On Radical Ryan plan would work only for the privileged few
Posted on April 3 at 2:14 p.m. ( Suggest removal )
Pressure on SEC to Implement Rule Disclosing CEO to Median Worker Pay, ABC News, Mar. 13, 2012: "Danny Stauffer of Milwaukee has been working as a baker at Walmart for almost five years. His salary is $9.40 an hour, up from a starting wage of $7.11. Stauffer, 26, said has tried to work full-time at the company but hasn't had success. "I actually like the work I do," he said. "The people I work with, the work itself – they're all great. It just doesn't pay the bills." A provision of the Dodd-Frank financial regulatory reform act proposes that public companies disclose the ratio of the CEO's pay to that of the median salary of company workers. But two years after Dodd-Frank was passed, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has not yet implemented the rule or initiated the rule-making process. Business groups have opposed the rule, while advocates for corporate reform have pressured the regulatory agency to work quickly. Sen. Robert Menendez, D-N.J., the author of the provision, Section 953(b), and other members of Congress signed letters to the SEC chairwoman, Mary Schapiro, last week, urging the agency to move forward with the rule-making process. "It might embarrass some companies to reveal that they pay their CEO in the range of 400 times what they pay their typical worker, but that's important information for both investors and workers to know," he told ABC News."
On Radical Ryan plan would work only for the privileged few
Posted on April 3 at 2:12 p.m. ( Suggest removal )
Poverty is often associated with joblessness, but a large proportion of poor people are actually working. In 2009, according to the US Census Bureau's official definition of poverty, 8.8 million U.S. families were below the poverty line (11.1% of all families). Of these families, 5.19 million, or 58.9%, had at least one person who was classified as working. In the same year, there were 11.7 million unrelated individuals (people who do not live with family members) whose incomes fell below the official poverty line (22% of all unrelated individuals). 3.9 million of these poor individuals, or 33%, were part of the working poor. If a European-style poverty measure were employed instead of the US Census Bureau's, a larger proportion of poor families and workers would be classified as working poor.
The following graph uses data from Brady, Fullerton, and Cross (2010) to show the working poverty rates for a small sample of countries (data from the Luxembourg Income Study. The most important insight contained in this graph is that the US has strikingly higher working poverty rates than European countries.
WorkingPoverty+NonworkingPoverty=TotalPoverty
1.8% + 6.2% = 8% Belgium
2.5% + 2.8% = 5.3% Denmark
3.3% + 9.7% = 13% Australia
3.4% + 3.8 = 7.2% France
3.5% + 4.7% = 8.2% Germany
3.9% + 9.9% = 13.8% UK
4.2 + 3.6 = 7.8 Sweden
5.8% + 10.2 = 16% Ireland
6.5 + 7.5 = 14% Spain
7.5% + 5 = 12.5% Italy
7.9% + 4.2% = 12.1% Canada
11% + 6% = 17% United States
On Janesville manufacturer GOEX planning new plant, new jobs
Posted on March 9 at 3:58 p.m. ( Suggest removal )
To Wislady:
If corporations are doing nothing wrong, then they should not have to worry about being attacked. Maybe it is time for corporations to give up Crony Capitalism and return to true Capitalism, where the Stakeholders of the firm (employees) are supposed to have equal rights with the Shareholders of the firm. That is what is taught in U.S. universities, but in the real world America, Crony Capitalism prevails. Because of Crony Capitalism, the only form of legal recourse is class action lawsuits. In Europe, where there is stringent government business regulation, class action lawsuits are unheard of.
On Janesville manufacturer GOEX planning new plant, new jobs
Posted on March 9 at 7:47 a.m. ( Suggest removal )
A portrait arises of mayors/governors who are desperate to create jobs, outmatched by multinational corporations and short on tools to fact-check what companies tell them. Many of the officials said they feared that companies would move jobs overseas if they did not get subsidies in the U.S. Over the years, corporations have increasingly exploited that fear, creating a high-stakes bazaar where they pit local officials against one another to get the most lucrative packages. States compete with other states, cities compete with surrounding suburbs, and even small towns have entered the race with the goal of defeating their neighbors. The Times further observed that for many communities, “the payouts add up to a substantial chunk of their overall spending. Oklahoma and West Virginia give up amounts equal to about one-third of their budgets, and Maine allocates nearly a fifth.” As national, state and local officials debate about how best to balance revenues and expenses, corporate subsidies deserve further scrutiny. CHW readers can visit the Times searchable database to examine their states’ record or the subsidies received by corporations they are tracking (Source:CorporationsAndHealth.org).
On Walker’s income tax cut helps rich more
Posted on February 24 at 7:36 a.m. ( Suggest removal )
The point of a high top tax rate is to discourage the monopolization of too much marketshare by one market participant. When the top tax rate is high, you will choose to NOT pursue even more marketshare, making that marketshare available to other market participants. Marketshare monopolizers like Walmart need an incentive to relinquish marketshare to others with entrepreneurship and innovative skills. There can be no innovation when virtually all marketshare is monopolized by a few market participants.
