Comments by "coolmodelguy" (@coolmodelguy6304) on "The Ring of Fire" channel.

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  4. Remarkable how the federal government has empty pockets for funding no-cost college tuition, or fully funding health care for our citizens, or fully funding our needed infrastructure upgrades, or fully fund a jobs guarantee program, or funding to end homelessness among U.S. citizens . . . especially for the 60,000 homeless veterans. Remarkable that for anything morally or economically uplifting for our citizens, the U.S. federal pockets are empty, yet . . . Wall Street needs bailing out, or the military needs greater funding for endless warfare, or corporations need tax breaks and the federal government will bend over backwards and run up huge federal debt to accommodate that! What have "We the People" gotten in return for 21 Trillion dollars in accumulated federal debt over 45 years? Absolutely nothing. Something has to change people! Not just a Blue-Wave folks, something else has to fundamentally change. We have a minimum wage, now it is time to put a maximum cap on individual and family accumulation of wealth. I'm not talking about taking away all of our "embarrassed millionaires" right to earn those millions . . . but come on now, be realistic! How many of us has ever seen five million in earnings over a lifetime of working? If you earn $50,000 annually . . . the most wealth you could possibly accumulate over a working life of 30 years is 1.5 million dollars and that is only if you saved every penny and paid no taxes! If the rest of you folks are like me, I have no problem capping all family wealth accumulation for a lifetime at $50 million dollars with a 95% inheritance tax to avoid dynastic wealth accumulation. That comes out roughly at $1.75 million earned after taxes annually. Virtually every single problem facing us as a human society has its roots embedded in those very few of us who are morbidly wealthy. With the exception of asteroid strikes and possibly earthquakes and volcanoes, every single problem we have stems from accumulated wealth in the hands of very few human beings. Eliminate that morbid excess that with a simple wealth and earnings cap, then most of our problems will disappear and many others will find logical solutions that were being stifled by wealthy individuals who wielded power far in excess of the ONE VOTE they are legally entitled to.
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  36. Vicky Paulson-What can we do? Stick to the Constitution. Elect new non-corporate Democrat Representatives into the House in 2018, that is our opportunity to clear the House of Representatives of republicans. In addition to the House, fully one-third of the Senate is also up for election in 2018, another opportunity to clear out more republicans from the Congress. Next, we need to promote and pass a constitutional amendment which will prohibit external funding of election campaigns and set up equal public financing for elections. This is to keep non-human persons (as in corporations and PACs) from buying our politicians, so they can go back to work for "We the People". Even now those frightening dictatorial types like tRump plus minions Bannon and Mulvaney, or even Paul Ryan, they all still have to follow the law and constitution. They are really abusing that power right now and not doing their due duty to "the general welfare" of the people as required by the constitution, but they are still limited and constrained in their actions by the constitution. Once we change leadership in the House and Senate in 2018, we the people must direct our employees (Representatives and Senators) to do their duty. Impeach and prosecute all the primary criminals now in office and their "advisors", plus go after all the republicans now in office who at this time are aiding and abetting these criminals. It is time for a massive purge, then we can rebuild our country properly in a way that truly does attend to "the general welfare" of ALL our people instead of just passing laws that benefit only the rich and big business.
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  54. Lori Cataldi - This why we have to refocus our energy. Our efforts are wasted when we try to do reforms of any kind, because those reforms will always be dismantled. Instead of changing a myriad of different laws trying to combat undue influence, there are only two simple rules that must be placed into law. First in an Annual Income Cap, the second is an Accumulated Wealth Cap. It is vast wealth in the hands of individuals which is the root cause of all our woes and the dysfunction of wealth inequality in our worldwide collective societies. Vast wealth is the toolkit used to dismantle all reforms put into law, and the one glaring example I will put forward is FDR's New Deal. In the decades since the New Deal, the wielders of vast wealth have been dismantling the New Deal piece by piece. Now the New Deal is gone, destroyed. This happens to every law, every reform ever put in place to protect the majority. There is a simple guide as to what the caps should be. By all means, earn your millions until you have enough for you and your family to live in the utmost of luxury for a lifetime. Beyond that point, return everything you earn back to the society that helped you create the wealth in the first place. No one makes millions in a vacuum, everyone who does so has the help of the entire society of human beings . . . every millionaire made is a joint venture with society. I'm 57 years old and my eldest daughter is 30 years old. Between us we have the life experiences of our generations. We did a "thought experiment" to ascertain what the income and wealth limits should be. Her ideas encompassed more than my own, so we generally went with her numbers. I would like to see more of us doing such "thought experiments" so we can come up with a consensus that will make an annual income and accumulated wealth cap palatable to the majority. Do these two things and all dark money political contributions evaporate down to a level where the will of the few no longer dominates the will of the many. We already know excessive wealth beyond what is needed to live a life of utmost luxury is mostly then used to exert power over the powerless.
