The level of ignorance and outright stupidity within the “Hip-Hop/Sports/Hood” culture has been a problem for years, but in the spirit of being true to OURSELVES, and taking responsibility for OUR own well being, the time has come to air out those members of our society that continually choose to self destruct whether or not we have a vested interest in their personal success, or success of their team/organization.
I am an avid Giants/Knicks/ Yankees fan, but what Plexico did this weekend has brought the outrage to a crescendo. The man played his tail off last season, finally was part of a Super Bowl winning TEAM, and recently signed a $35Mil contract, after bugging out this pre season.
Let us put this into perspective, the world has just witnessed a historic election, the economy is in tatters, and we need to take responsibility for OUR behavior, if we are going to begin to change the conditions and injustices in OUR country. Now when we have high profile/highly paid athletes, politicians, entertainers, or businessmen caught up in INCREDIBLY stupid situations, we must collectively renounce those actions because it is what it is, RIDICULOUSLY IGNORANT!!!!!!!!
The Plexico incident is a by product of the dumb ass “street cred”, “thug life”, and “stop snitching” mentality gifted and blessed members of our society willingly promote, and continually fall victim to, time and time again, which only gives credence to widely held prejudices and misconceptions about US, which results in less opportunities for success across the board.
Listen, if you’re worth millions in today’s economy, your background and your vernacular may characterize you as hood, but in reality, like it or not, you are a symbol of hope for countless members of your FORMER community that will NEVER get the opportunity to sit at the table. You have a RESPONSIBILITY to REPRESENT in a mature fashion. And last but not least, YOU ARE A TARGET.
I get it, believe me, especially the target part, but after 400 years of injustice, and given the opportunities many of US have been afforded, WE must be smarter now!!! We can no longer use the past as a crutch, we are in the drivers seat, now act like you know how to drive or get off the road.
You know the stick up kids got their eyes on you, you know almost EVERYTIME the law gets involved in an altercation/incident WE LOSE, you know they routinely set up Task Forces to watch high profile members of our community, waiting for us to FUCK UP. I cannot for the life of me figure out just WHO ARE WE TRYING TO IMPRESS when we do that DUMB $#!+!!!!!!!!
Believe me, when you fall, only those who truly cared about you will be by your side. Most of the time those are the ones we took for granted, or didn’t listen to when they were advising us we were treading down the wrong path, will be the only ones there for you in your hour of need, or an unintentional victim caught up in your $#!+.
The hood is not going to give a f*&% about you when you fall, matter of fact; they will probably make up some witty slang terminology, based on your name, to describe someone who f*&^%$ up REALLY badly, or fell off COMPLETELY. WHO ARE WE CARRYING THIS TORCH FOR???
If you’re worth millions, there is no shame in hiring professional security when you attend social events. I hear people get on Fifty all the time about this, but Fifty is now worth about $500 MILLION. What’s worse, Fifty is probably getting criticized by a bunch of broke ass dudes, who have no life, no career, and some, probably in and out of jail, while Fifty is counting his money??
Or, Fifty getting caught up representing, then losing his freedom, and a big chunk of his fortune to lawyers and the State? I would say “Do the math” but if you still need to calculate on this one, YOU’RE THE F@&%#! PROBLEM!!!!
Plexico has to know his days are numbered, and if he doesn’t, he’s more ignorant than I could have ever imagined. I know he is a competitor, and I won’t pretend to know what he had to go through to get to this point in his life. I know he must have overcome countless hurdles, rightfully so.
I was with him all the way up to this incident, although in hind sight, I shouldn’t have been. Plexico has to know that he can be replaced, if the past several weeks have been any indication. Guys put their bodies on the line week in and week out, but many of them are not good enough, or lucky enough, to finally get that PHAT contract, especially in the NFL.
He did so many things wrong I don’t know where to begin. You know the rules…. First of all, you shouldn’t have to tote a gun, but IF YOU FEEL COMPELLED TO DO SO, at the very least you should have a concealed weapons permit, along with a licensed gun.
Second, you should have the proper accessories to secure/conceal your weapon. The fact that he shot himself because his gun was falling down his leg, is laughable at best, and possibly the coup de grace of his fall from greatness.
I know there’s an investigation going on, and the facts will come out eventually, but if Antonio winds up being disciplined for his actions (trying to help his teammate/best friend on team), and/or, if the Giants season takes a turn for the worse, it should forever remind us that representing FAILED DOCTRINES are a direct result of the true SELL OUT mentality.