Also, by ensuring that the Fed. min. wage is a living wage, mediocre companies that create Communist China-style poverty-wage jobs are forced to relinquish their marketshare to our many young college graduates with the entrepreneurial and innovative skillset to create living wage jobs. That is how we can rid the system of mediocre companies that are a liability to America.
Those who own most of America should pay for most of America's debt. Example: If the Walton family owns 40% of America, then they should be responsible for 40% of America's debt. Raising the top tax rate on the likes of the Walton family will provide an incentive for them to relinquish marketshare to innovative entrepreneurs. When you own a huge proportion of U.S. marketshare, you no longer have to innovate. You bribe politicians for special tax rates, subsidies, grants, right to offshore jobs, and a low Fed. min. wage. Without innovation, a nation declines. We once had mom & pop shops all over the U.S., which spread the wealth around. Today, most U.S. wealth is stashed offshore (NOT invested in America, invested against America).
On Walker’s income tax cut helps rich more
Posted on February 24 at 7:30 a.m. ( Suggest removal )
Naturally, this tax cut is for the rich. At the Federal level, they got away with a very low top tax rate of only ~39% AND they got the tax threshold increased from $250k to $450k! They tell us that a $250k annual income "is not enough to be able to live off of," but the Fed. min. wage of $14k annual is "way too much." The top tax rate under JFK was 75%, we had a solvent middle class back then that could afford to consumer spend, and put a man on the moon. Today, the rich still have >50% of the world's wealth hidden (stashed offshore) from shareholders, stakeholders, wives and the taxman.
Trillions Hidden in Offshore Accounts by L. Kilzer and A. Conte, July 8, 2012: Across Europe, experts say tax dodgers undermine economies in places such as Greece and Spain, threatening the Euro as a whole. More than half (>50%) the world’s money passes almost undetected through a series of financial black holes that shelter it from not only the tax collector but from shareholders, partners and wives, a Tribune-Review investigation found.
A global super-rich elite had $21 to $32 trillion hidden in secret tax havens by the end of 2010, according to a major study. The figure is equivalent to the size of the US and Japanese economies combined. The Price of Offshore Revisited was written by J. Henry, a former chief economist at the consultancy McKinsey, for the Tax Justice Network. Mr. Henry said that the super-rich move money around the globe through an "industrious bevy of professional enablers in private banking, legal, accounting and investment industries. "The lost tax revenues implied by our estimates is huge. It is large enough to make a significant difference to the finances of many countries.
On Janesville councilmen want to raise $2.5 million for public safety, streets
Posted on February 13 at 5:08 p.m. ( Suggest removal )
"Mantain police" means finding creative ways to raise revenue for excessive police pensions. Time to cut those excessive pensions and end double-dipping and other public sector abuses. Raising property taxes will make the foreclosure situation worse.
On Janesville City Council OKs beer in parks
Posted on February 13 at 5:04 p.m. ( Suggest removal )
They're charging $50 to drink beer in a park. That goes well with the $50 snow fee they charge each time it snows in Janesville! Yes, if your car is on a street when it snows, and they have to plow around your car, it will cost you $50. But the city's Snow Emergency flier states $20! This is about raising revenue for those excessive police pensions. Best to move to a location that does not charge a snow tax before Janesville raises the fee to $120 OR they charge us a tax for the air we breathe.
On Process to raise price of snow emergency ticket to begin
Posted on February 11 at 1:12 p.m. ( Suggest removal )
Sigma40 is correct. This is about raising revenue for those excessive police pensions that are bankrupting cities across the entire U.S. The streets of Janesville are not Michigan Avenue Chicago. Janesville is a small city in the middle of vast rural area of cornfields. The streets are extremely wide and most of the time you have the entire street to yourself. The population of Janesville has dropped significantly since GM closed.
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On Radical Ryan plan would work only for the privileged few
Posted on April 3 at 2:16 p.m. ( Suggest removal )
Paul Ryan is pushing the radical Reagan agenda:
By the end of Reagan’s term in office federal assistance to local governments was cut 60%. Reagan eliminated general revenue sharing to cities, slashed funding for public service jobs and job training, almost dismantled federally funded legal services for the poor, cut the anti-poverty Community Development Block Grant program and reduced funds for public transit. The only “urban” program that survived the cuts was federal aid for highways – which primarily benefited suburbs, not cities.These cutbacks had a disastrous effect on cities with high levels of poverty and limited property tax bases, many of which depended on federal aid. In 1980 federal dollars accounted for 22 percent of big city budgets. By the end of Reagan’s second term, federal aid was only 6%. The consequences were devastating to urban schools and libraries, municipal hospitals and clinics, and sanitation, police and fire departments – many of which had to shut their doors.