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  66. OrionPax09 - This why we have to refocus our energy. Our efforts are wasted when we try to do reforms of any kind, because those reforms will always be dismantled. Instead of changing a myriad of different laws trying to combat undue influence, there are only two simple rules that must be placed into law. First in an Annual Income Cap, the second is an Accumulated Wealth Cap. It is vast wealth in the hands of individuals which is the root cause of all our woes and the dysfunction of wealth inequality in our worldwide collective societies. Vast wealth is the toolkit used to dismantle all reforms put into law, and the one glaring example I will put forward is FDR's New Deal. In the decades since the New Deal, the wielders of vast wealth have been dismantling the New Deal piece by piece. Now the New Deal is gone, destroyed. This happens to every law, every reform ever put in place to protect the majority. There is a simple guide as to what the caps should be. By all means, earn your millions until you have enough for you and your family to live in the utmost of luxury for a lifetime. Beyond that point, return everything you earn back to the society that helped you create the wealth in the first place. No one makes millions in a vacuum, everyone who does so has the help of the entire society of human beings . . . every millionaire made is a joint venture with society. I'm 57 years old and my eldest daughter is 30 years old. Between us we have the life experiences of our generations. We did a "thought experiment" to ascertain what the income and wealth limits should be. Her ideas encompassed more than my own, so we generally went with her numbers. I would like to see more of us doing such "thought experiments" so we can come up with a consensus that will make an annual income and accumulated wealth cap palatable to the majority. Do these two things and all dark money political contributions evaporate down to a level where the will of the few no longer dominates the will of the many. We already know excessive wealth beyond what is needed to live a life of utmost luxury is mostly then used to exert power over the powerless.
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  75. OrionPax09 - I agree with you 100%. It is as plain as day what trump is doing, destroying everything the USA has built up and stood for since Roosevelt was in office, both domestically and internationally. However trump is but a symptom of what the republicans and corporate democrats have been doing to our country ever since the Powell Memo was written. In the Powell Memo, Lewis Powell quotes Milton Friedman about a powerful attack under way against the American system. Here is the quote: In a foreword to these lectures, famed Dr. Milton Friedman of Chicago warned: “It (is) crystal clear that the foundations of our free society are under wide-ranging and powerful attack — not by Communist or any other conspiracy but by misguided individuals parroting one another and unwittingly serving ends they would never intentionally promote.” With four and a half decades between then and now, I would put forward that what both Powell and Friedman have wrought with their policies have been far more destructive to the American people than those whom they so feared back then. The republicans and the oligarchs have been fighting against the American people ever since General Smedley Butler thwarted the republican and businessman's attempted coup against the USA in the 1930's. Now they are close to getting what they want, which can be compared to the partitioning of England after the Industrial Revolution. The peasants (that would be us), are getting kicked off the land (out of the economy) . . . where we will have to fend for ourselves (no more democracy) and hopefully starve to death. The Powell Memo: https://www.greenpeace.org/usa/democracy/the-lewis-powell-memo-a-corporate-blueprint-to-dominate-democracy/
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  78. Brian Garrow - This why we have to refocus our energy. Our efforts are wasted when we try to do reforms of any kind, because those reforms will always be dismantled. Instead of changing a myriad of different laws trying to combat undue influence, there are only two simple rules that must be placed into law. First in an Annual Income Cap, the second is an Accumulated Wealth Cap. It is vast wealth in the hands of individuals which is the root cause of all our woes and the dysfunction of wealth inequality in our worldwide collective societies. Vast wealth is the toolkit used to dismantle all reforms put into law, and the one glaring example I will put forward is FDR's New Deal. In the decades since the New Deal, the wielders of vast wealth have been dismantling the New Deal piece by piece. Now the New Deal is gone, destroyed. This happens to every law, every reform ever put in place to protect the majority. There is a simple guide as to what the caps should be. By all means, earn your millions until you have enough for you and your family to live in the utmost of luxury for a