Tag: bonds

The unmentioned looming fiasco in America; what happens when all the money is in the hands of those that inherited it

There is a lot of changes that are set in motion. Many long-overdue changes are coming to America, and those that have been doing quite well do not want change. They want to fight change, and they will go as far as to start a nuclear World War III to guarantee that their lives never change.

Here we are going to chat a little bit about the root, and the source of much of the problems in America today…

… the American system that permits people, and companies to become fantastically wealthy while all the time making everyone around them much poorer.

…

The American Promise

In America, the media narrative is that this is a good thing. A “lone wolf”, “hard working” person can “pull himself up by his bootstraps” and become successful. Look at Steve Jobs, Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos. See! Normal people. Everyone can do it.

Ah. The American promise…

The American Reality

Nope.

That’s not how it works. Maybe it used to be that way some two hundred years ago, and maybe as recent as seventy five years ago. But today, it’s a hopeless proposition.  There are too many layers of government regulation. Too many powerful companies. The “little guy” has too many hurtles to overcome.

Leaving only the existing wealth structures in control and in power.

It’s the American reality.

The problem with America

This situation where only the wealthy have the vast bulk of the money has created far too many problems. And if left unchecked will generate many more to come. Including, eventually, the potential end of the world as we know it today.

For instance, to keep the people from rising up in revolution, you need [1] propaganda and [2] control of the media, you need [3] armed and strong militarized domestic police forces, you need [4] distractions which tend to mean [5] wars and chaos, and you need to [6] constantly decrease the standard of life of the rabble so that you can maintain your own power.

And isn’t that what we have been observing?

American income distribution

The chart of the income distribution for America today greatly resembles what it must have been in France before the French revolution, and in Russia before the Russian revolution.

The poor got much poorer.

The middle class disappeared.

The super-duper wealthy become stratospheric wealthy.

Which brings me to an article. It was written back in 2014, and back then the alarms were a ringing and the sirens were screaming, and the lights were flashing, but few paid attention…

The Rise of the Non-Working Rich

Tuesday, July 15, 2014

In a new Pew poll, more than three quarters of self-described conservatives believe…

 “poor people have it easy because they can get government benefits without doing anything.”

In reality, most of America’s poor work hard, often in two or more jobs.

The real non-workers are the wealthy who inherit their fortunes. And their ranks are growing.

In fact, we’re on the cusp of the largest inter-generational wealth transfer in history.

MM Comment

This was written in 2014. The cusp has passed and now America is at this state, firmly entrenched within this condition; firmly put in place. Rock solid and immovable.

The wealth is coming from those who over the last three decades earned huge amounts on Wall Street, in corporate boardrooms, or as high-tech entrepreneurs.

It’s going to their children, who did nothing except be born into the right family.

The “self-made” man or woman, the symbol of American meritocracy, is disappearing. Six of today’s ten wealthiest Americans are heirs to prominent fortunes. Just six Walmart heirs have more wealth than the bottom 42 percent of Americans combined (up from 30 percent in 2007).

The U.S. Trust bank just released a poll of Americans with more than $3 million of investable assets.

Nearly three-quarters of those over age 69, and 61 per cent of boomers (between the ages of 50 and 68), were the first in their generation to accumulate significant wealth.

But the bank found inherited wealth far more common among rich millennials under age 35.

This is the dynastic form of wealth French economist Thomas Piketty warns about. It’s been the major source of wealth in Europe for centuries. It’s about to become the major source in America – unless, that is, we do something about it.

As income from work has become more concentrated in America, the super rich have invested in businesses, real estate, art, and other assets. The income from these assets is now concentrating even faster than income from work.

In 1979, the richest 1 percent of households accounted for 17 percent of business income. By 2007 they were getting 43 percent. They were also taking in 75 percent of capital gains. Today, with the stock market significantly higher than where it was before the crash, the top is raking even more from their investments.

Both political parties have encouraged this great wealth transfer, as beneficiaries provide a growing share of campaign contributions.

MM Comment

The reader is asked to put a clothespin to their noses as some politics is bantered about. It's the same nauseatingly "Wonderful Democrats", and "terrible Republicans". Ugh.

Both are members of the Uni-party. They are identical.

But Republicans have been even more ardent than Democrats.

For example, family trusts used to be limited to about 90 years. Legal changes implemented under Ronald Reagan extended them in perpetuity. So-called “dynasty trusts” now allow super-rich families to pass on to their heirs money and property largely free from taxes, and to do so for generations.

George W. Bush’s biggest tax breaks helped high earners but they provided even more help to people living off accumulated wealth. While the top tax rate on income from work dropped from 39.6% to 35 percent, the top rate on dividends went from 39.6% (taxed as ordinary income) to 15 percent, and the estate tax was completely eliminated. (Conservatives called it the “death tax” even though it only applied to the richest two-tenths of one percent.)

