An Alternate Universe

In our world, it is hard to run a large corporation. You have to constantly keep your sales up and your costs down, all because the leeches at the big, bad government will tax you into oblivion. You have to always be watchful: Since you have to pay your taxes first, before you pay your employees, before you invest in R&D, before you pay the depreciation on your equipment, before you pay your subcontractors, before pay your CEO and your accountant, any loss of revenue will force you to cut jobs so that you don't end up short at the end of the year – debtor's prison is hell. If you are lucky, after taxes and then your expenses, you may have enough to put aside for a rainy day or to create a new job – because that's what corporations do: They take any money left over after taxes and then expenses and they hire, but that is becoming rarer and rarer...

I think often of an alternate universe where the tax laws are reversed. Where a company gets to pay its employees first, and deduct that from earnings, thus lowering their tax bill. Where they can also deduct the money they pay into their employee's pension, 401k retirements, and health care premiums. Where things like capital depreciation count against revenue before profit is calculated, where the CEO can be paid his/her worth with positive tax implications (shoot, let's overpay them and let the company lower their tax bill!); Where even modest amounts of R&D are allowed to be deducted before the taxable amount (and the tax liability) calculated.

I know: My alternate universe is completely untenable. It would set up a horrible conflict between the government and the investors, because once profit was calculated, an increase in the money going to one would be a decrease in the money going to the other. It would be unfortunate, too: Since as soon as investors get a reasonable amount of money together they hire someone to do something, and if there is nothing to do, they create a job out of thin-air, because employing people is what they do. Conversely, of course, once a government gets money from taxation it just sits on it, unproductively, never thinking about how to spend it, accumulating all those taxes so that Presidents can feel rich. If only the government would employ people with the money it collects, if only it would invest in things like roads and airports and parks and open space, if only it would ensure that everyone had access to health care so that the corporations could have healthy employees..

I wish I knew how to make a government do that. Perhaps it would, in my alternate universe.

Charter Schools are Ordinary At Best...

I just wanted to do a quick highlight of this article:

Charter Schools Fail the Math Test in Battleground Chicago

Basically, as Yves Smith adroitly writes: "The public wants a pony: higher quality education while demonizing teachers and cutting their pay."

I find it a little disheartening that so often we want the best but aren't willing to pay for it: Especially if it is fellow middle class Americans who will benefit by providing the goods or services we want. Our exploitation mentality has grown to where we are no long content just exploiting people in far-away lands, now we want to do it here at home.

Read Yves' article, and the Jarosvky if you are so inclined. Our public schools are pretty darn good, and instead of sucking them dry to transfer the money from the teachers and educators who are willing to grow and guide our children, to the already rich for whom too much is not enough, we should rethink our approach and reinvest in those who can and do make a difference. 

2012 Election - Work Will Remain After The Voting

When a friend asked if I would like to provide an essay for her blog about the election, I quickly agreed. It didn't seem like it would be too difficult: I have strong opinions, I've written about them for some time: How hard could it be?

It turned out to be much harder than I anticipated. This election is presenting me with some challenges that I just don't recall any previous election presenting. I know who I am going to vote for, but it seems woefully inadequate, woefully irrelevant. Let me explain:

I find the big social issues to be a continued source of disbelief: You mean, after the Civil War, Woman's suffrage, the passage of the 14^th Amendment (with its Equal Protection Clause) and the 15^th amendment on voting, we STILL insist on attempting to segregate people from general equality based upon some aspect of their lives? We STILL insist on attempting to force conformity to one particular set of religious beliefs, even as those beliefs are undergoing internal revision themselves and don't speak for all of us? Bah.

So, it has been easy for me to vote against the party that continually comes down on the discriminatory side of things – that somehow eschews calls for equality and advocates against women frequently, against a gender-blind definition of marriage. Add to that their almost fanatical support for increasing the means to inflict violence, and its a no-brain-er.

2008 was exciting. Here we had an articulate black man who voiced concern for those who don't get a fair shake; concern for those who face injustice and inequality; and who, more than anything else for me, was willing to advocate for a restructuring of our out-moded and poor system of health care that costs all of us too much and denies coverage to many, specifically many who need it.

He did exactly that, too. Once President, Barack Obama continued pushing to reform the system of health delivery, striking bargains to make the result palatable to Republicans, Democrats, the Insurance and the Health Care Industries.

Of course, what we got represents all sorts of compromises, and in a spectacular play against the nation and for the furthering of their own interests, members of the Republican Party unanimously voted against it – voted against a remodeling that looked surprisingly like plans put forth by their own party 30 years previously; a plan that strongly resembled a successful State Plan enacted in the previous decade.

In the intervening time since then, President Obama has come out in favor of Gay Marriage, and has allowed the Pentagon to repeal their nefarious 'Don't Ask; Don't Tell' policy.

So, here we are in 2012. There is a new gorilla in the room, but nobody is talking about it. Neither Republican candidate Mitt Romney, nor re-nominated Democratic candidate Barack Obama. Both, in fact, seem bent on side-stepping THE major issue of this election (and perhaps our lifetime and more), turning the whole processes into a frustrating side-show of irrelevancies.

