And the rich keep getting richer

[shaker281]

Originally Posted by Phil P

I say we end all farming subsidies and replace it with a 25% reverse tax on food. The crops we subsidize are corn, soybeans, tobacco, wheat, cotton, rice and peanuts. Oh, and we subsidized corn again through ethanol, the worst environmental disaster of the 21st century, at least according to Popular Science.

What needs to get subsidized is cereal grains, fruits and vegetables, and legumes.

What gets subsidized is meat, more meat, more meat, corn syrup, corn starch, ethanol, and cigarettes, which they then tax.

You don't suppose powerful lobbies have anything to do with that do you?

Ask yourself which states get the most benefit from these practices.

Which congresspersons get to send those tax dollars back to their states as "subsidies"?

All of them!

[cedartoday]

The talk of the 1% is nonsense. The 1% of the 1% is what really matters. And yes, we are getting richer by the day. Exploiting the ignorant plebs will accomplish that task for you when you are part of the elite.

[Phil P]

Originally Posted by shaker281

You don't suppose powerful lobbies have anything to do with that do you?

Ask yourself which states get the most benefit from these practices.

Which congresspersons get to send those tax dollars back to their states as "subsidies"?

All of them!

Exactly.

Farmers don't deserve any sympathy; farming is now a business, just like everything else, and subsidizing parts of it just creates market distortion, like big market distortion as we currently see. I can see giving the whole industry a slight boost, because after all, it is the most important one, but not single parts of it.

[MTAtech]

If we're talking about the rich getting richer, it's even worse than this farm issue.

Capital gains income is mainly income that goes to the more wealthy. New data shows that the already low capital gains rate is already concentrating income at the top -- more than at any other time in history. Lowering capital gains will just increase that concentration of income at the top.

This just came out yesterday:

The top 10 percent of earners took more than half of the country’s total income in 2012, the highest level recorded since the government began collecting the relevant data a century ago...

But that's only part of the picture. The top 0.1% captured half of the gains of the top 10% group and the top 0.01% took a quarter of the top 10% gains. The group 5% to 10% took nearly none of those gains.



What this means is that a very small elite of the super-rich are capturing a greater and greater portion of national income -- and then we have conservatives arguing that we should give this group even more tax-breaks, which will concentrate their income even more.

[chickenfriedbananas]

I'm not trying to be alarmist when I say this, but in a lot of ways, America's economic picture is moving in the direction of Ancient Rome. Has nothing to do with income inequality stats. Though those are worrisome in and of themselves, those stats can be eventually corrected with enough public outrage and scrutiny. The problem I see five years after the collapse of Wall St and the public bailout is that there's absolutely no accountability for private sector fraud and corruption - none at all. The message that is sent is, they can use their leverage to make all of the bad economic bets they want, and if they lose, they'll get taxpayers - middle class workers - to bankroll their debts. It's a complete breakdown in justice. They do it with the law on their side. It's an ominous sign. Very ominous.