tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2304235862479840318.post2951457505144782871..comments2024-01-08T04:16:25.601-08:00Comments on Ché (What You Call Your) Pasa: "Broadening the Tax Base"Ché Pasahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01926630891287949373noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2304235862479840318.post-5908764350743299522011-06-25T17:47:55.716-07:002011-06-25T17:47:55.716-07:00Thanks for the links.
I'm puzzled about why ...Thanks for the links. <br /><br />I'm puzzled about why the upshot of privatization and banking deregulation is still such a "mystery". Of course it's not really mystery -- the rationale for both has been well understood, especially by the players, for more than a century. <br /><br />Privatization is a profit protection scheme for favored individuals and companies. Whether it "saves the government money" or not is completely beside the point. The point is to shower tax money in guaranteed amounts on the favored. Period.<br /><br />Banking and finance deregulation is intended to foster and permit the bubbles and collapses by which the banking and finance insiders make the bulk of their money. If it provides any benefit to ordinary people, it's temporary and more costly to the masses in the long run than forgoing those supposed "benefits."<br /><br />Too bad that Marx is such a joke or a dirty word in this country. And I notice that it is becoming that way in Europe -- especially Britain -- too. The anti-Marxist propaganda is unrelenting, and it works. And yet Marx is still the best and most germane analyst of the capitalist system -- both its strengths and weaknesses -- that's ever arisen. <br /><br />Not all capitalists are fools, but it seems the majority are stupid and too greedy to recognize their own stupidity. And it's because of that that I have by no means lost hope.<br /><br />There are ways to use jujitsu against them, and I am hopeful that someone who is now so busy Lifting the Veil will have a satori moment: Ah ha! All is not lost! <br /><br />So I'm pondering things that will work to bring us out of this tailspin. It won't be easy and it won't be quick, but I think it will happen.<br /><br />ChéChé Pasahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01926630891287949373noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2304235862479840318.post-55429153396388782472011-06-25T11:27:26.000-07:002011-06-25T11:27:26.000-07:00A couple of recent articles crystallizes our real ...A couple of recent articles crystallizes our real fiscal nightmare. Welfare for the rich goes far beyond our general perception. <br /><br />It's actually embedded in every nook and corner of the economy via the tax code and regulatory apparatus. "Government guarantees" are really just redirected welfare grants for the rich, paid for by the non-rich, enabling the rich to gamble without fear. The government has their back, and they know it. They also know that the transfer of payments isn't coming from them, as they don't pay much in effective tax anyway. We do. They don't. <br /><br />Both articles are worth reading in tandem:<br /><br />http://onthecommons.org/and-winner-isthe-public-sector<br /><br />http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2011/jul/14/busts-keep-getting-bigger-why/Cuchulainnoreply@blogger.com