Mr. Romney, following his party (actually, almost re-inventing himself to be crueler and more prejudiced against practically anyone who isn't wealthy and white and male than was evident during his tenure as Governor) has brought up the old, tired drudges about taxes and spending and jobs, as though we won't see through it again. His running mate, true to form, has sponsored a non-sense budget that panders exclusively to those who extract rent from the economy, and imposes austerity on those who work.

The gorilla, of course, is the outsized (over 40% of our economy!), enormously detrimental Financial Sector with its reckless debt creation, speculation, and extractive activities that drove us to the brink of ruin four years ago, and its continued existence in current form which will only repeat the cycle. The financial sector has driven debt creation, both private (which we, as a nation, are wallowing in), and public (as the falsely strong dollar elicits large trade deficits, piling on government debt as foreign traders recycle their American dollars in Bonds).

I want a champion who will go to Washington and take on the FIRE (Finance, Insurance, Real Estate) sector without concern for re-election, without concern for the opposition by the malefactors who daily steal the real productivity of the masses. I want a hero who will advocate a return to a true, classical economy, where debt is used to finance manufacturing expansion, where the unearned, 'free lunch' asset appreciation gains (Capital Gains) don't drive the economy nor contribute to outlandish awards to some.

I want a Neil Barofsky, or an Elizabeth Warren, or a Bill Black to go. Each has shown the fortitude to stand tall on this issue; each has worked in their way to raise awareness or to gain a foothold to battle it. Each has clearly demonstrated that they understand both what is happening, which of many possible solutions might give the best outcome, and the urgency with which this is needed.

Alas, outside of Warren who is running for the Senate, the others are not on the ballot. So, that leaves:

Mr. Romney, of course, who earned his fabulous wealth through this very means, borrowing and then saddling others to pay it off, while extracting a fortune from that very same debt. It is inconceivable that a Romney administration would promote the dismantling of the outsized banks and a return to a stable economy based upon real labor, real production, where real people perform real tasks to earn a real living.

President Obama, who has shown only a superficial awareness of this issue, and has so far backed away from any real attempts to address it or even communicate that he is considering it.

Hence, the lackluster feelings I have for this election. I will cast my vote for Obama, recognizing that my political participation will have only just begun at that point. That in order for us to gain any leverage, for us to stave off the austerity measures that the financial elite are cooking up for us, we will have to continue to participate, continue to advocate, continue to Occupy the public spaces.

How To Curb The Power Of Democracy

You have to admit it: Democracy is messy. Everyone gets a say in all matters, even the poor and uneducated. We toss and turn in the sea of public opinion, some informed, some ill-formed, some completely uninformed. What the masses want is not always the desire of those in power, or those with wealth. If you wanted to control or diminish the power of Democracy, what could you do?

First, I think you would posit something called a Free Market. You would imbue it with the power of a god – make it all encompassing, pure, and always correct. Posit that the God Market perfectly rewards those who work hard, and likewise punishes those who are negligent in their production or attention. Posit that the God Market is Strongly Efficient: the values It determines, whether they be salaries or prices or rewards of any sort, they are exactly the correct salaries or prices or rewards.

Now you have the perfect tool to curtail the power of The People. If they advocate for higher wages, you can simply beat them back: Their wages are exactly the wages God The Market has determined should accrue to one who does what they do. Paying them other than what the God Market has chosen is an affront, and will have many negative consequences.

Perhaps they would use their democratic powers to move something from the realm of the private into the realm of the public with the desire that the fruits of society should benefit all of its members. Again,

remind them that public entities are fraught with inefficiency and corruption – you know, because God The Market has informed you, and It has no interest in rewarding any who would not strive alone to better themselves.

You can even use it to bruise their ego. Observably, the masses are poor, and since the God Market is purely efficient and correct, ergo, they deserve their lot in life. Who would dare go against what is pure and true? Those who have succeeded, by definition, are those who have worked harder, dared more, and received the bounty of the God Market! Repeat often, and perhaps they will learn the error of choosing Democracy, and stop attempting to use their votes and some pathetic egalitarian ideal to oppose that which is natural and pure and good, and just go and toil for the God Market.

For surely, you can point to your own success, and recognize that it is of course the result of a mighty struggle that has received the beneficence of God The Free Market, and you now have the perfect tool with which to flay Democracy: Indeed, you can point to your own neutrality! Do The People want clean air and plentiful, pure water? It is not for you or they to decide: The God Market will provide those as needed and when needed, and if they are not as clean as some want, well, who are they to go against the providence of the God Market?

Use the tool often and with energy, and perhaps this desire for messy interference with the natural order of things, this desire to make society better for all, this desire to diminish the injustices of previous generations can be caused to wither, perhaps die. Those who would choose their fellow citizen over personal gain can see the error of their ways. For once this arrogant wrongness, this affront, this virtual heresy that is Democracy is banished, then all can turn towards the God Market and have its splendor and perfection shine upon their faces, and the world can become Its perfect reflection.