Barack Obama rolled back some of these cuts, but many remain.

Before George W. Bush, the estate tax kicked in at $2 million of assets per couple, and then applied a 55 percent rate. Now it kicks in at $10 million per couple, with a 40 percent rate.

House Republicans want to go even further than Bush did.

Rep. Paul Ryan’s “road map,” which continues to be the bible of Republican economic policy, eliminates all taxes on interest, dividends, capital gains, and estates.

Yet the specter of an entire generation who do nothing for their money other than speed-dial their wealth management advisors isn’t particularly attractive.

It’s also dangerous to our democracy, as dynastic wealth inevitably accumulates political influence.

MM Comment

America is not a democracy. It is a military empire that is run by a global oligarchy.

What to do? First, restore the estate tax in full.

MM Comment

His solution; the same-old, same-old. More taxes. More regulation. Bigger government. 

Not what is needed; a complete structural overhaul on  the entire American government-society system.

Second, eliminate the “stepped-up-basis on death” rule. This obscure tax provision allows heirs to avoid paying capital gains taxes on the increased value of assets accumulated during the life of the deceased. Such untaxed gains account for more than half of the value of estates worth more than $100 million, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.

Third, institute a wealth tax. We already have an annual wealth tax on homes, the major asset of the middle class. It’s called the property tax. Why not a small annual tax on the value of stocks and bonds, the major assets of the wealthy?

MM Comment

All the solutions are the same-old, same-old. More taxes to go to government. Not any systematic changes to the entire way the system operates.

We don’t have to sit by and watch our “meritocracy” be replaced by a permanent aristocracy, and our democracy be undermined by dynastic wealth. We can and must take action – before it’s too late.

MM Comment

It is too late. America has a permanent aristocracy where the vast wealth is either concocted out of thin air, or by dynastic wealth.

But you know…

China is taking notes…

Let’s open up the dialog with this comment that I found in my e-mailbox…

In China, the CCP draw from the experience of the first 30 years of opening up, and [has] concluded that:

1) China endorsed the part of the free market logic that encourage individual innovation and that rewards hardwork.

2) However, China will not allow the ultimate outcome of a free market economy. As it is one where a handful of billionaires will eventually take control of the market, killing competition, and dictate the price and distribution chain of supply and demand. 

The world has been controlled by the Western set of rules for far too long. These rules were set up at the time they are working towards Western advantages. 

The collapse of the USSR and the drop in standard of living and life expectancy in Russia is widely studied in China and experienced is learned. 

Now, China will open up further to counter US strategy to form a war alliance against China.

Instead, China is strategically beginning a dual circle economy build on food security, financial security, economic security, and national security. As well as a discussion on the evil doing of privatized capital and western capital across the world. 

The CCP armed with Mao theories of how to run a country with serving the people as the party motto is far more down to earth than the capitalists who control western politicians. 

When Xi came to power, he openly pledged that the SOEs sector has to become larger, and stronger. 

In contemporaneous China, any large scale businesses are require to sell to the government 1% of their share. Now with this 1%, the government representatives will sit in a broad of director meeting, and have the power to stop any plan that threaten the security of any sector of the Chinese economy or society. 

Therefore, if it only involved expanding product ranges, improve services, opening a few more outlets, they are totally free to do so. 

... 

Cheers 

<redacted>

And perhaps that will give you all some perspective why America must DESTROY China, and why there is no-room for co-habitation. It’s all or nothing with America. For once the rest of the world sees that the American emperor has “no clothes”, the fall of the empire will only be minutes away.

All of this should be no surprise. Because…

America is an Oligarchy

Read about it here.

And it’s all pretty depressing. Anyways, I’m tossing this idea out to you all. That the idea of “what America stands for” is wealth accumulation by the super-rich, for themselves, and everyone else is just a herd animal to service them. Being so fantastically wealthy they not only own most of what you eat, use, and read, but they also control your government, and as a result you have zero influence on what your government is doing.

Pot-holes need fixing? No problem, your government is going to bomb the shit out of Yemen! Now, don’t you feel better?

Taxes too high? No problem, the government is going to reclassify the taxes in a fee, and then make it mandatory for you to pay that fee or else you will go to prison. There! Don’t you feel better?

Can’t find work? No problem. You can enlist in the military, get on welfare, or donate blood. The news says that the economy is roaring and that everything is just “hunky-dory”. So you must be lazy. Don’t you know!

Conclusion

This exhausts me. This situation is not sustainable. The question and the big unknown is when will it all fall down?

I have no answers.

I think that I need to go out, eat some fine delicious food, quaff some brews, and go a whoring. Life is too short not to have fun.

And that is my definitive opinion on this subject.

Do you want more?

I have more posts elsewhere. I don’t know what this will file under. But you can probably find others like it here…

The Oligarchy

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And access to my Master Index

Master Index

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