lifetime. Beyond that point, return everything you earn back to the society that helped you create the wealth in the first place. No one makes millions in a vacuum, everyone who does so has the help of the entire society of human beings . . . every millionaire made is a joint venture with society. I'm 57 years old and my eldest daughter is 30 years old. Between us we have the life experiences of our generations. We did a "thought experiment" to ascertain what the income and wealth limits should be. Her ideas encompassed more than my own, so we generally went with her numbers. I would like to see more of us doing such "thought experiments" so we can come up with a consensus that will make an annual income and accumulated wealth cap palatable to the majority. Do these two things and all dark money political contributions evaporate down to a level where the will of the few no longer dominates the will of the many. We already know excessive wealth beyond what is needed to live a life of utmost luxury is mostly then used to exert power over the powerless.
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  79. J.A. Holland’s Quiet Storm - I agree with you 100%. It is as plain as day what trump is doing, destroying everything the USA has built up and stood for since Roosevelt was in office, both domestically and internationally. However trump is but a symptom of what the republicans and corporate democrats have been doing to our country ever since the Powell Memo was written. In the Powell Memo, Lewis Powell quotes Milton Friedman about a powerful attack under way against the American system. Here is the quote: In a foreword to these lectures, famed Dr. Milton Friedman of Chicago warned: “It (is) crystal clear that the foundations of our free society are under wide-ranging and powerful attack — not by Communist or any other conspiracy but by misguided individuals parroting one another and unwittingly serving ends they would never intentionally promote.” With four and a half decades between then and now, I would put forward that what both Powell and Friedman have wrought with their policies have been far more destructive to the American people than those whom they so feared back then. The republicans and the oligarchs have been fighting against the American people ever since General Smedley Butler thwarted the republican and businessman's attempted coup against the USA in the 1930's. Now they are close to getting what they want, which can be compared to the partitioning of England after the Industrial Revolution. The peasants (that would be us), are getting kicked off the land (out of the economy) . . . where we will have to fend for ourselves (no more democracy) and hopefully starve to death. The Powell Memo: https://www.greenpeace.org/usa/democracy/the-lewis-powell-memo-a-corporate-blueprint-to-dominate-democracy/
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  109. We the People of the United States of America are under systematic and deliberate attack from enemies within. The battleground is economic, the weapons are legislative, the engineers making the weapons are our own representatives in government (not all of them, but most), and the goal of our enemies is to divide society into two classes of people. The Upper Class will have all the wealth, power, privileges, and rights. The Under Class will have no wealth, no power, no privileges and no rights. When the goal of our enemies is achieved, the democratic republic that is the United States of America will no longer exist and a dystopia will take its place. Make no mistake, this is a purposeful and sustained attack against our Constitution, the Declaration of Independence, and We the People. Just FYI here: (A dystopia is a community or society that is undesirable or frightening.) The greatest middle class the world has ever experienced was built up in 30 years after World War-2 in the United States of America. Then right about the mid 1970’s the capitalist elites faced two crises simultaneously, the falling rate of profitability in industry and pressing questions from the electorate surrounding the legitimacy of capitalism. Prompted into action to save themselves, the capitalist elites co-opted OUR very own politicians whose duty is to look after us. Ever since then political efforts in the USA have been focused and unified, upon creating the legislative machinery to weaken the middle class, extract its wealth, and reduce it to the Under Class. Conservatives and neoliberals have then spent the last 42 years increasing the income and monopoly of wealth in the economy for the 1% at the top and creating a wealth extraction economy for the middle class and the poor. This is not enough for them, they have also set out to dept enslave not only our own people and government, but also entire countries . . . for the sole purpose of setting up wealth extraction economies in those countries. Going outside of our country to extract wealth makes the treasonous United States politicians and guilty United States businesses into something worse than they already represent, they became international gangsters and extortionists. Meanwhile on the home front, the entire 42-year period has been spent by Republican politicians extolling the conservative virtues of individualism and preaching the “rightness” of the neoliberal supported “Reagonomics”, or “Trickle Down Economics”, or “Free Market Economics”, to the electorate, while creating a monopolistic economy that has decimated the liberty of individuals. It appears from my vantage point that the politicians making the policies do not actually believe in the U.S.