast, a notable feature of <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/flu/pandemic-resources/basics/past-pandemics.html" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">four major pandemics over the past 63 years</a>* (the 1957-1958 H2N2 influenza virus, the 1968 H3N2 influenza virus, the 2009 H1N1 influenza virus or so-called “swine flu,” and COVID-19 today) is America’s persistent underperformance in terms of fatalities relative to the rest of the world in spite of the vastly higher sums the country devotes to health care expenditures (in <a href="https://www.commonwealthfund.org/publications/issue-briefs/2020/jan/us-health-care-global-perspective-2019#::text=The%20U.S.%20Spends%20More%20on%20Health%20Care%20Than%20Any%20Other%20Country&text=Notes%3A%20Current%20expenditures%20on%20health.&text=In%202018%2C%20the%20U.S.%20spent,%2C%20Switzerland%2C%20spent%2012.2%20percent." target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">both absolute terms and as a percentage of GDP</a>). For all of the talk about <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_exceptionalism#::text=American%20exceptionalism%20is%20the%20theory,from%20that%20of%20other%20nations." target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">American exceptionalism</a>, the only thing “exceptional” about the U.S. health care system is this profound systemic failure.</font></font></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman">The <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/flu/pandemic-resources/1957-1958-pandemic.html" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">1957 H2N2 flu virus</a> caused 1.1 million deaths globally out of a <a href="https://www.worldometers.info/world-population/world-population-by-year/" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">worldwide population of 2.9 billion</a>, or 0.038 percent on a per capita basis; whereas in the United States, it caused about <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/flu/pandemic-resources/1957-1958-pandemic.html" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">116,000</a> deaths out of a U.S. population of <a href="https://www.worldometers.info/world-population/us-population/" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">178 million</a>, or 0.065 percent on a per capita basis. The 1968 <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/flu/pandemic-resources/1968-pandemic.html" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">H3N2 virus</a> resulted in 1 million fatalities worldwide out of a global population of <a href="https://www.worldometers.info/world-population/world-population-by-year/" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">3.6 billion</a>, or 0.028 percent on a per capita basis; in the United States, there were 100,000 deaths out of a population of 203 million, or 0.049 percent on a per capita basis. The <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/flu/pandemic-resources/2009-h1n1-pandemic.html" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">2009 H1N1 virus</a> caused far fewer overall deaths both globally and within the U.S., with <a href="https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/news-perspective/2012/06/cdc-estimate-global-h1n1-pandemic-deaths-284000" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">284,000 fatalities globally</a> and a mere <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/flu/pandemic-resources/2009-h1n1-pandemic.html" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">12,469 fatalities in the U.S.</a>; per capita fatality rates were the same (.004 percent on a per capita basis). But COVID-19 has reflected the reversion to American underperformance: <a href="https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">as of August 13</a>, confirmed global fatalities (out of a <a href="https://www.worldometers.info/world-population/world-population-by-year/" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">worldwide population of 7.8 billion</a>) were 749,776, or 0.0096 percent on a per capita basis, versus <a href="https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/us/" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">169,488 deaths in the United States</a> out of an existing population of <a href="https://www.worldometers.info/world-population/us-population/" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">331 million</a>, or 0.051 percent on a per capita basis.</font></font></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><b>Even more disturbing is that American fatalities are profoundly impacted by income disparities.</b> Low-income communities and BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and people of color) are experiencing substantially higher rates of mortality. Examining by zip code the geographic distribution of the segments of the population most likely to die from COVID-19—BIPOC, as well as people over the age of 65, and those of any age who are <a href="https://data.cms.gov/stories/s/COVID-19-Nursing-Home-Data/bkwz-xpvg" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">nursing home residents</a> (other than those in luxury elderly care facilities)—these three overlapping segments account for most deaths. It may be that in the northern states these most vulnerable people are heavily concentrated in densely populated areas and thus are quickly exposed to infection and die relatively soon after COVID-19 starts spreading in their area. The New York experience <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/18/nyregion/coronavirus-deaths-nyc.html" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">validates that assessment</a>.</font></font></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><b>In the southern and western states, these most vulnerable populations are more widely scattered across vast suburban and rural areas, which likely explains why the United States as a whole has experienced rolling hot spots,</b> in which the more diffuse population centers become infected and die relatively later after the initial outbreaks of the virus that were largely experienced in heavily urbanized regions. We see this pattern manifested in <a href="https://www.azfamily.com/news/continuing_coverage/coronavirus_coverage/arizona-covid-19-hot-spots-pop-up-in-areas-with-large-minority-populations/article_56680d10-c31a-11ea-a716-d7541550164d.html" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">a recent Arizona compilation of new cases by zip code</a>, as AZ Family reports using analysis by CBS 5 Investigates. Arizona has been one of areas most badly affected by COVID-19 during the summer months, and the <a href="https://www.azfamily.com/news/continuing_coverage/coronavirus_coverage/arizona-covid-19-hot-spots-pop-up-in-areas-with-large-minority-populations/article_56680d10-c31a-11ea-a716-d7541550164d.html" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">AZ Family</a> report illustrates that the hotspots for new cases are dominated by zip codes with “large minority populations” living in areas that are rural or on the outskirts of urban centers.</font></font></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" face="Times New Roman">Why is this significant? David Dayen of the American Prospect <a href="https://prospect.org/coronavirus/unsanitized-virus-heads-to-where-hospital-beds-are-scarce/" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">explains</a>: “Rural hospitals… are in total crisis in the U.S., with <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/feb/19/us-rural-hospital-closures-report" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">19 closures last year</a> and 120 since 2010. As hospital networks consolidate and strive for ever-greater profits, rural hospitals that fail to bring in the necessary revenue fall away.”</font></font></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font style="" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">In <a href="https://prospect.org/coronavirus/unsanitized-virus-heads-to-where-hospital-beds-are-scarce/" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">the same piece</a>, Dayen quotes a study from <a href="https://www.healthaffairs.org/doi/full/10.1377/hlthaff.2020.00581" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">Health Affairs</a>, which reports that “49 percent of the lowest-income communities had no ICU beds… whereas only 3 percent of the highest-income communities had no ICU beds.</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">” He </span><a href="https://prospect.org/coronavirus/unsanitized-virus-heads-to-where-hospital-beds-are-scarce/" target="blank" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">highlights</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> an extreme example of this problem, originally reported by </span><a href="https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/texas/article/Texas-Mexico-border-coronavirus-crisis-US-15454210.php" target="blank" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">the Houston Chronicle</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">: the Rio Grande Valley, along the Texas-Mexico border, “home to 1.3 million residents… [with] no public hospital. Starr County is one of the only in America to have to resort to triage, choosing who to care for and who to send home to die.”</span></font></font></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);" face="Times New Roman">Dayen’s analysis illustrates the fundamental flaw in the system: Levels of provision are a function of profitability; they do not reflect health care priorities. Hence the lowest-income hospitals are often shut down, which means worse health care outcomes for residents in these poorly serviced areas.</font></font></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><b>The other problem in Texas is that the state historically has also featured a high concentration of undocumented (largely Hispanic) immigrants (<a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/hispanic/interactives/u-s-unauthorized-immigrants-by-state/" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">the second-highest “unauthorized immigrant” population in the U.S.</a>, behind only California), who are being forced to work even when sick, since they are, by virtue of their undocumented status, largely excluded from any and all virus-relief economic aid and <a href="https://www.texmed.org/July14Journal/" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">access to primary health care</a>.