I could have called it the oligarchs vs. the deranged vs.
the people, but I decided to be a bit polite (sort of)
Yes, this is about Donald Trump criticizing the Koch
brothers and their network and no matter what happens the people lose.
As you may have read President Trump thinks he doesn’t need
the Koch brothers, yet the very next day we read press stories that President
Trump wants to adjust capital gains taxes for inflation which by the way would
benefit the Koch brothers and their network. And of course Donald Trump.
So what gives? It is said they have been thinking about the
capital gains tax break for awhile, so was it coincidence that the thinking
makes the press yesterday or could it be a back hand salvo to the Koch brothers
that we are all still on the same team?
They are already working on changing the way Social security
payments are adjusted for inflation to reign in growth of payments, but now the
capital gains tax is supposed to be adjusted for inflation as it has
historically. Minimum wage has never been adjusted for inflation, just random
increases when the Democrats have a majority and get pressure to raise it.
And what happens if we get runaway inflation like the
1970’s? Or deflation? To we adjust for these scenarios? It would be a nice tax
break to have sat on stock for a long time then sell after a couple of years of
high inflation. Or do they get to write off a loss if the stock price has risen
less than the rate of inflation? Or think about the advantage of a stock having
a sharp decline for a week or so, but still up over the years, but the
difference is less than the rate of inflation. You get a tidy profit and write
off the sell as a loss. The only middle class people who get this advantage are
mutual fund shareholders and most of those are in retirement accounts nowadays
so people wouldn’t get the advantage. They have the same tax rate when they
make withdrawals. The uber rich get the advantage immediately, especially Wall
Street traders who can dump positions they no longer want. They already make a
fortune on algorithmic trading, yeah, just add a couple more calculations into
the equation and sell on dips after inflation figures are calculated in. Bad
stock buys etc are fixed to the advantage of the professional traders.
So instead of tax revenue coming in for short or long term
trading profits, boom it is a write off. So how long does a stock need to be
held before it can be adjusted for inflation? Wanna bet it favors Wall Street?
Munchin probably has the numbers already set with help from his buds at the
country club.
As you know I am pretty hot and heavy about raising tax
rates for short term trading profits anyway. I feel this is a great way to
raise some revenue, encourage (force indirectly) Wall Street into making longer
term investment decisions which might slow down their profits a bit, but gives
money back to the economy because they would have to change their models to
allow for better corporate growth models. And it is a tax that would be easy to
adjust or drop if needed. No one is really hurt even though Wall Street would
not like less profits, but really at some point the difference of a couple of
hundred million in profit for some of these firms is child’s play. The longer
term investments still lead to profits and possibly increases reinvestment in
businesses not trading. Which is what we want in the long run anyway. Won’t
solve all our problems, yet heads in the right direction. Instead we get
inflation adjusted sell returns.
So the moneyed and the false promise win, while the majority
of this country loses.
And as you know this is just one minute example of the reign
of destruction coming down on the middle class.
And so I ask again and again, are you ready for a new major
party yet? One that benefits you, not them? What is it going to take for
you to remove the false promises of Trump and the abuse of your life by the
moneyed? The Republicans do not care about you no matter what they say and the
Democrats will tout more and more socialist ideas because they are so
unimaginative and clueless it is insane. Socialism vs. greed just don’t work
and when your only two political parties have diverged into this dichotomy,
nothing good is going to happen.
There are better answers and solutions are out there, it
just takes people making the effort to put them in place. Thoughts?
Cheers!
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