The 2% Illusion (EVERYONE'S ox is gonna get gored - not just the rich)

The Wall Street Journal ^ | February 26, 2009 | Editorial

[TheOldLady]

"The American people as a whole have never been very bright."

Well we used to be before we turned our children over to William Ayres to educate. But you're right as of now, which is how 0bumma got elected.

[Reeses]

That reads envious. Because of credit overuse by Wall Street bankers, crashing the credit card economy, you’re sold on the current wave of socialism? What is it you want to do to the rich Wall Street bankers?

[PeterPrinciple]

The Vampire Economy: Doing Business under Fascism.

---

Is this the book in pdf?

http://www.mises.org/books/vampireeconomy.pdf

[Hoodat]

Who is John Galt?

[PeterPrinciple]

From the book. It begins to answer my question of where do you store wealth under socialism.

this industrialist
declared:
“I have a million marks to invest. If I could use this
money as I please, I would buy gold. This I would put
in a safe deposit vault where not even the Reichsbank
president could touch it. The gold would earn no interest.
I would lose possible profits. But I would be free
of the constant fear of losing my capital. I would not
have to worry about having to invest it where I can
never be sure of its worth from day to day. But I cannot
buy gold with my million marks. I must invest it as
soon as possible, since if I leave it in my bank account
too long, it may be confiscated by the tax controller,
the Party may demand a large contribution, or the
Party secretary may inform me that I am to be honored
as the founder of a new enterprise for the unprofitable
production of some ersatz product. Before I receive
some such suggestion, I must make up my mind about
the possibilities of investment. Two years ago I might
have decided to buy a new house for my family, or to
erect an apartment building. I would not have cared
particularly whether there were tenants or not, inasmuch
as I would at least have had some real property
that could not be wiped out by inflation, and that would
be at my free disposal. But today this is out of the question
without a special permit from the State. The only
way out seems to be to invest the money in extending
my own plant.”

[Army Air Corps]

That is the very one. It was written in the 1930s and includes a lot of anecdotal material to support the issues discussed in the book.

[jveritas]

Once the Bush tax cut expires all tax payers are going to pay much more in taxes. The socialists are not going to extend the Bush tax cuts for people making less than $ 250,000 a year. These socialists could not give more than $ 8 a week and for one year only for those making $ 75,000 or less so never ever expect them to extend the Bush tax cuts that provide thousands of dollars in tax cut for each tax payers. It is against the nature of socialists to cut taxes.

[jveritas]

Many will notice. Even if they make $ 40,000 a year then their tax bracket will go from 25% to 28% once the Bush tax cuts expires in 2010, that $ 1,200 in additional taxes not to mention other tax increases that will be added. Trust me, they will notice that they are paying more in taxes.

[Incorrigible]

Bump

[jersey117]

I ain’t working for everyone else...life’s too short.

I feel the same way. I'm tired of carrying the water for everyone else. Simplicity is the way to go. I'd rather take a pay cut than let zero spread any of the wealth that I've worked hard for over the past 30 years.

[PSYCHO-FREEP]

Going after Capital Gains and Dividends.......

Now that will surely rev up the Stocks and Real Estate market by golly! With a tax increase like this, who needs financing? Most people will avoid Wall Street like the plague.

[jersey117]

The Obambi administration is one of the most anti-business administrations in US history so far and unfortunately this is going to continue.

He plays the class warfare card well.

[PSYCHO-FREEP]

Not really.

After he drives most of us out of our jobs because business cannot survive, Americans will turn on him like a step child.

[Centurion2000]

It’s hard to imagine this guy isn’t sitting in the oval office all day, getting high and then dreaming this blarney up.

I think you dropped your sarcasm on the way to work.

[jersey117]

Americans will turn on him like a step child.

That day can't come soon enough. Look how much damage he's done in only one month. It's so depressing

[PeterPrinciple]

THE Berlin Stock Exchange still exists—as a building,
as an institution with large offices, with brokers and
bankers, with a huge organization for daily announcement
of stock and bond quotations. But it is only a
pale imitation of its former self and of what a stock
exchange is supposed to be. For the Stock Exchange
cannot function if and when the State regulates the flow
of capital and destroys the confidence of investors in
the sanctity of their property rights.
The glorious days when millions of marks daily
poured into the Stock Exchange, when the bonds and
securities of foreign countries were handled, when new
concerns and trusts were promoted and exciting speculative
maneuvers were staged—those glorious times have
long since departed, and even the doorkeeper who
vividly remembers the excitement of the “good old days”
does not believe that they will ever return. Yet the
decrepit machine still runs.

---

The best description of our current stock market?

[PeterPrinciple]

From the book on how the socialist germany was going to pay for things in 1939. Sound familiar today? Some of us are old wives............

---

I pointed out
that our national rearmament demands the concentration
of all economic and financial reserves; and when
I said all, I meant all. The reply I received was that
only old wives would throw up their hands and ask,
‘Who is going to pay for the whole thing?’ At the risk
of being set down as an old woman, I want to say quite
plainly that the question of the practical execution of
the task set us is one over which I have racked my brains
day and night. My comrades and fellow-Germans, to
dismiss the gravity of the situation and our task as Germans
with cheap phrase-mongering is not only silly but
damned dangerous.”

[CottonBall]

ps. I didn’t mean it the way it sounded when I said you wouldn’t understand Thoreau. I meant just in this context.

I think we want the same outcome, but have polar opposite views on how to personally implement it. It’s a personal preference thing, I think. I want to retire and go live in the woods/mountains within the next 10 years. W/ tax increases on the way, may as well do it earlier and quit giving the government so much money. If someone loves what they do (work-wise), then by all means - work away and make as much as you can. And spend it before the dollar is devalued!

[PeterPrinciple]

Why Obama is not worried about where he will find money. The same place socialist Nazi Germany found it.

---

The totalitarian State will not have an empty treasury
so long as private companies or individuals still have
ample cash or liquid assets. For the State has the power
to solve its financial difficulties at their expense. The
private banks themselves, the financial institutions
which previously dictated the terms on which they were
willing to lend money, have built up the system of
siphoning off liquid funds. This financial system is now
utilized by the totalitarian State for its own purposes.
The State has the supreme claim on anything private
citizens or private firms own.

[CottonBall]

Many will notice. Even if they make $ 40,000 a year then their tax bracket will go from 25% to 28% once the Bush tax cuts expires in 2010, that $ 1,200 in additional taxes not to mention other tax increases that will be added. Trust me, they will notice that they are paying more in taxes.

I dunno. The sheeple - Obama voters - aren't all that bright, after years of our dumbed down education system. (Actually even those in the 10% bracket will now to go 15% - all will be paying more.) I know people that are so happy when they get a refund - and don't even know the total amount of taxes they paid each year. The money coming back is almost like a gift, in their eyes. And I've worked with numerous women who couldn't get it when I said we were working for almost 50% of what we made. (This was before the Bush tax cuts). Even when showing them the very simple math of adding federal (28% for all the ones I talked to since our husbands made a good income), state income taxes (9.3% at the time), and 7.65% SS and Medicare - they still didn't get it. These women weren't the best and the brightest where I worked (the engineers there all got it, of course), but still....it's simple math.

I hope you're right, though, and that there is a rebellion. But, I really don't think they'll figure it out without help. And conservative radio and TV will be shut down by then.;(