roundtable: Sock it to the Rich

roundtable: Sock it to the Rich

Sock it to the Rich

Vigdor Schreibman - FINS (fins@access.digex.net)
Tue, 26 Dec 1995 11:06:31 -0500 (EST) 

Date: Tue, 26 Dec 1995 11:06:31 -0500 (EST)
From: Vigdor Schreibman - FINS <fins@access.digex.net>
To: Cyberspace Society Messages <cyber-soc@readns1.readadp.com>
Subject: Sock it to the Rich
Message-Id: <Pine.SUN.3.91.951226110419.27184C-100000@access2.digex.net>


PAY THE PUBLIC DEBT MADE BY A "POLITICS OF RICH AND POOR"
Vigdor Schreibman - FINS <fins@access.digex.net>

Talks between President Bill Clinton and Republican leaders Bob Dole and Newt
Gingrich to balance the budget and reopen the Government are going nowhere. 
The President is holding fast against the terrorist tactics of the Republican
majority in Congress, who intend on coercing Executive Branch budgetary
decisions by depriving the people of the vital functions of the Government. 
Even if those leaders make progress it is unlikely that the extremist
Gingrich Republicans in Congress would allow an equitable outcome to be
enacted.  The same gang just last week promised to upset a sweeping
bypartisan compromise agreement on telecom reform legislation announced by
Vice President Gore and Republican leaders in the Senate and House, Dec 20.

One can plainly see that the assertion of People Power is likely the only
means to resolve this stalemate equitably, as previously described in my
essay, COMMON CAUSE IN CYBERSPACE: A Cause For People Power (Aug 1995)
[Fins-PaN-23]. 

The appalling public deficit this country now suffers arises from interest on
the public debt brought about by the grossly wreckless public policies below
described.  A tax surcharge of 1-trillion dollars to pay off the deficit in
7-years should be levied against the wealth and income of the top 20 percent
of American families, who alone were unjustly enriched by this situation.  In
addition, a realignment in the structure of power of the United States should
be carried out by establishing a public lane on the National Information
Infrastructure, which can support the democratic aspirations of the people
free from profit pressures of business enterprises, as described in the
Charter of the Cyberspace Society [Fins-CS-01].

                            * * * * *

These awful problems started with the administration of Ronald Reagan
and his "politics of rich and poor."  They are now running out of control. 

PAY THE PUBLIC DEBT MADE BY A FRAUDULENT "ROSY SCENARIO"
First there was David Stockman, head of the Office of Management and
Budget, and his supply-side cabal.  He painted a fraudulent "Rosy
Scenario" to support a massive tax-cut benefiting the rich.  This
was recognized by the insiders at the time as "voodoo economics." The
policy was, nevertheless, enacted into law by the US Congress and
dramatically reduced the revenue base of the United States, contrary
to the Nation's and their own best interests, leading to a continuing
fiscal crisis.

PAY THE PUBLIC DEBT MADE BY A FRAUDULENT S&L DEREGULATION
Then came the fraudulent deregulation of the Saving and Loan
Institutions, establishing an open invitation to pillage the
resources held by these institution.  This required a bail-out by
future generations costing hundreds of billions of dollars.

PAY THE PUBLIC DEBT MADE BY A FRAUDULENT DEFENSE BUILDUP
Then came the fraudulment defense buildup that cost the nation $2.3
trillion dollars.  The need for massive increases in defense
spending--portrayed by the Pentagon with color charts and great
fanfare--was purportedly to counter the Soviet Union's plan "to gain
military superiority over the West."  But the claim that the USSR was
unrivaled in its commitment of resource to military production was
based, as Noam Chomsky and others disclosed in the early 1980s,
largely on CIA analysis which estimated the dollar equivalent of the
USSR military effort.  The question asked was what would it cost the
United States, in dollars, to duplicate the military deployed by the
USSR.  But these calculation had a built-in bias.  The Soviet
military force was labor-intensive, in contrast to the military
system in the West with its superior technological level and higher
cost of labor relative to capital.  It would have been highly
inefficient, and extremely costly for the United States to duplicate
a technologically less advanced Soviet military machine that relied
heavily on manpower.  Hence calculations of dollar equivalents
considerably exaggerated Russian power.

For the United States to duplicate the Russian agricultural system,
with its intensive use of human labor power and low level of
technology, would also be extremely expensive.  But we do not
therefore conclude that the Russians are outmatching us in the field
of agricultural productions.  For similar reason, calculations of
dollar equivalents gave a highly misleading picture of relative
military strength that the Pentagon attempted to exploit as a tool of
militarism.  Noam Chomsky assailed the "absurdity of the calculations
.... used to frighten the population of the West so that they would be
induced to support the militarism of their societies."

The mass media press withheld this information from the people, at
the time, and fully supported the "politics of rich and poor."  It
was not until the buildup was over that they quietly told the story. 

PAY THE PUBLIC DEBT MADE BY A FRAUDULENT INFO TECHNOLOGY
Then came the "information revolution" with $300 billion dollars in
subsidies to the computer-information industries for Federal information
technology, since 1980, which the US Senate and the General Accounbting
Office have disclosed was "thrown away" for lack of any benefit to the
Government.  The subsidy was, instead, used by industry to engage in
runaway "downsizing" "restructuring" and "clean engineering," which has
dumped millions of workers in the street, and made the United States the
most inequitable nation in the world among leading industrial countries. 
As a result, the top 20 percent of American families took all the
increases in income and wealth since 1980, with most going to those in the
top 1 percent, the bottom 80 percent of families just got the shaft. 

Now, the colossal sea of red ink used to float those obscene public policies
upon, must be repaid.  And now they are trying to sock it to the people with
the politics of destruction, demanding payment upon the backs of the elderly,
middle class, infirm, poor and destitute, students and the environment while
the super rich take another mega-billion dollar free ride on everyone else.

We're mad as hell and we won't take it any more.

The thievery by the mega-industries and their paid puppets in the US Congress
must stop.  The stolen public treasure must be restored.  The politics of
destruction loosed upon vital social institutions, and the people must end. 

So let's tell this story every day in every way until the debt is paid and
the sovern power of the people restored:  SOCK IT TO THE RICH IN 1996!

=========================================================================== 
Federal Information News Syndicate, Vigdor Schreibman, Editor & Publisher, 
18 - 9th Street NE #206, Washington, DC 20002-6042.  Copyright 1995 FINS. 
Internet: fins@access.digex.net.  Browse the new Fins Information Age Library
located at the inforM system of the University of Maryland.  Gopher to
inform.umd.edu and go to the directory EdRes/Topic/CompResource/CompSoc/FINS.
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