Comments by "coolmodelguy" (@coolmodelguy6304) on "The Real News Network" channel.

Take a close look at the 1929 stock market collapse and it soon comes to light that the USA was responsible for the subsequent depression of the 1930's which spread world wide. This makes the USA a direct contributor to the carnage of World War Two which followed the depression a decade later. It is time that we the people institute an income cap and a total accumulated wealth cap on every individual, also restricting family gifting of money, inheritance wealth and offshore tax havens. Myself (57 years old) and my eldest daughter (29 years old) performed a thought experiment last weekend, what we arrived at is a accumulated wealth cap of 50 million dollars and an annual income cap of 1.75 million dollars per family. That is more than enough money to live a life of the utmost luxury, yet not enough for individuals to affect the political landscape or to have undue influence on national or world economy. Earn more than that by all means yes, the excess after the cap will be taxed away to flow back into the society from which the wealth originated.
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Take a close look at the 1929 stock market collapse and it soon comes to light that the USA was responsible for the subsequent depression of the 1930's which spread world wide. This makes the USA a direct contributor to the carnage of World War Two which followed the depression a decade later. It is time that we the people institute an income cap and a total accumulated wealth cap on every individual, also restricting family gifting of money, inheritance wealth and offshore tax havens. Myself (57 years old) and my eldest daughter (29 years old) performed a thought experiment last weekend, what we arrived at is a accumulated wealth cap of 50 million dollars and an annual income cap of 1.75 million dollars per family. That is more than enough money to live a life of the utmost luxury, yet not enough for individuals to affect the political landscape or to have undue influence on national or world economy. Earn more than that by all means yes, the excess after the cap will be taxed away to flow back into the society from which the wealth originated.
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I look at things this way. The economy is a system that provides sustenance for us to live on. The way that our economy is run is to demand that it grow by 3 to 4 percent per year. Systems don't work like that, I cannot expect my car engine to deliver 4% more power every year without substantial investment in upgrading plus the needed downtime for the upgrades. Plus at some point there will be an end to what can be done to extract more power, the engine will reach a physical limit. To expect that kind of result out of any system is absurd, yet that is what we expect from our economy and "We the People" have not been sharing in that economic growth for about forty years. So who is sucking up all the gains and raising our rents at the same time for all those decades? Whoever they are, they are seriously mucking up the system we depend on to survive. When we recognize that every system has limits, including our economy, then we can solve the problems that give us the Donald Trump's and Mitch McConnell's. If I were gong to give this system a fast makeover, the first thing I want is no more unlimited wealth accumulation for people and corporations. Put a ceiling on personal wealth, simply don't allow people to become wealthy enough to wield power beyond their their one vote. Same goes for corporations, iHeartMedia (formerly Clearwater Communications) does not need to own 855 radio stations which spread only one brand of political message. Every system needs limits to achieve optimal performance, which means that people can still get wealthy . . . just not too wealthy because that is unhealthy for the rest of us.
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Think about this . . . Bush Sr's father was involved with both the Saudis and was a conspirator in the Butler rebellion plot to violently overthrow FDR's government. I don't like this permeation of our government by this elite society wielding government and private power over generations. Never thought my lifetime would be the one where we have to make a profound change in how we govern ourselves . . . yet we must. Accumulated wealth beyond the upkeep requirements of a luxury lifestyle is the fulcrum around which all of the evil spins. Topping off the accumulated wealth citizens can possess, so that no one can wield power using wealth alone, seem to be a change long overdue.
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Yes, and I am grateful for the info packed video. Helps to clarify things because I know we are not getting the truth in this matter from corporate media or Trump.
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@AlyAly - What we need to do is abolish accumulated wealth over $10 million. This one act will solve a great many problems.
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Antonio Calhau - Your suggestion has already been done, it was called The New Deal. Reforms such as the New Deal are always wiped out because the excessive wealth necessary to wipe out reforms are left in the hands of the sociopaths . . . .
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Conservatives are only out to screw us. Worker productivity since Reagan has gone up 321%, while worker wages have risen only 1/10 of 1%. Meanwhile, the simple costs of living such as housing and energy have tripled and our Federal Treasury has been raided by private interests for trillions of dollars. We, as in you, I and the ordinary people of the USA must fight back. It is time for a Maximum Annual Income . . . . and an Accumulated Wealth Cap. That is the only way to fight what is happening, open ended profits are killing us. Personally, I think the wealthy oligarchy is taking revenge on us for the FDR New Deal . . . even though the wealthy never really suffered under the New Deal. Any reforms we get will be dismantled until we the people take away the tools used to dismantle reforms. Than means capping wealth and income, no two ways about it.
