Comedy | January 02, 2011 | 38 comments

Why should you let somebody else get a free ride on your labor?

source: http://punkpatriot.blogspot.com/2011/01/talking-points-on-welfare-part-4.html

asherp
TALKING POINTS ON WELFARE PART 4


Taxation is theft, why should I have my pay stolen to pay for a free ride for other people?

This one is going to take a while to unpack. It requires some knowlege of recent economic history, which is going to mean explaining. I hope I don't bore you.

In 1960, the average household worked half as many hours. Adjusted for inflation, the Cost of Living was a third of what it is today. Yet, the average household income for a person in the lower 85% of income brackets, in terms of real dollars, has remained stagnant for the past 40 years.

That’s right, 85% of the population has seen their cost of living triple, has had to double their hours they spend working, and as a reward for working twice as much have LESS expendable income than we did 40 years ago.
To recap really quickly- [drawings] the dollar cost of living has tripled, but the actual stuff we’re getting for that cost isn’t three times better. We’re still buying pretty much the same houses and the same wonderbread and the same Jif peanut butter as we did 40 years ago.
So we’re paying three times as much today for the same things we had in the 1960s.
The Average American household had one income earner working 40 hrs a week in 1960, and that was enough to maintain a comfortable standard of living.
For twice as much labor today, 85% of Americans still have an income gap of a third. That money has to come from somewhere. Some households have two adults working 80 hours a week, and still struggle to make ends meet.
For 85% of Americans, we’ve been slowly eased into a starvation diet over the past 40 years.
That income gap, for many people, who thought that going on welfare was irresponsible, had to borrow their wages. Where did they borrow their wages from? From the wealth they already had. We’ve borrowed against our houses, and we’ve used credit cards to fill our income gap. We were told that this was the responsible thing to do. The fiscal reality of it, is that we’ve been cannibalizing ourselves.
If you look at this through another lense, by indexing things to the value of labor-- the value of the labor you produce has been devalued by two thirds. You have essentially been getting paid a third of what your labor is actually worth. That income gap of a third should rightfully be paid by our employers. And where has all that money gone?
Check Wall Street. While the value of our labor has been cut to a third of what it was, the value of labor of the average CEO has skyrocketed, from just 30 times the lowest paid employee at their company to 300 times the lowest paid employee.
So while the 85% of Americans who work our asses off just to get by, we’ve seen the value of our labor be devalued, fraudulently, by 300%. We’ve seen the value of labor of CEOs increase, fraudulently, by 1000%. What are they doing differently that they need to be compensated at 1000% more than they were back in the 1960s? Well, there’s a short answer and a long answer:
The short answer: Nothing.
The Long answer: Absolutely NOTHING whatsoever, at all.
Now, who has been deciding what everybody’s labor is worth? The invisible hand of the market? Bullshit. It’s been those CEOs. Of course they are going to give themselves raises and reduce the value of our labor by 2/3rds. They’re greedy, shortsighted people. You would probably do the same. Right? No, actually you probably wouldn’t, because that would be THEFT, and THEFT is wrong.

So let’s get back to our initial conservative talking point: Why should you allow somebody else to get a free ride from your labor? You shouldn’t. Which is why we need a maximum wage.
Is taxation really theft? Well, if you’re taxing that top 15% of people who have increased the value of their own labor and decreased the value of everybody else’s labor, we’re not stealing from them by taxing them to pay for welfare. The lower 85% earned that income, but were not paid that income.
The *real* problem is that those richest 15% aren’t PAYING what the 85% is earning by their labor leaving an income gap. How the hell are people supposed to fill that gap through working more if their labor just keeps getting further and further devalued?
With welfare. Welfare is just the lower 85% of people getting what their labor earned them.
If we don’t reverse this trend of the rich getting richer, and the poor getting poorer, eventually there will be no way for the lower 85% of Americans to feed themselves by our own labor.
At which point, we will be forced to kill the top 15% and eat THEM.
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38 comments // Why should you let somebody else get a free ride on your labor? // Video

  • remanns
  • remanns
  • remanns
  • sk8bs55
  • musicjohnny
    • +1
      musicjohnny  

    • OK, some of what he's saying I definitely agree with, but there are a few things that don't add up: first off, a lot of his point is based off the premise of the standard of living having not improved since the 50's and 60's even though we now have less disposable income. That's absolutely not true. In the early 1950s, fully two fifths of American households had no automobile, about a third did not have a private telephone or a television, and the homes of about a third of all Americans were dilapidated or were without running water or a private toilet and bath. Only a small minority of families enjoyed such basics as a mixer or had a hot-water heater.

      What would we call that now? Abject poverty? I'd say so. Consider this: as late as 1970 the median single-family home was still less than 1400 square feet versus over 2200 now. That's an incredible increase in the standard of living! There's a great article with tons of facts on this (written by an Ohio State professor) right here:
      http://eh.net/encyclopedia/article/steckel.standard.living.us

      Secondly, while he's right that the wealthy have a lot of little loopholes and tricks to get out of taxes, does it surprise any of you to know that even WITH those loopholes, the top 50% of wage earners (aka the rich) STILL pay 97% of the income taxes in this country? The top 1% (aka the VERY RIDICULOUS rich) pay 38% OF ALL THE INCOME TAXES IN THE UNITED STATES! Conversely, the bottom 50% of wage earners pay only 3% of all income taxes. Honestly, that seems a bit out of balance to me. Am I saying that those bottom 50% should pay more? Not necessarily, I'm against more taxation on anyone as a principal, but should the people who already pay 97% be asked to pay more? I don't think so.

