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Posts tagged as “Taxes”

Click ‘Like’ If You Can Remember The Middle Class

I found this YouTube video the other day that I’d like to share with you, as it does a great job of explaining the amount of financial inequality we have in the U.S. right now. It’s probably worse than you realize.

httpv://youtu.be/QPKKQnijnsM

This is based on a study of 5,000 Americans by a Harvard business professor and economist. He looked at their perceptions of income inequality in the U.S. and then asked them what adjustments they thought necessary to make the system fair and just. The study shows that most of us are very aware of the fact that too much money is flowing to the top of the financial food chain and that something needs to be done. However, as this video illustrates, it’s worse than we think–much worse.

The Ad Exxon Doesn’t Want You To See

We found this ad posted on Other98. It’s an interesting pull-no-punches ad, evidently crowdfunded and scheduled to be aired nationwide this past Tuesday night until it was pulled–according to Other98:

The following 30-second climate change ad has already aired in three major media markets across the United States, to great acclaim as the first nationally crowdfunded climate change PSA. It was scheduled to play during Fox’s State of the Union coverage this past Tuesday. Then Exxon sent a single email, and it was unilaterally taken off the air. Here’s the ad you weren’t allowed to see:

httpv://youtu.be/uXV6FW9Vg0I

Who’s Money Is It Anyway?

Ever since the laissez-faire capitalist all but completely took over our economy, we’ve been told that we have absolutely no right to regulate business. If the Enrons of the world want to keep their houses of cards propped-up by breaking the back of Californians, we’re supposed to be perfectly fine with that – after all, it’s a free country and they should be allowed to do whatever they want. Likewise, if Walmart wants to employ practices that force their suppliers to move their factories overseas in order to stay in business, who are we to complain? After all, what’s the lifeblood of American towns and cites compared to the Walton’s or the Koch clan’s right to do whatever they like?

After all, it is their money.

Teens to Congress – “We Have Sex!”

Editor’s note: The Coffee Party movement posted this on their Facebook page today with the following intro: “Since Planned Parenthood has become ground zero in…

When Customers Became Consumers

We haven’t always been a nation of consumers.

I remember when Americans were customers. We bought things because we wanted them or needed them. We would have laughed in the face of anyone with the audacity to suggest that it was our patriotic duty to consume, as Bush did after 9/11. If we were faithful to a brand, that faithfulness was brought about by value or product superiority. Companies worked hard to persuade us to become their customers, and they knew better than to insult us by assuming we were forced to use their products no matter what.

The Rich & Taxes: A Post-Modern Myth

To hear the conservatives tell it, our economy will nosedive if the rich are required to pay an iota in taxes more than they do now. Indeed, we are led to understand the rich already pay more than their fair share, that their taxes need to be lowered so the middle class and the poor can shoulder more of the burden.

It’s understandable why folks under 30 might believe this argument. If the tax rate on the rich, defined by the Obama administration as those earning more than $250,000, is rolled back to nearly 40%, the rich just might not have the money to invest in businesses and create the jobs our country so badly needs. Never mind the fact that the rich aren’t investing in businesses and creating jobs anyway, even though the tax rate for high rollers is historically low.

If This Be Treason is an AlternativeApproaches Media website.