</b> As ProPublica <a href="https://www.propublica.org/article/it-cost-me-everything-in-texas-covid-19-takes-a-devastating-toll-on-hispanic-residents?utm_source=sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=majorinvestigations&utm_content=river" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">noted</a>: “Texas is also the largest state in the nation that refused to expand health insurance for low-income residents under the Affordable Care Act… <a href="https://www.texastribune.org/2020/07/14/texans-health-insurance-jobs-pandemic/" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">Nearly a third of adults</a> under 65 in Texas lack health insurance, the worst uninsured rate in the country, and more than 60% of those without health insurance in the state are Hispanic.”</font></font></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><b>Furthermore, <a href="https://www.propublica.org/article/it-cost-me-everything-in-texas-covid-19-takes-a-devastating-toll-on-hispanic-residents?utm_source=sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=majorinvestigations&utm_content=river" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">living in crowded multigenerational settings</a>, workers infected on the job come home and risk spreading the illness to their parents and grandparents</b> (many of whom may also have problematic immigration status in the country and risk deportation if they seek to address their health issues). Consequently, Hispanics are now suffering some of the worst health outcomes in the U.S.</font></font></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font style="" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">With this information in context, it’s clear the more we lay blame at Trump’s feet, the further we’re going to be from confronting that COVID-19 fits neatly into a decades-old pattern of pandemic response. American health care can literally impoverish its citizens even as it undermines their physical well-being. Breaking the pattern can only happen if Americans keep putting pressure on institutionalized racism, get serious about inequality, and flip the switch on our employer-based private health care system</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">.</span></font></font></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman">*<a href="https://bit.ly/3gyTU5X" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">Franklin “Chuck” Spinney</a> provided research assistance on the compilation and analysis of the pandemic data.</font></font></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><font style="" face="Times New Roman"><a class="" href="https://independentmediainstitute.org/imi-articles/?author=Marshall+Auerback" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">Marshall Auerback</a><span style="outline-color: initial; outline-width: initial;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /></span><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> is a market analyst and commentator.</b></b></b></b></b></b></b></b></b></b></b></b></b></b></b></b></b></b></b></b></b></b></b></b></b></b></b></b></b></b></b></b></b></b></b></b></b></b></b></b></b></b></b></b></b></b></b></b></b></font></span></font></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><font style="" face="Times New Roman">This article was produced by <a href="https://independentmediainstitute.org/economy-for-all/" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">Economy for All</a>, a project of the Independent Media Institute</font></span></b></b></b></font></font></p></div><div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman">=</font></b></b></b></font></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/08/elizabeth-warren-sounds-the-alarm-on-a-mounting-housing-crisis-and-the-profiteers-who-will-take-advantage/" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">https://www.alternet.org/2020/08/elizabeth-warren-sounds-the-alarm-on-a-mounting-housing-crisis-and-the-profiteers-who-will-take-advantage/</a></font></b></b></b></font></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></b></b></b></font></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman">During her 2020 presidential primary campaign, Sen. Elizabeth Warren had a lot to say about the United States’ housing crisis — and after suspending her campaign and endorsing former Vice President Joe Biden (now the presumptive Democratic nominee), the Massachusetts senator continued to address the subject. Warren, in an op-ed she wrote for the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/08/06/nation-is-facing-housing-crisis-private-equity-firms-just-see-dollar-signs/?hpid=hp_save-opinions-float-right-4-0_opinion-card-c-right%3Ahomepage%2Fstory-ans" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">Washington Post</a> with Carroll Fife (director of the Oakland office of the Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment), stresses that the coronavirus pandemic has made a brutal housing crisis even worse. <span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">And private equity firms, according to Warren and Fife, are hoping to cash in on the misery by gobbling up “distressed real estate.”</span></font></b></b></b></font></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></b></b></b></font></font></div><p style="margin: 0px 0px 17px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" face="Times New Roman">“The nation is facing an <b>accelerating </b>housing crisis,” Warren and Fife warn. “Too many people had no stable housing before the pandemic hit, and COVID-19 has made the problem even worse. Renters who were already facing an affordable housing shortage — with many spending more than half of their income on rent — now have no federal rental assistance or federal protection from eviction. Homeowners have less than a month left of foreclosure protection. And more than 30 million people receiving unemployment insurance just saw their benefits cut by $600 a week, raising the threat of a wave of defaults that could trigger a double-dip recession.”</font></b></b></b></font></font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 17px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman">But while “families” see as a “looming catastrophe,” they add, <b style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">“private equity </b>firms just see dollar signs.” And Warren and Fife cite a <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/real-estate-investors-eye-potential-bonanza-in-distressed-sales-11586260801" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">Wall Street Journal report</a> that investors are hoping to buy “distressed real-estate assets at bargain prices.”</font></b></b></b></font></font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 17px; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman">According to Warren and Fife, such “profiteering” is “straight out of private equity’s playbook during the 2008 financial crisis."</font></b></b></b></font></font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 17px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);" face="Times New Roman">"Following the 2008 crash,” they explain, “corporations that grabbed up properties on the cheap, converted those homes into rentals and turned into the worst kind of slumlords — jacking up rents, neglecting maintenance requests and health and safety concerns, and eagerly assessing fines, fees and eviction notices. Other corporate-owned homes were left vacant in a hoarding of housing stock. We cannot stand by while this history repeats itself.”</font></b></b></b></font></font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 17px; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman">Warren and Fife’s recommendations range from “strong federal legislation to guard against the coming wave of evictions and foreclosures, including emergency rental assistance” to preventing “predatory companies from further destabilizing neighborhoods and profiting off the displacement of families.”</font></b></b></b></font></font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 17px; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman"><b>“If we fail to prevent another private equity real estate grab,” Warren and Fife warn, “we risk allowing another massive upheaval in the housing market that could wreak more havoc on low-income Americans — especially black and brown families still recovering from losing their homes a decade ago</b>. Against a decades-long backdrop of racist federal policies that have impeded black homeownership, lawmakers’ refusal to proactively address this problem would be an indefensible oversight that would again give Wall Street carte blanche to use a national crisis to enact a massive, generational transfer of wealth from vulnerable Americans to corporations."</font></b></b></b></font></font></p><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></b></b></b></font></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman">=</font></b></b></b></font></font></div></div><div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman">=</font></b></b></b></font></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman"><b style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);"></b></font></b></b></b></font></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></b></b></b></font></font></div><div style=""><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman" /></b></b></b></font></font><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman">no lnx ya cheap bastard</font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></b></font></b></font></b></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">Los Angeles Times</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">POLITICS</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b><font face="Times New Roman">People live longer in blue states than red; new study points to impact of state policies</font></b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">States that have pursued more liberal policies in education, environment and civil rights have a longer life expectancy. </font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">States such as California that have pursued more liberal policies in education, environment and civil rights have seen a swifter rise in life expectancy than more conservative states. Above, the California Capitol in Sacramento.