We cannot continue to blame outside forces when we keep destroying ourselves with self inflicted wounds. DIVIDE AND CONQUER is the oldest trick in the book, and a lot of you are unwitting soldiers in cause. Be a real soldier, get money, support your family, take care of the ones that truly love and support you by playing your position (((consistently))), and leave all that posturing to the actors.
Sunday, November 30, 2008
Thursday, November 6, 2008
THE WEALTH SPREADER MISCONCEPTION.......
Conservatives, routinely, claim Obama’s liberal agenda (Spread the Wealth) is to “unfairly” tax the rich, and profligately GIVE those funds to the poor classes, that pay no taxes AT ALL. Which is an outright manipulation of the truth.
Check out the attached NY Post article (very bottom). This is how it works when Washington’s policies are structured to benefit the top 1% of Americans. Trickle down economics at its best, however, the only thing that trickles down is the burden of higher cost of living (taxes, fees, products, fines, etc) expenses.
Mass transit ridership is at an all time high, yet, we are facing yet another fare hike in the not so distant future. However, there is renewable technology out there right now, that can drastically eliminate the rising costs of operation. The sun comes up every day, let’s harness that energy NOW!!! (See my next blog on solar power)
Dog litter fines went from $100 to $250. Property taxes are going up soon. Cable fees are going up. A barrel of oil now costs about $60, but the price at the pump has not receded as quickly as it rose when Oil futures were ARTIFICIALLY inflated repeatedly, a few months ago.
More transit cops are being assigned to raise revenue by giving out parking tickets (projected $64million – see Post article). All of the sudden I notice more cops on the highways of NYC too. I guess best way to offset budget deficits it to hit constituents in the pocket, on the local level.
The rules are the rules, but do you know what the worst part of all this is? Big inner cities like NYC, which pay Fed, State, and City taxes send more money to Albany, and Washington than we get in return for essential services.
When Sarah wants an earmark for a bridge to nowhere, guess where the Feds get that money from? That’s right, from tax revenue surpluses they collect from all the SOCIALISTIC & UNAMERICAN big inner cities.
When they disproportionately give Midwest states more Anti-terror funding (per capita) than NYC, Miami, DC, and Washington, why don’t they classify this as “Spreading the Wealth”???? Because……. Their true intentions are not to serve the greater American people. It’s to serve their own financial, professional, and/or political agendas.
At the very least, a huge metropolis like NYC needs the tax capital WE generate returned in order to run our cities, responsibly. We shouldn’t be spreading wealth to any other municipalities, especially when we have increasing budget deficits of our own!!!!
To make an analogy, it’ like the luxury tax in sports. Big market teams like the Yankees must “share the wealth “ with smaller market teams when they go above the cap. But those teams rarely spend those funds on talent.
They usually look for a way they can increase their revenues further, and line their pockets with the proceeds. I don’t blame the Steinbrenner’s for complaining. If you’re not using the money to improve your team, give US our money back and we’ll spread the wealth ourselves.
The misinformed keep eating up the crap, pundits from both sides of the aisle, keep dishing out. Politics are not without its flaws, but I must reiterate, TRUE progress is usually a painfully slow, and tedious process. It takes longer to undo injustices than it takes to commit them, without a doubt, but again, IF YOU’RE NOT PART OF THE SOLUTION, in one way or the other, YOU’RE PART OF THE PROBLEM.
Don’t sit on the sidelines and repeat the crap you hear people say on campaign trails without understanding, or researching for yourself, how the process works. The only way this country will ever begin to reverse the ills of the financial meltdown is by PUTTING AMERICANS back to work, which will stabilize American companies for the long haul (instead of continually bailing them out), generating enough tax revenue to pay down the National Debt, and the essential entitlement programs (Medicare/ Social Security/ All Services), which were created to serve US ALL.
Don’t tell me this isn’t possible when the average CEO pay has gone from over 100X, to over 400X the average Americans salary, in a few decades. They deserve to be highly compensated when their firms perform well, but not at the expense of their institutions, their shareholders, or their employees, particularly in a time of widespread crisis, GLOBALLY…….
When Obama says he wants to give a tax break to 95% of the population, which is a MAJORITY of the American working class, the 1st graph below is WHO he is talking about.
