Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Technology Stocks : Amazon.com, Inc. (AMZN) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Oeconomicus who wrote (157701)	6/5/2003 9:35:46 PM
From: Skeeter Bug	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 164684

here's a piece on what bush really wanted... but didn't get... wsws.org "The tax cut plan announced Tuesday by President Bush is a transparent scheme to plunder the federal treasury and enrich the financial oligarchy. Nearly all of the $664 billion in tax cuts go to the top income brackets, while working class families, and especially the poor and unemployed, will receive little or nothing." and to back it up... "Approximately half of the $364 billion will go to the top one percent of Americans, those with incomes of $350,000 a year or more." yes, 25% of the ALL THE TAX CUT PIE woulda gone to only richest 1% of the people - AND THAT ONLY CONSIDERS THE DVIDEND CUT - WE HAVEN'T EVEN GOTTEN TO ALL THE OTHER TAX CUTS. "According to one study, 64 percent of the benefits from moving up the tax rate cuts scheduled for 2004 will go to the wealthiest 5 percent of the population, while only 7.7 percent goes to the bottom 80 percent" the richest 5% woulda gotten 64% and all the rest of the "peasants" get to fight for the leftovers? how thoughtful of mr bush. "This would include permanent abolition of the estate tax, which affects only those who inherit estates of $1 million or more." hey, this is a tax reduction that rd must LOVE - 100% goes to the wealthy - the poor gets NOTHING! "The administration is employing lies and double-talk to sell its package to the public. Bush is presenting a program tailor-made for the coupon-clipping elite as a “growth and jobs” plan to aid “working people.” The administration claimed that 92 million taxpayers would benefit from the tax cuts and receive an average reduction of $1,083, although this figure combines the windfall going to the millionaires and the pittance going to the vast majority of working people. (If one millionaire gets $45,000 and 40 workers get $50 apiece, the “average” of their combined tax breaks approximates the administration figure.)" pay attention here... someone on this thread is using this exact same kind of statistical misleading... guess who? now, i just need to find out what portions of this great big handout to wealthy was cut AGAINST THE PROTESTATIONS OF BUSH.

To: Oeconomicus who wrote (157701)	6/5/2003 10:22:08 PM
From: GST	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 164684

Issue 1 -- whose money is it? Not only do we not collectively pay enough in taxes to pay for government services delivered today -- NOW -- but we also pay more interest each year because we are adding each year to the accumulated debt by running a current operating deficit NOW -- that has been what is going on under Bush NOW. The question before us is this: Should we increase our operating deficit NOW to stimulate the economy? There is no question about the taxes we pay being "our money" NOW. We are not even paying NOW for what we are consuming NOW in government services. The question is how much of the expense for consuming government services NOW should we pass on to our children for them to pay on our behalf? The percentage of the budget that is used to pay interest on debt is rising. None of us who pays taxes can speak about the taxes being "our money". They are the price of government services. They are an expense NOW. We owe that money NOW. We can refuse to pay for NOW for our own services and have our children pay for us -- and we can try to justify that in a number of ways -- but, quite simply, we are deciding not to pay our own way NOW and to pass the bill on to somebody else, expecting that they will pay our bills for us.

To: Oeconomicus who wrote (157701)	6/5/2003 10:40:40 PM
From: GST	Respond to of 164684

Issue 2 -- Does it matter who lends us the money to shove more money in the pockets of the super-rich? It matters supremely. Each and every day, we must find people in other countries -- foreigners -- willing to lend us money so we can borrow to pay for our current investments and current consumption, as well as to pay for the accumulated debt for all past investment and consumption that we could not pay for ourselves and we could not find anybody to lend us within the United States. We are the worlds giant debtors. Not only do we fail to pay for what we consume, we do not save anywhere near enough to finance our own debts. I am not speaking here merely of government debt for services consumed that we are not willing or able to pay for now, I am talking about ALL the things that we cannot or choose not to pay for now. As long as foreigners are willing to lend us the money to keep us spending and living well beyond our means, then the game can continue. The game ends if foreigners cannot or will not play the game any longer. When the game ends, the value of currency is the recipient of the consequences -- we have seen our currency this year alone drop 30% in value in relation to Europe. Our debts make us remarkably vulnerable to the investment and savings preferences of foreigners -- and to the currency risks these dependencies entail. The endgame is not pretty -- you end up with a series of very tough choices, and none of them are attractive. It matters supremely that we are unable to finance our own government deficits and our current account deficit. As we prepare to transfer yet more wealth to the super rich, we are doing nothing but make a bad situation get even worse. This is especially true when the goal is to transfer huge sums from our already insufficient pool of taxes into the pockets of the super rich. Poor Chinese people save 25% of what they earn. We will eventually find out why they are one hell of a lot smarter than we are as we borrow their money to give it away to a few obscenely wealthy people in the United States.