Anyone who follows my blog knows how I hate how supply side economics (aka Reaganomics & trickle down theory) has become economic orthodoxy in the Western world and Nick Hanauer sums up my thoughts on the subject pretty well. Hopefully people listen to him, he’s a self made billionaire who’s argument is very persuasive. Here are a few quotes from the article that I particularly like.

If workers have more money, businesses have more customers. Which makes middle-class consumers, not rich businesspeople like us, the true job creators. Which means a thriving middle class is the source of American prosperity, not a consequence of it. The middle class creates us rich people, not the other way around.

The model for us rich guys here should be Henry Ford, who realized that all his autoworkers in Michigan weren’t only cheap labor to be exploited; they were consumers, too. Ford figured that if he raised their wages, to a then-exorbitant $5 a day, they’d be able to afford his Model Ts.
What a great idea. My suggestion to you is: Let’s do it all over again. We’ve got to try something. These idiotic trickle-down policies are destroying my customer base. And yours too.

Most of you probably think that the $15 minimum wage in Seattle is an insane departure from rational policy that puts our economy at great risk. But in Seattle, our current minimum wage of $9.32 is already nearly 30 percent higher than the federal minimum wage. And has it ruined our economy yet? Well, trickle-downers, look at the data here: The two cities in the nation with the highest rate of job growth by small businesses are San Francisco and Seattle. Guess which cities have the highest minimum wage? San Francisco and Seattle. The fastest-growing big city in America? Seattle. Fifteen dollars isn’t a risky untried policy for us. It’s doubling down on the strategy that’s already allowing our city to kick your city’s ass.

We rich people have been falsely persuaded by our schooling and the affirmation of society, and have convinced ourselves, that we are the main job creators. It’s simply not true. There can never be enough super-rich Americans to power a great economy. I earn about 1,000 times the median American annually, but I don’t buy thousands of times more stuff. My family purchased three cars over the past few years, not 3,000. I buy a few pairs of pants and a few shirts a year, just like most American men. I bought two pairs of the fancy wool pants I am wearing as I write, what my partner Mike calls my “manager pants.” I guess I could have bought 1,000 pairs. But why would I? Instead, I sock my extra money away in savings, where it doesn’t do the country much good.
Source: Politico Magazine

I hate hearing Americans complain about how great things were in the 50s, 60s & 70s uh don’t they know back then at least in the US income taxes for the highest income bracket was 90%+ in the 50s? Business taxes were 50% and the country was booming, everyone was making money and doing well…

When Republicans and Conservatives (both in the US and here in Canada) say lowering taxes will spur economic activity, they’re clearly assuming it and not looking at history. Tax rates on both corporations and individuals need to go up significantly, people should be paid more so there will be greater demand and then maybe we’ll have a sustainable economy… Trickle down economics will only bring doom for us all and our political leaders are doubling down on this retarded notion.

Fuck President Regan (the Republican hero) and his stupid theory on economics, let’s thank that asshole for putting the world on a course for disaster.

This was big news in the US so even though we’re in Canada you probably heard about it. Anyway the Supreme Court of the US for some reason ruled in favor of Hobby Lobby’s court case which basically said that the contraceptive mandate in the Affordable Care Act was unconstitutional because it goes against the owner’s religious beliefs. That’s great, now corporations are being granted a right that was previously restricted to individuals and while the majority decision tried to play down the ruling as being limited, we’re starting to see the religious nuts come out of the wood work. I mean I can almost empathize with not wanting to provide contraception because it goes against your belief thing but this next part is even worse.

This week, in the Hobby Lobby case, the Supreme Court ruled that a religious employer could not be required to provide employees with certain types of contraception. That decision is beginning to reverberate: A group of faith leaders is urging the Obama administration to include a religious exemption in a forthcoming LGBT anti-discrimination action.
Source: The Atlantic

Now some religious leaders are coming out and asking the Obama administration to give religious exemptions to LGBT anti discrimination, so now the door to outright discrimination has been opened… The LGBT community is an easy target, so what about a white business owner who doesn’t want to hire minorities because it’s against their interpretation of whatever religion they belong to, is that right?

Going back to the the health mandate too, is a Jehovah’s Witness employer now allowed to refuse to pay for hospital work that includes blood transfusions? How about a Scientologist, who refuses to pay for psychiatric care? This first exception opens the floodgates to other possible upcoming exceptions from the mandate, what if one break away sect says health care altogether is against their beliefs, also does this mean other basic human rights are to be granted to companies?

The world is going down the shitter thanks to the US and it gets worse and worse everyday… The rest of the world is looking at the crazys there and can’t understand why this once great country is letting itself fall apart, turning its back on education, science and basic human decency and instead moving back towards to iron age fairy tales. If someone wants to believe in god that’s one thing, don’t let those retarded beliefs trample on the rights of others.

If you need any evidence that the US is moving backwards here it is…

Taxpayers in 14 states will bankroll nearly $1 billion this year in tuition for private schools, including hundreds of religious schools that teach Earth is less than 10,000 years old, Adam and Eve strolled the garden with dinosaurs, and much of modern biology, geology and cosmology is a web of lies.

“I don’t think the function of public education is to prepare students for the turn of the 19th century,” said Eric Meikle, project director at the National Center for Science Education.

Read more @ Politico

It’s scary how the rise of the religious fundamentalists are ruining the country and no one dares stand up for what is right… The government should have every right to set a standard on what to teach the kids and I certainly feel a lot of sympathy for the children who are taught this mumbo jumbo. When they reach the real world, they’ll be totally useless as they don’t have the proper educational foundation for the 21st century.

I’ve always said the evangelical movement is much smarter than the jihadists, violence gets you a lot of attention fast but if you truly want to change the system, you need to do it politically… And that’s why the evangelical movement is even more dangerous, they’ve infected the western world with its bull shit.

Oh and if you want another laugh, creationists feel they should get equal time on the show Cosmos…

Yeah no, as Dr. Tyson said science is true whether you believe it or not and extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. There is none on the god side and if you still believe, then you’re simply irrational.

As an outsider looking at the United States, the country looks absolutely insane. Let’s skip the religious nuts and politics this time around and let’s talk about wealth inequity… Anyone who knows me knows I hate capitalism, the pursuit of “money” over the rape and pillage of the planet’s finite resources is crazy but to have a system that skewed towards the rich is worse. I mean I understand that life is not fair, however shouldn’t the system that we all live under be as fair and equal as possible?

Anyway I saw this video and thought it was worth sharing because it highlights a huge problem in America.

Now of course Americans are the first to defend their system along with the usual BS about being the best country in the world blah, blah, blah and it’s sad because the US could be so much more… It could be the society we all strive to be and live in, instead it’s rotting from the inside and everyone is happy to go along for the ride.

Reminds me of the fake tea party, sure grass root conservatives may be upset but the tea party is not the way to vent their frustration as it was set up and run by a few conservative billionaires who are using these groups to push their own agendas. You’re free to differ all you want but if you follow the money it all leads to the same place…