(Los Angeles Times)</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">By NOAM N. LEVEY STAFF WRITER </font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">AUG. 3, 2020</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><font face="Times New Roman">WASHINGTON — Weak environmental protections, safety rules and labor and civil rights protections may be cutting lives short in conservative states and deepening the divide between red and blue states, according to a new study on links between life expectancy and state policy.</font></span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><font face="Times New Roman">The report, published Tuesday in the health policy journal Milbank Quarterly, finds that states where residents live longest, including California, tend to have much more stringent environmental laws, tougher tobacco and firearms regulations and more protections for workers, minorities and LGBTQ residents.</font></span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b><font face="Times New Roman">Since the mid-1980s, the gap among U.S. states in how long their residents live has widened, reversing decades of progress toward greater equality.</font></b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);"><font face="Times New Roman"><b>One group of states, mostly in the Northeast and the West, have seen average life expectancies rise relatively steadily, placing them on par with the wealthiest nations of Western Europe. Those states tend to have more stringent regulations</b>.</font></span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b><font face="Times New Roman">By contrast, the life expectancy in states with more conservative health, labor and social policies — concentrated in the South and Appalachia — have stagnated in recent decades, according to the study, which adds to growing research on health and political disparities between states.</font></b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);"><font face="Times New Roman"><b>California</b> has among the highest average life expectancies in the country, at 81.3 years. It also had the most liberal policies in the nation in 2014, the most recent year the study analyzed, according to the system the authors developed to rank states.</font></span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">Although the study’s authors note that they can’t prove that state policies caused the gap in life expectancy, the correlation is a persistent one across multiple states and several decades.</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">“It’s disheartening to see another example of a missed opportunity by policymakers,” said David Radley, senior scientist at the nonprofit Commonwealth Fund who studies differences in state health policies and the effects on people’s health. Radley was not involved in Milbank report.</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">[pix Bakersfield, CA., March 4, 2020 - Jenny Morones, 26, of Bakersfield poses for a portrait on Wednesday, March 4, 2020 in Bakersfield, California. Morones is working mother struggling to raise three children on a low income. Morones fled an abusive relationship and though in her twenties, has dealt with health challenges.Thanks to the Affordable Care Act, Morones had health insurance that protected her from financial ruin. (Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times)]</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">Coronavirus widens healthcare divide between red states and blue states</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">May 25, 2020</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">The new report may help shape efforts to rethink government policy in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, which has exposed deep structural weaknesses in the U.S. as well as yawning gaps in many state safety nets.</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">“The overarching conclusion is clear: States that have invested in their populations’ social and economic well-being by enacting more liberal policies over time tend to be the same states that have made considerable gains in life expectancy,” the study’s authors wrote.</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b><font face="Times New Roman">Even before the current public health crisis, life expectancy in the U.S. had been declining, setting America apart from most other wealthy nations. That decline has fueled tough questions about domestic policy.</font></b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b><font face="Times New Roman">The opioid epidemic, which has had a devastating impact on regions of the country already hit hard by economic stagnation, has been the focus of a lot of the discussion about that shift.</font></b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">But Syracuse University sociologist Jennifer Karas Montez, the lead author of the new study, said the impact of opioids may be only part of the story.</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">“When we look at what is happening with life expectancy, the tendency is to focus on individual explanations about what Americans are doing,” she said, noting obesity and smoking behaviors as well as drug use. “But state policies are so important.”</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">To assess what role these policies may be playing, Montez and other researchers reviewed more than 120 policies enacted by states over the years and assessed whether each policy choice in each state was more liberal or more conservative.</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b><font face="Times New Roman">Policies included housing rules such as rent control; health and welfare policies such as Medicaid eligibility and welfare limits; labor protections such as paid sick leave and minimum wages; and civil rights policies such as gender discrimination bans, hate-crime laws and same-sex marriage.</font></b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b><font face="Times New Roman">They also looked at state abortion restrictions, tax policy, education spending, immigration rules and gun control laws.</font></b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b><font face="Times New Roman">Each state was ranked by how liberal or conservative its policies overall have been, going back to 1970.</font></b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">The researchers then compared these findings to trends in life expectancy in all 50 states.</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">Montez said the trends they saw were unmistakable. They also correlated with important points in the nation’s political history.</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);"><font face="Times New Roman">Through the 1960s and 1970s, for example, state life expectancies generally converged. That trend began to reverse in the mid-1980s, around the same time that a conservative movement, led by President Reagan and mirrored in many state capitols, became ascendant.</font></span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);"><font face="Times New Roman">The gap between states accelerated further after 2010, when sweeping Republican victories in state elections shifted policies further to the right in many places.</font></b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b><font face="Times New Roman">By 2017, residents of the state with the highest life expectancy — <span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">Hawaii </span>— were living on average seven years longer than residents of the state with the lowest life expectancy — Mississippi.</font></b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b><font face="Times New Roman">By contrast, the gap between the best- and worst-performing states in 1984 was less than five years.</font></b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><font face="Times New Roman">The gap is not only about policy: States where people live longer tend to be wealthier and have better educated populations, for example.</font></span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b><font face="Times New Roman">But Montez noted that decisions by state leaders have helped shape those factors.</font></b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">“States like <b>Connecticut </b>are investing in their population, investing in schools, setting an economic floor for their workers, discouraging behaviors like smoking that kill people,” she explained. “You have other states like </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">Mississippi and Oklahoma that aren’t doing any of this.</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">”</span></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b><font face="Times New Roman">In Connecticut, whose policies have become steadily more liberal over the last half century, life expectancy increased 5.8 years between 1980 and 2017 to 80.7 years.</font></b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b><font face="Times New Roman">In Oklahoma, which has become markedly more conservative, life expectancy increased only 2.2 years over the same period, reaching 75.8 years in 2017.</font></b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">Identifying which state policies may have the most impact on how long people live is difficult, the researchers concede. But the study points to a group of policies that appear to correlate most closely with longer lives.</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);"><font face="Times New Roman">These include some unsurprising candidates such as <b>tougher environmental laws, which the authors note may protect people from toxic substances</b>. The authors also found a correlation between longer life expectancy and labor policies that increase economic security, such as a minimum wage.</font></span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b><font face="Times New Roman">Tougher gun laws appear to track with longer life expectancies, the study notes, as do stricter tobacco controls.</font></b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b><font face="Times New Roman">The authors also point to civil rights laws, which they suggest may protect residents from ill health related to persistent stress.</font></b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);"><font face="Times New Roman">And they found a correlation between longer life expectancy and better access to abortion, which the study notes may reflect other research that has linked abortion restrictions to women’s poverty and ill health.</font></span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">
