Congress Sends Tax Package to Obama; Estate Tax Kept at Lower Rate

Congress has sent President Obama a controversial bipartisan tax deal following its approval in the House. Just before midnight, the House voted to 277 to 148 to extend the Bush-era tax cut for the wealthiest Americans and reduce the estate tax in return for a 13-month extension of jobless benefits and a handful of tax credits for low- and moderate-income Americans. At least a quarter of the tax savings under the deal will go to the wealthiest one percent of the population. The only group that will see its taxes increase are the nation’s lowest-paid workers. A group of House Democrats failed in their attempt to block a provision that reduces the estate tax; their proposal to increase the estate tax was defeated in a stand-alone vote of 233 to 194.

Time To End War Against The Earth - Vandana Shiva

When we think of wars in our times, our minds turn to Iraq and Afghanistan. But the bigger war is the war against the planet. This war has its roots in an economy that fails to respect ecological and ethical limits - limits to inequality, limits to injustice, limits to greed and economic concentration.

A handful of corporations and of powerful countries seeks to control the earth's resources and transform the planet into a supermarket in which everything is for sale. They want to sell our water, genes, cells, organs, knowledge, cultures and future.

The continuing wars in Afghanistan, Iraq and onwards are not only about "blood for oil". As they unfold, we will see that they are about blood for food, blood for genes and biodiversity and blood for water.

  

The war mentality underlying military-industrial agriculture is evident from the names of Monsanto's herbicides - ''Round-Up'', ''Machete'', ''Lasso''. American Home Products, which has merged with Monsanto, gives its herbicides similarly aggressive names, including ''Pentagon'' and ''Squadron''.This is the language of war. Sustainability is based on peace with the earth.

The Rich Getting Richer The Class War at Home (not the one the rich are paying for)

The rich and their paid false prophets are doing a bang up job deceiving the poor and middle class.  They have convinced many that an evil socialism is alive in the land and it is taking their fair share.  But the deception cannot last – facts say otherwise.

Yes, there is a class war – the war of the rich on the poor and the middle class – and the rich are winning.  That war has been going on for years.  Look at the facts – facts the rich and their false paid prophets do not want people to know.

Let Glen Beck go on about socialists descending on Washington.  Allow Rush Limbaugh to rail about “class warfare for a leftist agenda that will destroy our society.”  They are well compensated false prophets for the rich.   

The truth is that for the several decades the rich in the US have been getting richer and the poor and middle class have been getting poorer.  Look at the facts then make up your own mind.

The official US poverty numbers show we now have the highest number of poor people in 51 years.  The official US poverty rate is 14.3 percent or 43.6 million people in poverty. One in five children in the US is poor; one in ten senior citizens is poor.  Source: US Census Bureau.

One of every six workers, 26.8 million people, is unemployed or underemployed.  This “real” unemployment rate is over 17 per cent.   There are 14.8 million people designated as “officially” unemployed by the government, a rate of 9.6 per cent.  Unemployment is worse for African American workers of whom 16.1 per cent are unemployed.  Another 9.5 million people who are working only part-time while they are seeking full-time work but have had their hours cut back or are so far only able to find work part-time are not counted in the official unemployment numbers. Also, an additional 2.5 million are reported unemployed but not counted because they are classified as discouraged workers in part because they have been out of work for more than 12 months.  Source:  US Department of Labor Bureau of Labor Statistics October 2010 report.

The median household income for whites in the US is $51,861; for Asians it is $65,469; for African Americans it is $32,584; for Latinos it is $38,039.  Source: US Census Bureau. 

Fifty million people in the US lack health insurance.  Source: US Census Bureau. 

Women in the US have a greater lifetime risk of dying from pregnancy-related conditions than women in 40 other countries.  African American US women are nearly 4 times more likely to die of pregnancy-related complications than white women.  Source: Amnesty International Maternal Health Care Crisis in the USA.

About 3.5 million people, about one-third of which are children, are homeless at some point in the year in the US.  Source: National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty.

Outside Atlanta, 33,000 people showed up to seek applications for low cost subsidized housing in August 2010.  When Detroit offered emergency utility and housing assistance to help people facing evictions, more than 50,000 people showed up for the 3,000 vouchers. Source: News reports.

There are 49 million people in the US who live in households which eat only because they receive food stamps, visit food pantries or soup kitchens for help.  Sixteen million are so poor they have skipped meals or foregone food at some point in the last year.  This is the highest level since statistics have been kept.  Source:  US Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service.

Middle Class Going Backward: Facts

One or two generations ago it was possible for a middle class family to live on one income.  Now it takes two incomes to try to enjoy the same quality of life.  Wages have not kept up with inflation; adjusted for inflation they have lost ground over the past ten years.  The cost of housing, education and health care have all increased at a much higher rate than wages and salaries.  In 1967, the middle 60 percent of households received over 52 per cent of all income.  In 1998, it was down to 47 per cent.  The share going to the poor has also fallen, with the top 20 per cent seeing their share rise.

