Gibson writes: "Did you hear the one about the guy who became a millionaire without anyone's help? You haven't heard of that guy? I haven't either."
The US Capitol building in Washington. (photo: EPA)
You Didn't Build That - WE Did
29 August 12
Reader Supported News | Perspective
id you hear the one about the guy who became a millionaire without anyone's help? The guy who oversaw his own birth, who hunted, grew and gathered all of his own food since he was a baby? The guy who found teachers to teach him, and paid for them from his own pocket? The guy who went to work every day on roads he paved all alone, burning oil that he drilled and refined on his own, in a car that he built with his own hands?
You haven't heard of that guy? I haven't either.
Here in New Hampshire, a lot of the "free staters" who quote Ayn Rand novels say they don't need government, equate taxation with theft, and believe they carry enough guns and ammo to defend their home from intruders to not have to pay taxes for police salaries. They even talk about mixing their own concrete and fixing the potholes on their own street instead of paying taxes for road repair.
A society like that exists already: Somalia.
Somalia is a libertarian paradise where nobody pays taxes because there are no national institutions or national infrastructure. Since there's no police protection or gun regulation, guns are cheap and plentiful. There have been 14 different governments in a mere 18 years. According to UN data tables, Somalia's average life expectancy is just 50.8 years, with only 1.8 years of school on average for each child. Famine has plagued the nation ever since Al-Shabab decided to block all humanitarian aid. In January 2010, instability in Somalia led to an outbreak of violence that killed 260, wounded another 250, and left 80,000 others displaced. But hey, I'm sure Somalis are looking on the bright side - there's no big, bad government to steal tax money from them.
What the most selfish Americans don't realize is that there is nothing stopping a large band of raiders from taking their property, other than groups of armed men and women paid for with their tax dollars, ready to respond with a phone call. They don't realize the taxes that they consider theft already pay for prisons that would jail those bandits under charges of armed robbery, thanks to laws put in places by lawmakers who were paid for with the help of other people's tax dollars.
In America, we all need each other. CEOs aren't making 231 times as much as their lowest-paid employees because they work 231 times harder than those employees. The only reason the guys in suits have their jobs and their salaries is because ordinary people like us are patronizing that CEO's business, giving him the money s/he needs to pay and train employees and buy raw materials.
Selfishly proclaiming "I built this" without acknowledging the vast network of people and infrastructure that helped make your success possible is both selfish and ignorant. The first step to America restoring her place in the world and pulling herself up by her bootstraps is Americans realizing that we all need each other to make that happen.
Carl Gibson, 25, is co-founder of US Uncut, a nationwide creative direct-action movement that mobilized tens of thousands of activists against corporate tax avoidance and budget cuts in the months leading up to the Occupy Wall Street movement. Carl and other US Uncut activists are featured in the documentary "We're Not Broke," which premiered at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival. He currently lives in Manchester, New Hampshire. You can contact Carl at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it , and listen to his online radio talk show, Swag The Dog, at blogtalkradio.com/swag-the-dog.
Reader Supported News is the Publication of Origin for this work. Permission to republish is freely granted with credit and a link back to Reader Supported News.
|
THE NEW STREAMLINED RSN LOGIN PROCESS: Register once, then login and you are ready to comment. All you need is a Username and a Password of your choosing and you are free to comment whenever you like! Welcome to the Reader Supported News community. |
 20 May 2013
|
 19 May 2013
|
 19 May 2013
|
 21 May 2013
|
 21 May 2013
|
 20 May 2013
|
 20 May 2013
|
 20 May 2013
|
 19 May 2013
|
Comments
We are concerned about a recent drift towards vitriol in the RSN Reader comments section. There is a fine line between moderation and censorship. No one likes a harsh or confrontational forum atmosphere. At the same time everyone wants to be able to express themselves freely. We'll start by encouraging good judgment. If that doesn't work we'll have to ramp up the moderation.
General guidelines: Avoid personal attacks on other forum members; Avoid remarks that are ethnically derogatory; Do not advocate violence, or any illegal activity.
Remember that making the world better begins with responsible action.
- The RSN Team
Such an act used to be considered just a misjudgment or a poor opinion. Not so, these folks are putting the rest of society in danger. A convicted criminal is isolated and put in prison so that they will no longer harm other people. What should be done with individuals who advocate the destruction of our cities and our country?
One just has listen to the nonsense platitudes and irrational statements of these Republicans. If permitted, we can easily show their statements to be irrational. In the meantime, uneducated citizens are easily convinced that truth is being expressed.
The American Republican candidate for President has publicly stated that he prays several times a day. There is no way that this may be proven. However, how can the American public support someone who exposes to lead a nation, based on superstition and unsupported ‘faith’, rather than actuality and facts?
