Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Pension plan, retirement account, education savings plans, etc., are not just invested in stocks. Wall Street investments are not just stocks. Neither would Bernie's transaction tax only affect stock market transactions. You're only looking at one piece of the puzzle.
The problem people have in attacking Wall Street is that over 100 million American workers' and retirees' pension plan and retirement account investments, and education accounts (529s), are dependent on the well-being of Wall Street. You may not like it, but that ship has sailed...
What is killing investors in bonds is ZIRP and more they are threatening NIRP. Speculators may benefit from see-saw bond pricing fluctuations but pension fund and retrirement funds depend up predictable interest rates which were destroyed by the Fed under the Obama admiration. We are discussing the difference between retirement planning as it existed during the Great expansion years of the middle class and the Wall Street Casino that exists today.
Many retirement accounts (401Ks in particular) are not taxed until money is withdrawn, and at that point it is taxed as income. This is the type of account that the vast majority of Americans (who don't day trade or have enough disposable income to invest outside of 401K) have. And pension withdrawals are taxed as income also.
Irrelevant to the point I'm making. Exactly how does Bernie's proposed transaction tax plan on eliminating the tax charged for financial transactions that occur within those holdings before they're withdrawn? You are aware that pension plans and mutual funds in retirement accounts are buying and selling frequently as the flux of continual contributions and withdrawals necessitates such, no?
He does and has made diminishing the influence of the billionaire class a big part of his campaign. Koch acknowledges that that billionaires use the apparatus of government to enrich themselves, but his solution isn't to reduce their influence but rather declaw government in blanket fashion. But Koch is peaking from a position where removal of anti-trust laws, and financial and environmental regulations would greatly benefit him personally.
Koch's overall solution may be incomplete but the essential issue that Bernie does not acknowledge is that Big Money attracts Big Corruption and further expansion of the Billionaire Class.
In an op-ed for the Washington Post Charles Koch writes that he fundamentally agreed with Bernie Sanders that the system is rigged to the advantage of the wealthy. Where he disagrees with Sanders is how to remedy the problem. He believes that Government, and more specifically the money that government spends, is the vehicle that the wealthy use in order to expand their influence so more government will only exasperate the problem.
As a Bernie supporter I totally understand his point of view and would wonder how Bernie world respond. How does one remedy a problem by increasing the influence of the primary cause? It is a good question.
Excerpts from the op-ed:
" The senator is upset with a political and economic system that is often rigged to help the privileged few at the expense of everyone else, particularly the least advantaged. He believes that we have a two-tiered society that increasingly dooms millions of our fellow citizens to lives of poverty and hopelessness. He thinks many corporations seek and benefit from corporate welfare while ordinary citizens are denied opportunities and a level playing field.
I agree with him."
"Democrats and Republicans have too often favored policies and regulations that pick winners and losers. This helps perpetuate a cycle of control, dependency, cronyism and poverty in the United States. These are complicated issues, but it’s not enough to say that government alone is to blame. Large portions of the business community have actively pushed for these policies."
"I applaud the senator for giving a voice to many Americans struggling to get ahead in a system too often stacked in favor of the haves, but I disagree with his desire to expand the federal government’s control over people’s lives. This is what built so many barriers to opportunity in the first place.
Did you know that Koch offered Trump money for his campaign, and when Trump declined, Koch told Trump he was no longer invited to the WTO meetings....those are the meetings where the filthy rich go from all over the world to decide how countries are going to be run.
So will the rich people stop blaming the poor and middle class for everything that happens now that the Koch brother agrees with the rigged economics! probably not, they hate taking any responsibility for wrongs
It's a matter for the 99% to find common ground. More government spending may indeed be the major reason for the wealth and power gap.
The more the government is allowed to regulate, the more it harms the little guy because the well-connected are influencing those regulations for their benefit. The only ones really hurt are the honest people.
So by that logic, the less government is allowed to regulate, the less it harms the little guy, therefore removing all government regulation is the best thing for the little guy.
So by that logic, the less government is allowed to regulate, the less it harms the little guy, therefore removing all government regulation is the best thing for the little guy.
This would be the Libertarian point of view, and they would even say that monopolies are the result of government intervention that provides codifies monopolies into law. It is a tough question of where to draw the line.
So by that logic, the less government is allowed to regulate, the less it harms the little guy, therefore removing all government regulation is the best thing for the little guy.
Yep
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