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@noraclarke1344 - Do I hear you being just an emphatic about every republican politician as you are about Bernie? Do I hear making such a fuss about bought off corporate democratic politicians? Do I? Do I really? What you are is an attack dog. How about every other politician "lead by example" first, before Bernie. He has already walked the walk before he started walking the walk. He is far more honest than you, who first hurled insult, made a baseless attack, then in reply you hurl insult and attack again. The only people who act in this manner are those who are self important, yet feel a deep shame or unworthiness. This profound emptiness is why you attack, it is not really about Bernie at all.
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Cb Rich - We are not saints by any comparison. 100 million indigenous peoples died so that the USA could expand westward. Millions more die around the world so U.S. corporations can raid resources . . . and only the people of the USA are unaware of this. I was unaware until two years ago and I am 57 years old. We live in a propaganda filled country where the truth is unknown to its own citizens.
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Just after World War 2, the pool of wealth for the country was over 2.5 times the size of the economy. So wealth started out larger than our economy, and has grown faster than our economy ever since. Now the pool of wealth for the country is over five times the size of our economy. This is a fraudulent economy, designed to keep the wealthy ruling class firmly on top. A real economy would not devote all of its annual gains to growing a pool of wealth, and a real economy would not let a large pool of wealth grow at a faster rate than the economy. We have been had people, it is time to take it back. Every system has limits built in. Civilizations fall because we make the mistake of not placing limits on personal wealth, so that is where we need to focus our fight. No More Billionaires! Every new billionaire created by this fraudulent economy (one new billionaire every 30 hours) forces almost one million people globally into poverty (one million people drop below the poverty lines every 33 hours - new Oxfam report).
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D LG - Agreed.
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Conservatives are only out to screw us. Worker productivity since Reagan has gone up 321%, while worker wages have risen only 1/10 of 1%. Meanwhile, the simple costs of living such as housing and energy have tripled and our Federal Treasury has been raided by private interests for trillions of dollars. We, as in you, I and the ordinary people of the USA must fight back. It is time for a Maximum Annual Income . . . . and an Accumulated Wealth Cap. That is the only way to fight what is happening, open ended profits are killing us. Personally, I think the wealthy oligarchy is taking revenge on us for the FDR New Deal . . . even though the wealthy never really suffered under the New Deal. Any reforms we get will be dismantled until we the people take away the tools used to dismantle reforms. Than means capping wealth and income, no two ways about it.
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Ann Linley - Ann Linley replied: "coolmodelguy If you cap wealth, you cap production. Why would anyone grow their company if there was no incentive?" Hmmm, no that is not the case. Hoarding wealth is what caps production. When that money is taken out of circulation through wealth accumulation, it is not invested in production, or the purchase of goods and services. Contrary to what most people think, when hoarded wealth is "reinvested" it is not done so in the physical sense of the word . . . it is done so with finiancialized instruments which actually bleed off or extract wealth from the "real economy" and funnels that money into wealth funds where it sits . . . being inert. When wealth and income are capped, profits which now go into hedge fund portfolios are diverted into other areas to the greater benefit of the economy. Examples are: actual reinvestment in physical production, or giving workers a raise (thus increasing the demand for goods and services). What you are claiming is actually the product of oligarch propaganda. You should really rethink your belief systems, because your cognitive processes have been hijacked by those whose goal is to take advantage of you.
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@mediocrefloridaman - Another self promoting flat-earther. You have posted on every comment with this video link, I gave it a look just to see what you were promoting. Science is self correcting, conspiracy theory is not, therefor what you are peddling is simply a waste of everyone's time.
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@mediocrefloridaman - Sheep Dog, always ready to bite BS peddlers.
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Ohhh no. . . we are a totally socialist country. Free money just spews out of the treasury, that is how the federal debt arrived at $22 trillion. Tax cuts, tax loopholes, regulatory cutbacks and regulation loopholes, forever wars gushing out dividends (free money) from Ratheon, Haliburton, Boeing and Lockheed, all paid for by Congress. . . . we are crawling with damn wealthy sonafabitchin socialists!
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Most people don't realize that in the USA there is over $90 trillion in financial assets which are "earning " interest. Just take an average interest of 5%, that is $4.5 trillion, which is over 20% of the entire GDP just for interest payments. The math shows that this trend is unsustainable, we must place a cap on accumulated wealth or face the inevitable collapse of the entire global economy.
