IT ALL MAKES SENSE NOW …
We don’t ordinarily trade in Facebook memes, but we were forwarded one recently which turned out to be incredibly instructive as it relates to the presidential ambitions of U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders.
Sanders, of course, is the independent socialist from Vermont who has taken the “Democratic” presidential primary by storm – giving presumed nominee Hillary Clinton a surprisingly strong run for her money.
Hell, he may even channel the 2008 campaign of another socialist and beat Clinton …
Anyway, we’ve seen lots of people try to explain to others what socialism is … and why it will never be able to sustain itself.
“The trouble with socialism is that eventually you run out of other people’s money,” the late British prime minister Margaret Thatcher once said.
Indeed … although the same is true with the American entitlement state, welfare state and warfare state.
How, then, to put the concept into terms “First in the South” voters can easily understand?
To the Facebook meme …
Ha!
For those of you keeping score at home, Alabama has won sixteen national championships – including four within the last seven years (2009, 2011, 2012 and 2015). They’ve earned those titles, too … especially the most recent one.
South Carolina, Missouri and Mississippi State? Yeah … they’ve combined to win zero titles.
If Sanders has his way, though …
And yes, fans of Clemson University (the University of South Carolina’s arch-rival) …. go ahead and warm up the whole “that’s the only way the Gamecocks will ever win a national championship” counter-meme.
We’re expecting it …
49 comments
The logic would only apply if Alabama had been paying $$$ to the refs association to buy favorable calls and generally cheating other schools like the big banks have been doing.
Face it..it is time for the 1% to pay the same tax RATES that the rest of us pay. No corporate tax shells, no offshore money, no FILOT’s, not property tax breaks, etc…
As a liberal I’m sick of this mantra. It’s time for some of those bottom 40% to pay something. For Christ sake, you don’t get to live on tax credits forever – that’s why we’re in the freakin’ mess.
Most anyone who works pays state income taxes and in most cases sales taxes and pays into payroll taxes. If Bernie passes Medicare for all then everyone will pay a little bit more too.
I hate it when people say poor people don’t have skin in the game, they do, a higher percentage of their skin than most others because charging $100 is nothing to a rich man, a slight pin prick to a middle class man, and a stab in the stomach to a poor man.
Most of what you call poor people in the United States don’t know what poor is.
So, Bernie worked his ass off to win New Hampshire (and got 60% of votes), yet Hillary is walking away with the SAME NUMBER of delegates as Bernie! How’s that socialism feelin’???
http://sandersisnotasocialist.com/
I’m glad he got 60% of the vote though, shows there may be hope for the Democratic party yet! God bless Bernie!!!
OK, 12% income / profit tax across the board, no deductions, no credits, no exclusions. I’m all for it
All that cheating, tax breaks, shelters, offshore and FILOTS and yet the top 2.4% of filers still manage to pay 48.7% of all Federal income taxes collected.
http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2015/03/24/high-income-americans-pay-most-income-taxes-but-enough-to-be-fair/
“The 85 Richest People In The World Have As Much Wealth As The 3.5 Billion Poorest”
http://www.forbes.com/sites/laurashin/2014/01/23/the-85-richest-people-in-the-world-have-as-much-wealth-as-the-3-5-billion-poorest/#2e46d4d1324b
add the rest of the 1%’ters and where does this stat go?
Your buying the Kool-Aid, nobody said they don’t pay more taxes in raw dollars, just that they pay a lesser share relative to their income / wealth.
The vast majority of that wealth is in industries and companies that employ and provide goods and services for the other 99%.
The vast majority of that wealth was generated by the labor of the 99%.
So? Are you saying that industries should not pay taxes? Are you saying their profits or the salaries of their executives should be taxed at a lesser rate than someone they employ making 50K a year?
In the same Pew report I linked, Including all federal payroll, income, fees etc… the bottom 20% pay nothing and the top 0.1% pay an effective rate of 37%.
and from the report “The 6.2% Social Security withholding tax only applies to wages up to $118,500. For example, a worker earning $40,000 will pay $2,480 (6.2%) in Social Security tax, but an executive earning $400,000 will pay $7,347 (6.2% of $118,500), for an effective rate of just 1.8%.”
I have long said that the quickest fix for social security would be to eliminate the SS cap. Let everyone pay the 6.2% for the entire year. The few times I paid out it wouldn’t have mattered .Those making that kind of money 6.2% means very little.
Look at tax rates during Eisenhower’s administration, if you think the 1% are over taxed. Look at Labor Union partipation then. That’s when America was great, after all. Bernie wants to be more like Eisenhower.
