June 10, 2009

When Billionaires who Run the Government are Unintentionally Hilarious

Life After Shopping Gospel Choir takes Cabot Circus Mall with Bristol UK community defenders...

Billionaires ought to register with the Immigration Correction Enforcement (ICE) because they are entering our country from a foreign land. A foreign land of the mind, where objects shake from the ground and fly up into their hands because THEY SO DAMN RICH. New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg hopes to destroy the Community Boards of New York City now. That's his latest budgetary belt tightening as he shouts at people in wheel chairs and calls journalists "disgraceful." The man has the grip on reality that you might expect when you spend that much time at 35,000 feet in a Falcon 900 jet fleeing New York for weekends in London and Bermuda. Community Boards - there are 59 of them in this city - are made of locals who discuss the things that matter locally. Like how big buildings should be, how fast cars should go, how crowded schools should be. They are baffling to Mike Bloomberg because there is no such thing as a Community Board in the structure of a corporation. Bloomy only has that one structure to work with. So Mike loses his temper, and journalists and the disabled run for cover.

As for Albany, the capital of our state - Albany has been happy with its corruption for years. This is more a tragicomedy. Everyone buys off everyone, and lobbyists put the lawmakers up in their palaces. Its a morose kind of humor. Our governors are sex addicts and coke-heads who confess that they have changed in time to assume power. What would happen in Albany with a "point of view?" What would take place if someone were to advance on the place with "beliefs?" One can only guess. But a billionaire named Tom Golisano can mastermind a take-over of the Senate and then hold a press conference about how he did it. Politics is a kind of conspicuous consumption, as our laughter becomes a sigh.

Comments

Let alone

Submitted by Anonymous on June 10, 2009 - 5:16pm.

The role of "family values" Senators like Monserrate, known primarily for his Scientology ties and repeatedly stabbing his girlfriend in the face.

Truly, we must protect such traditional relationships from being damaged by the presence of happily married gays.

The Damage by Happily Married Gays

Submitted by Rev Billy on June 10, 2009 - 10:03pm.

When advertising is the most present/constant language in our lives, then we finally mimic it. We must. Happy marriage, in the case of Monserrate the cultish woman-stabber - is his advertisement. It is how he sells his product - the "Family Values Conservative." It is the false front, the pixilated wall that surrounds him, but it feels normal to him because after all he lives in the land of products on sale.... Protecting ourselves from "the damage of happily married gays?" -- starts with ending domination of our lives by the professional mega-lies of corportions.

Rev, What would happen if

Submitted by John Galt on June 11, 2009 - 9:29am.

Rev,

What would happen if all of your "demons" left the city? The top 5% of earners in New York pay nearly 70% of the taxes, while the bottom 50% pay nothing. I am no fan of Bloomberg, but what is your solution? How would you generate tax revenue to pay for city services? By punishing those who produce - those "evil" Wall Street people who are the life's blood of this city? What would happen when, or if, they more elsewhere?

Would you continue to keep Wal-Mart out of the city so that Nassau County can generate $250 million a year in sales taxes from their Wal-Marts? Would you oppose gentrification and development - things that generate more taxes? Of course, you want more public services, but who will pay for them, the poor?

John Galt

john, do you have any proof

Submitted by dropBear on June 16, 2009 - 7:01pm.

john,

do you have any proof for those figures? Otherwise we may safely assume you've been pulling them out of thin air. In every country I've ever lived in the top earners are quite underrepresented when it comes to paying tax. Rank hath its privilege.

but I'd say with your name you're probably trolling anyway

Diverse Local Economies are the Life blood of America

Submitted by Lukas Herbert on June 18, 2009 - 1:04pm.

New York City has one of the highest concentrations of wealth in the world, so it is no surprise that a small percentage of extremely rich people pay an enormous share of taxes. However the question that should be asked is what is the best way to allocate the tax burden so that everyone can survive (and hopefully prosper) in this city and so that city services can be provided.

