Larry Summers: Corporate Greed Apologist

Another American Revolution Needed

The United States has 13 of the world's top 20 billionaires. 

Let's stop pretending welfare, social programs, minimum wage, retirement plans, etc. are the true American budgetary issues. Living wages, health care, and pension plans are NOT the problem.

It's the fact that we've allowed a privileged few to avoid paying their fair share whilst amassing grotesque fortunes. 

It's time to start taxing these kings and queens and return the United States to a shared prosperity instead of the current plutocracy.

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How To Solve (Mostly) All Our Problems

 TAX THE RICH!!!

And, by "rich", I mean millionaires. Which, for the U.S., is about 9% of the entire population. This isn't a call for increased taxation on low-income, working families, or the middle-class. It's a call to tax those that have clawed, cheated, and stolen the wealth and productivity gains of the past few decades. No, not all millionaires have clawed, cheated, and stolen. But those who have clawed, cheated and stolen, and who have bought politicians to get legislation and tax laws in their favor, need to be taxed more.

Income has been steadily redistributed upward since the 1980s. Millionaires are reaping more and more of the gains of workers. This is not sustainable. It's time to reverse this. Tax the rich! 

Other Reasons Why Ron Johnson Is A Terrible Person

Ron Johnson Wants Social Security, Medicare To Be Discretionary Spending

Corporate Profits and Inflation

For Further Reading:

Ignoring the role of profits makes inflation analyses a lot weaker

Corporate profits have contributed disproportionately to inflation. How should policymakers respond?

The future of work depends on stopping Amazon’s union busting

There Is No Labor Shortage!!!

Accomplices Reporters keep labeling shitty-paying jobs, that are supposedly going unfilled, as a labor shortage. Labor Shortage Transforming State Workforce

There is no labor shortage. This is about a living wage, health care, and a pension (retirement). Respectable pay for an honest day's work - the mantra America has been shoveling and selling for generations. 

Unions were the answer to the disparity between the Haves and the Have-Nots. Yet, for decades, Republicans have attacked government and the public sector, in general, along with unions. It's no coincidence that as unionization has declined so have the wages and benefits of workers. 

Business news bloviators talk about how CEOs have earned and must be paid millions - that's just the market working. At the same time, Republicans, along with the business news crowd, tell us how these same millionaires shouldn't pay taxes - that would be a disincentive to their genius.

But when everyday workers decide certain jobs (and the lack of pay and benefits associated with such) aren't worth it - you know, the market - Republicans and the business crowd declare these workers to be lazy and ungrateful. Workers don't deserve good pay and incentives will only make them lazier.

I guess when CEOs get to make policy and write the rules, there is a set of rules for them and a set of rules for workers. The market rules for millionaires are very different from the market rules for workers. 

So is it really a surprise that as workers have had to work harder for lower pay and less benefits, the workers have turned away from these lowest-paid and worst jobs? It's not a labor shortage, it's a pay shortage. The labor is here and willing to do the work, they just need to be paid a fair market wage.

Only The Little People Pay Taxes

Proposal Cuts Taxes for 1%

A group of big business lobbyists is pushing a radical change to Wisconsin’s tax structure — one that would give huge tax cuts to the wealthy and powerful while shifting the responsibility of paying taxes to people with lower incomes. The change would also require significant cuts to the critical services that Wisconsin businesses, schools, and communities need to thrive. This one-two punch would make it more difficult for Wisconsin families to get by, while funneling additional resources into the pockets of the top 1%.

Rand Paul - Shameless Hypocrite

Paul isn't alone in the hypocrisy. It's the entire Republican party and anyone enabling, supporting, or listening to them. They deny climate change and obstruct any related public policy. They bash government and any legislation that might improve infrastructure, fight climate change, or help the majority of citizens. They cut government programs. Until it impacts them, then government should open up the checkbook and freely hand over whatever's needed. Republicans are truly despicable trolls.

Things Republicans Are "Good" At - Lying & Cheating

Democrats Increasingly Say American Democracy Is Sliding Toward Minority Rule

Republicans Win Fever Votes, But More Seats Than Democrats

Democrats got millions more votes – so how did Republicans win the Senate?

3 stats showing how much the deck is stacked against Democrats

America’s anti-democratic Senate, by the numbers

Extreme Maps

These maps show how Republicans are blatantly rigging elections

Thanks to gerrymandering, Republicans can continue to behave abominably and win the midterms

Keep It Simple, Stupid

Visit Milwaukee is claiming the Bucks Championship Had $58 Million Economic Impact.

That's possible. Anything is possible. But claims of such an impact are dubious at best. 

As Roy Cordato's article noted:

Economic impact studies are everywhere.

Whether it’s to support a new highway project, special tax breaks for solar energy, the building of a civic center or sports complex, or to promote subsidies for Hollywood film producers, you can find an economic impact study, often touting how great the project will be for the state or local economy.

The formula is simple, predictable, and effective. A special interest group that stands to benefit from the project funds an economic impact study that purports to provide hard numbers on the number of jobs, the increase in wages, and the additional output that will be generated by the project or subsidy, and it will do this on an industry-by-industry basis. It makes grandiose claims about how much overall economic growth will be enhanced for the state or region generally. Once the report is completed, the special interest group that paid for the study will tout these results in press releases that will be picked up by the largely uncritical media establishment, ensuring that the political decision makers and others who determine the fate of the project receive political cover.

