The title question is such a wide category that for the moment I’ve had to narrow it down a bit, so today we’ll just deal with two of the most obvious non-governmental problems, Wall Street and the fossil fuel industry.
We’ll start with Wall Street , mainly because it involves so much money and provides so little employment per dollar involved. We’re not talking about an industry here, we’re not talking about a business that employs hundreds of thousands of workers or produces a product that may be essential to other industries. We’re speaking about an industry that makes no product, creates no service, employs a minimal number of workers when measured against its bottom line and that has for the last quarter century been very busy screwing up the country and acting as the principal engine of our fiscal downfall.
There are probably more billionaires per square inch in the financial services industry, as they like to call it, than in any other business in the world. They take from every aspect of the economy and give little back. They have tax strategies available to them that allow them to avoid anything like their fair share of taxes and they have bought legislation that allows them to operate outside the lines of fair business play.
So how do we make them play straight? How do we restructure the game so that we somewhat re-level the playing field. How do we get them to ante up and do their fair share? The answer is that we have to re-establish regulation that has teeth, regulation that breaks up the banks, that levels interest rates for large and small organizations, and regulations that have teeth long enough and deadly enough to put men and women who don’t play straight in jail.
Regulations are part of the answer but the single most important thing we can do to make Wall Street and the entire financial sector do their share is to pass one simple little piece of legislation. It is a tax on every trade they make. This isn’t a new idea but it is one that has been held in abeyance by the frantic attempts of everyone in the financial industry. It is the single piece of legislation opposed by every financial lobbyist in Washington. It is the piece of legislation that the financial sector wants to kill at all costs. I’m not talking about a big tax. We don’t need a big tax because the number of trades that are made every day is mind boggling. The tax could be miniscule, as low as three cents on each trade. Nothing, a flea spec on the side of a barn, but estimates put the revenue from such a tax into the trillions of dollars. That’s serious money. You could pay off a national debt in a hurry with that. You could hire a hell of a lot of teachers, help pay off Pell grants reduce the drag of Medicare and Medicaid, institute some serious infrastructure projects and all without hurting anyone.
Oh, Jamie Dimon and his buddies may have to cut their yearly bonuses from $23 million all the way down to say $20 million but in the interests of a better America, I’m sure they wouldn’t mind. What’s one less yacht to worry about?
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As the government looks around for new sources of income that will not get the Republican’s to turn green about their anti-tax pledges one industry stands out like a shinning beacon. That industry or those three industries are, the ones that deal in fossil fuels. That’s right; oil, gas and coal, not only pollute our entire planet but make trillions of dollars in the process. Yes, I said pollute, the magic word. I’m not going to deal with climate change here. I don’t have to. Why rile up those individuals who live in a world of consummate denial and incomprehensible stupidity. So instead of climate change, I speak of pollution, a problem that is not arguable because it is so easily measured. If you don’t think oil pollutes the air, just stick your mouth over the tailpipe of your car and take a few deep breaths. It may not change your mind but at least you will no longer be part of the problem. You may no longer be around to admit it but you will have been part of the proof that pollution caused every day by the coal, oil and to some extent gas industries is a real and present danger to every living thing on the planet.
Why do these industries exist? Because they create energy and because they have done everything in their power to undermine every other energy source that has come to the fore since the 1800’s.
These are not particularly labor intensive industries; even coal, which was the most labor intensive, is getting less so, thanks to the new ecology destroying strip-mining techniques and they make outrageous sums of money. So if they are making so much money, why are they getting subsidies and tax breaks? Why are we subsidizing these shorted sighted leaches that are destroying the planet?
There is no question but that public has been lied to and our politicians have been bought. The fossil fuel industry has worked harder and more successfully than even the tobacco industry to spread the big lie that they are the only answer to our nations energy needs and that they have built a safe product. In order to create this image they have spent billions to buy out, stamp out and drown out any attempts to establish safer, less polluting and in the long run, cheaper sources of energy.
Their lobbyists have fought so hard and spent so much money in their attempts to stop any kind of alternative fuel development, that the actual emergence of said fuels is nothing short of miraculous; is in fact a testament to both American ingenuity and the consummate need for those products in the marketplace.
The NFL playoffs and the Super Bowl were plagued by commercials for BP showing pristine beaches and families playing blissfully in the great outdoors, while a guileless spokesman talked of the glories of the gulf coastline, which BP has spent billions to restore. Of course he fails to mention that this beauty existed before BP destroyed it with their criminally negligent behavior. What the commercials also don’t tell you is that BP was forced to spend that money and that in pending cases it will probably be forced to spend many billions more in fines which they can then tell us, in another commercial, were paid willingly in a magnanimous gesture to help the people of the gulf coast, whom they dearly love. Horsepucky.
The fossil fuel industry has been running a con game for years based on the ignorance of the public and the dishonesty of the governments that we have been electing to regulate and tax them. The massive subsidies that we allow them to collect out of the pockets of the average taxpayer are based on the argument that they have, only a restricted area of operation and that because their product is so essential to the nation’s well being, that their existence must be supported.
The fist part of the supposition is not really true because we have more than enough of these restricted areas to cover our national energy needs for centuries. The fact that we now have an undrilled area equal to the combined square miles of Florida and California under lease to oil companies shows that the oil industry is far from restricted.
The second part of the supposition is a flat out lie.
Fossil fuels, contrary to the industry’s lobbyists, are not scarce, but it still takes a great deal of money and time to develop them. Oil, gas and coal are tied to specific geological conditions and they are where they are. The idea that the oil or gas company is going to leave a developed field because their subsidies are lifted or they suddenly face additional regulations is absurd. All we need is politicians who aren’t on the take and have the stones to oppose those that are; legislators who will lift the unnecessary subsidies, pass much needed regulation and tax the living crap out of these polluters.
The oil and gas industries have, through the mouths of their right wing butt boys, accused Obama of allowing gas prices to rise so as to enable the development of alternative fuels. There may be a case for that point of view, but only if we ignore the reality that the President has no power over the price of gas, which is set by an international market, presided over by the oil cartels.
When was the last time we saw a gas war in this country and I’m not talking about a Bush style war to get oil, I’m talking about a competitive price war between the major providers. You haven’t seen one lately and you probably won’t again in your lifetime. Contrary to the oil industry’s publicity, the world has massive oil reserves. Russia is bursting with oil as is the Middle East, South America and the United States. To make matters more ridiculous, the US is now experiencing a natural gas glut that further reduces the need for oil, putting more product onto the market than it can consume, yet still no lowering of the price. Why? How about collusion between the world’s oil companies.
Every other industry is competitive and every other industry has sales. When was the last time that gasoline in this country went on sale? They don’t want a sale and they don’t need prices to rise much past their already egregious level. They make plenty of money now and with their overly generous tax breaks they are able to show billions more in profit each year. What do they care that eventually our kids and our kids, kids will inherit a world in which big oil, big gas and big coal are killing them in the name of big profit.
Thank you, Mr. U. C. for this lucid evaluation. I agree wholeheartedly about taxing the living crap out of polluters and tax evader Wall Street leeches. As for regulation, reinstating the Glass/Steagall Act would help tremendously.
But to get to these changes the country needs re-education to counteract thirty years of propaganda from the right. Your commentary helps in this and encourages me to be more vocal in my own little corner of the world. I believe one voice, one person, speaking on behalf of citizens rather than corporations (Koch brats et al.) can make a difference. Those voices combined start to bring consensus and courage. Thank you.