If you increase the disposable income of this group, you would automatically increase receipts. I’ve prepared tax returns for people making less than $15K, and believe me, if they have a child, they already receive Earned Income Credits that cause their returns to soar anywhere from $3-$5K annually, under current tax policy.
For someone (i.e. Joe the Plumber) to say “Obama will spread the wealth around to those who pay NO taxes at all” is disingenuous, to say the least… The statistics below are from 2005. The income disparity has only GROWN exponentially, since then.
The sheer inequity between the haves and the have nots is exactly why our markets are nearing collapse. Sure it looked like a good idea from the outset, only problem is, the wealth is not trickling down, which causes businesses to go in the red, which in turn, causes a ripple affect that hurts the MAJORITY.
Now all these ignorant bums are complaining about Obama taking money they don’t have, and probably, will never live to see. Get a grip STUPID!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Meanwhile the top 1% leave their financial institutions+stocks, our retirement portfolios, and our tax coffers in shambles. Then the privileged ride off into the sunset laughing all the way to the bank, and they tell the uninformed to watch out for TAX AND SPEND DEMONCRATS. BULL$#!+!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I compare this financial ideology to a sophisticated pyramid scheme. But the RICH WILL NEVER LOSE…
MY ONL QUESTION IS….. WHY DO THEY HAVE TO BE SO $#^%@*&& GREEDY??????? AND THE ANSWER IS, BECAUSE ABSOLUTE POWER CORRUPTS ABSOLUTELY. ALWAYS HAS, ALWAYS WILL.
2005 US Income DistributionMore Census data! This time it is the U.S. income distribution for 2005 showing the number of households up to $250,000. (I have since added more graphs that include incomes above $250,000: 2005 US Income Distribution Part 2 and 2005 US Income Distribution Part 3)
CLICK LINK BELOW TO VIEW DISTRIBUTION GRAPH:
http://www.visualizingeconomics.com/2006/11/05/2005-us-income-distribution/
Carving up our economic pieBy Holly SklarDistributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Information Services, November 22, 2005
Pie season is here. Pumpkin, apple, cherry, whatever you like. We can use edible pie charts -- and some chocolate -- to see how our national economic pie is being carved up more unfairly.
Let's look first at income distribution.
Take two pies -- one for 1979, the other for 2003 (using the latest IRS data).
Divide the 1979 pie into 10 equal slices. If the slices were eaten according to the distribution of income in 1979:
· The richest 1 percent of taxpayers would get one slice.
· The rest of the top 20 percent would get four slices.
· The other 80 percent of taxpayers would split five slices.
Now, divide the 2003 pie into 10 slices.
· The richest 1 percent would get nearly two slices.
· The rest of the top 20 percent would get a little over four slices.
· The other 80 percent would split four slices.
In 1979, the top 20 percent of taxpayers had about as much income as the other 80 percent combined. In 2003, the top 20 percent had 60 percent of the income, leaving just 40 percent for the rest. The richest 1 percent nearly doubled their share.
Let's look more closely at the upward shift in income.
In 1979, the bottom 40 percent of taxpayers had about 15 percent more combined income than the richest 1 percent.
In 2003, the richest 1 percent had twice the income share of the bottom 40 percent.
The richest 1 percent share of reported income jumped from 9.6 percent in 1979 to 17.5 percent in 2003. The bottom 40 percent share fell from 11.3 percent to 8.8 percent.
Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist David Cay Johnston puts the growing gap between the very rich and everyone else in stark perspective. He examined the income reported on tax returns of the top 0.01 percent -- about 14,000 households with at least $5.5 million in income.
From 1950 to 1970, for every additional dollar earned by those in the bottom 90 percent, those in the top 0.01 percent earned an additional $162.
From 1990 to 2002, for every additional dollar earned in the bottom 90 percent, those at the top brought in an extra $18,000.
**** HELLO!!!!!!!!!!! NOTICE A TREND HERE???***
If you are feeling financially down this holiday season, there's a good reason. Average workers have been earning less after inflation, not more. Average hourly earnings dropped 5 percent, adjusting for inflation, between 1979 and 2004 -- while domestic corporate profits rose 63 percent.
The share of national income going to wages and salaries is at the lowest level since 1929 -- the year that kicked off the Great Depression. The share going to after-tax corporate profits, which heavily benefit wealthy Americans through increased dividends and capital gains, is at the highest level since 1929.
