Joseph Stiglitz: Of the 1% by the 1% for the 1%
by Daniel Becker
This is an interview of Joseph Stiglitz on Democracy Now regarding his article in the current Vanity Fair. He discuss the issue of income inequality, taxes, etc and how it has set us up to be less of a land of oportunity than what old Europe was.
A few quotes:
The question was, if people were getting rewards for contributing to our society, a theory that was in the 19th century called “marginal-productivity theory,” then you could say, “OK, those who contribute more should get more.” But what we saw in that crisis was that these titans of the financial industry got mega-bonuses while their companies were making mega-losses.
And with this one percent getting so much, there’s only one place really to get that extra revenue. The good news is it’s relatively easy. You have 25 percent—almost 25 percent of the income in the upper one percent, you raise their taxes by a few percentage points, and you get an awful lot of money.
This raises a very important point that I raise in my article, which is that much of the wealth of this one percent comes not from hard work, not from innovation, but from good investments in Washington, investing in political capital.
DOLB, couldn’t say it better myself. All depends on what you mean by “invest.” NancyO
The “investment” made by Wall Street in Washington has payed off tremendously for them, at a terrible cost to the country.
Such as the warfare state, privatized, for profit arsenal system. The warfare state is a huge trough, the top oners feeding most at it.
“Hey… Democracy is messy…” -Donald Rumsfeld 2004
Yeah, I like that concept: political capital investment. I think we at AB should start some type of index fund based on the individual congress persons campaign contributions. I’m sure we can come up with some kind of value coeficient based on what each raise adjust for voter confidence and sell shares?
We could even do a variety on this. The Democratic fund, the Republican fund, the fund indexed on the number of dems vs repubs and maybe even something tied into the SCOTUS and president?
I know, we’ll do a really fancy one that has a formual that takes into consideration the campaign funds raised, the government money flowing to the individuals district and/or state and the industry in vogue.
We need a name for the corp and a board of directors.
Rep. Ryan says we can’t afford Medicare anymore. But looks like we can always afford another war. Right, ilsm? 😉
DB–In addition to an indexed fund, we could sell CDI’s whereby a contributor/invester could insure against his candidate’s losing, getting redistricted, being indicted or getting caught on FB in his scivvies. Man, the more I hear the more I like it. Yer a genius, DB! Obviously, only Bears need apply for board memberships. But, I’m open to suggestions on what to call it. Would Capitol Investments, Inc. do it?
Yes, yes, yes. CDI’s. And we’ll sell insurance against it all based on the consumer confidence index run against the retail sales data adjusted for holidays.
Also we start a fund combining the dem/repub count and each’s fund raising against unemployment and CPI.
Hey, this could swell into something huge.
Where’s Cactus? He can crunch the numbers.
Hello there AB’s, I’m slightly familiar w/ Stiglitz & watched the interview w/ Amy Goodman–then followed some links to your blog; I read this article AND ur posts w/ total enjoyment;-)…SO as a designer, i have
a suggestion:
Rather than “Capitol” Investments, how about
CapiT[oo]L, Investments,
or perhaps
“Cap-and-Raid” hhhmm,
maybe “Capitol Sinkhole,” or simply “Infinite Capitol”??
Seriously, I’m glad i stumbled upon ur blog/site; even tho
I know basically little re: investing/fiscal/accounting issues– I’m very
focused on the larger systemic
ideas & outcomes, etc.
After some activist work re: Trade & social justice a few years back, I concluded that FISCAL issues & their connections (especially insider shell games), along with the fact that the mainstream cannot understand these
issues, is of utmost import (or export if indeed we
ever decide to re-invent manufacturing again;-)…
Anyhoo,
I’m truly worried that guys/gals like yourself have great insight & ethics—BUT again,,,
the mainstream NEVER hears from
folks like you—
and that is perhaps the
elephant in the room, i.e. our consolidated media shrinking room, Oi.
well said !
Welcome Rob M.
We have one blogger, Cactus who has published a book: Presimetrics. We have links to his work here and at his book blog. You’ll find Bruce Webb here who is now working with a group that uses Daily Kos to host regarding SS. It is his specialty.
So, we’re working on getting to the masses.