While the wealthy may pay a majority of the tax receipts collected under NYC personal income tax, it is important to remember that many large corporations - particularly Wall Street firms - have played NYC off against other jurisdictions to gain themslves huge tax breaks and subsidies just to keep their offices in the city. While you may call Wall Street the "life blood" of the city, it is important to remember that it will take a diverse local economy for this city to survive, not just a focus on Wall Street, which is what got us into this mess in the first place. We believe strengthening small businesses is the best way to diversify our local economy. Small businesses can't negotiate the huge tax breaks that Wall Street firms get. Small businesses pay their taxes. Wall Street should start paying their fair share too.

You should also be aware that any new luxury housing that is built outside of the main Manhattan core is eligble for a 25-year tax abatement. This means wealthy people paying no property taxes for 25 years, while consuming city services. How is this fair? When you give higher income households 25 years of no property taxes to gentrify neighborhoods, how does that help to ensure that a range of incomes can exist in this city. Remember, you need people of all income levels filling all types of jobs in order to make a local economy work. We just can plan for the wealthy.

Mayor Bloomberg and the City Council yesterday demonstrated their commitment to the wealthy by backing a 0.5% sales tax increase to balance the City's budget. You say that the bottom 50% pay nothing? What about sales tax? It's the most regressive form of taxation available and Mayor Bloomberg just asked for an increase. This will shift the burden of balancing the budget onto the people who can least afford to pay. Even if we had a Wal-Mart in the City, the taxes would now be higher than the surrounding jurisdictions anyway - so what would stop people from driving out of the City to pay lower sales taxes. People have been driving to NJ and CT for years for this purpose. But of course, poor people with no cars will just have to pay up since they can't easily leave the city.

This is a complicated question, but in a City run by a billionaire, the rich are able to negotiate all of the tax advantages for themselves. Wall Street and the rich should pay their fair share of taxes under the progressive tax scheme our society has used for generations. We should be supporting a diverse economy through shared sacrifice and not regressively taxing small businesses and the poor.

"""Would you continue to keep

Submitted by Anonymous on June 11, 2009 - 12:52pm.

"""Would you continue to keep Wal-Mart out of the city so that Nassau County can generate $250 million a year in sales taxes from their Wal-Marts?"

Because of course, without Wal-Mart, the taxes would disappear, and the money not be distributed among smaller businesses within the county.

Please pay attention to what I am saying

Submitted by John Galt on June 11, 2009 - 3:31pm.

I don't think that you understand. When I say that Nassau County is generating $250 million per year in sales tax revenue that New York could, and should, have in its treasury, I am saying that this $250 million comes from *residents of Queens* who own cars and can drive to Nassau County Wal-Marts to shop. This money would not otherwise be spent in the over-priced small store in Queens.

Once again, it is the poor who have no choice thanks to an alliance of small stores, antiquated labor unions, and "community activists". The poor must shop at the small stores in Queens.

Even if Wal-Mart could open a store in Queens, and was allowed to sell food items, the City of New York would not lose sales tax from small stores because the poor spend most of their income on food which is not taxed to begin with.

John Galt

Rev Sez: "Dismantle Globally, Renew Locally!"

Submitted by Billy Talen on June 12, 2009 - 8:02pm.

Visualize Globalization

Submitted by John Galt on June 20, 2009 - 3:05pm.

Like it or not Rev., we live in a global economy. Aside from a few scruffy protesters who disrupt meetings of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, hardly anyone believes that the world can ever return to less "globalized" times. How are the few nations who reject globalization doing? Take a look at North Korea which clings to its protected economy. Globalization and openness creates wealth, not poverty. According to The Wall Street Journal, countries that maintain a "free" economy have an average per capita income of $23,325 -- versus $3,829 in economies rated as "repressed."