Income gaps in the workplace have become increasingly outrageous, as seen in the growing gap between worker pay and CEO pay. We can demonstrate it with a pile of chocolate.
Give 1 piece of chocolate to your worker stand-in and 44 pieces to your CEO stand-in. That was the 1980 ratio of average full-time worker pay to average pay among CEOs in Business Week's survey of major corporations.
For the equivalent 2004 ratio, give 1 piece of chocolate to the worker and 362 to the CEO.
As the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities reports, federal policy is contributing "to a further widening of income disparities between the most affluent households and other Americans." Households with incomes over $1 million will receive an average tax cut of $103,000 this year -- an increase of 5.4 percent in their after-tax income.
The congressional majority is done crying crocodile tears over Katrina and the shameful inequality it exposed.
They're working overtime to stiff the have-nots with more budget cuts so they can keep stuffing the pockets of the haves with more tax cuts. The budget knife is dropping on Medicaid, education, child care, food assistance and more-- even public health, despite loud warnings we are unprepared for bird flu and other threats.
Tell your senators and members of Congress what you think about their priorities, and make your voice count when you vote next November.
Holly Sklar is co-author of "Raise the Floor: Wages and Policies That Work for All Of Us." She can be reached at hsklar@aol.com. Copyright (c) 2005 Holly Sklar
I’m all for a free market society, and I don’t think anyone should be penalized for creating wealth, but the inequity is disturbing, and herein lies the fundamental problem with our economy.
I’m just saying, be informed, and hold your elected officials accountable, whether it’s the 42nd, 43rd, 44th President, your Congressman, Senator, Councilman, Mayor, etc. Otherwise, don’t say $#!+, when it hits the fan……..
More@: www.blaqopsblogspot.com
www.myspace.com/reciprok8
$PREADING THE PAIN
IT'S DOOM & BLOOM ON BUDGET
By DAVID SEIFMAN, City Hall Bureau Chief5:21 amNovember 6, 2008 Posted: 4:52 amNovember 6, 2008
Mayor Bloomberg dropped a budget bombshell yesterday by warning he might have to increase income and sales taxes by $900 million next year - on top of a 7 percent property tax hike he plans to enact before month's end.
If that weren't enough to send taxpayers running for cover, Bloomberg also announced that the city could no longer afford the annual $400 rebate to small homeowners, and intends to end it immediately to save $256 million a year.
That's in addition to draconian measures already on the table after Bloomberg ordered agencies to come up with $1.5 billion in savings to close budget gaps that have grown from $2.3 billion to $4 billion over 18 months.
Among them are:
* The Sanitation Department hoped to pull in $16 million through a 5-cent fee on plastic bags.
* The NYPD was looking for a $60 million haul from summonses that would be handed out by 234 new traffic agents assigned to ticket "block the box" violations.
* Public-library service would be reduced from six days a week to 51/2.
* The Department of Transportation planned to raise selected parking-meter fees from $1 to $2 an hour south of 60th Street to collect $7 million more a year.
Other plans ranged from some 500 to 600 layoffs at the Department of Education and the Housing Authority and the elimination of a 1,100-recruit Police Academy class to save $137 million.
"Each path is unpleasant and painful," the mayor declared at a gloomy, mid-year budget presentation at City Hall.
"Back in June nobody really thought Wall Street was going to fall apart. All this happened in five months," he said.
But the entire range of agency actions still left a $1.3 billion deficit in the $61 billion budget for fiscal 2010, an outgrowth of an anticipated plunge in economically sensitive taxes from $24.7 billion to $19.9 billion in two years and a spike in contributions required to fund declining municipal pension funds.
To cope, the mayor offered some extraordinary options: $400 million in further agency reductions plus a combination of a higher general sales tax, restoration of the sales tax on clothing and an increase in the personal income tax of 7.5 percent or 15 percent.
At the 7.5 percent level, the mayor noted, residents with a taxable income of $50,000 to $75,000 would pay an extra $116 a year.
"It's $116 of taxpayers' money and it's $116 most people don't have, or don't want to spend, but it does put it into perspective what it might take to help us close the $1.3 billion deficit," he said.
Reaction to the proposed and possible tax hikes - all of which require legislative approval - was less than enthusiastic in the City Council. "We're kind of shocked that was on the table to revoke a [$400 check] that should have been mailed out already," said council Finance Chairman David Weprin (D-Queens).
