Capitalism is killing our morals, our future

...and the rich control the government. Your serve.

 

Sounds lime unlimited control of government by corporate entities to me. The super wealthy are completely out of control. Let's start there since they command everything and everybody.

 

You sound like this:

 

They do pay them, they pay a lower share, but they still pay them. Stop making broad assumptions, and actually look at the IRS's effective tax rate data. You aren't going to know until you do.

Alright, WTF is a worker? That's not metric I have ever heard of. We can go by Household quintiles (top 25%, upper middle 25%, etc.), or by individual percentages (1%, 10%, bottom 50%), but "worker" is too damn nebulous for me to go along with.

We'll use what the IRS measures these people with, thank you.

Sorry, no they didn't. Tax Rate without accounting for FICA, tax rates accounting for FICA.

The 2nd top measure changes from 5% to 3% in these sources, but the top measure for both is the same, the 1%. For them, you can neatly see the gap where what they pay for FICA (slightly more than 4%) fits in.

According to my Professor who was a CPA for over 30 years, yes it is. As does the IRS, hence why it's not treated nor taxed as normal income.

Dividends vary depending on Retained Earnings for that year. Have you ever looked at the shareholders' equity section of a balance sheet? You should.

Familiarize yourself with the Dividends Paid calculation. That's what you're missing.

 

This is a video all people should watch here.. Very educational with real numbers...
[video=youtube_share;bYkl3XlEneA]http://youtu.be/bYkl3XlEneA[/video]

 

Again, it's not Capitalism that is the problem, it is greed.

Of course you may say that Capitalism can't exist without greed any more than Islam can exist without violence.

But I'm not sure you'd be correct.

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It's not the wealthy Mr. Fraud, it's the politicians. The wealthy are only doing their job by becoming rich. The politicians are FAILING to do their job when they let the rich persuade them.

Let us start with the politicians.

 

How much welfare then, and for how long can someone get it? Means testing is a good way to rob the middle class better to scrap the program but as long as it is limited.

 

I believe social safety nets should only end when they are no longer necessary.

We could be lowering our current tax burden by providing recourse to unemployment compensation whenever someone is unemployed. Since that would be easier than potentially spending years trying qualify for means tested programs, it would draw participants from that more expensive and complicated program; thus, lowering our tax burden.

 

Oh, please. The US hasn't been "capitalist" since FDR. Selective "trust-busting", along with absurd competition-crushing subsidies (not to mentioning an enormous personal and corporate tax burden), would seem to indicate that we have not been even remotely "free market" for the past 100 years. Rather we've been economically socialist with ever-dwindling personal and economic freedom.
Less freedom + poor central planning = fewer responsibilities & an entitled populace that's easily convinced that other people should pay for their laziness.
Hate on hard work all you like, but Liberty in all its forms is what saved the US from utter demise until now.

 

Our standard of living is much higher now than when we had less fettered capitalism.

 

Yes, indeed. You know what else came along? Electricity (which would have been free if capitalism had free reign - look it up), automobiles, refrigerators, air conditioning... 'standard of living' is an arbitrary - and subsequently inaccurate - measurement of economic prosperity. You know what isn't? The value of the dollar. And right now it sucks. Hard.

 

Yeah but the Wall Street fat cats are doing just great though...you gotta admit.

 

Well, duh. No 'ism' is the problem. It's the ignorance, fear and greed of its practitioners.
Capitalism only gives those people a powerful means to harm others in the process, and it's insidious in the sense that people tend to think of it as some sort of neutral force and lull themselves into letting it get away with murder.
Other political and religious 'isms' are generally seen in more judgemental terms, even though their power to affect or harm others is more limited.
Your inane comment about Islam and violence is a case in point.
Capitalism has the power to do extremely more harm to vastly more people than Islam ever has had, yet you blindly defend one and ignorantly attack the other.
You have been successfully conned.

 

Your quaint notions of FDR's trust busting scenario and the demise of capitalism are as anachronistic as they are wrong.
And where did you get the idea that capitalism equals a free market? That's complete nonsense.
Today, we have the spectacle of massive multinationals basically running roughshod over governments and people, writing laws to suit themselves and suborning politicians at will with threats of withdrawing support if they don't get their way.
Capitalism has hit the trifecta in modern times as they have corrupted everything with their money promises and threats while the world has grown more dependent on the smooth working of a vast, inter-connected financial system.

 

Wow, you seem to be coming from another planet--an alternate universe if you will. Capitalism doesn't harm anyone, unless you're suggesting that the people at the lowest rung of the economic ladder get their feelings hurt because they can't seem to muster the drive to take advantage of our capitalistic system. You tell me how the 'isms' like communism and jihadism haven't destroyed and or murdered millions of people. I see you live in London where the radical islamic extreme'ism' of a couple of bloodthirsty jihadists just made their debut on National TV by taking a meat cleaver to a British cop. Perhaps they were living out and adhering to the laws given to them from the Koran and from the Sharia Law that is becoming so prevalent in your tiny nation of wimps. Capitalism never hurt a butterfly, let alone murdered someone like any and all of your leftist 'isms' have done.