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</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">Noam N. Levey writes about national healthcare policy out of Washington, D.C., for the Los Angeles Times. He covered passage of the 2010 Affordable Care Act and has written extensively about the landmark law and reported on its implementation from around the country. A former investigative and political reporter, he is a Boston native and a graduate of Princeton University. He joined the newspaper in 2003 and has reported from Washington since 2006.</font></div></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman"></font></b></b></b></font></font></div></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><p style=""><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman">=</font></b></b></b></font></font></p><p style=""><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/08/ralph-nader-ranks-the-infinite-greed-power-and-controls-of-giant-corporations"><font face="Times New Roman">https://www.alternet.org/2020/08/ralph-nader-ranks-the-infinite-greed-power-and-controls-of-giant-corporations</font></a></b></b></b></font></font></p><p style=""><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></b></b></b></font></font></p><h1 class="post-title single-post-title entry-title" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman">Ralph Nader ranks the infinite greed, power and controls of giant corporations</font></b></b></b></font></font></h1><div style=""><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></b></b></b></font></font></div><div style=""><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman">The combination of greed and power often spin out of control and challenge the enforceable rule of law and the countervailing force of the organized civic community.</font></b></b></b></font></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman">When greed and power are exercised by giant multinational corporations that escape the discipline of the nation-state, the potential for evil becomes infinite in nature. <span style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Enough is never enough</span>.</font></b></b></b></font></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman">Global giant companies, aided and abetted by their corporate attorneys and accountants, can literally decide how little taxes they are going to pay by shifting profits and expenses among different tax haven countries such as Ireland, Luxembourg, and Panama.</font></b></b></b></font></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman">These same companies then proceed to lobby any nation, including most prominently the United States. Congress and the White House are pushed to cut formal tax rates, pack the tax laws with loopholes, and lower further the effective tax rate. The formal top tax rate for billions of company profits is now 21%, while the actual tax rate is lower – much lower for banks, insurance companies, drug companies, and behemoth tech companies like Apple that master tax avoidance.</font></b></b></b></font></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman"><b>"Generous” is not a word one can associate either with Apple or it’s avaricious, CEO Tim Cook.</b> One of the first moves Tim Cook made, after replacing legendary Apple Founder, the cancer-stricken innovator Steve Jobs, was to arrange a $378 million, 2011 compensation package for himself and <span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">launch the biggest stock buyback in corporate history.</span> Apple, which is worth $1.5 trillion has spent $327 billion since 2013 to buy back 2.5 billion shares of stock. Yet Apple has done little to produce productive investments, remediation of used and very toxic Apple products when discarded, or increase pay for the 350,000 serf-labor workers in China toiling under its merciless contractor Foxconn.</font></b></b></b></font></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman"><b>Apple made $104 billion in the last 12 months, puffed up by tax-avoidance, tax cuts and a no tariff deal with Trump on its Chinese imports, yet Tim Cook has rejected pleas to spend a little over $2 billion (deductible) to award a full year’s pay bonus to the 350,000 Foxconn workers who build Apple’s iPhones and iPads.</b></font></b></b></b></font></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman"><b>Apple’s massive stock buybacks have, however, increased the metrics to set compensation levels for Tim Cook and his executive sidekicks.</b> Unfortunately, stock buybacks do little to tamp down excessive prices for Apple products. The massive stock buybacks also send a message that Apple’s management has no other uses for its corporate cash – not for R&D, not for improving the nature and security of its workers’ pensions, not for investing in curtailing the damaging side effects of Apple products on the environment and not for reducing other offloaded damage to society.</font></b></b></b></font></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman"><b>Tim Cook and Apple are also stingy, given their vast wealth, with charitable contributions.</b> So stingy that Apple’s bosses do not even come close with the company’s charitable deduction limit of five percent of adjusted gross income. In 2018 Apple gave $125 million to charities. Apple’s net income for 2018 was $59.53 billion – a tiny fraction of one percent!</font></b></b></b></font></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman"><b>Recently, the <em style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">New York Times</em> published articles showing how tiny the executive pay cuts were by the very few executives who announced and declared sympathy for their laid-off and impoverished workers. </b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The media has also been reporting illicit maneuvers developed by corporate attorneys to help chain stores get relief payments that should have gone to legitimate small businesses. (Why isn’t the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) speaking out against this abuse and avarice?)</span></font></b></b></b></font></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman"><b>Replacing some of their greed with generosity could be directed to the estimated $6 billion to $11 billion needed this coming school year to give low-income students full equipment and connectivity to the internet for remote learning during the Covid-19 pandemic restrictions.</b> States and localities need $4 billion to assure the voting process will be fair and that all votes be counted and on time. The Republicans in the Senate are blocking the money needed to guarantee free and fair elections. Four billion dollars for the profit-glutted Silicon Valley giants Facebook, Google, Apple plus Amazon, and Microsoft, is peanuts. These high-tech digital giants could easily contribute the money needed to avert a widely predicted election time disaster and weeks of understaffed counting after November 3<sup style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">rd</sup>. Imagine such a show of patriotism from these companies.</font></b></b></b></font></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman">Then there are the matters of woefully inadequate supplies, facilities, and training programs to counter the spreading Covid-19 pandemic that is crumbling the economy. These record-setting profitable companies, with soaring stock prices due to their monopolistic powers or consumer-gouging, should return some of Trump’s giveaway tax cuts of 2017 and the burgeoning corporate welfare payments from crony-capitalistic Washington, D.C. to help their afflicted or vulnerable fellow Americans. Many of these people are their own workers, friends, and relatives.</font></b></b></b></font></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" face="Times New Roman">Economists should develop a “Hedonistic Index,” to rank the “greed-with-power” status of the 500 largest U.S. corporations.</font></b></b></b></font></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman">People have the right to know how CEOs and major corporations do on the “Hedonistic Index” of greed and power. After all, at the end of the day, we are all paying the price of the full measure of the infinite avarice spiraling from these corporate supremacists and their private governments of control.</font></b></b></b></font></font></p></div><div style=""><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman">=</font></b></b></b></font></font></div></div><div><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman"></font></b></b></b></font></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman">dn 720</font></b></b></b></font></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></b></b></b></font></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><a data-ga-action="Home Headlines: Headline" href="https://www.democracynow.org/2020/7/30/headlines/new_report_communities_of_color_in_us_will_be_hardest_hit_by_extreme_heat" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: rgb(241, 242, 243); text-decoration-line: none; border: 0px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" font-weight="font-weight" text-align="text-align" center="center"><font face="Times New Roman">New Report: Communities of Color in U.S. Will Be Hardest Hit by Extreme Heat</font></a></b></b></b></font></font></div><div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman">=</font></b></b></b></font></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/07/theres-a-reason-why-republicans-are-pushing-hydroxychloroquine-again-and-its-ugly/"><font face="Times New Roman">https://www.alternet.org/2020/07/theres-a-reason-why-republicans-are-pushing-hydroxychloroquine-again-and-its-ugly/</font></a></b></b></b></font></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></b></b></b></font></font></div><div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman">no lnx</font></b></b></b></font></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></b></b></b></font></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman">There’s a reason why Republicans are pushing hydroxychloroquine again — and it’s ugly</font></b></b></b></font></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></b></b></b></font></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman">Written by Mark Sumner / Daily Kos July 30, 2020</font></b></b></b></font></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></b></b></b></font></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman">On Wednesday morning, Republicans are in the second day of a full-on blitz attempting to sell the idea that hydroxychloroquine is effective as a treatment against COVID-19. That effort comes in the form of not just statements from Donald Trump, but supporting tweets and emails from Republican candidates and a full-court press from Fox News. At first, the idea that the GOP is latching onto claims from a doctor who believes medicines come from alien DNA to justify renewed support for a drug proven ineffective months ago seems baffling.<b> Even if everyone from Ron DeSantis to Peter Navarro has joined in buying hundreds of millions of pointless doses, and they have, the billions wasted on the drug hardly seem to justify a second round of life-threatening propaganda.</b></font></b></b></b></font></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" face="Times New Roman">