Councilman Simcha Felder (D-Brooklyn), a longtime Bloomberg ally, said he couldn't fathom the council going along with "any sort of real-estate tax increase on homeowners."
Bloomberg at several points mentioned that the state faces even bigger problems, an indication the city might try to piggyback on any tax hikes coming out of Albany.
david.seifman@nypost.com
Check out the attached NY Post article (very bottom). This is how it works when Washington’s policies are structured to benefit the top 1% of Americans. Trickle down economics at its best, however, the only thing that trickles down is the burden of higher cost of living (taxes, fees, products, fines, etc) expenses.
Mass transit ridership is at an all time high, yet, we are facing yet another fare hike in the not so distant future. However, there is renewable technology out there right now, that can drastically eliminate the rising costs of operation. The sun comes up every day, let’s harness that energy NOW!!! (See my next blog on solar power)
Dog litter fines went from $100 to $250. Property taxes are going up soon. Cable fees are going up. A barrel of oil now costs about $60, but the price at the pump has not receded as quickly as it rose when Oil futures were ARTIFICIALLY inflated repeatedly, a few months ago.
More transit cops are being assigned to raise revenue by giving out parking tickets (projected $64million – see Post article). All of the sudden I notice more cops on the highways of NYC too. I guess best way to offset budget deficits it to hit constituents in the pocket, on the local level.
The rules are the rules, but do you know what the worst part of all this is? Big inner cities like NYC, which pay Fed, State, and City taxes send more money to Albany, and Washington than we get in return for essential services.
When Sarah wants an earmark for a bridge to nowhere, guess where the Feds get that money from? That’s right, from tax revenue surpluses they collect from all the SOCIALISTIC & UNAMERICAN big inner cities.
When they disproportionately give Midwest states more Anti-terror funding (per capita) than NYC, Miami, DC, and Washington, why don’t they classify this as “Spreading the Wealth”???? Because……. Their true intentions are not to serve the greater American people. It’s to serve their own financial, professional, and/or political agendas.
At the very least, a huge metropolis like NYC needs the tax capital WE generate returned in order to run our cities, responsibly. We shouldn’t be spreading wealth to any other municipalities, especially when we have increasing budget deficits of our own!!!!
To make an analogy, it’ like the luxury tax in sports. Big market teams like the Yankees must “share the wealth “ with smaller market teams when they go above the cap. But those teams rarely spend those funds on talent.
They usually look for a way they can increase their revenues further, and line their pockets with the proceeds. I don’t blame the Steinbrenner’s for complaining. If you’re not using the money to improve your team, give US our money back and we’ll spread the wealth ourselves.
The misinformed keep eating up the crap, pundits from both sides of the aisle, keep dishing out. Politics are not without its flaws, but I must reiterate, TRUE progress is usually a painfully slow, and tedious process. It takes longer to undo injustices than it takes to commit them, without a doubt, but again, IF YOU’RE NOT PART OF THE SOLUTION, in one way or the other, YOU’RE PART OF THE PROBLEM.
Don’t sit on the sidelines and repeat the crap you hear people say on campaign trails without understanding, or researching for yourself, how the process works. The only way this country will ever begin to reverse the ills of the financial meltdown is by PUTTING AMERICANS back to work, which will stabilize American companies for the long haul (instead of continually bailing them out), generating enough tax revenue to pay down the National Debt, and the essential entitlement programs (Medicare/ Social Security/ All Services), which were created to serve US ALL.
Don’t tell me this isn’t possible when the average CEO pay has gone from over 100X, to over 400X the average Americans salary, in a few decades. They deserve to be highly compensated when their firms perform well, but not at the expense of their institutions, their shareholders, or their employees, particularly in a time of widespread crisis, GLOBALLY…….
When Obama says he wants to give a tax break to 95% of the population, which is a MAJORITY of the American working class, the 1st graph below is WHO he is talking about.
If you increase the disposable income of this group, you would automatically increase receipts. I’ve prepared tax returns for people making less than $15K, and believe me, if they have a child, they already receive Earned Income Credits that cause their returns to soar anywhere from $3-$5K annually, under current tax policy.
For someone (i.e. Joe the Plumber) to say “Obama will spread the wealth around to those who pay NO taxes at all” is disingenuous, to say the least… The statistics below are from 2005. The income disparity has only GROWN exponentially, since then.