But I do pray for those who even consider voting for these Criminals. I do hope the votes this November answer my prayers.
The Republicans know this and use tribal platitudes (white,Christia n,paternalistic ,etc..). so as to pretend to fight off the political power from those "threatening" outsiders.
Therefore, the real purpose for all the b.s. issues is merely for Republican politicians to paint themselves as good members of the tribe.
NOT to let (heaven forbid) the populous in on any decision on real issues.
This also explains why Republican women vote knowingly for paternalistic and against their own interests.
Do seniors really want a voucher plan which will ensure more money out of their pockets over time? No, but a majority of them support Ryan. Why?
Should Social Security be privatized? Who wants to live on on even fewer crumbs when they retire? How much will a common investor get for a return on his measly investments? This idea exists only to save government money...not to help anyone survive.
Equal time for all candidates is not logical. This leads to all statements becoming true, if repeated often enough. The media should start denouncing lies on a regular basis, no matter who says it.
DO VOTE: Never set out another election and put us in this position again. Your vote DOES COUNT, don't believe the ones who don't want you to vote. VOTE, make sure you are still registered and VOTE
However, the Mittens/Ryan energy "plan" will frack and drill the living jesus out of this country, and they will eviscerate the EPA as well. Check out Think Progress for the facts.
We must push for Existing Safe Energy. Alternative Energy, Future Alternative Energy...you all love to text words, new headlines, new titles. Wind, Sun, Water been here since the beginning of time...we are just too stupid to use it and say no to Oil.
As far as EPA,Dept of Ag, Dept of Interior...the need a clean up and firing.
Fracking is going State by State. If you ever spent anytime at township, County, State or Federal Planning Meetings you might have a clue of how government works.
Fracking Industry hires people esp lawyers who write beautiful pamphlets telling you how great their plans are, how harmless the process is, then to quiet the crowds they promise to build a park, a community center and so on. Right now Fracking Industry is entertaining the Audobon Society promising everyone in those town hall meetings that no animal will come to harm.
They refute everything you say because they go to so many meetings and can counter you within a flash. I did this meetings and activism for over 40 years now started with Nukes. Where were you all? See these things have been happening for decades. They have poisoned Florida, Tex, West...you do not hear anything now thanks to Lawyers, Judges giving you something to shut up.
Do understand that President gets nutshells, he doesn't see the homes, smell the air because his advisors aren't taking him there. Like I said the people were paid to shut up....
Everyone voted to get Government out of your lives, give States control...now that isn't working either? OOOPS
As for business in the US from the railroads (who got either free or very, very cheap i.e., gov't subsidized land) to silicon valley (which didn't start due to "whiz kids" inventing stuff in their garage but rather to large dep't of defense contracts) all of these industry giants had massive amounts of gov't help. This goes for the "war effort" during world war II as well which as conservatives these days love to point out (why i don't know given that it too, like the New Deal, was a huge "government program") was what got us out of the depression and not the New Deal.
The point we should be taking away from all of this is that "free market" mythology is just that: a myth. Never existed. so, in fact, they never "built it."
In Europe, those tycoons would have been stopped dead in their tracks by the elites.
That's why they came to a place that had no such social system in place.
People don't spend time researching for and writing history books for fun you know.
Money, stuff, having 'it' all....Today's Mind
"Efficiency"? Surely, you jest. All of our major financial institutions were insolvant (i.e., bankrupt) as a result of their uber-leveraged ponzi schemes. they only survived because we, the taxpayers, bailed them out. Is this your idea of efficiency? Mitt made his money borrowing huge sums (i.e., he created massive debt) that other people would have to pay off (see Matt Taibbi's recent piece for a great explanation of how this worked). Is that efficiency? And, take a look at Doug Henwood's book "Wall Street" that clearly shows how wall street "investment" as a way to promote economic development is an incredibly inefficient for deploying resources. Not to mention the fact that every major US industry has taken off due to large scale government investment (from the railroads to the internet) so to argue that "we built it" and it was all done by the private sector simply is not true.
SHAZZAM!!!
Holy Moley - HERAKLES RYAN to the Rescue!!!
RUN FOR IT, BEFORE HE DIVERTS THE POTOMAC THROUGH WASHINGTON DC AND DROWNS THE COUNTRY IN BULLSHIT!!!
Money in the wrong hands is very dangerous to all including the ones who have control of it.
Chief Seattle
We need to start caring about the weakest members of our society.
The Constitution of the World Health Organization has this definition of health:
"Health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity. The enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of health is one of the fundamental rights of every human being without distinction of race, religion, political belief, economics or social condition.The health of all peoples is fundamental to the attainment of peace and security and is dependent upon the fullest cooperation of individuals and States. The achievement of an State in the promotion of health is a value to all."
