Members of Congress talking about shutting the government down until they can extend tax cuts for the wealthy are "in denial, blinded by their greed," says Constance Kaplan, "They're not concerned with us." Connie is a law librarian who's worked for JP Morgan Chase, among other companies, and is a '99er'--she's been unemployed for over 99 weeks and has thus lost all government unemployment benefits.
Connie joins us in studio to discuss the government's inattention to job creation, and Edrie Irvine joins us via Skype--a legal secretary, she is also unemployed and is nearing the expiration on her own benefits. They fill us in on what it's like on the job hunt after over a year, and what unemployed workers are doing to get organized.
"I guess I missed the part of the book of Genesis where Moses says 'Let my people make $250,000 a year or more,'" jokes Chris Lehmann, author of the new book Rich People Things (from OR Books, also publisher of At The Tea Party). And Harper's columnist Thomas Frank notes, "It's expensive to be a populist these days!"
Thomas and Chris join us in studio for a chat about Rich People Things--why it is that the same political rhetoric that used to be used in service of the people, the poor and working classes, is now being used to defend the rights of millionaires not to pay taxes. When the social contract's been shredded, right-wingers talk of "forces of darkness" with straight faces, and Republicans are vowing not to vote on anything until they get to cut taxes for the rich, what can we do?
And just in case that wasn't enough to convince you that our government has the wrong interests at heart, just-released Fed documents show money floated not just to too-big-to-fail banks, but too-big-to-fail--phone companies? Foreign banks? Motorcycle companies? Laura has some thoughts on the big float.
MIGHTYMOUSE-FINE INSIGHT=COOL /// ALL TXE ECONOMY BREAKDOWN CAUSED BY CHENEY/BUSH WARS ‘N TYRANNY OF THE MAJORITY…………………..LIVING LIKE A FASCIST.
By LARRY skwarczynski on December 2nd, 2010 at 9:47 pm
Sorry. But, I have worked in New Product Development for 25 years! Globally. In the Top corporations. Some of them who got bailout money for their sleeping behind the wheel shareholders who let themselves get raped by their own CEOs they could fire at will if they were paying attention (and knew what to pay attention to good luck).
The biggest drivers of job creation and risk taking for creating new jobs are earning I would say between $65K and $200K. Everybody else over that is a bureaucrat. Playing the politicking game. The real people creating new products, new teams, out there selling to build business, and losing sleep for big dreams earn much less. They are younger and they are taking risk to build their lives. Not divide-and-rule game playing to keep their piece of a shrinking pie.
They come from Bensonhurst and West Orange NJ! The top 1% who are getting these tax cuts are very different people. They never see the inside of a real job.They are money people who sit around conference tables and bully the real people doing the work and making things happen. They know how to do very few things, and the reason they lose so much money in their “venture capital” businesses is precisely because they don’t know what they’re doing. They are playing with other people’s money, and those other people are getting these tax breaks!
And on top of that, they use their money to send cheques to Focus on the Family, or Family Research Council because granddad told them divide-and-rule is the only way they are going to keep their money they inherited. The real people making new jobs are in small businesses and working every day to sell and build, and create and solve. Not sit around and bully and pay others do to work that doesn’t get done properly!
By Planckbrandt on December 3rd, 2010 at 2:35 pm
you guys shoudl have james galbraith on to talk about his great detailed data on how job creation stops when you get to a tipping point of concentrated wealth. The impetus to take real risk to create jobs goes away when they get too comfortable just earning risk free money market returns. Especially today with 0% Fed funds rates that can be so easily arbitraged somewhere else in the world by hedge funds or global bank traders. The yields overseas went from 10% last year to 1 1/2% this year there is so much cash chasing the opportunities…(yields go down cause there’s more supply of money to fill demand out side of this country! )
By Planckbrandt on December 3rd, 2010 at 2:39 pm