I know it isn't a cure-all, but man, how many problems would be solved by taxing the ever-loving crap out of capital gains and building a bullet-proof social safety net? Take away the focus on shareholder value and investment income and re-emphasize INCOME. All these CEOs taking a $1 salary because they're flush with stock options can start bargaining for a real annual income and everyone can see the bullshit amounts of money they're commanding.
Spot on, Hamilton, and don't apologize for the "obviousness" of your essay. This cannot be said enough because too many economically comfortable liberals who hate Trump don't get it. There are other reasons for the rise of Trump and MAGA but this is the underlying cause.
To gain the right perspective one must wind the clock back to the Obama years. Many Dem liberals think these were the halcyon years, because they were doing OK and the comparison of Obama's demeanor to that of Trump is stark. But our present predicament can't be understood without winding back the clock -- to the Obama years and beyond. The soil was furrowed, the seeds laid neatly in those furrows, waiting for the moisture. It arrived via Trump. In the 2015/16 primary Trump was up against 15 candidates and at first was depicted as a joke. Jeb Bush was thought to have the inside track to the nomination. And there was Scott Walker, John Kasich, Ted Cruz and other main-steam solid conservatives. All establishment types with scads of money and top electoral campaign consultants. Trump had none of that; at first seen as a weakness this was in fact his strength. People were pissed with the establishment; Trump was the outsider.
I recall sitting stunned in November, 2016, that Trump had won, and hearing a commentator say: "What motivates many of these Trump voters is that they want to pull the pin from a hand grenade and roll it across a map of the U.S." Sure, many of these people are racist, fascist, nuts, but a solid chunk of them are working class people who know they have been left behind by the establishment of both parties. And too many liberals still don't get it. If the Dem Party had not put its finger on the scales so as to ensure the coronation of Queen Hilary and that other "outsider" Bernie had been the nominee we might well be in a very different place now. So, keep telling it like it is Hamilton. Class war, bring it on.
It also hurts that in our electoral system we can't even vote for a modest reinforcement of Social Democracy (let alone socialism). We can vote for Woke Neoliberalism or Neoconservative Liberalism.
Although, the inability to vote otherwise is tied to your stated problem of wealth inequality and the wealthy being able to maintain control of the political process.
I totally agree with the your statements, but wonder about the ongoing role of the illiterate mob that cheer on this change to a dictatorship/oligarchy. In the French revolution, the difference between the elite and the peasants was pretty clear, and the non-elite understood they were never going to benefit from the King's decisions, while the MAGA fans seem to think they are "part of the club" with the elites who are actually running the show. That may change over time, but right now it seems like a sizable part of the population is actively trying to tamp down any popular opposition to the elites.
How about a one-time 99% tax on all wealth above $1 billion, payable in securities owned by the taxed individuals, and the securities thereafter passively managed and held in the Social Security Trust Fund with use of these funds restricted to payments to Social Security recipients?
How about embracing the idea that every billionaire is a policy failure? No one needs more than a billion dollars. You get to a billion, you win the game. Anything over that goes to everyone else. "But that will limit the motivation to get rich!" BS. The people who want to do things will do things. The scales just won't be tipped in such a wonky manner.
Another excellent essay. You make it clear its always been about class warfare.
I have found that many people who live in the PMC bubble have little to say about class warfare. Maybe its because they know they are in a privileged class. It seems to me they also aren't content with the wealth they have currently, not necessarily because they believe more wealth means more power, but to them more wealth means more security. Life becoming increasingly precarious seems be something more people are feeling even at higher incomes.
The obscene wealth gap is clearly understood by most people as simply wrong and immoral, but as much as people virtue shame the rich, I wonder if people secretly envy them, both for the control and for the security great wealth brings.
"A decade of Donald Trump’s presence as a political figure has shattered the assumptions of many who thought that they understood how things worked in America. ... Single-cause explanations are a comforting illusion. ... The underlying cause of our situation is inequality. ...The closest thing there is to a magical solution for our predicament would be: Erase three zeros from the net worth of every multibillionaire in this country."
Amen to that... but there is one aspect of obscene wealth that is less discussed and acknowledged. It is obvious the detrimental effects obscene wealth has had on our political system, but the reality is that the stinking rich have been weakening all our societal institutions and organizations for decades. Religion, education, the economy, the military - like a dictator that cannot allow any independent sources of power - the stinking rich have been eroding every aspect of our society until there are no institutions or organizations that will stand and fight back.
My question why you put your solution behind a paywall (book)? I think you should have a free and available to all pitch of your strategy.
I think you did a fantastic job today of describing the billionaire energy behind our present autocracy.
I think there is another equally important source of energy behind today's catastrophe that comes from below. The income of non-college educated people has actually been going down for the last 40 years, This fact is almost completely disregarded by elites. I think that I described the immiseration of the majority of Americans very well in my post, how to fight Trump, part one.
