What they mean by entitlements

Whenever you hear the deficit being discussed, you hear the party on the right discussing entitlement reform, or reducing entitlements.  Sadly, you also hear some of this crap coming from the lips of those who have promised to protect us.  So let's talk a little bit about what they are really talking about.

First of all, who do you think is in that room while they are negotiating what should be cut and what should not be cut.  Let me give you a hint.  There is nobody in that room that will ever need medicare or social security.  They are vested in the federal health and retirement plans in just 5 years.  These are the same plans that they would like to strip from people who do actual work. And of course there is nobody in that room with a net worth of less than a million dollars. 

So, in their viewpoint, what are entitlements?  That's easy, that is anything the government does that benefits you, that does not also benefit them.  They don't need social security or medicare.  They must be entitlements.  Unemployment benefits?   Same thing.  How about Aid to Families with Dependent Children, WIC, food stamps, college grants (or public education in any form), veterans benefits?  None that applies to them.

What you will not hear them talking about is them raising their own taxes, cutting their own salaries and benefits.  Nor will you see them cutting out the loopholes and tax giveaways that their corporate masters receive.

You don't matter.  Your role in this picture is to provide cheap labor then hurry up and die.  And they will raise the specter of welfare mothers cranking out children to increase their income or overpaid government employees (only the ones not in the room) to convince you that they are only taking food out of the mouths of the undeserving.  But of course to them, the undeserving is you.

And if you buy into that, then you deserve what you get.

Revival of the Whipping Boy

Today Rupert Murdoch revealed a little more of his belief system to the world.  The working class does not matter at all.  Two hundred people lost their jobs, while the managers who directed them walked free.  But that is how he thinks.  He will toss those people aside like so much garbage, he wants to buy Sky television.  

How much those people had anything to do with the policies that have publicly embarrassed him (for getting caught, you know he has no moral qualms what was done) is questionable.  They are not the policy makers.  But that is why they are so disposable. 

Those of you who watch and believe what you see on Fox News, that is how he thinks about you too.

If corporations are just like people

Over the years there have been supreme court decisions that have looked at corporations as having similar rights (but somehow, none of the responsibilities) of a person.  Well, perhaps we should take that to the next step.  If they are a person, perhaps they should be treated more like a person.

Interest deductions?  We get to deduct our home mortgages, so I guess it is fair that you can deduct the interest on your factories and office buildings.  And if you would like to take out a line of credit on those, well that would be deductible too.  But interest on bonds, and other sources of capital?  Well when we whip out the credit card to make purchases, or even the loan we take out to but a new car, now of that is written off our taxes, so why should it be written off yours?

Now if I own a small business, even as a sole proprietorship, I can write off the salaries and benefits and taxes I pay to and on behalf of my employees, so those would be remain legitimate deductions.  How about dividends?  Well, using the sole proprietorship model (and admittedly bending it some), any money I take out of the company is income to me, and I pay taxes, social security, all that stuff.  So dividends are just income to the owner, and the owners should pay the same taxes as any other business owner pays on income from their business.

But wouldn't that defeat the whole purpose of the corporation?  Bullshit.  The purpose of a corporation is to permit the formation of capital while limiting the liability of the investors to the money they put in.  Put another way, if you open a bar, and that bar runs up a pile of debts, well, you have run up a pile of debts.  Your creditors can go after your bank account, your house, your car, anything you own.  If a corporation runs up a pile of debts, the creditors can look only to the assets of that corporation.

The morons on the right are always talking about running the government the way you run your family budget, as though that made any sense at all.  So let's test out their theory.  We will require that corporations be run that way, and if it works, well then maybe we will consider running the government that way.