 

Actually, it is the abscence of a free market open to all on a level playing field, which is in opposition to both progressive leftist loserism and capitalism. That is how true wealth is created. Down with the IMF and other such organizations.

 

Government is buying all their bad debt. No limitations! More goverment is the answer!

 

Actually the Free Market Capitalism is the only ism what is peaceful.. Capitalism is the only way man can survive peacefully through peaceful voluntary trade and productions. The other only option is looting others labor what is only way possible is through the barrel of a gun. Weather is under socialism you refusing to give up your fruits of your labor and the IRS Swat Team breaking your door down to come and get it or through war looting other nations.

 

A free economy is the cure for all ills. Standard of living and the concepts of class are Imperialist and Marxist ideals, not American. Africa has fallen victim to Maxist ideas, and the IMF has made themselves onerous in Africa that has sought to force them into a global economy under the management and for the benefit of others. There are no proerty rights because the incompetent governments think they control it all. That is the exact circumstance that Obama wants here in America, and Obama care is the first step of absolute control.

 

No different than Libs throwing a fit for years over the waterboarding of THREE people yet they are eerily silent over the drone strikes of four American citizens overseas when Obama did it. No different than Libs protesting Guantanamo for years yet suddenly silent when Obama took office. He's left it open for five years now when he promised to close it within his first 90 days.

Maybe Capitalism isn't what's destroying our morality. Maybe it's liberalism. Liberals control nearly all of our entertainment media. They are the writers, producers, and directors of nearly everything we watch. Various high end libs have admitted purposefully injecting Liberalism into television for years now. Hell I was watching the Disney Channel with my 6 year old daughter and they were taking pop shots at Fox News and Conservatives. I think there is a clear case to be made that Liberalism is almost totally devoid of morality anyways. Those are the people driving our culture. Why are we blaming Capitalism for a supposed loss of morality. At it's roots capitalism is success, hard work, trade and mutual cooperation ect ect. How are those things destroying society when Liberalism is by definition an opposition force to whatever the current standard is.

If we are to assume the premise that America is now less moral than it was 20 years ago for example who is the obvious culprit. Capitalism which is an economic term. Or Liberalism which means to oppose all conventional thought. I mean if we were moral at one point I can only assume Liberals were opposed to that as well lol.

 

I think that Bush did a fair amount to crush the economy and erode freedom, too - just not to the extent BHO has.
But you're right, of course. There's a single primary reason the Soviets, Holy Roman and Byzantine empires, and several others, fell into crippling economic catastrophe. That reason is central planning.
A free market economy is like the human body. If the human body is given free reign to exercise, and is occasionally discouraged from eating bad foods (dangerous or shoddy foreign goods) by higher prices (tariffs) it will be healthy and correct itself of any non-hereditary, non-communicable disease.

 

The Wall Street fat cats always do well. The filthy rich are always going to be filthy rich. And good for them! I've never been employed by a poor person - have you?
One problem, though: these fat cats are sleeping with the federal government in order to get special treatment. I.e., Solyndra and many others.

 

True! What "W" started with TSA and Homeland Security as a pre-nazi organization, MaO'Bama and Napolitano have advanced. While those who would disparage Bush would also give Obama a pass while our freedom has eroded more while he has been in office. The economic colapse, while it occured while Bush was in office, was actually the result of home loan polices while Clinton was in office written by Frank-Dodd. But progressive see the world flatly without contour or cause and effect.

 

You are overcomplicating the issue at hand in order to avoid the obvious one. We overtax our businesses to such an extent that they have little choice but to move elsewhere (China) in order to make money. Thus, the antithesis of a free market economy.
Regardless of what your socialist educators informed you, pure capitalism IS purely a free market economy, just like a monarchy is purely rule by a monarch. There are bastardized forms, (e.g., capitalistic communism, constitutional monarchy) but all of these requires descriptors to be added to the original base form in order to be understood. Just like when I say I am typing on a computer, you don't automatically assume I am typing on either a handheld calculator or a giant supercomputer. As I so often say... Precision of language, Jonas!

"...the world has grown more dependent on... a... financial system." No ****! You need an economy to get something you don't have. What is your point?
If you don't want to be dependent, grow your own food. But trading dependency on the market for dependency on the government is frighteningly naive. But hey, it worked out great for the Germans in 1939, right?

 

Fantastic! I hoped I would see some sensible posters on this forum!
It is sickening to see the fervor with which liberalism worships its deities.
And that's just how the game is played! Both "wings" appear to generally be supporting the same or similar communofascist idealogies, while simultaneously pretending the other side represents a vastly different sociopolitical system. It just goes to show how bigoted the media is when true paleo-conservatives and libertarians are demonized, ridiculed, and even just ignored when they dare to challenge the political machine.
And, of course Obama gets more done! After all he is the enlightened one the world has been waiting for. He is... OBAMESSIAH!