Our vocabulary is shifting from "price" to "paywall". The difference to me seems to be that "price" connotes a rational cost estimate while "paywall" is a subjective exercise of power. The latter is to me closer to the reality of the cost of most things. There are other societies where the custom is to have nearly all prices open to negotiation between seller and buyer, while we have mostly dictatorial pricing. Overpriced eggs will wait until a shopper comes along who will submit to paying that price. If all egg shoppers could organize and confront the egg merchant, they could succeed in lowering that price. But there's another way: A fantasy of a spontaneous occurrence in egg buyer consciousness. Here, an understanding occurs in the minds of everyone reacting to the eggs price. They recognize themselves as a member of an egg price resistance movement. They decide to join an action to boycott eggs until the merchants are brought to relent. The eggs are left to rot in the stores from coast to coast. The action would send a shock wave through the industry, from retailer, down through distributors, down to producers. That shock would be not so much about the eggs, but about the consumers' ability to coalesce spontaneously into a power of solidarity implied in "We the People". That one initial element of our constitution that has been rendered dysfunctional.
If any sort of large human or natural disturbance immediately drives up the cost of gasoline (Why, I don't understand. Supply disruption? Yeah? So what?). Why should not a grassroots political disturbance force prices down. The same could happen with elections in which none of the candidates are acceptable. How many of them have been "the lesser of two undesirables". Yes, the over-wealthy are a huge problem. But underlying that is the fact that while mostly white Americans of today are aggressive commenters, when it comes to action, they're submissive sheep without class consciousness. An educational failure, as TV and social media are the true education system. The American 250-year project has been to replace class consciousness with the fantasy of individual exceptionalism, the subliminal message in all advertising and popular entertainment.
Have you read the relatively recent book Limitarianism? Written by Ingrid Robeyns, who is both a philosopher and an economist. The book walks the reader through the very persuasive argument that no one (in the world) should have more than $10 million.
A very good analysis of the economic, political, and social phenomena occurring in American society. A perennial theme, the concentration of wealth in a few hands always triggers major conflicts.
I know it isn't a cure-all, but man, how many problems would be solved by taxing the ever-loving crap out of capital gains and building a bullet-proof social safety net? Take away the focus on shareholder value and investment income and re-emphasize INCOME. All these CEOs taking a $1 salary because they're flush with stock options can start bargaining for a real annual income and everyone can see the bullshit amounts of money they're commanding.
Rich people don't pay capital gains either.
It's called "Inherit, Borrow, Die."
They don't sell & realize gains; they borrow against the assets and avoid taxes by passing on the "Stepped up" value of stocks at death.
Much better to do this directly-tax wealth, which is most easily done by taxing stocks, bonds, & businesses whether publicly or privately held.
While I support a wealth tax, ending stepped up basis on death is also important the controlling intergenerational wealth transfers.
Yeah, step-ups on death is some stinky buuuuulllllshit.
It's more evidence US laws are for the benefit of the donor class.
Spot on, Hamilton, and don't apologize for the "obviousness" of your essay. This cannot be said enough because too many economically comfortable liberals who hate Trump don't get it. There are other reasons for the rise of Trump and MAGA but this is the underlying cause.
To gain the right perspective one must wind the clock back to the Obama years. Many Dem liberals think these were the halcyon years, because they were doing OK and the comparison of Obama's demeanor to that of Trump is stark. But our present predicament can't be understood without winding back the clock -- to the Obama years and beyond. The soil was furrowed, the seeds laid neatly in those furrows, waiting for the moisture. It arrived via Trump. In the 2015/16 primary Trump was up against 15 candidates and at first was depicted as a joke. Jeb Bush was thought to have the inside track to the nomination. And there was Scott Walker, John Kasich, Ted Cruz and other main-steam solid conservatives. All establishment types with scads of money and top electoral campaign consultants. Trump had none of that; at first seen as a weakness this was in fact his strength. People were pissed with the establishment; Trump was the outsider.
I recall sitting stunned in November, 2016, that Trump had won, and hearing a commentator say: "What motivates many of these Trump voters is that they want to pull the pin from a hand grenade and roll it across a map of the U.S." Sure, many of these people are racist, fascist, nuts, but a solid chunk of them are working class people who know they have been left behind by the establishment of both parties. And too many liberals still don't get it. If the Dem Party had not put its finger on the scales so as to ensure the coronation of Queen Hilary and that other "outsider" Bernie had been the nominee we might well be in a very different place now. So, keep telling it like it is Hamilton. Class war, bring it on.
It also hurts that in our electoral system we can't even vote for a modest reinforcement of Social Democracy (let alone socialism). We can vote for Woke Neoliberalism or Neoconservative Liberalism.
Although, the inability to vote otherwise is tied to your stated problem of wealth inequality and the wealthy being able to maintain control of the political process.
Word.
Perfectly said!
There’s nothing really to add! 😊
I totally agree with the your statements, but wonder about the ongoing role of the illiterate mob that cheer on this change to a dictatorship/oligarchy. In the French revolution, the difference between the elite and the peasants was pretty clear, and the non-elite understood they were never going to benefit from the King's decisions, while the MAGA fans seem to think they are "part of the club" with the elites who are actually running the show. That may change over time, but right now it seems like a sizable part of the population is actively trying to tamp down any popular opposition to the elites.