The sheer inequity between the haves and the have nots is exactly why our markets are nearing collapse. Sure it looked like a good idea from the outset, only problem is, the wealth is not trickling down, which causes businesses to go in the red, which in turn, causes a ripple affect that hurts the MAJORITY.
Now all these ignorant bums are complaining about Obama taking money they don’t have, and probably, will never live to see. Get a grip STUPID!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Meanwhile the top 1% leave their financial institutions+stocks, our retirement portfolios, and our tax coffers in shambles. Then the privileged ride off into the sunset laughing all the way to the bank, and they tell the uninformed to watch out for TAX AND SPEND DEMONCRATS. BULL$#!+!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I compare this financial ideology to a sophisticated pyramid scheme. But the RICH WILL NEVER LOSE…
MY ONL QUESTION IS….. WHY DO THEY HAVE TO BE SO $#^%@*&& GREEDY??????? AND THE ANSWER IS, BECAUSE ABSOLUTE POWER CORRUPTS ABSOLUTELY. ALWAYS HAS, ALWAYS WILL.
2005 US Income DistributionMore Census data! This time it is the U.S. income distribution for 2005 showing the number of households up to $250,000. (I have since added more graphs that include incomes above $250,000: 2005 US Income Distribution Part 2 and 2005 US Income Distribution Part 3)
CLICK LINK BELOW TO VIEW DISTRIBUTION GRAPH:
http://www.visualizingeconomics.com/2006/11/05/2005-us-income-distribution/
Carving up our economic pieBy Holly SklarDistributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Information Services, November 22, 2005
Pie season is here. Pumpkin, apple, cherry, whatever you like. We can use edible pie charts -- and some chocolate -- to see how our national economic pie is being carved up more unfairly.
Let's look first at income distribution.
Take two pies -- one for 1979, the other for 2003 (using the latest IRS data).
Divide the 1979 pie into 10 equal slices. If the slices were eaten according to the distribution of income in 1979:
· The richest 1 percent of taxpayers would get one slice.
· The rest of the top 20 percent would get four slices.
· The other 80 percent of taxpayers would split five slices.
Now, divide the 2003 pie into 10 slices.
· The richest 1 percent would get nearly two slices.
· The rest of the top 20 percent would get a little over four slices.
· The other 80 percent would split four slices.
In 1979, the top 20 percent of taxpayers had about as much income as the other 80 percent combined. In 2003, the top 20 percent had 60 percent of the income, leaving just 40 percent for the rest. The richest 1 percent nearly doubled their share.
Let's look more closely at the upward shift in income.
In 1979, the bottom 40 percent of taxpayers had about 15 percent more combined income than the richest 1 percent.
In 2003, the richest 1 percent had twice the income share of the bottom 40 percent.
The richest 1 percent share of reported income jumped from 9.6 percent in 1979 to 17.5 percent in 2003. The bottom 40 percent share fell from 11.3 percent to 8.8 percent.
Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist David Cay Johnston puts the growing gap between the very rich and everyone else in stark perspective. He examined the income reported on tax returns of the top 0.01 percent -- about 14,000 households with at least $5.5 million in income.
From 1950 to 1970, for every additional dollar earned by those in the bottom 90 percent, those in the top 0.01 percent earned an additional $162.
From 1990 to 2002, for every additional dollar earned in the bottom 90 percent, those at the top brought in an extra $18,000.
**** HELLO!!!!!!!!!!! NOTICE A TREND HERE???***
If you are feeling financially down this holiday season, there's a good reason. Average workers have been earning less after inflation, not more. Average hourly earnings dropped 5 percent, adjusting for inflation, between 1979 and 2004 -- while domestic corporate profits rose 63 percent.
The share of national income going to wages and salaries is at the lowest level since 1929 -- the year that kicked off the Great Depression. The share going to after-tax corporate profits, which heavily benefit wealthy Americans through increased dividends and capital gains, is at the highest level since 1929.
Income gaps in the workplace have become increasingly outrageous, as seen in the growing gap between worker pay and CEO pay. We can demonstrate it with a pile of chocolate.
Give 1 piece of chocolate to your worker stand-in and 44 pieces to your CEO stand-in. That was the 1980 ratio of average full-time worker pay to average pay among CEOs in Business Week's survey of major corporations.