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What I have been looking at with some intensity is this little problem: USA- $30 trillion accumulated wealth is seeking an annual "rate of return" in a $20 trillion national GDP. Global- $50 trillion in accumulated wealth is seeking an annual "rate of return" in a $80 trillion global GDP In the USA example, a 5% rate of return consumes 7.5% of the GDP when entire U.S. GDP grows by only 2.56% annually. The interest at 5% is $1.5 trillion, whereas the total GDP growth in the USA for 2018 was only $560 billion. In the global example, a 5% rate of return consumes 3.125% of the GDP when the entire global GDP for 2018 grew by only 4% annually. The interest at 5% is $2.5 trillion, whereas the total GDP growth globally for 2018 was only $3.2 trillion. Using a 5% interest rate just to be nominally conservative is ridiculous, when an average RoR for an S&P 500 index fund has been over 9% annually since 1994. What these figures show is that the 1% is hollowing out (cannibalizing) the USA in the ultimate "socialism for the wealthy" scam. The right cries out that those on the left want "free money" or "free stuff". when in reality the 1% is pulling $trillions of "free money" out of the economy every year.
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@rogerrabbit7778 - I agree with what you are saying about infiltrators. What is needed is way to root them out, destroy their camouflage. I think the unlimited money is part of the solution. Unlimited money equals unlimited "free speech", drowning the Free speech" of those without money. That is hardly the path to "liberty and the pursuit of happiness". The problem is, all of that "unlimited money" was procured through a fraud pulled on the American people, and it shows up in government records. Starting in 1947, financial assets (or as I refer to it, "wealth") started out with a larger pool of value than the economy in size, a 2.88 to 1 ratio. Since then, wealth has grown faster than the economy by an average of 0.645% per year. Does not sound like much, but it pulls all the annual economic gains into this "pool" of wealth, and then extract even more from us citizens and the rest of the world. This system is rigged to keep the ruling class on top, has been from before WW2 started. We need to understand this simple fact, the wealthy steal everything from us. Wealth cannot be generated from outside of the economy, yet it has, by borrowing massively from the future. $13 trillion was how much wealth gained last year, that is 66% of our entire GDP. Real wealth cannot grow faster than the economy, and the total sum of wealth cannot exceed the GDP. Anything else is a fraud economy, anything else will create the suffering we now see around us. Every problem we have as a society is a result of this fraudulent wealth grab. To understand this, people must understand some basic math. You cannot have a gargantuan pool of money that does nothing but grow. That is useless and leads to despotism. We've seen it. We are living it. Get people to understand that, and infiltrators will be easy to identify.
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Ohhh no. . . we are a totally socialist country. Free money just spews out of the treasury, that is how the federal debt arrived at $22 trillion. Tax cuts, tax loopholes, regulatory cutbacks and regulation loopholes, forever wars gushing out dividends (free money) from Ratheon, Haliburton, Boeing and Lockheed, all paid for by Congress. . . . we are crawling with damn wealthy sonafabitchin socialists!
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technatezin - I agree with your last statement. There is the problem however, in that a significant part of the population consists of these insane and irrational people and they have to be dealt with somehow. My consideration is that forced limits will have to be placed on their behavior at some point, simply because their world view has already proven hostile and harmful the the rest of humanity. Only true force of political will backed up by true force of law can accomplish this. The insane and irrational have no problem whatsoever using such tactics to enforce their beliefs, we also must employ strength doctrines to save humanity and life on this planet. We can start by limiting income and limiting wealth accumulation. By all means work as hard as you wish, but beyond a set threshold, all your additional income returns to society. For those who don't want to continue working when that threshold is reached, great . . . stop working. The threshold will be high enough so that is an affordable option. For those who are inspired to work beyond that threshold, more power to you! Those folk will be the ones exploring the oceans, doing science and seeking to make things better for humanity as a whole. The funding for their work will come from all the surplus society generates beyond the wealth limiting threshold. People will work because they want to, not because they are being compelled to. Since wealth accumulation beyond the threshold will be impossible, greed is removed from the economy. To get there, we have to be willing to enforce our will upon society. These insane and irrational people will not respond to anything else except force, and if we leave their wealth intact they will immediately set out to dismantle whatever "reforms" to the laws we might make. Their wealth is their weapon, do you defeat an army and then not disarm the defeated army? We have to come to grips with this reality.
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Indeed. Ever since I first heard of MMT and started watching Stephanie Kelton videos, I have become very angry with our Congress. They have spent and spent on large corporations, the military and bailouts of private financial firms. That is our money they are spending, think of what 21 trillion could have paid for over the past thirty years if that money had been spent domestically on education, infrastructure and public works. The Congress knew they did not have to worry about the debt, but they kept telling us, the US public, that we had to tighten our belts and do with less. Criminals, all of them . . . making sure their donors got wealthy by looting our public treasury!
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In the USA, the top 20% have over $50 trillion in financial assets, garnering over $2.5 trillion in interest every year. This interest is greater than 10% of our economy, which is AFTER they eat all the economic gains. This is FREE money, given to the wealthiest people in our country, without any of them lifting a finger to actually earn it. No longer is wealth an investment in our economy, it is a means in which to steal from our economy.
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