These studies all have several things in common. First, they typically use proprietary, off-the-shelf models with acronym names like IMPLAN (Impact Analysis for Planning), CUM (Capacity Utilization Model), or REMI (Regional Economic Model, Inc.). Rights to use the models are purchased by professional consulting firms who are hired by the interest groups to do the studies. Furthermore, seldom do those who actually perform the studies have formal training in economics. Instead their expertise is in using one or more of the aforementioned proprietary models. And finally, all of these studies ignore basic principles of economics and, as a result, do not meaningfully measure what they claim to be measuring—the economic impact of the public policies and projects that they are assessing.

One big problem with economic impact studies is the idea of substitution. If money that would have been spent elsewhere was simply spent on the Bucks, growth did not occur. Spending that would have occurred in one spot was merely spent in a different spot. The project (the development, the event, etc.) hasn't catalyzed growth. They haven't made an economic impact. They've merely realigned spending.

Now, this isn't to say all projects are unable to spur growth. But unless the impact study accounts for concepts like substitution and opportunity cost, it's mostly measuring the rewards that will go to primarily absentee owners.

Milwaukee Magazine had their own questions regarding the local economic impact of the Bucks championship run.

The sparkling, shiny, loud things (sports and entertainment events) often get attention, articles and praise. Yet, as far as being supposed economic catalysts, all too often, the economic benefits and impact are ephemeral to non-existent.

Maybe it's time we stop deluding ourselves in the belief that all activities and projects can be or need to be fun and exciting. Clean water, smooth roads, public transportation, quality schools, affordable housing and health care, and maintained infrastructure provide a better return on investment and generate much more growth than any stadium or convention center could ever hope to. 

Conventional Delusion

There are so many more impactful ways to spend $420 million.

The Boondoggle Bandwagon lumbers on.

For Further Reading:

Milwaukee's Boondoggle Twofer

The Convention Center Cabal

Beware of the Economic Development Hucksters

The Economic Impact Mythology of Convention Centers

We Have A Pay Shortage

Note to media: 

Please stop reporting on a "skills shortage" or a "labor shortage".

We have a "pay shortage".

Mitch McConnell: No Lips, No Soul, No Problem

Screenshots of Wisdom

 

The Dangerous Mythology About The US Labor Shortage

The dangerous mythology about the US labor shortage

In explaining the unimpressive quarterly jobs data recently, there is a dangerous mythology surfacing, a common refrain among pundits, that people don’t want to work because of stimulus checks and extended unemployment benefits.

Some argue that unemployed low-wage workers make more from these benefits than from their previous employment. This may be true, but in my nearly 10-year tenure as CEO of what has become the nation’s largest publicly funded workforce development system, where we have facilitated training and employment of over 70,000 people, I have never once heard anyone say they didn’t want to work.

This is a harmful, corrosive narrative rooted in class, gender and race bias; it is a fallacy meant to demean and stigmatize.

The truth underlying what’s being touted as a “labor shortage” is far more nuanced than glib jabs at the working class. Examining reality invites us to reassess our beliefs about work and workers in this country.

Low Pay, No Benefits, Rude Customers: Restaurant Workers Quit At Record Rate

Suburban Socialism

This is a perfect example of the hypocritical capitalism Republicans preach.

New Great Lakes Water Diversion Request

They choose to live somewhere that is not sustainable. But then they whine, complain and bellow that they are entitled to <insert spoiled Republican entitlement demand here>.

When it comes to others, especially others that aren't white, others that don't believe in their god, others that don't live in their town, they need to go without. Getting things so easily makes others lazy. 

But when the SUV-crowd moves to the middle of nowhere and suddenly gas prices are high, they can't get water and/or any part of their utopia is disturbed, the know-nothing, big, bad government needs to come to their rescue.

And, is this case, the Village of Somers wants to have the State allow them to divert water to what is currently farmland so some well-connected land owner can make a killing off of future development.

As typical economics would have it, if you want a scarce resource delivered to an inconvenient location, the cost would obviously be extremely high. You know, to discourage such a ridiculous and wasteful allocation. Yet, the Wisconsin experience of those expecting their entitled water, outside of a location where it naturally occurs, is they complain and complain until the rest of us subsidize them being able to divert water. We subsidize them in that they don't have to pay the actual price the market would indicate. 

The same goes for the price of gas being subsidized below its market price. Really, the whole suburban mistake is a big subsidized wonderland for whites, where everybody else helps pay for their spoiled, wasteful, gas-guzzling lifestyle.

When Most People Think of A Cruise That's Full of Shit...

Republicans' Alternate Universe of Delusion and Disinformation

Invertebrates

The Republicans' idea of governing, in a nutshell:

Businesses tied to Speaker Robin Vos and other lawmakers could see taxes cut after they took PPP loans

Ron Johnson votes not guilty

Government exists for them. It's their piggybank. So they can deregulate and pollute. To assure they and their cronies reap all of societies rewards.  

They are not accountable. They are not responsible. It's someone else's problem. It's someone else's fault.

In The Land of Make-Believe

When your policies only benefit the top 1%, when you have nothing intelligent to add to any conversation, when the majority of your constituents have been hurt by your political decisions, all you are left with is symbolism, revisionism and make-believe.

After COVID shutdown, former Wis. Governor Scott Walker hopes to re-open Reagan’s boyhood home

In fact, it's all about revisionist history, an imagined past, phony accolades and false idols for bozos like Scott Walker.