</font></b></b></b></font></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" face="Times New Roman">But the hydroxychloroquine story isn’t about whether or not the drug is effective—and to be clear, it’s not. The reason Republicans are supporting this fresh round of out-and-out lies about a treatment that is more harmful than helpful isn’t because they’re getting rich off the pills. It’s because they really, really need to convince people that it’s safe to go back to work and send their kids back to school. Because hydroxychloroquine, schools reopening, and the GOP “plan” for COVID-19 are all a single story. It’s the story of Republicans needing working class people to go out there and generate money—for the wealthy.</font></b></b></b></font></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></b></b></b></font></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">On Monday, Republicans finally produced a draft of their take on the next round of addressing COVID-19—a round that, though a third the size of what’s needed at this point, is still much larger than the entire economic stimulus program that Barack Obama fought for and signed in 2009.</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> The Republican plan not only cuts unemployment compensation for those unable to work because of the pandemic, it sweeps in $30 billion for critical pandemic items l<b>ike more F-35 fighters and a new FBI building</b>. It<b>took that kind of “sweetening” to get enough Republicans to agree to having any plan at all.</b></span></font></b></b></b></font></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></b></b></b></font></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);" face="Times New Roman">But there are two things that Republicans were dead set on getting into their package. Two things that Sen. Mitch McConnell and others made clear were absolutely a requirement before the Senate would lift a finger. The Republican plan had to:</font></b></b></b></font></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></span></b></b></b></font></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);" face="Times New Roman">Ensure that it cut unemployment benefits to workers sent home by business closures during the pandemic.</font></b></b></b></font></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);" face="Times New Roman"><b>Protect corporations from being sued</b> by workers who caught COVID-19 from being forced to work in unsafe conditions.</font></b></b></b></font></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></b></b></b></font></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" face="Times New Roman"><b>These were not a secret agenda. These were McConnell’s openly stated goals</b>. He has been pushing for weeks the idea that, unless corporations are given a free pass to get as many workers sick as they like, <b>America would be “swamped by personal injury lawsuits,</b>” just because people had been personally injured. Republicans aren’t hiding this. Their entire agenda when it comes to COVID-19 is making sure that people have no choice but to get out there and put their lives on the line for minimum wage. Trump even used an executive order to put mostly immigrant workers back onto the lines at meatpacking facilities even as people at those facilities were literally dying.</font></b></b></b></font></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></b></b></b></font></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman"><b>And that’s exactly why Republicans are also keen on reopening schools. Those complaining about people not being eager to work for minimum wage in the midst of a pandemic and those calling for the reopening of public schools are after the same thing: Maintaining a low-cost “service class” that does the actual work while the wealthy and corporations collect the benefit of their labor.</b> It’s not anything new. It’s actually baked into the unfettered capitalism of the American system. The COVID-19 crisis only serves to underline the utter cruelty and inhumanity intrinsic to that system.</font></b></b></b></font></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></b></b></b></font></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman">The public school funding system in the United States—where almost all the cost falls on property tax in local communities—is one of the best tools the wealthy have ever created to externalize costs and ensure the continued presence of a low-cost worker class. The result of the current system of school funding is that poor communities end up paying a much higher tax rate, while still getting schools that provide inadequate opportunities for their children, helping to lock in a poverty cycle. This is by no means an accident.</font></b></b></b></font></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></b></b></b></font></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman"><b>Across the nation, private schools are not opening. Barron Trump’s school is not opening. </b>But Republicans want public schools open for the same reason they want unemployment benefits ended: the working class is the engine that puts more money in wealthy pockets. Reopening public schools in the midst of a pandemic has nothing to do with educating the nation’s children. It has everything to do with removing obstacles that keep the cogs from getting back out there and turning the wheels of commerce.</font></b></b></b></font></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></b></b></b></font></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman">Cutting unemployment and opening schools is entirely designed to give American workers absolutely no choice but to put their lives on the line without making a single demand on their employers. That’s what Republicans are saying every time they complain about the chance that someone might possibly be able to survive for another month on unemployment benefits. Other nations are absolutely providing workers with enhanced benefits during the pandemic because “paying people to stay home” is good public policy. It’s impossible to have effective social distancing if workers are being put in a position where they cannot stay home, and cannot disobey directives from their employers, even if those directives are unsafe.</font></b></b></b></font></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></b></b></b></font></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);" face="Times New Roman">Hydroxychloroquine is just the carrot being dangled in front of workers as they’re forced back on the job, and their children are forced back into school without an option. It’s the promise that if they do get sick, there’s something that can be done about it. Unfortunately, it’s also an absolute lie.</font></b></b></b></font></font></div></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman">=</font></b></b></b></font></font></div></div><div><div><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman">=</font></b></b></b></font></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></b></b></b></font></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/07/the-consequences-of-inequality-can-be-fatal/"><font face="Times New Roman">https://www.alternet.org/2020/07/the-consequences-of-inequality-can-be-fatal/</font></a></b></b></b></font></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman">...</font></b></b></b></font></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></b></b></b></font></font></div><div><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman">Likewise, the rich buy the safer automobiles, more safely equip their homes, and clean and filter the water they drink and the air they breathe. No wonder the rich live years longer on average than other people. Inequality is often fatal, not just during pandemics.</font></b></b></b></font></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman">In ancient Greece, Plato and Aristotle worried about and discussed the threat to community, to social cohesion, posed by inequalities of wealth and income. They criticized markets as institutions because, in their view, markets facilitated and aggravated income and wealth inequalities. But modern capitalism sanctifies markets and has thus conveniently forgotten Plato’s and Aristotle’s cautions and warnings about markets and inequality.</font></b></b></b></font></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman">The thousands of years since Plato and Aristotle have seen countless critiques, reforms, and revolutions directed against wealth and income inequalities. They have rarely succeeded and have even more rarely persisted. Pessimists have responded, as the Bible does, with the notion that “the poor shall always be with us.” We rather ask the question: Why did so many heroic efforts at equality fail?