Saturday, January 30, 2016

IT'S TIME FOR A "PEOPLE'S" PRESIDENT; FEEL THE BERN?

 The time for the same-o, same-o in how and who we elect as President is over. Democrats and Republicans alike are saying, "we are mad as hell and are not going to take it any more!"



So much so that two dark horses; one from each party, has come out of nowhere and taken center stage. The Republicans are railing against the system with a wild out of control Donald Trump, who is admittedly crazy but does say it like it is which goes completely against the grain when it comes to political correctness. Trumps message is, "let's make America great again" but falls flat when explaining how he would make that happen.



Democrats have come out in droves to propel Bernie Sanders to center stage. A wise/old (I say that with praise) man who says it like it is and has a clear coherent plan on how to return America to it's people and dismantle the corrupt dysfunctional political machine that brought America to it's knees in 2008 and continues keep the country on the edge of the precipice which insures another disaster will come sooner than later.



Both Trump and Sanders have refused to fall into line and both are not pandering to the "monied' establishment fed by moguls like the Koch brothers, Vegas tycoon Adilsen, and similar counterparts  on the Democratic side.



What's different about Trump and Sanders, is that Donald is tapping into his own billion dollar piggy bank while Bernie is being bankrolled by $3.00 donors all over America. Bernie is calling for a political "revolution" and the people are answering the call.



Bernie is determined to retake the high ground from the elite class that owns almost every politician running or holding office.



 The game is completely rigged: The 1 percent has more than ever — and the system is too broken to deal with it





The
trickle-down fallacy that currently seems to underpin economic policy
in the US fails to take into account the fact that the American economy
is still strongly tied to consumer spending. Most of the US companies
that you can think of do business by creating goods or services that are
purchased by consumers (or goods or services that cater to the
companies that provide consumer goods/services).
We've
been fed the idea for decades that as the wealthy get more wealthy,
these "job creators" will invest their money back into the economy and
generate wealth for all. The data, however, doesn't support this. We've
been giving tax breaks and loopholes to the top earners for years and
what we've seen is this:
 
That
is wage stagnation...as policies have favored the richest Americans,
those top 1% of earners have become wealthier while everyone else has
had their incomes remain static. Now, this wouldn't be so bad except for
the fact that cost of living has risen substantially. This is most
stark in housing, healthcare, and education.
Sanders'
plans are actually some of the most economically sound because they
have long-term sustainability. Current policies and those being proposed
by other candidates continue to favor corporations and the wealthiest
Americans. Continuing those is not sustainable since cost of living will
continue to rise and wages will remain stagnant, causing more and more
Americans will slip into poverty. Even those that don't will see their
purchasing power continue to diminish, which will hurt businesses across
the country and people buy fewer goods and services. 
By
raising the minimum wage (although $15 might be too big of a jump to do
right away and might cause more harm than good...a letter from a group
of economists to President Obama recommended jumping to $10.10...then we
can raise it slowly from there), creating a comprehensive healthcare
system, and lowering the cost of education, the Sanders plans would
create more purchasing power for the bottom 90% of Americans. With more
money in hand, Americans will be able to spend more on goods and
services, something that would revitalize the economy far better than
having all of that wealth sucked up to the top (347 million
decently-paid Americans are going to be buying a lot more goods than a
few million super-rich Americans...).
So
what about paying for these programs? Bringing taxes back to where they
were under Reagan or so and closing loopholes for corporations and the
wealthiest would certainly help. There is also an interesting set of
articles on Forbes that talk about how government spending is actually
very beneficial to the economy (including the private sector) and how
paying for it isn't actually that hard...it's not entirely intuitive
because a lot of the analogies that have been used on us (household
finances/corporate finances) aren't actually applicable:
How to Destroy the US Economy? Balance the Budget (this wasn't the one I originally found but it says some of the same things)
Basically,
Sanders is offering a set of programs and policies that would put more
spending power into the hands of the vast majority of Americans.
Unfortunately, many people see this as a zero-sum game...if we slow or
stop the current wealth redistribution to the very top, it will benefit
the others but harm the very rich! But remember, many of those top 1%
get their money from capital gains and the success of businesses
(oftentimes by having freakishly high salaries or some financial
trickery...but that's another discussion)...that means that having more
Americans spending more would be good for them too! 



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