Plunder Capitalism

Paul Craig Roberts Institute for Political Economy ^ | December 4, 2017 | Paul Craig Roberts

[Rashputin]

Interesting take on the tax bill.

I'll wait and see but I sure don't detect any sea change in the thinking of the wealthy one percent who make the decisions.

[DIRTYSECRET]

I like this guy. Naysayer but we need them to keep from getting full of ourselves.

[DIRTYSECRET]

Corporations at 20% vs. a nurse. Sounds like Warren Buffett and his secretary. 10% for those under 10k a pittance? At least they now have skin in the game.

[stylin19a]

very misleading on the 50k tax rate.

If you had $50,000 of taxable income, you’d pay 10% on that first $9,325 and 15% on the chunk of income between $9,326 and $37,950.
And then you’d pay 25% on the rest, because some of your $50,000 of taxable income falls into the 25% tax bracket.
The total bill would be about $8,200 — about 16% of your taxable income, even though you’re in the 25% bracket.

[Pontiac]

What we are witnessing in the US and indeed throughout the western world is the total failure of capitalism.

How can capitalism fail in the US? The US isn’t a capitalist country.

If the US fails it will be Socialism that causes the US to fail.

Socialism is wringing this country dry.

[Pontiac]

Medicare and Medicaid are the next to be privatized, along with Social Security. The tax cut will result in deficit and high interest rate hype, and these lies will be used to save the workers from high interest rates on their mortgage, credit card, and student loan debt by scaling back or privatizing Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security.

Good ideas but the Democrats will see blood run in the streets before they ever let that happen.

[sparklite2]

I don’t understand how Medicare could be privatized.
It would either be grossly unprofitable or have premiums the elderly couldn’t begin to afford. If it was grossly unprofitable, no business would get into it. And if the elderly can’t afford it, they’re back to taking half the prescriptions ordered and eating cat food. There are reasons Medicare was enacted.

[taterjay]

Doesn’t the nurse pay the 35 percent tax for the corporation??

[Reverend Wright]

“The environment and public lands will be sacrificed to the private profits of timber, mining, and energy companies. Grizzly bears and wolves are losing their protection under the endangered species act ...”

This snowflake former “supply sider” is almost as hopeless and pathetic as Bruce Bartlett.

[Nifster]

An insane old man who is in the same league as Lee Rockwell

Who gives a flip what he thinks?

[Nifster]

Be sure and vote for Ron Paul every chance you get

[Nifster]

Yes because corporations don’t pay taxes people do

This guy is a joke. He has produced nothing ever in his entire life

[Rashputin]

"The US isn’t a capitalist country." That's true and Roberts makes that point often. In addition, he usually differentiates between Crony Capitalism, Laissez Faire Capitalism, and Capitalism as most people understand it.

Creeping socialism is one of our major problems, a disease that when out of control destroys nations. The open, profusely bleeding, wound, of war in the ME, war we don't intend to win anyway, is an open, profusely bleeding, wound that's cost ten trillion over the past sixteen years is an immediate, life threatening, problem.

It's only human nature to focus on the theft you see and ignore the huge theft that's well hidden but the socialism that cost billions per year and will never go away as as long as it's such a useful tool of misdirection to hide the theft of trillions the Pentagon and Fed can't even account for.

Without the Globalist destruction of our manufacturing base and the Neocon BS about our being an empire rather than a nation, we could cure the problems that are used as bloody flags to wave in support of socialist illusions and end the rot of socialism.

[cherry]

I agree with him....this is not tax reform...its a foundation for further burdening our citizens...maybe not this year, or next, but its coming...

wipeout....

no deductions...no way to save on taxes except to quit work...but then you won't be able to afford health care nor property taxes...

the CEO's are laughing similar to Tarp....

[cherry]

the point is a modest worker is being taxed much higher than the corporations....but of course corporations don’t pay taxes..

[Gene Eric]

Drama queen...

Some say corps don’t pay taxes, so what’s the significance of a reduction?

Corps do pay taxes, and the equity holders ultimately pay those taxes. Tax reductions in fact retain cash rewarding the investors and other beneficiaries of the corp.

[Gene Eric]

>> but of course corporations don’t pay taxes..

Wrong.

[Pontiac]

The deficit-conscious Republicans have put into the Bill for Enhancement of the Rich’s Wealth, cuts in social services in order to “save workers from higher interest rates from budget deficits.” This is more dishonesty. If the Fed lets real interest rates rise to any meaningful amount, derivatives will unwind, and the Fed will have to create trillions more in new dollars to keep its ponzi scheme in place. The deficit that results from the tax cut will be covered by the Fed purchasing the Treasuries, not by a rise in interest rates.

This is where the real theft happens; at the Federal Reserve with the cooperation of the US Treasury.

The real taxes are collected by the Federal Reserve Bank. The creation of money from whole cloth taxes the entire world and not just the citizens of the Unite States.

When the Fed magically creates new dollars the value of every preexisting dollar is diluted. Thus,m ever person in the world that holds US currency is taxed by the Federal reserve.

When the US dollar is no longer kept as a reserve currency in the world and all of that diluted currency comes flooding back in to the United States we will be nearly instantaneously be plunged in to an economic depression that makes the 1930s look like the roaring 20s.

[zeestephen]

Re: “Even single individuals who earn between $1 and $9,325 are taxed at 10% on their pittance.”

That is completely false.

A single taxpayer gets a standard deduction plus a personal exemption worth $10,350.

In other words, you pay zero income tax on your first $10,350 of income.

Also, a single person who earns less than $15,000 total is eligible for the Earned Income Credit, and is also eligible for Medicaid in most states (via ObamaCare), or, if over 65 and eligible for Medicare, you pay no Part B monthly premium, no co-pays, and no Medicare deductibles.

Also, most elderly people pay no income tax on their Social Security pension.

Also, people over age 65 get almost $12,000 in standard deductions and personal exemptions, $1,600 more than younger people.

[zeestephen]

Re: “Without the Globalist destruction of our manufacturing base...”

Actually, adjusted for inflation, industrial production in the USA will probably set an all time record in 2017.

The previous record was set in 2007, just as the Great Recession was starting.

There are two main problems with our manufacturing employment base.

First, automation and expert software have reduced the number of employees necessary to produce the same amount of industrial products.

Second, since 1980, we imported close to 30 million low skill, low education LEGAL immigrants from Third World countries, and that huge surplus of workers has destroyed the pay scale for industrial jobs.