No one is considering “effective tax rates” in this discussion. (loopholes, etc.)
The effective rate has been fairly steady:
http://blackburn.house.gov/uploadedfiles/jec_republican_staff_analysis_historical_tax_rates_rhetoric_vs_reality.pdf.pdf
Should be higher than 48.7% considering they own way more than 48.7% of money in the US.
Every last one of the Republican candidates want to cut taxes for the 1% while doing almost nothing for the middle class. I think I’ll take the man who actually wants the middle class to succeed. Bernie 2016!
they already practice socialism in the sec sic, don’t they split up all the money from the bowl games? none of the sec teams are whining about it are they? nope they think socialism is best for all the teams in the sec.
College sports and pro sports are two excellent examples of socialism. We can get things other than a bloated defense industry and corporate welfare with our tax dollars. What’s so bad about that?
The problem is that pro and college sports money originates with the private sector. The more of the economy you socialize the fewer there are to pay for it. The 1% of Venezuela either left or were driven out of business.
And Brownback did a bang up job in Kansas with his tax free utopia…no?
Except for food and groceries. Those are taxed in Kansas.
You are confusing socialism and democratic socialism. Nobody is wanting to copy Venezuela. Bernie is looking at the systems like Denmark or the Nordic Model. Denmark is considered the number one country in the world for business these days. You should do a little research and look into it. You might be surprised. These policies help everyone and are very successful.
Google is your friend.
https://www.google.com/search?q=Denmark&rlz=1C1CHWA_enUS643US644&oq=Denmark&aqs=chrome..69i57&sourceid=chrome&es_sm=0&ie=UTF-8#q=denmark+economy+problems
Yes it is. Search any country’s name with ‘economy problems’ and you’ll get all types of links. So what? This will give one a better picture…
http://www.demos.org/blog/10/20/15/united-states-vs-denmark-17-charts
Denmark is a tax haven. I favor the US becoming a tax have.
http://cphpost.dk/news14/business-news14/denmark-billed-as-perfect-tax-haven.html
I read and I know what the word Socialism means. Democracy is a form of government. Socialism is public ownership of capital and property. Why don’t you use the real term? Economic liberalism.
Look up democratic socialism. Look at the Nordic Model. Are you very wealthy? Why do you think it’s OK for the very rich and large corporations to NOT pay their part. Look at tax rates during the 50’s and get back to me. That’s when the middle class was the strongest it’s ever been in the USA.
The Fifties was the strongest because the rest of the world was recovering from WWII and needed our exports and there was no welfare, and Medicaid etc..
Did anyone pay those 90% tax rates, don’t think so.
What’s the population and land mass of Denmark?
that is called a cartel, which splits inflated profits due to artificially low competition.
Here’s Bernie in SEC terms. Like Vandy he’s a tough game, but he never, ever makes it to the SEC championship game against Alabama.
Here’s Bernie in SEC terms. Like Vandy he’s a tough game, but he never, ever makes it to the SEC championship game against Alabama.
Sakerlina would be Jim Gilmore in this analogy?
Chavez and Maduro really did make things better for poor by going after the 1%. It was good while it lasted.
Sweden, Finland, and Norway seem to being doing just fine with their high taxes rates on everybody.
The rich pay higher taxes in the United State than in Sweden. I am for the Swedes tax rates. Let’s do it, Dude.
http://thefederalist.com/2015/08/11/scandinavia-isnt-a-socialist-paradise/
seems the Libertarian website failed to consider all taxes…color me shocked
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taxation_in_Sweden
Yes, high regressive payroll taxes. The rich pay less than in the United States.
“Swedes’ personal income tax can be as little as 29 per cent of their pay, but most people (anyone earning over £32,000) will pay between 49 and 60 per cent through a combination of local government and state income tax.”
Tell me again how they pay less??
http://www.theguardian.com/money/2008/nov/16/sweden-tax-burden-welfare
Brownback did a back up job in Kansas…no?
The Kansas economy is great. 3.9% unemployment… 1% below the national rate. Re-elected too.
seems the locals disagree with your assessment…
“two-year, $354 million revenue shortfall in Kansas”
http://www.kansascity.com/news/local/news-columns-blogs/local-columnists/article44071743.html
Are you high? Kansas is a disaster zone. Their citizens are driving to neighboring states to buy groceries, it’s so bad. Brownback has definitely helped the econmies of Colorado and Missouri!
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That’s U3 unemployment, which means nothing. Look up U6 unemployment numbers.
It’s funny because it’s true!