For the equivalent 2004 ratio, give 1 piece of chocolate to the worker and 362 to the CEO.
As the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities reports, federal policy is contributing "to a further widening of income disparities between the most affluent households and other Americans." Households with incomes over $1 million will receive an average tax cut of $103,000 this year -- an increase of 5.4 percent in their after-tax income.
The congressional majority is done crying crocodile tears over Katrina and the shameful inequality it exposed.
They're working overtime to stiff the have-nots with more budget cuts so they can keep stuffing the pockets of the haves with more tax cuts. The budget knife is dropping on Medicaid, education, child care, food assistance and more-- even public health, despite loud warnings we are unprepared for bird flu and other threats.
Tell your senators and members of Congress what you think about their priorities, and make your voice count when you vote next November.
Holly Sklar is co-author of "Raise the Floor: Wages and Policies That Work for All Of Us." She can be reached at hsklar@aol.com. Copyright (c) 2005 Holly Sklar
I’m all for a free market society, and I don’t think anyone should be penalized for creating wealth, but the inequity is disturbing, and herein lies the fundamental problem with our economy.
I’m just saying, be informed, and hold your elected officials accountable, whether it’s the 42nd, 43rd, 44th President, your Congressman, Senator, Councilman, Mayor, etc. Otherwise, don’t say $#!+, when it hits the fan……..
More@: www.blaqopsblogspot.com
www.myspace.com/reciprok8
$PREADING THE PAIN
IT'S DOOM & BLOOM ON BUDGET
By DAVID SEIFMAN, City Hall Bureau Chief5:21 amNovember 6, 2008 Posted: 4:52 amNovember 6, 2008
Mayor Bloomberg dropped a budget bombshell yesterday by warning he might have to increase income and sales taxes by $900 million next year - on top of a 7 percent property tax hike he plans to enact before month's end.
If that weren't enough to send taxpayers running for cover, Bloomberg also announced that the city could no longer afford the annual $400 rebate to small homeowners, and intends to end it immediately to save $256 million a year.
That's in addition to draconian measures already on the table after Bloomberg ordered agencies to come up with $1.5 billion in savings to close budget gaps that have grown from $2.3 billion to $4 billion over 18 months.
Among them are:
* The Sanitation Department hoped to pull in $16 million through a 5-cent fee on plastic bags.
* The NYPD was looking for a $60 million haul from summonses that would be handed out by 234 new traffic agents assigned to ticket "block the box" violations.
* Public-library service would be reduced from six days a week to 51/2.
* The Department of Transportation planned to raise selected parking-meter fees from $1 to $2 an hour south of 60th Street to collect $7 million more a year.
Other plans ranged from some 500 to 600 layoffs at the Department of Education and the Housing Authority and the elimination of a 1,100-recruit Police Academy class to save $137 million.
"Each path is unpleasant and painful," the mayor declared at a gloomy, mid-year budget presentation at City Hall.
"Back in June nobody really thought Wall Street was going to fall apart. All this happened in five months," he said.
But the entire range of agency actions still left a $1.3 billion deficit in the $61 billion budget for fiscal 2010, an outgrowth of an anticipated plunge in economically sensitive taxes from $24.7 billion to $19.9 billion in two years and a spike in contributions required to fund declining municipal pension funds.
To cope, the mayor offered some extraordinary options: $400 million in further agency reductions plus a combination of a higher general sales tax, restoration of the sales tax on clothing and an increase in the personal income tax of 7.5 percent or 15 percent.
At the 7.5 percent level, the mayor noted, residents with a taxable income of $50,000 to $75,000 would pay an extra $116 a year.
"It's $116 of taxpayers' money and it's $116 most people don't have, or don't want to spend, but it does put it into perspective what it might take to help us close the $1.3 billion deficit," he said.
Reaction to the proposed and possible tax hikes - all of which require legislative approval - was less than enthusiastic in the City Council. "We're kind of shocked that was on the table to revoke a [$400 check] that should have been mailed out already," said council Finance Chairman David Weprin (D-Queens).
Councilman Simcha Felder (D-Brooklyn), a longtime Bloomberg ally, said he couldn't fathom the council going along with "any sort of real-estate tax increase on homeowners."
Bloomberg at several points mentioned that the state faces even bigger problems, an indication the city might try to piggyback on any tax hikes coming out of Albany.
david.seifman@nypost.com
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
TEMPERED ENTHUSIASM... THE REAL WORK STARTS NOW!!!