-Constitution, nor are they doing their sworn duty to protect it. The "right-wing and "corporate owned" politicians we elect are themselves the “domestic enemies” of the Constitution because their policies will lead the destruction of the Constitution. Of course we had no way of knowing that until recently, because we trust our politicians and could simply not believe they would deceive us in any manner. However 42 years of historical records do not lie about what the conservative right wing and corporate democrats in our government have done with the economy and to us. There is a way for We the People to strike back at those attacking us and win, in fact this is the only way. The Framers of the Constitution were very smart about this. We the People can perform “Election Campaign Finance Reform” ourselves instead of waiting forever for the reforms the politicians will never undertake on their own. Plus there is nothing in the Constitution that declares "Free Market Capitalism" is the one and only economic model for the land, the Framers very wisely put that responsibility of choice into the hands of "We the People". We must start electing only those persons who will not take campaign contributions from any source of wealth. Our politicians have been bought and paid for by wealthy donors for 40 years, all the republicans certainly are bought, and the "Corporate Democrats" are bought as well. These politicians represent donors not voters, and are thus corrupted. The only clean politicians we have are those like Bernie Sanders and Ro Khanna, who raise money from the people and not from corporate/wealthy donors. We have to vote out the corruption and vote in only those that pledge to serve the peoples interests. They can prove their loyalty by never taking money from business, corporations, millionaires, billionaires, political action committees (PAC's) or lobbyists. They must also pledge in perpetuity not to seek employment with PAC's or lobbying interests after their term in office. This is the only way we can protect our U.S.-Constitution and honor the efforts of those who protected it with their lives, so that “We the People” will have its protection in perpetuity like the Framers intended.
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  114. We the People of the United States of America are under systematic and deliberate attack from enemies within. The battleground is economic, the weapons are legislative, the engineers making the weapons are our own representatives in government (not all of them, but most), and the goal of our enemies is to divide society into two classes of people. The Upper Class will have all the wealth, power, privileges, and rights. The Under Class will have no wealth, no power, no privileges and no rights. When the goal of our enemies is achieved, the democratic republic that is the United States of America will no longer exist and a dystopia will take its place. Make no mistake, this is a purposeful and sustained attack against our Constitution, the Declaration of Independence, and We the People. Just FYI here: (A dystopia is a community or society that is undesirable or frightening.) The greatest middle class the world has ever experienced was built up in 30 years after World War-2 in the United States of America. Then right about the mid 1970’s the capitalist elites faced two crises simultaneously, the falling rate of profitability in industry and pressing questions from the electorate surrounding the legitimacy of capitalism. Prompted into action to save themselves, the capitalist elites co-opted OUR very own politicians whose duty is to look after us. Ever since then political efforts in the USA have been focused and unified, upon creating the legislative machinery to weaken the middle class, extract its wealth, and reduce it to the Under Class. Conservatives and neoliberals have then spent the last 42 years increasing the income and monopoly of wealth in the economy for the 1% at the top and creating a wealth extraction economy for the middle class and the poor. This is not enough for them, they have also set out to dept enslave not only our own people and government, but also entire countries . . . for the sole purpose of setting up wealth extraction economies in those countries. Going outside of our country to extract wealth makes the treasonous United States politicians and guilty United States businesses into something worse than they already represent, they became international gangsters and extortionists. Meanwhile on the home front, the entire 42-year period has been spent by Republican politicians extolling the conservative virtues of individualism and preaching the “rightness” of the neoliberal supported “Reagonomics”, or “Trickle Down Economics”, or “Free Market Economics”, to the electorate, while creating a monopolistic economy that has decimated the liberty of individuals. It appears from my vantage point that the politicians making the policies do not actually believe in the U.S.