</font></b></b></b></font></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman">The answer concerns the economic system, and how it organizes the people who work to produce and distribute the goods and services societies depend on. If its economic organization splits participants into a small rich minority and a large non-rich majority, the former will likely be determined to reproduce that organization over time. Slavery (master versus slave) did; feudalism (lord versus serf) did; and capitalism (employer versus employee) does. Inequality in the economy is a root cause contributing to society-wide inequalities.</font></b></b></b></font></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman">We might then infer that an alternative economic system based on a democratically organized community producing goods and services—not split into a dominant minority and a subordinate majority—might finally end social inequality.</font></b></b></b></font></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman"><a class="" href="https://independentmediainstitute.org/imi-articles/?author=Richard+D.+Wolff" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">Richard D. Wolff</a><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> </b></font></b></b></b></font></font></p></div><div><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman"></font></b></b></font></font></div></div><div><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman"></font></b></b></font></font></div><div><p><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman">=</font></b></b></font></font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman">an 720</font></b></b></font></font></p><div class="header-list-style" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><h2 class="entry-title grid-title" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" open="Open" sans="Sans" sans-serif="sans-serif" letter-spacing="letter-spacing" px="px"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/07/as-laid-off-workers-face-a-financial-cliff-amazons-jeff-bezos-grows-13-billion-richer-in-one-day/" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer; letter-spacing: 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman">As laid off workers face a financial cliff, Amazon’s Jeff Bezos grows $13 billion richer in one day</font></a></b></b></font></font></h2><div class="grid-post-box-meta" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 12px 0px 0px; padding: 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman"><span class="author-italic author vcard" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/author/common-dreams/" title="Posts by Common Dreams" class="author url fn" rel="author" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">Common Dreams</a></span><span style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">July 24, 2020</span></font></b></b></font></font></div></div><div class="item-content entry-content" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 18px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman">Days before the expiration of federal unemployment benefits is expected to bring about a wave of evictions, food insecurity and widespread economic pain for millions of Americans, Amazon founder Jeff…</font></b></b></font></font></p></div><div><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman">=</font></b></b></font></font></div></div><div><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></b></b></font></font></div><div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman">=</font></b></b></font></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman">is this why continue to try to kill aca in middle of pandemic when poor white rural ppl need rx? mos before elextion?! Okla approved narrowly medicaid expansion?!</font></b></b></font></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></b></b></font></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/07/of-course-theres-a-massive-tax-cut-for-the-super-rich-included-in-trumps-obamacare-lawsuit/" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;"><font face="Times New Roman">https://www.alternet.org/2020/07/of-course-theres-a-massive-tax-cut-for-the-super-rich-included-in-trumps-obamacare-lawsuit/</font></a></b></b></font></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" face="Times New Roman">
</font></b></b></font></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div class="story-intro story-content" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><p style="margin: 0px 0px 17px; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" face="Times New Roman">There’s a dollop of cream on top of the shit sandwich that is the <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2020/6/26/1956096/-In-the-middle-of-a-pandemic-Trump-argues-to-Supreme-Court-that-the-entire-ACA-must-fall" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">Trump-backed lawsuit</a> in front of the Supreme Court to overturn the Affordable Care Act (ACA). That’s of course the big sweetener for the people who matter most to Republicans: the Uber Rich. It’s not just taking health care away from the plebes, as satisfying as that would be for Republicans.<b> No, it has to come with a hefty tax cut for the wealthiest—and <a title="" href="https://www.cbpp.org/research/health/aca-repeal-lawsuit-would-cut-taxes-for-top-01-percent-by-an-average-of-198000" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">of course it does</a>.</b></font></b></b></font></font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 17px; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman">The highest income 0.1% of households—those making more than $3 million annually—will get tax cuts to the tune of $198,000 if the law is completely overturned, the Tax Policy Center estimates. Now, $200,000 to someone making more than $3 million is more or less couch change, but you can bet they won’t turn it down. It’s not just the richest among us who gain. Those making over $1 million a year would see about $42,000 back in tax cuts. The total loss of revenue should the law be overturned would be about $30 billion in 2020. That itself would pay for Medicaid coverage for more than 4 million people, just for some perspective. (By the way, if the law goes down, Medicaid expansion goes with it.)</font></b></b></font></font></p></div><div class="row" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><div class="col-sm-12" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><div class="story-body story-content" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><p style="margin: 0px 0px 17px; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman"><b>The taxes involved are mostly on high earners in their Medicare taxes</b>. The ACA has a a 0.9% tax on earnings over $250,000 for couples ($200,000 for single filers), with the revenue going to the Medicare Trust Fund. So the repeal would also destabilize Medicare, which is a side bonus for Republicans. The law imposed a larger, 3.8% tax on unearned income (capital gains, dividends, taxable interest, and royalties) for couples with incomes over $250,000 ($200,000 for single filers). The loss of various other revenue generators in the law—a $2.8 billion annual fee on pharmaceutical companies, limits on contributions to medical Flexible Spending Accounts, and the ACA employer mandate requiring large employers to provide health care to workers—all contribute to the overall losses.</font></b></b></font></font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 17px; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman">Which means, as the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP) spells out, a decision by the Supreme Court to destroy the law (and at least part of the intent of Trump and the Republican attorneys general pushing the case) would “transfer billions of dollars each year from low- and moderate-income people (who would lose subsidized health coverage) to high-income households and corporations (which would receive large tax cuts).” They calculated those numbers all the way down the tax rates, with the vast majority of Americans who make less than $250,000 getting $100 or less. The people at the very top, those in the top 1%, would get more than two-thirds of the total cuts. They could spend all that money on their gold-plated health care.</font></b></b></font></font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 17px; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman"><b>the CBPP also points out that the end of Obamacare would result in even wider health and income gaps for people of color, citing an Urban Institute analysis from before the coronavirus pandemic.</b> It projects that the loss of the law “would cause nearly 1 in 10 non-elderly Black people, and 1 in 10 Hispanic people, to lose coverage, compared to about 1 in 16 white people.” In addition, the tax cuts “would flow disproportionately to white households, which are three times likelier than Black or Hispanic households to be in the top 1 percent of the income scale.”</font></b></b></font></font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 17px; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman">That, of course, is baked into the entire calculation behind getting rid of Obamacare. Racism is a component of pretty much everything Republicans do.</font></b></b></font></font></p></div></div></div></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman"></font></b></b></font></font></div></div><div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman"></font></b></b></font></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/06/the-cares-act-sent-you-a-1200-check-but-it-gave-millionaires-and-billionaires-so-much-more" style="font-weight: bold; outline: none;"><font face="Times New Roman">https://www.alternet.org/2020/06/the-cares-act-sent-you-a-1200-check-but-it-gave-millionaires-and-billionaires-so-much-more</font></a></b></b></font></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></b></b></font></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><p style="margin: 0px 0px 17px; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman">ProPublica is a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative newsroom. </font></span></b></b></font></font></p><div style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><p style="margin: 0px 0px 17px; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman">Do you want to see how legislation that was supposed to be a bailout for our economy ended up committing almost as much taxpayer money to help a relative handful of the non-needy as it spent to help tens of millions of people in need? Then let’s step back and revisit parts of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act and look at some of the numbers involved.