A record 2.8 million homes received a foreclosure notice in 2009, higher than both 2008 and 2007.  In 2010, the rate is expected to be rise to 3 million homes.  Sources: Reuters and RealtyTrac. 

Eleven million homeowners (about one in four homeowners) in the US are “under water” or owe more on their mortgages than their house is worth.  Source: “Home truths,” The Economist, October 23, 2010.  

For the first time since the 1940s, the real incomes of middle-class families are lower at the end of the business cycle of the 2000s than they were at the beginning.  Despite the fact that the American workforce is working harder and smarter than ever, they are sharing less and less in the benefits they are creating.  This is true for white families but even truer for African American families whose gains in the 1990s have mostly been eliminated since then.  Source: Jared Bernstein and Heidi Shierholz, State of Working America.

Rich Getting Richer: Facts

The wealth of the richest 400 people in the US grew by 8 per cent in the last year to $1.37 trillion.  Source: Forbes 400: The super-rich get richer, September 22, 2010, Money.com 

The top Hedge Fund Manager of 2009, David Tepper, “earned” $4 billion last year.  The rest of the top ten earned: $3.3 billion, $2.5 billion, $2.3 billion, $1.4 billion, $1.3 billion (tie for 6th and 7th place), $900 million (tie for 8th and 9th place), and in last place out of the top ten, $825 million.  Source: Business Insider.  “Meet the top 10 earning hedge fund managers of 2009.”

Income disparity in the US is now as bad as it was right before the Great Depression at the end of the 1920s.  From 1979 to 2006, the richest 1 per cent more than doubled their share of the total US income, from 10 per cent to 23 per cent.  The richest 1 per cent have an average annual income of more than $1.3 million.  For the last 25 years, over 90 per cent of the total growth in income in the US went to the top 10 per cent earners – leaving 9 per cent of all income to be shared by the bottom 90 per cent. Source: Jared Bernstein and Heidi Shierholz, State of Working America.   

In 1973, the average US CEO was paid $27 for every dollar paid to a typical worker; by 2007 that ratio had grown to $275 to $1.  Source: Jared Bernstein and Heidi Shierholz, State of Working America.

Since 1992, the average tax rate on the richest 400 taxpayers in the US dropped from 26.8 per cent to 16.62 per cent.  Source: US Internal Revenue Service.

The US has the greatest inequality between rich and poor among all Western industrialized nations and it has been getting worse for 40 years.  The World Factbook, published by the CIA, includes an international ranking of the inequality among families inside of each country, called the Gini Index.  The US ranking of 45 in 2007 is the same as Argentina, Cameroon, and Cote d’Ivorie.   The highest inequality can be found in countries like Namibia, South Africa, Haiti and Guatemala.  The US ranking of 45 compares poorly to Japan (38), India (36), New Zealand, UK (34), Greece (33), Spain (32), Canada (32), France (32), South Korea (31), Netherlands (30), Ireland (30), Australia (30), Germany (27), Norway (25), and Sweden (23).  Source: CIA The World Factbook:

Rich people live an average of about five years longer than poor people in the US.  Naturally, gross inequality has consequences in terms of health, exposure to unhealthy working conditions, nutrition and lifestyle.  In 1980, the most well off in the US had a life expectancy of 2.8 years over the least well-off.  As the inequality gap widens, so does the life expectancy gap.  In 1990, the gap was a little less than 4 years.  In 2000, the least well-off could expect to live to age of 74.7 while the most well off had a life expectancy of 79.2 years.  Source: Elise Gould, “Growing disparities in life expectancy,” Economic Policy Institute.
Conclusion

These are extremely troubling facts for anyone concerned about economic fairness, equality of opportunity, and justice.

Thomas Jefferson once observed that the systematic restructuring of society to benefit the rich over the poor and middle class is a natural appetite of the rich. “Experience declares that man is the only animal which devours his own kind, for I can apply no milder term to…the general prey of the rich on the poor.”  But Jefferson also knew that justice can only be delayed so long when he said, “I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just, that his justice cannot sleep forever.”

The rich talk about the rise of socialism to divert attention from the fact that they are devouring the basics of the poor and everyone else.  Many of those crying socialism the loudest are doing it to enrich or empower themselves.  They are right about one thing – there is a class war going on in the US.  The rich are winning their class war, and it is time for everyone else to fight back for economic justice. 

Bill Quigley is Legal Director of the Center for Constitutional Rights and professor of law at Loyola University New Orleans. You can reach him atquigley77@gmail.com

By BILL QUIGLEY

The Narcissism of the Neurotic : The End of the Commonwealth Games

The Commonwealth Games over, we can now return to those of everyday Indian life. For all the protests, though, there was nothing in the corruption that marked the Games that does not permeate every town and city, all the time. Just that, in these Games, it got concentrated in one very high-profile event, under constant public and media gaze. Much of the agonizing over what was routine corruption  was occasioned by “what the world will think of us.” For ‘world' read Western world. We care little about what Tuvalu or Tonga or Papua New Guinea think of us.