-Constitution, nor are they doing their sworn duty to protect it. The "right-wing and "corporate owned" politicians we elect are themselves the “domestic enemies” of the Constitution because their policies will lead the destruction of the Constitution. Of course we had no way of knowing that until recently, because we trust our politicians and could simply not believe they would deceive us in any manner. However 42 years of historical records do not lie about what the conservative right wing and corporate democrats in our government have done with the economy and to us. There is a way for We the People to strike back at those attacking us and win, in fact this is the only way. The Framers of the Constitution were very smart about this. We the People can perform “Election Campaign Finance Reform” ourselves instead of waiting forever for the reforms the politicians will never undertake on their own. Plus there is nothing in the Constitution that declares "Free Market Capitalism" is the one and only economic model for the land, the Framers very wisely put that responsibility of choice into the hands of "We the People". We must start electing only those persons who will not take campaign contributions from any source of wealth. Our politicians have been bought and paid for by wealthy donors for 40 years, all the republicans certainly are bought, and the "Corporate Democrats" are bought as well. These politicians represent donors not voters, and are thus corrupted. The only clean politicians we have are those like Bernie Sanders and Ro Khanna, who raise money from the people and not from corporate/wealthy donors. We have to vote out the corruption and vote in only those that pledge to serve the peoples interests. They can prove their loyalty by never taking money from business, corporations, millionaires, billionaires, political action committees (PAC's) or lobbyists. They must also pledge in perpetuity not to seek employment with PAC's or lobbying interests after their term in office. This is the only way we can protect our U.S.-Constitution and honor the efforts of those who protected it with their lives, so that “We the People” will have its protection in perpetuity like the Framers intended.
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  119. The republican have sold us out big time, just as they have been doing for over 100 years. History shows this very clearly. Just look at what has happened to us as the result of Reagan and Bush over the past 30 years. The statistics are there for everyone to see but usually people do not ask the correct questions. Even with a 300.3% growth in GDP per capita, the American people have been taking a continuous "income cut" every year for over thirty years because our politicians have been taken over by the corporations and wealthy interests. The economy is not doing well, the fundamentals are off the tracks. Stocks are going up because of corporate buybacks, not because people are buying. The corporate media is lying to you. The economic outlook over the past 30 years is not good for “We the People”. Here are the baseline statistics: The United States GDP per capita rose 300.3% over the past 30 years. Median wages for men rose by 1.05% over thirty years. Median wages for women rose by 151% over thirty years. Median wages for women remains 35% lower than men’s median wages, even though women median wages have risen far higher than men’s over the past thirty years. In 1986 median wages for men were standing at 185.2% of per capita GDP. By 2015 median wages for men had fallen to 66.2% of per capita GDP, that is a 64.3% loss in earning power over 30 years. Median household income rose 236% over the past 30 years. Since the growth of median income of men and women combined is only 152.5% over thirty years, it is a fact that there must be three or more earners per household in the present day. The days of single and dual earner households are gone. Median household income in 1985 was $23,620, well below the men’s median income of $35,324 which points to the fact men did not head most households at that time . . . or since then. With a 64.3% erosion of men’s earning power over thirty years, the modern household must have three, four or five working people in order to have an increased median household income of 236% over thirty years. New homes have gone up 335% over thirty years. Existing homes have gone up 292% over thirty years. Rents have gone up 299% over thirty years. Energy has gone up 177% over thirty years. Transportation has gone down 3% over thirty years. The cost of public college gone up 305.2% over thirty years (not including the costs of boarding, books and supplies). Of these items listed above, all except for two items