</font></b></b></font></font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 17px; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" face="Times New Roman">The best-known feature of the CARES Act, as it’s known, is the cash grant of up to $1,200 per adult and $500 per child for households whose income was less than $99,000 for single taxpayers and $198,000 for couples. These grants are nontaxable, which makes them even more valuable. Some 159 million stimulus payments have gone out, according to the IRS.</font></b></b></font></font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 17px; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The income limits suggested that the plan benefits the people most in need, those most likely to spend their stimulus payments and thus help the economy. </span>The rhetoric conveyed the same: “<a href="https://home.treasury.gov/policy-issues/cares/assistance-for-american-workers-and-families" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">The CARES Act Provides Assistance to Workers And Their Families</a>” is how the Treasury’s website puts it. There were no grants to more-fortunate people, who for the most part aren’t in financial distress and are less likely than the less-fortunate to spend any money that Uncle Sam sent them.</font></b></b></font></font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 17px; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman">but when I began looking at details of the legislation, I realized that several of its provisions quietly provided benefits that were worth much more than $1,200 to some upper-middle-class people who didn’t qualify for stimulus payments. Some other provisions provided vastly bigger benefits to the rich, to corporations and to a relative handful of ultra-rich folks.</font></b></b></font></font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 17px; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman"><b>So let me show you five provisions of the legislation that benefited the upper middle class (including yours truly); the families of Donald Trump and his son-in-law, Jared Kushner; high-income people who make large charitable donations; and Boeing and other corporations that are showing losses; as well as indirectly benefited people who have substantial investments in U.S. stocks.</b></font></b></b></font></font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 17px; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">These five provisions that help the well-heeled will cost the Treasury — which is to say, U.S. taxpayers — an estimated $257.95 billion for the 2020 calendar year. That’s nearly as much as the estimated $292.37 billion price tag for the stimulus grants to regular folks</span>. The numbers are from Congress’ Joint Committee on Taxation, the official scorekeeper of the financial impact that legislation has on the Treasury. (I used those figures to calculate the spending for the 2020 calendar year rather than for 10 federal fiscal years because I’m interested in today’s impact, not the projected long-term impact.)</font></b></b></font></font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 17px; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman">I’m writing this now, more than two months after the CARES Act took effect, as a cautionary tale. That’s because with massive unemployment upon us and the fall elections drawing near, there’s a temptation for Congress and Trump to produce legislation that will help needy people a bit but help the non-needy a lot more by doing things like reducing capital gains taxes.</font></b></b></font></font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 17px; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman">Now, let me take you through the provisions, only one of which — the break for the Trumps, the Kushners and their ilk — has attracted <a href="https://www.npr.org/2020/04/30/848321204/how-the-cares-act-became-a-tax-break-bonanza-for-the-rich-explained" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">meaningful public attention</a>.</font></b></b></font></font></p><h3 style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: 1.3em;"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman">Eliminating Required Distributions From Retirement Accounts: $11.72 billion</font></b></b></font></font></h3><p style="margin: 0px 0px 17px; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman">People ages 72 and up who have IRAs or 401(k)s or other “defined contribution” retirement accounts must take federally taxable required minimum distributions from them every year. (Some states also tax these distributions.) People who inherit such accounts are also required to take annual distributions, regardless of their age.</font></b></b></font></font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 17px; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman">The required distribution amount is based on year-end age and account balances. For example, if you were 75 at year-end — as I was — your RMD for this year is 4.37% of your year-end 2019 retirement account balances. If you were 76, it’s 4.55%.</font></b></b></font></font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 17px; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman">But this year, thanks to the CARES Act, I don’t have to take any retirement distributions at all.</font></b></b></font></font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 17px; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman">Not having to take distributions matters a lot to some people. For instance, if I took my full RMD this year, which I don’t plan to do, it would be one of my larger income sources. And I would have to pay federal and state income tax on it, regardless of whether I spent the money or saved it.</font></b></b></font></font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 17px; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman">I’d like to tell you how many people the JCT expects to benefit from this year’s RMD waiver; how much their distributions would have totaled and what the tax rate on them would have been; and how many people the JCT expects to take distributions this year even though they’re not required to take them. Alas, the JCT doesn’t disclose this information and declined to share it with me.</font></b></b></font></font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 17px; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman">But even though I don’t have specific numbers, it’s clear that most of the benefit from this year’s RMD waiver goes to well-off people. Why? Because people who need retirement account money to live on are going to take distributions, and people who don’t need the money are unlikely to take distributions.</font></b></b></font></font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 17px; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman">The reason for the no-RMD provision is that the stock market was sinking rapidly in March, when the CARES Act was being discussed. The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index, for example, fell by 30.8% from the end of 2019 through its low for 2020 (at least so far) on March 23, a few days before Trump signed the CARES Act legislation. Congress didn’t want to penalize retirees by forcing them to sell stock during a market crash.</font></b></b></font></font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 17px; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman">So if someone with a 4.37% required distribution had money in an S&P 500 index fund, our investor would have had to withdraw 6.32% of the fund’s balance (4.37 divided by 69.2) rather than 4.37% of it if the investor took the distribution on March 23. That would have hurt our investor’s future financial security.</font></b></b></font></font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 17px; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman">If the market fell by 50% through year-end, which in the scary days of March seemed to be a distinct possibility and could still happen, our theoretical investor would have to cash out 8.74% of the account if RMDs were still required.</font></b></b></font></font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 17px; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman">There were other ways to deal with this problem, such as letting people take a pass on their first $15,000 of RMDs, rather than giving a big break to the likes of me and a far bigger break to people with far larger retirement accounts than mine. But Congress and Trump didn’t do that.</font></b></b></font></font></p><h3 style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: 1.3em;"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman">Charitable Deductions: $4.83 billion</font></b></b></font></font></h3><p style="margin: 0px 0px 17px; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman">Normally, people who itemize deductions on their federal tax return can deduct no more than 60% of their adjusted gross income for charitable contributions. But for this year, the limit is 100% of AGI.</font></b></b></font></font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 17px; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman">The Tax Policy Center, whose research helped inform this article, estimates that about two-thirds of the people who donated more than 60% of their AGI in past years had incomes of less than $100,000. But although such people accounted for the bulk of those making such large contributions relative to their income, the TPC says, “Most of the value of the deduction goes to just a small number of the very wealthy.”</font></b></b></font></font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 17px; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman">The theory behind raising the limit this year is that it will encourage people to make larger donations than they otherwise would. But I can’t imagine how this provision — like the provision allowing people who take the standard deduction to subtract $300 from their taxable income for charitable contributions — is going to significantly increase donations to charities trying to help people cope with COVID-19.