Martin Luther King, Jr.
Poor people DO create jobs, when we buy stuff from companies and create demand. When we don't have money to spend, businesses see less demand and fire people. Poor people and middle class people are America's only job creators.
This is the time that the government should be doing the same kind of investing - in schools and infrastructure, this would do more for the national debt that cutting 'entitlement' programs.
I'd be interested in what specific liberal policies effect your ability to do business.
Personally, I don't think sales should be tsxed, only profits. But there are a lot of crooks. And I know this from experience as well.
Most never ever worked for a living like the rest of us. They worked in summer, school then another summer job. No they did not want to hear those old stories...boring.
Companies started over producing and then, they started losing and losing. Patents ran out and Asia took over, but still we take our products to them to make.
Knowing that everyone will keep buying, and they will make more money. CEO's actually do stash all sorts of money in all sorts of places, and they do pay illegals under the table to do work the neighborhood plumber needs.
Spoiled Yuppie Brats...we warned you they were coming, SciFi Movies warned ya...you just didn't listen or care.
Here's how I think it works when I look deeper in the a bit of history (http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/overview) some conservative accountants try to cherry pick, and compare what we did in 1945/46 with an approach so very opposite, today, I wonder how they expect it to work by going even farther away from what worked in the past.
1945
Debt as GDP% 121.7%, 13.1% Government, 108.7% Public, Effective tax rate on top quintile 20.7%,
Top marginal tax rate, 94% (on income over 2009 equivalent of $2.4 million)
"Public" back then didn't mean same "offshore %" as today.
2012 est
Debt as GDP% 104.0%, 30.6% Government, 74.2% Public, Effective tax rate on top quintile 20.7% (just like 1945),
Top capital gains rate, 15% (no limit on how many billions or trillions you make, less 1/6 the rates we collected on people making more than $2.4 million in 2009 equivalent dollars back in 1945).
(Did we have our most advantaged hoarding more than 2X our GDP, or somewhere between the equivalent of $21 trillion to $32 trillion, offshore, back then, not even taxed at the 15%?)
Yes I do see a problem, but a bigger problem if we keep getting farther from the old solutions.
(part 1 of 2)
I personally don't want to see Dark Money taking us back to the Dark Ages that Grover Norquist's "No New Taxes" pledge is leading us to. On 60 minutes, he said he wanted to take us back to taxes he says were only 8% of GDP. I don't know how that relates to Effective tax rate or value of what was provided (something accountants often find hard to grasp), but I'll bite and see what our country looked like back then. Were we at war? No the Spanish American War had ended in 1898. What was our infrastructure like? Good Postal Service, but internal transportation was via poor roads, in a horse and buggy era for most, but monopolized railroads, mule and canal boats for much of the industrial East coast.
Even in later days, I remember Harry Truman's political career started as an honest agent trying to improve the roads for farmers in the county. My wife's uncle started out WWII as a mule skinner in the Army
A few neat pictures from back in that era (but I don't want to go back). See www.lakesidehistory.org/Americana/PPS/Horse_And_Mulepower.pps
Heck, I don't even want to go back to the times my mother described, trying to get around all the horse manure (and dead horses) even in the cities, though I would like some of work ethic and forward looking they did back then.
There was a major element left off this paragraph. The increase in productivity of the American worker has permitted CEOs to "raid" their company's treasury for their exorbitant compensation. The people who are actually doing the work have not seen their wages increased as a result of their increased productivity.
I am also reminded of an additional element. It was interesting to see the bank executives go to Washington to testify about the problems that their banks caused for the American economy. In their testimony they claimed that they had nothing to do with the problems; it was the result of actions by lower ranking members of their organizations. Yet, these same individuals claim that they deserve their astyronomical compensation because of the great value that THEY create as a result of their actions! What a crock of BS!
Your in Charge so do something to stop ...
buy less, drive less, make do. Seemed to work for my family in the early 1900's thru to Ike. Do Your part now, scare them by Nov
Now if Romney gets elected...
No the poor people just get the priviledge of being under paid and over taxed by this screwed up system Bush built. The poor and middle class spend money to support some rich A-hole and his business. Dont kid yourself Jim without all the cheap labor the rich cats would be screwed!
Economies do.
Else, why can't they sell iPads in Somalia?
I doubt you give a darn about anything but today and what You are doing
Yep, I understand fully (unless you write in ironic terms of course).
Funny, the more money these CEO's make and award themselves and their mostly non-productive crony yes-men/women, the more poor people are created.
Strange inverse-ratio thing that.
But the sweat-shop nations love it, especially China.