fall within a range of growth similar to the GDP per capita growth over thirty years. The two anomalies are energy which has risen only 60% as much as the other items. The real sore thumb is transportation, which is the one thing everyone notices when price changes occur since we are a commuter culture. I smell something foul here, prices being fixed as to not draw attention to other giant cost increases within our economy. Don’t piss off the commuter or you will have revolution! However a steady upward creep of prices against diminished earning power will continue beyond our ability to pay, all happening very quietly so no one will notice or complain. Here is the list of items where the capitalist corporations are really sticking it to us, this is the wealth extraction economy at work. The cost of childcare gone up 546% over thirty years. The cost of healthcare gone up 601% over thirty years. The cost of pharmaceuticals gone up 894% over thirty years. And finally: The federal student loan burden being carried by our youth has gone up 14,800% over thirty years. In conclusion, the median earning power of American workers cannot keep up . . . and has not been able to keep up with basic living costs for decades. This is forcing all of us into eternal debt. You cannot have a GDP per capita going up and pay the workers less, while at the same time increasing basic necessary living costs at GDP per capita rates (or double, even triple that). Sources: https://www.census.gov/const/uspriceann.pdf https://www.census.gov/const/uspricemon.pdf https://www.census.gov/construction/nrs/pdf/uspriceann.pdf https://www.realestateabc.com/graphs/natlmedian.htm https://ycharts.com/indicators/sales_price_of_existing_homes https://www.census.gov/hhes/www/housing/census/historic/grossrents.html https://www.zillow.com/home-values/ http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/household-bills/9892984/How-prices-changed-over-30-years.html http://traveltrends.transportation.org/Documents/CA08-4.pdf http://www.nytimes.com/1986/07/30/us/spending-for-health-care-in-1985-rose-at-lowest-rate-in-2-decades.html https://www.pbs.org/newshour/health/new-peak-us-health-care-spending-10345-per-person http://www.in2013dollars.com/Tuition,-other-school-fees,-and-childcare/price-inflation/1986-to-2016?amount=20 https://www.statista.com/statistics/184914/prescription-drug-expenditures-in-the-us-since-1960/ https://college-education.procon.org/view.resource.php?resourceID=005532 http://www.onlinecolleges.net/student-debt-in-the-u-s-part-2-a-brief-history-of-student-debt-in-the-united-states/ https://studentloanhero.com/student-loan-debt-statistics/ https://www2.census.gov/prod2/popscan/p60-156.pdf https://www.census.gov/content/dam/Census/library/publications/2016/demo/acsbr15-02.pdf https://countryeconomy.com/gdp/usa?year=1986 http://statisticstimes.com/economy/north-american-countries-by-gdp-per-capita.php
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  137. David Timmer - This why we have to refocus our energy. Our efforts are wasted when we try to do reforms of any kind, because those reforms will always be dismantled. Instead of changing a myriad of different laws trying to combat undue influence, there are only two simple rules that must be placed into law. First in an Annual Income Cap, the second is an Accumulated Wealth Cap. It is vast wealth in the hands of individuals which is the root cause of all our woes and the dysfunction of wealth inequality in our worldwide collective societies. Vast wealth is the toolkit used to dismantle all reforms put into law, and the one glaring example I will put forward is FDR's New Deal. In the decades since the New Deal, the wielders of vast wealth have been dismantling the New Deal piece by piece. Now the New Deal is gone, destroyed. This happens to every law, every reform ever put in place to protect the majority. There is a simple guide as to what the caps should be. By all means, earn your millions until you have enough for you and your family to live in the utmost of luxury for a lifetime. Beyond that point, return everything you earn back to the society that helped you create the wealth in the first place. No one makes millions in a vacuum, everyone who does so has the help of the entire society of human beings . . . every millionaire made is a joint venture with society. I'm 57 years old and my eldest daughter is 30 years old. Between us we have the life experiences of our generations. We did a "thought experiment" to ascertain what the income and wealth limits should be. Her ideas encompassed more than my own, so we generally went with her numbers. I would like to see more of us doing such "thought experiments" so we can come up with a consensus that will make an annual income and accumulated wealth cap palatable to the majority. Do these two things and all dark money political contributions evaporate down to a level where the will of the few no longer dominates the will of the many. We already know excessive wealth beyond what is needed to live a life of utmost luxury is mostly then used to exert power over the powerless.