The world once ran on “local” industry and agriculture - during the Dark Ages. The reason that you are able to sit, fat and happy, eating Doritos and waxing poetic online, is because of industrial agriculture - it has made food affordable for nearly everyone in the United States . People don't seem to remember that 100 years ago there was a problem with not enough food. Food has never been [relatively] this cheap. Items such as beef and butter were once luxuries in this country and fresh fruits and vegetables in winter were once rare and expensive. Do you want to go back to those times Rev.? Out ancestors could never dream of the things that we take for granted.

Sadly, if anything is “unsustainable” it is this dream of a local economy. How do you intend to feed people with “community gardens” – most of which barely produce enough food to feed one person for a year? Honestly, the main thing produced in these gardens is a smug attitude!

John Galt

It's simple

Submitted by Billy Talen on June 17, 2009 - 10:48pm.

We have to be the Earth. Recognize the Earth in us and do the best for the whole of life and it would be impossible to do that with the imperative of the investors, the insistence on expansion every quarter. That is not sustainable. We know that. What is happening that we never experienced before is that a critical mass of people know this in a common sense way, because Wall Street collapsed in such a clumsy public way, and so many new economies are springing up....

Local-lujah!

Rev

Rev, Wall Street did not

Submitted by John Galt on June 20, 2009 - 3:09pm.

Rev, Wall Street did not collapse! In fact, the DOW is up for the year. The banking sector did not collapse either - no one lost a single cent in any FDIC insured bank.

John Galt

I didn't fact check, but it

Submitted by Brother Stephen on June 22, 2009 - 11:13am.

I didn't fact check, but it seems absolutely absurd that you would site the DOW being up for the year after it's precipitous dive in 2008. Are you a writer for The Colbert Report?

Subsidize Much?

Submitted by michael on June 22, 2009 - 11:52am.

Also these institutions are floating on copious bailout and stimulous money and mergers secured by the government. Banks are getting interest-free money to loan to taxpayers at interest! How hard is it to make money on that?

(oh and the DOW has re-shuffled this year. If you don't like the score, change the rules!)

Industrial agriculture is

Submitted by shop front on June 26, 2009 - 7:44pm.

Industrial agriculture is going to run out of oil. Pensions, health care and transport are going to run out of oil. Eventually even "local" will have to become sustainable. The sooner this is admitted to the sheeple by their governments the sooner society can rearrange itself.
Globalization and the freedom to move capital around in pursuit of cheap labour and subsidised development has obviously not fixed poverty. The rich have got richer and when their cups have over flowed they got bigger cups.

So if "Industrial

Submitted by John Galt on June 30, 2009 - 4:48pm.

So if "Industrial agriculture" runs out of oil, won't everyone else? Small farmers also use petro-chemicals and local stores consume energy!

John Galt

Diversified

Submitted by Brother Stephen on July 10, 2009 - 9:46am.

All:

Let's try to avoid broad generalizations. While you may be making a good point overall, it comes off dogmatic and leaves itself open to critics who don't want to see the point.

John:

The short answer? Yes. But local aggriculture uses fewer petrochemicals. The first and obvious obversavtion is the local aggriculture uses less gas to get their products to market. Positive externalities include fewer big rigs on the highways, safer highways, less highway maintenace, a reduced need for interstate regulation (weight stations), etc, etc. We will never "run out of oil," though oil will grow prohibitively expensive and markets will drive innovation elsewhere. The big problem with using markets to solve this problem is that there are critical applications for which oil is the only solution. Sure, we can invent another way, but we need to keep things like air travel affordable while this conversion happens, and I'd much prefer we didn't waste it in a car when that car can be running on electricity generated from rotting banana peels.

Another fact worth considering is that local -- or I should say small (think farmer's market) operations -- plant a veriety of crops. This is known as a "polyculture." Not only does this practice increase bio diversity (and therefore ecological stability), it also reduces the need for petroleum-based pesticides. Polyculture farmers understand what plants to seed next to one another to get one to repel bugs from the next.

So, yes, everybody is reliant on "energy", but some systems are way more heavily invested in petrochemicals.