</font></b></b></font></font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 17px; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman">The $4.83 billion JCT number for this provision’s cost to the Treasury includes tax savings for both individuals and corporations.</font></b></b></font></font></p><h3 style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: 1.3em;"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);" face="Times New Roman">Pass-Through Entities: $140.61 billion</font></b></b></font></font></h3><p style="margin: 0px 0px 17px; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);" face="Times New Roman">Now, we come to the huge item that benefits the likes of Trump and Kushner, their families, other wealthy real estate types, hedge fund investors and all sorts of ultra-high-income people, who derive large amounts of money from partnerships, LLCs and other so-called pass-through entities.</font></b></b></font></font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 17px; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman">As you’ll see in a bit, this big-time break provides a big-time benefit to a relative handful of people.</font></b></b></font></font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 17px; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman">Now that it’s a fait accompli, this provision is belatedly getting a lot of media attention. So I’ll spare you most of the details about how it allows the ultra-wealthy to use paper losses to offset income that was taxed in previous years, when tax rates were higher than they are now, and get refunds based on those old, higher rates.</font></b></b></font></font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 17px; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman">Suffice it to say that the JCT estimates that about 82% of these benefits — let’s call it $115 billion — will go to about 43,000 taxpayers with $1 million or more in annual income. That’s an average of about $2.68 million each.</font></b></b></font></font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 17px; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman">The new proposed stimulus package passed by the Democratic-controlled House of Representatives — the HEROES (for Health and Economic Recovery Omnibus Emergency Solutions) Act — would repeal this provision. However, its prospects for passage in the Senate, where Majority Leader <a href="https://projects.propublica.org/represent/members/M000355-mitch-mcconnell" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.</a>, has called the HEROES Act a “<a href="https://abc7chicago.com/fifth-coronavirus-bill-next-in-the-us-update/6182563/" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">totally unserious effort</a>,” seem remote. He and other Senate Republicans insisted on making the break for pass-through entities part of the CARES legislation. It’s hard to imagine them allowing any new bailout legislation to reverse that benefit. I’m sure Democrats realized this but wanted to go on record as opposing the pass-through break.</font></b></b></font></font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 17px; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman">The HEROES Act would also repeal the $10,000 limit on deductions for state and local income and real estate taxes, which Republicans included in the 2017 tax cut legislation to <a href="https://www.propublica.org/article/trumps-trillion-dollar-hit-to-homeowners" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">reduce the cost to the Treasury of the big cuts</a> they gave to corporations and ultra-high-income people. (<a href="https://www.propublica.org/article/trumps-trillion-dollar-hit-to-homeowners" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">Not coincidentally, the cap hurt people in high-income, high-tax blue states</a>.) It’s hard to imagine this provision becoming law, either.</font></b></b></font></font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 17px; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman">Now, let’s look at two corporate tax breaks inserted in the CARES Act. One lets corporations increase their interest deductions; the second lets them use tax losses from 2018, 2019 and this year to get immediate, substantial refunds rather than having to wait until they show future profits that offset those losses.</font></b></b></font></font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 17px; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman">The people who benefit most from these corporate tax breaks, of course, are the corporations’ owners. (Workers, in theory, benefit to some extent, as well.)</font></b></b></font></font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 17px; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman">By increasing companies’ cash flows and reported earnings, these breaks help the share prices of corporations whose stock is publicly traded and help increase the value of privately held corporations.</font></b></b></font></font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 17px; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman">Stock ownership by individuals is concentrated among higher-income people.</font></b></b></font></font></p><h3 style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: 1.3em;"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman">Corporate Interest Deductions: $12.09 billion</font></b></b></font></font></h3><p style="margin: 0px 0px 17px; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" face="Times New Roman">One of the reforms of the 2017 tax act was reducing the amount of interest that corporations could deduct on their federal tax returns. The idea was to reduce the attractiveness of debt, which is subsidized by taxpayers and carries big risks to corporate owners as well as employees. (For examples, see the recent <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/07/business/neiman-marcus-bankruptcy.html" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">bankruptcies of Neiman Marcus</a> and <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/14/business/coronavirus-retail-bankruptcies-private-equity.html" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">J. Crew</a>, which were burdened with debt, part of it incurred to pay fees and distributions to the buyout firms that had taken them over.)</font></b></b></font></font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 17px; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman">The CARES Act undid part of the 2017 act by increasing the deductible level to 50% of earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization from the previous 30%.</font></b></b></font></font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 17px; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman">Like some of the other provisions that we’ve looked at, this doesn’t involve a lot of money relative to the numbers that we’re dealing with. But it’s symbolic. And the people benefiting the most from it because they have major investments in stocks aren’t likely to be worrying about how to pay for food or avoid losing their homes.</font></b></b></font></font></p><h3 style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: 1.3em;"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman">Corporate Loss Treatment: $88.70 billion</font></b></b></font></font></h3><p style="margin: 0px 0px 17px; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman">This does the same kind of thing for corporations that the pass-through provision we discussed earlier does for LLCs and partnerships and such. But it hasn’t attracted anything like the same attention that the pass-through giveaway has gotten because it doesn’t involve names like Trump and Kushner.</font></b></b></font></font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 17px; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman">Until now, corporations that had losses last year and this year could carry them forward to offset taxes for future years, but they couldn’t apply them to get refunds of taxes paid in previous years.</font></b></b></font></font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 17px; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman"><b>Corporations can now apply losses from this year, last year and 2018 to income from the previous five years. That’s going to be a big deal for companies — can you say Boeing? — that are likely to show losses.</b></font></b></b></font></font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 17px; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman">What’s more, these companies can get refunds of up to 35% of the losses they carry back to 2017 and earlier years, even though the corporate tax rate is now only 21%. The rationale is that because the corporate tax rate was 35% before 2018, companies should be able to get refunds today based on what they paid then, not on what they’d be paying now.</font></b></b></font></font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 17px; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman"><b>So this pays off on multiple levels: </b>The beneficiaries not only benefit today from current and recent losses rather than having to wait until they have profits in the future, but they get a much bigger bang for the buck.</font></b></b></font></font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 17px; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman">Our country is suffering through major, major problems. We’ve got more than 100,000 people dead from COVID-19, unemployment levels not seen since the Great Depression, and protests and civil unrest in cities and towns across the country. We’re appropriately adding trillions of dollars to our national debt to try to forestall an economic meltdown. Let’s just hope that further federal aid goes to those who really need it. And doesn’t go to those who don’t.</font></b></b></font></font></p></div></div></div><div><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman">=</font></b></b></font></font></div></div></div></div></div>