I voted for Obama because I was convinced this man is supremely qualified, he has the stature, temperament, and intellectual capacity necessary to move this country forward, and change the perception of America abroad.
Although I am deeply touched by this historic moment, make no mistake, the enormity of the task at hand is monumental.
The HATERS will be chomping at the bit to criticize/derail every move he makes, and ridicule him when he has a set back, or any perceived error in judgement.
Sen. McCain finally reemerged the "Maverick", we all knew him to be before he started this campaign. His stand up guy, congratulatory, and "America First" concession speech was awe inspiring. I applaud his efforts, as it was truly an honorable gesture.
It's a shame he had to depart from his Maverick qualities in order to shore up his base, but this course of action, coupled with the selection of Palin as a running mate and the collapse of the financial markets, was another factor in getting the right man into office, so in that respect, I'm estatic.
We need to come together as a nation and begin the healing process. This is a victory for all Americans, because we selected the "best" candidate for the job. We disregarded the lies, the rhetoric, the fear mongering, and most refreshing of all, the color of his skin.
America has once again served as a beacon of hope to the world. Demonstrating democracy at it best, while collectively, we were in the worse condition we have been in a long time. Out of every tragedy there is a ray of hope. That hope is Obama.
I wish he and his family nothing but the best, and God speed. I am confident he will do the best he can to govern righteously. He has surrounded himself with a competent, and highly intellectual cast of advisors.
We need to put Americans back to work asap. Alternative energy, incentive based tax cuts for companies that "actually" create jobs for Americans, and education must be at the forefront. We cannot continue to fall behind developed Nations. The children are OUR future, and they have spoken.
The money we are spending on foreign oil, is "the greatest transfer of wealth" in history, but "DRILL BABY DRILL" cannot be the focul point of getting us out of this mess. We need to leave our children a better world than the one we inherited. It will take a majority of US to bring that dream to fruition.
I LOVE the fact everyone refers to him as the first BLACK President, but in actuality, he is the son of a Western White woman, and an African Black man. He is the epitome of what it means to be American, and his ethnicity is representative of the ENTIRE WORLD. I fully expect him to govern accordingly.
America has awakened, the work begins NOW. CHANGE HAS OFFICIALLY BEGUN!!!
Although I am deeply touched by this historic moment, make no mistake, the enormity of the task at hand is monumental.
The HATERS will be chomping at the bit to criticize/derail every move he makes, and ridicule him when he has a set back, or any perceived error in judgement.
Sen. McCain finally reemerged the "Maverick", we all knew him to be before he started this campaign. His stand up guy, congratulatory, and "America First" concession speech was awe inspiring. I applaud his efforts, as it was truly an honorable gesture.
It's a shame he had to depart from his Maverick qualities in order to shore up his base, but this course of action, coupled with the selection of Palin as a running mate and the collapse of the financial markets, was another factor in getting the right man into office, so in that respect, I'm estatic.
We need to come together as a nation and begin the healing process. This is a victory for all Americans, because we selected the "best" candidate for the job. We disregarded the lies, the rhetoric, the fear mongering, and most refreshing of all, the color of his skin.
America has once again served as a beacon of hope to the world. Demonstrating democracy at it best, while collectively, we were in the worse condition we have been in a long time. Out of every tragedy there is a ray of hope. That hope is Obama.
I wish he and his family nothing but the best, and God speed. I am confident he will do the best he can to govern righteously. He has surrounded himself with a competent, and highly intellectual cast of advisors.
We need to put Americans back to work asap. Alternative energy, incentive based tax cuts for companies that "actually" create jobs for Americans, and education must be at the forefront. We cannot continue to fall behind developed Nations. The children are OUR future, and they have spoken.
The money we are spending on foreign oil, is "the greatest transfer of wealth" in history, but "DRILL BABY DRILL" cannot be the focul point of getting us out of this mess. We need to leave our children a better world than the one we inherited. It will take a majority of US to bring that dream to fruition.
I LOVE the fact everyone refers to him as the first BLACK President, but in actuality, he is the son of a Western White woman, and an African Black man. He is the epitome of what it means to be American, and his ethnicity is representative of the ENTIRE WORLD. I fully expect him to govern accordingly.
America has awakened, the work begins NOW. CHANGE HAS OFFICIALLY BEGUN!!!
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