    • 1 year ago
  • Sezah
    • -1
      Sezah  

    • Thieves come in all types:
      They throw around a lot of money at a busy time, getting back change for a $50 when they give you a $10. That's what this guy is doing: lots of numbers in a dense block of info to obfuscate a political-pushing point.

      The cost of food, for example, is at an ALL TIME LOW. Don't let name-calling idjits swindle you with stats (that I haven't been able to fact-check... hmmm...)!

      This is tagged comedy so I hope to God it is, but it doesn't read like it :/

    • 1 year ago
  • miles_ahead
    • +3
      miles_ahead  

    • I love this article. This is exactly what I mean when I say that the anti-tax, anti-government meme that is popular now (aka Tea Party) is not truly populist, but is corporate disinfo manipulating the economic pain of the deeply misinformed (aka Fox News watchers). Bravo!

    • 1 year ago
  • Itsbatman_Durr
  • Dejan_Croatia
  • musicjohnny
    • -1
      musicjohnny  
    • Dejan_Croatia:

      But isn't it odd that people who self identify as conservative out-give and out-donate people who self identify as liberal by about 30%? Makes you wonder who really cares and who just says they do...

    • 1 year ago
  • tverdell
  • Vierotchka
  • musicjohnny
  • musicjohnny
    • 0
      musicjohnny  
    • Vierotchka:

      I highly doubt that, especially given that the link I posted for tverdell also talks about how conservatives spend more time volunteering than liberals do....do you have any facts to back that up?

    • 1 year ago
  • Swisher
  • ayipis
    • -8
      ayipis  

    • blahblahblahblah...this shit means nothing if we cannot PROPERLY PUNISH the offender...

      good example.."what happened to CHANGE"??

    • 1 year ago
  • Ryuu88
  • Mark701
    • +1
      Mark701  
    • ayipis:

      Ayipis, your obsession with the Obama Administration is becoming embarrasing. The article IS NOT about the Obama Administration. It's about how the working class gets ripped off to pay the rich. How did you not get that?

    • 1 year ago
  • ozoneocean
    • +2
      ozoneocean  

    • This is perfectly true.
      You're right, it isn't tax that's theft; the people doing the stealing are the CEOs, paying themselves money stolen from their employees.

    • 1 year ago
  • shanklinmike
    • -8
      shanklinmike  
    • ozoneocean:

      What?!? Taxation is not theft?!? I can understand how you can consider today's government corporatism theft for the rich, but taxation IS theft! It is certainly not voluntary....it is compulsion. To say otherwise is to ignore definitions.

      Another thing, how is it right to steal from someone after working for them for an agreed upon amount?!? That is morally justifiable?!?

      Giving government control to do this activity is what led to the corporatism (government advantages for certain lobbyists) in the first place!

    • 1 year ago
  • Vierotchka
    • +6
      Vierotchka  

    • Killing the top 15% and eating them won't feed you any longer than a day or two, if that. It might just supply each and every one of the 85% with barely a mouthful of food (mostly fat).

    • 1 year ago
  • remanns
    • +5
      remanns  
    • Vierotchka:

      I say we string them up,...,.....keep them "on ice" , bleed them in a "sustainable" manner,....and farm them for their white blood cells,.....( strengthen the best workers of the people). Oh,....and use their hair for brushes and wigs. As technology improves, organs can be harvested more effectively.
      - Perhaps they can be made to SING while they hang; "support the arts". !
      - - - thrift counts ! - - - Ask yourself ; "What would a Vampire Communist party do" ?

    • 1 year ago
  • kennymotown
  • noxidereus
  • kennymotown
  • cantucwearebrothers
    • +4
      cantucwearebrothers  

    • I ran across some interesting statistics (granted they were from 2007, but still relevant if only to provide perspective.) last night while perusing the interwebs.

      The richest 1% of the population controls 42% of the world's finances.

      The next richest 10% controls 51%.

      The remaining 89% of the population controls 7%. That remaining 89% are also responsible for 75% of the world's debt and has over 60% of their income tied up in their primary residence where as the top 1% has less than 10% of their income invested in their home.

      That is staggering to me.

    • 1 year ago
  • tommic
  • remanns
  • shanklinmike
  • kennymotown
  • shanklinmike
    • -1
      shanklinmike  
    • kennymotown:

      Nope, I try to stop ALL theft! If you enter into an agreement for a certain wage, you can't go back after the fact and hold a gun to someone's head to pay you more than agreed upon. THAT is theft! LITERALLY

      ...and the government is in bed with big business.... and that will never change. You must cut the head off of the corporatist government's beast.

    • 1 year ago
  • tommic
    • +5
      tommic  

    • taxes is the price one pays for a civilized society--- oliver wendell holmes, one of the greatest jurors ever to sit on the SUpreme Court. You people have been brainwashed, Most of you have not lived long enough to remember when in the 1950's if you earned more than 200 grand, every dollar over that was taxed at 90 %, thats like 5 million today. all of you making 5 mil a year stand up. Just like i thought ZERO
      And in the 1950's the middle class was a larger percentage of the population than exists today. MORONS

    • 1 year ago
  • shanklinmike
    • -2
      shanklinmike  
    • tommic:

      Taxes are what you pay to stay out of jail.... and coercion is uncivilized.

      We would have it much better in a free market where competition would force the rich to fight for our dollar, instead of today where they just take over government and give themselves special advantages....like it always will be.

    • 1 year ago
  • tommic
  • idealist
  • shanklinmike
    • -1
      shanklinmike  
    • idealist:

      Um...big business AND government are "the man"

      This guy is just enabling the government's corporatist sector...cause government is ALWAYS taken over by lobbyists.

      End politics, enable peace and freedom!

    • 1 year ago
  • remanns
  • remanns
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