That part of the population is going to shrink and shrink the more that their services are dismantled without the price of eggs going down.
How about a one-time 99% tax on all wealth above $1 billion, payable in securities owned by the taxed individuals, and the securities thereafter passively managed and held in the Social Security Trust Fund with use of these funds restricted to payments to Social Security recipients?
How about embracing the idea that every billionaire is a policy failure? No one needs more than a billion dollars. You get to a billion, you win the game. Anything over that goes to everyone else. "But that will limit the motivation to get rich!" BS. The people who want to do things will do things. The scales just won't be tipped in such a wonky manner.
Another excellent essay. You make it clear its always been about class warfare.
I have found that many people who live in the PMC bubble have little to say about class warfare. Maybe its because they know they are in a privileged class. It seems to me they also aren't content with the wealth they have currently, not necessarily because they believe more wealth means more power, but to them more wealth means more security. Life becoming increasingly precarious seems be something more people are feeling even at higher incomes.
The obscene wealth gap is clearly understood by most people as simply wrong and immoral, but as much as people virtue shame the rich, I wonder if people secretly envy them, both for the control and for the security great wealth brings.
Sadly true. I wish everyone would read this.
"A decade of Donald Trump’s presence as a political figure has shattered the assumptions of many who thought that they understood how things worked in America. ... Single-cause explanations are a comforting illusion. ... The underlying cause of our situation is inequality. ...The closest thing there is to a magical solution for our predicament would be: Erase three zeros from the net worth of every multibillionaire in this country."
Amen to that... but there is one aspect of obscene wealth that is less discussed and acknowledged. It is obvious the detrimental effects obscene wealth has had on our political system, but the reality is that the stinking rich have been weakening all our societal institutions and organizations for decades. Religion, education, the economy, the military - like a dictator that cannot allow any independent sources of power - the stinking rich have been eroding every aspect of our society until there are no institutions or organizations that will stand and fight back.
Don't give up.
My question why you put your solution behind a paywall (book)? I think you should have a free and available to all pitch of your strategy.
I think you did a fantastic job today of describing the billionaire energy behind our present autocracy.
I think there is another equally important source of energy behind today's catastrophe that comes from below. The income of non-college educated people has actually been going down for the last 40 years, This fact is almost completely disregarded by elites. I think that I described the immiseration of the majority of Americans very well in my post, how to fight Trump, part one.
https://kathleenweber.substack.com/p/how-to-fight-trump-part-one
The grocery store puts the food behind a "paywall" so that I am forced to purchase it with money from my "career."
Our vocabulary is shifting from "price" to "paywall". The difference to me seems to be that "price" connotes a rational cost estimate while "paywall" is a subjective exercise of power. The latter is to me closer to the reality of the cost of most things. There are other societies where the custom is to have nearly all prices open to negotiation between seller and buyer, while we have mostly dictatorial pricing. Overpriced eggs will wait until a shopper comes along who will submit to paying that price. If all egg shoppers could organize and confront the egg merchant, they could succeed in lowering that price. But there's another way: A fantasy of a spontaneous occurrence in egg buyer consciousness. Here, an understanding occurs in the minds of everyone reacting to the eggs price. They recognize themselves as a member of an egg price resistance movement. They decide to join an action to boycott eggs until the merchants are brought to relent. The eggs are left to rot in the stores from coast to coast. The action would send a shock wave through the industry, from retailer, down through distributors, down to producers. That shock would be not so much about the eggs, but about the consumers' ability to coalesce spontaneously into a power of solidarity implied in "We the People". That one initial element of our constitution that has been rendered dysfunctional.
If any sort of large human or natural disturbance immediately drives up the cost of gasoline (Why, I don't understand. Supply disruption? Yeah? So what?). Why should not a grassroots political disturbance force prices down. The same could happen with elections in which none of the candidates are acceptable. How many of them have been "the lesser of two undesirables". Yes, the over-wealthy are a huge problem. But underlying that is the fact that while mostly white Americans of today are aggressive commenters, when it comes to action, they're submissive sheep without class consciousness. An educational failure, as TV and social media are the true education system. The American 250-year project has been to replace class consciousness with the fantasy of individual exceptionalism, the subliminal message in all advertising and popular entertainment.
Libraries aren't paywalled.
HamNo. You hit the nail right on the head!! Well done, you.
Have you read the relatively recent book Limitarianism? Written by Ingrid Robeyns, who is both a philosopher and an economist. The book walks the reader through the very persuasive argument that no one (in the world) should have more than $10 million.
A very good analysis of the economic, political, and social phenomena occurring in American society. A perennial theme, the concentration of wealth in a few hands always triggers major conflicts.
The only thing I could possibly add to this brilliant, simple essay is this:
the longer we wait for the solution the more devastatingly destructive the coming class war will be.
With both parties fully in the pocket of the ultra rich, we already seem to have moved beyond a purely political solution.
So so so good, Hamilton.