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  144. vegasflyboy - This why we have to refocus our energy. Our efforts are wasted when we try to do reforms of any kind, because those reforms will always be dismantled. Instead of changing a myriad of different laws trying to combat undue influence, there are only two simple rules that must be placed into law. First in an Annual Income Cap, the second is an Accumulated Wealth Cap. It is vast wealth in the hands of individuals which is the root cause of all our woes and the dysfunction of wealth inequality in our worldwide collective societies. Vast wealth is the toolkit used to dismantle all reforms put into law, and the one glaring example I will put forward is FDR's New Deal. In the decades since the New Deal, the wielders of vast wealth have been dismantling the New Deal piece by piece. Now the New Deal is gone, destroyed. This happens to every law, every reform ever put in place to protect the majority. There is a simple guide as to what the caps should be. By all means, earn your millions until you have enough for you and your family to live in the utmost of luxury for a lifetime. Beyond that point, return everything you earn back to the society that helped you create the wealth in the first place. No one makes millions in a vacuum, everyone who does so has the help of the entire society of human beings . . . every millionaire made is a joint venture with society. I'm 57 years old and my eldest daughter is 30 years old. Between us we have the life experiences of our generations. We did a "thought experiment" to ascertain what the income and wealth limits should be. Her ideas encompassed more than my own, so we generally went with her numbers. I would like to see more of us doing such "thought experiments" so we can come up with a consensus that will make an annual income and accumulated wealth cap palatable to the majority. Do these two things and all dark money political contributions evaporate down to a level where the will of the few no longer dominates the will of the many. We already know excessive wealth beyond what is needed to live a life of utmost luxury is mostly then used to exert power over the powerless.
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  147. This why we have to refocus our energy. Our efforts are wasted when we try to do reforms of any kind, because those reforms will always be dismantled. Instead of changing a myriad of different laws trying to combat undue influence, there are only two simple rules that must be placed into law. First in an Annual Income Cap, the second is an Accumulated Wealth Cap. It is vast wealth in the hands of individuals which is the root cause of all our woes and the dysfunction of wealth inequality in our worldwide collective societies. Vast wealth is the toolkit used to dismantle all reforms put into law, and the one glaring example I will put forward is FDR's New Deal. In the decades since the New Deal, the wielders of vast wealth have been dismantling the New Deal piece by piece. Now the New Deal is gone, destroyed. This happens to every law, every reform ever put in place to protect the majority. There is a simple guide as to what the caps should be. By all means, earn your millions until you have enough for you and your family to live in the utmost of luxury for a lifetime. Beyond that point, return everything you earn back to the society that helped you create the wealth in the first place. No one makes millions in a vacuum, everyone who does so has the help of the entire society of human beings . . . every millionaire made is a joint venture with society. I'm 57 years old and my eldest daughter is 30 years old. Between us we have the life experiences of our generations. We did a "thought experiment" to ascertain what the income and wealth limits should be. Her ideas encompassed more than my own, so we generally went with her numbers. I would like to see more of us doing such "thought experiments" so we can come up with a consensus that will make an annual income and accumulated wealth cap palatable to the majority. Do these two things and all dark money political contributions evaporate down to a level where the will of the few no longer dominates the will of the many. We already know excessive wealth beyond what is needed to live a life of utmost luxury is mostly then used to exert power over the powerless.