Surely you know that Abraham Lincoln said "Labor is superior to capital." Right?
But poor people DO create jobs. They buy things other people sell and make. The poor are the ones MOST likely to put any money that comes into their hands into the economy, not into some bank account in the Caymans like that exploiter, manipulator and fair weather patriot Romney.
And the lack of education must be the icing on the cake (the Republican cake, that is).
They also have pirates and the problem of other countries dumping their radioactive waste off their shores (no wonder their lifespan is so short).
And, of course, war lords come in and fill the vacuum left by their lack of government.
Such an act used to be considered just a misjudgment or a poor opinion. Not so, these folks are putting the rest of society in danger. A convicted criminal is isolated and put in prison so that they will no longer harm other people. What should be done with individuals who advocate the destruction of our cities and our country?
One just has listen to the nonsense platitudes and irrational statements of these Republicans. If permitted, we can easily show their statements to be irrational. In the meantime, uneducated citizens are easily convinced that truth is being expressed.
The American Republican candidate for President has publicly stated that he prays several times a day. There is no way that this may be proven. However, how can the American public support someone who exposes to lead a nation, based on superstition and unsupported ‘faith’, rather than actuality and facts?
The American Republican candidate for President has publicly stated that he prays several times a day. There is no way that this may be proven. However, how can the American public support someone who exposes to lead a nation, based on superstition and unsupported ‘faith’, rather than actuality and facts?
We need to remember that GWB also said that he got has message by speaking to "G-d" and look where that got us!
So fortunately, Isaac has degraded to a tropical storm, though outlying N.O. areas without levees are a bit bashed. Um, "we did it all ourselves" ers - Who repaired the levees? Private generosity? Nope - Federal Government by and FOR the people. Badly done under Bush, of course, but fact. (I know: facts are stupid things, said Reagan.)
I'm stil waiting for 'the big guy' Gov. 'respect me don't like me' Christie to define what he meant by "shared sacrifice". (By whom? For whom?)
Follow the money, look at the actions, and note the parsing and re-defining of words... Vote for sanity and *shared* sacrifice, and public-focused society, moving forward rather than back to the Bush/Rove/$ disaster we're *finally* starting to recover from, no easy fete.
Wishing the best to those impacted by the storm (in N.O.) - happy there was still a taxpayer/Govern ment coalition when and where needed in times of need!
And the Koch brothers will subsidize my independence.
Businesses don't do OJT anymore - but expect to pick from a list of trained individuals.
Don't pay for college educations - but expect them to waltz in the door.
Don't pay for Highschool educations but expect people to not flash mob their stores.
Don't have their own power plants (in most cases)but expect the lights to turn on despite a hurricane or earthquake.
Don't pay for police protection but call 911.
Don't pay for military protection but don't live in fear of suicide bombers.
Don't pay for Health Care but expect competent doctors and hospital staff to be at the ready.
Don't pay for road upkeep but expect shipments to arrive and leave on time.
Don't pay for sewer and expect the toilet to flush without issue.
Don't pay for water but expect the tap to function.
Don't pay for telecom but expect a signal to be present.
or any hygiene expense for that matter - not with all of the tax dodging that many of them do that equates to a free ride courtesy of the tax payer.
But they certainly do pay to bribe, excuse me, "lobby" to ease "restrictions" on turning a profit. Who knows, that money set aside for lobbying was probably a portion of the savings made from dodging taxes. That would be a slap in the face, wouldn't it?
Capitalism does not build anything. It is a negative and destructive force. People labor or create wealth by nature. Marx defined labor as the transformation of object of nature into objects of human use. A tree can be converted to lumber and a house by means of human labor. Humans cannot survive for a minute without labor.
But capitalism -- the ideology of Romeny, Ryan, and the Republicans -- is parastitic on labor.
One other country that doesn't have a functioning government is Bolivia. Nobody that I know, who lives in the US, could even conceive of the difficulties of living in that country.
Tea baggers, you have no idea of how destructive their beliefs are. You do NOT want to live in a country run by the wealthy.
One former president, while running for re-election, had his enemies slightly drugged and thrown out of airplanes.
Poverty abounds, roads are falling apart, the water is undrinkable, corruption is rampant with the wealthy getting anything they want published in the local paper, and jobs available are only for cooks, maids, gardeners and drivers. The wealthy have beautiful large homes with armed guards stationed outside their homes which are surrounded by high walls. Extra security is needed because of the income inequality.
Our country should not be going in this direction.
And they didn't make those either.
Also clear is the willingness of the Republican's base to accept the duping as if it were not duping, because they just can't stand the notion of "THAT MAN, THAT OTHER" in "THEIR" White House.
RSS feed for comments to this post