Quote:
Originally Posted by WTF
Trump offers socialism for the rich, capitalism for everyone else
In the conservative mind, socialism means getting something for doing nothing. That pretty much describes the $21bn saved by the nation’s largest banks last year thanks to Trump’s tax cuts, some of which went into massive bonuses for bank executives. On the other hand, more than 4,000 lower-level bank employees got a big dose of harsh capitalism. They lost their jobs.
Banks that are too big to fail – courtesy of the 2008 bank bailout – enjoy a hidden subsidy of some $83bn a year, because creditors facing less risk accept lower interest on deposits and loans. Last year, Wall Street’s bonus pool was $31.4bn. Take away the hidden subsidy and the bonus pool disappears.
|
An article about Robert Reich in the Guardian. Well, you're not a hypocrite, so presumably you won't criticize the next person who posts something like a video of Steve Bannon on Fox.
Reich has a point about executive compensation. Shareholders and independent directors should grow some balls and pay people what they're worth instead of what they want. Also on the social safety net. Poor children and single mothers need more help. The problem is that when Democrats at the Federal level design support systems they end up flushing about half the money down the drain.
Otherwise Reich is FOS. Full of shit. Start with what you quoted. He's saying Fed policy (low interest rates) jacks up banks' profits. Interest rates wouldn't be any different if Reich's mentor, Bill Clinton were president. Or if Janet Yellen, who was appointed by President Obama, were still chairman. Yeah, I believe interest rates should be higher, to head off inflation, but the economists at the Federal Reserve disagree. Who are you going to believe, them or Reich and Tiny?
As to GM ripping off the taxpayer, I can't find their 2018 Financial Statement, maybe it's not out yet, but in 2017 their income before tax was 11.863 billion and they paid 11.553 billion in income tax, leaving them with a 300 million profit. Again he's FOS.
He says 60% of America's wealth is now inherited and talks about the 30 trillion in inheritance that will go to people's children. Makes sense to me. The total value of all U.S. homes is $31.8 trillion. The baby boom generation is retiring and their children get their homes and other assets. Reich apparently believes this should belong to the government, not to their families. I disagree.
As to people leaving assets to their children tax free, that works up to $11 million per person until the Trump tax cuts expire, and will then go back to around $5.5 million. Everything above that is taxed at 40%. If Reich has his way, based on his comments, apparently that exemption will go to "zero". His comrades like Sanders want to boost the death tax rate to as high as 77% on the wealthiest Americans.
He says "after a few generations...almost all of the nation's wealth will be in the hand of a few thousand non-working families." Again, complete bull shit. He's probably basing this on the writings of Thomas Piketty, whose work has been discredited. If this is the case, why hasn't it already happened by now? Here's a list of the 10 wealthiest Americans:
Jeff Bezos
Bill Gates
Warren Buffet
Larry Ellison (Oracle)
Mark Zuckerberg (Facebook)
Larry Page (Google)
David and Charles Koch (Koch Industries)
Sergey Brin (Google)
Michael Bloomberg
All except the Kochs are completely self made. And the Koch Brothers, who are American Heroes, grew their family business many, many times larger, creating tens of thousands of jobs and paying billions more in taxes than what would have happened if government had confiscated the family's wealth as advocated by Reich.
Socialism for the rich