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  162. This why we have to refocus our energy. Our efforts are wasted when we try to do reforms of any kind, because those reforms will always be dismantled. Instead of changing a myriad of different laws trying to combat undue influence, there are only two simple rules that must be placed into law. First in an Annual Income Cap, the second is an Accumulated Wealth Cap. It is vast wealth in the hands of individuals which is the root cause of all our woes and the dysfunction of wealth inequality in our worldwide collective societies. Vast wealth is the toolkit used to dismantle all reforms put into law, and the one glaring example I will put forward is FDR's New Deal. In the decades since the New Deal, the wielders of vast wealth have been dismantling the New Deal piece by piece. Now the New Deal is gone, destroyed. This happens to every law, every reform ever put in place to protect the majority. There is a simple guide as to what the caps should be. By all means, earn your millions until you have enough for you and your family to live in the utmost of luxury for a lifetime. Beyond that point, return everything you earn back to the society that helped you create the wealth in the first place. No one makes millions in a vacuum, everyone who does so has the help of the entire society of human beings . . . every millionaire made is a joint venture with society. I'm 57 years old and my eldest daughter is 30 years old. Between us we have the life experiences of our generations. We did a "thought experiment" to ascertain what the income and wealth limits should be. Her ideas encompassed more than my own, so we generally went with her numbers. I would like to see more of us doing such "thought experiments" so we can come up with a consensus that will make an annual income and accumulated wealth cap palatable to the majority. Do these two things and all dark money political contributions evaporate down to a level where the will of the few no longer dominates the will of the many. We already know excessive wealth beyond what is needed to live a life of utmost luxury is mostly then used to exert power over the powerless.
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  163. This why we have to refocus our energy. Our efforts are wasted when we try to do reforms of any kind, because those reforms will always be dismantled. Instead of changing a myriad of different laws trying to combat undue influence, there are only two simple rules that must be placed into law. First in an Annual Income Cap, the second is an Accumulated Wealth Cap. It is vast wealth in the hands of individuals which is the root cause of all our woes and the dysfunction of wealth inequality in our worldwide collective societies. Vast wealth is the toolkit used to dismantle all reforms put into law, and the one glaring example I will put forward is FDR's New Deal. In the decades since the New Deal, the wielders of vast wealth have been dismantling the New Deal piece by piece. Now the New Deal is gone, destroyed. This happens to every law, every reform ever put in place to protect the majority. There is a simple guide as to what the caps should be. By all means, earn your millions until you have enough for you and your family to live in the utmost of luxury for a lifetime. Beyond that point, return everything you earn back to the society that helped you create the wealth in the first place. No one makes millions in a vacuum, everyone who does so has the help of the entire society of human beings . . . every millionaire made is a joint venture with society. I'm 57 years old and my eldest daughter is 30 years old. Between us we have the life experiences of our generations. We did a "thought experiment" to ascertain what the income and wealth limits should be. Her ideas encompassed more than my own, so we generally went with her numbers. I would like to see more of us doing such "thought experiments" so we can come up with a consensus that will make an annual income and accumulated wealth cap palatable to the majority. Do these two things and all dark money political contributions evaporate down to a level where the will of the few no longer dominates the will of the many. We already know excessive wealth beyond what is needed to live a life of utmost luxury is mostly then used to exert power over the powerless.
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  169. imiss toronto - Being well off is not a bad thing, but how much wealth do people actually need? Once one person surpasses earnings or wealth that puts them and their family beyond the need to work for a living, that is quite enough. It has been shown time and time again that people who pursue wealth beyond their actual needs and beyond a luxury lifestyle, those people are in pursuit of power. This has proven to be extremely bad for society and humanity at large. It is time for us as a society to put stringent limits on how much in earnings and wealth a single person or family can accumulate, because our history has shown wealth beyond that point has detrimental effects on society as a whole. Same thing for large businesses and corporations. It is against the best interests of society to let a company or corporation grow so large, that it starts to devour (as in buy up) other companies. Such behavior needs to be strictly limited or eliminated, for the common good of society. People who have talent and/or good ideas should be rewarded handsomely for their contributions to society. Those same people need to be trained that beyond their handsome rewards, their contribution to society also needs to include the excess wealth generated going back into society . . . to help fund other very smart people in bringing their contributions to society. This should be a civic duty, rather than being looked at as it is now . . . as theft of what a person has "rightfully earned". Besides, when you have so much money that it sits in investment accounts earning interest . . . can that money really be considered as something they have really and truly earned? The rate on return for billionaire investors is more than the GDP growth of entire countries. How is this helpful when those investment accounts help to periodically crash the economy?
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