The corruption — or its public manifestation — hurt us because it messed with our self-image and our need to be accepted as special by the Western elite, in every way, even at sports. After all, we are knocking at the door of the G-8. Else, there were no surprises in the corruption. Shocking, yes. Surprising, no. Dirty contracts handed out to sleazy builders? That's business as usual in Mumbai, any day in the past three decades. Most of the city's 36 MLAs are builders or contractors, which is its own comment.

The angry poor

Why Mozambicans took to the streets

Sep 9th 2010 | JOHANNESBURG

FOLLOWING recent riots in Maputo, the capital, and in other cities in Mozambique that have left at least a dozen dead and more than 400 injured, the government has called off a 30% increase in the price of bread. Police said they had to resort to live ammunition against protesters after running out of rubber bullets. The government has apologised, saying it had never authorised the use of lethal force.

Shops and banks were looted, cars stoned and roads barricaded with rocks and burning tyres during three days of alcohol-fuelled rioting that paralysed the capital and shut down the main airport. Nearly 300 demonstrators were arrested, including nine accused of “incitement” for sending out mobile-phone text-messages urging people to join the protests against rising utility, transport and food prices.

UC Berkleley- People of Lower Socioeconomic status Give More Than there upper status counterparts.

Abstract

Lower social class (or socioeconomic status) is associated with fewer resources, greater exposure to threat, and a reduced sense of personal control. Given these life circumstances, one might expect lower class individuals to engage in less prosocial behavior, prioritizing self-interest over the welfare of others. The authors hypothesized, by contrast, that lower class individuals orient to the welfare of others as a means to adapt to their more hostile environments and that this orientation gives rise to greater prosocial behavior. Across 4 studies, lower class individuals proved to be more generous (Study 1), charitable (Study 2), trusting (Study 3), and helpful (Study 4) compared with their upper class counterparts. Mediator and moderator data showed that lower class individuals acted in a more prosocial fashion because of a greater commitment to egalitarian values and feelings of compassion. Implications for social class, prosocial behavior, and economic inequality are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved

Brief overview of Food Crisis.

Abstract
The Policy Research Working Paper Series disseminates the findings of work in progress to encourage the exchange of ideas about development
issues. An objective of the series is to get the findings out quickly, even if the presentations are less than fully polished. The papers carry the
names of the authors and should be cited accordingly. The findings, interpretations, and conclusions expressed in this paper are entirely those
of the authors. They do not necessarily represent the views of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development/World Bank and
its affiliated organizations, or those of the Executive Directors of the World Bank or the governments they represent.

Wheat Supplies and Food Fears

	August 9, 2010

As the Russian landscape burns and Eurasia's agricultural zone sizzles in a record heat wave, the agricultural commodities markets are threatening to spawn a food crisis akin to the one in 2008. Mixed signals regarding the size of the global wheat supply and the likely impact of Russian Premier Vladimir Putin's August 4 decision to halt all exports of the grain from Russia for the rest of 2010 are leading to concerns that price inflation in the wheat market could usher another food crisis. The shortage in 2008 left hundreds of millions of people worldwide unable to afford basic foodstuffs, aggravating the overall impact of the later global financial crisis upon poor countries.

A key lesson of 2008 is that volatile global financial markets can result in food commodity price speculation that has dire consequences for the world's poorest. The inflationary trend that slammed poor countries in early 2008 began with a slow but steady rise in commodity trading prices in early 2007. By the summer of 2007, the overall volume of trading on the U.S. food commodities markets had skyrocketed to record levels, signaling that large investors recognized weaknesses in the stock and real estate markets and were seeking safer havens. The result was a phenomenal escalation, not only in the volume of food commodity investment, but also in trading prices.

Peddling Relief, Firms Put Debtors in Deeper Hole

By PETER S. GOODMAN

PALM BEACH, Fla. — For the companies that promise relief to Americans confronting swelling credit card balances, these are days of lucrative opportunity.

So lucrative, that an industry trade association, the United States Organizations for Bankruptcy Alternatives, recently convened here, in the oceanfront confines of the Four Seasons Resort, to forge deals and plot strategy.

At a well-lubricated evening reception, a steel drum band played Bob Marley songs as hostesses in skimpy dresses draped leis around the necks of arriving entrepreneurs, some with deep tans.

The debt settlement industry can afford some extravagance. The long recession has delivered an abundance of customers — debt-saturated Americans, suffering lost jobs and income, sliding toward bankruptcy. The settlement companies typically harvest fees reaching 15 to 20 percent of the credit card balances carried by their customers, and they tend to collect upfront, regardless of whether a customer’s debt is actually reduced.

State attorneys general from New York to California and consumer watchdogs like the Better Business Bureau say the industry’s proceeds come at the direct expense of financially troubled Americans who are being fleeced of their last dollars with dubious promises.