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catscradle Nov. 16th, 2002 08:27 am)
catscradle Nov. 16th, 2002 08:27 am)I'm reading a book on the rise of corporate global power and came across some amazing statistics - the kind you read and think that if the country at large knew about it, there would be riots in the streets. But there won't be because the people that need to read this information don't.
In the US, 10 billion dollars a year is lost to corporate tax evasion. That's 10 billion dollars a year that the average middle/lower class American people have to make up so that US corporations and multi-nationals don't have to pay their fair share of taxes - so that these entities can continue to lie to us - tell us how bad the economy is, lay us off work, et cetera.
How do they do they get away with the ole "the economy is bad, we need to lay off people, cut benefits, retirement, and basically ruin people's lives" crap?
In the 1990's corporations were reporting record insane earnings that had no basis in reality. By the beginning of 2002 they then claimed profits had dropped dramatically. For instance, to use a company that isn't Enron, Exxon, Qwest, et cetera, GM reported a 73% loss in profit. It wasn't real - they were never making the earnings they claimed in the 90's - and in 2001, they were still bringing in a profit of 800 million dollars. That's not 800 million total, folks. That's 800 million after you deduct all the costs it takes to run GM. And all the major corporations are doing this. It's not just GM.
To top all that off, IRS tax audit of big business have gone done by 25% while tax audits of people making less than $25,000 have gone up by 13%. That's because someone has to pick up the slack for all that lost revenue and there are more of us than them.
They need more of us, by the way. They're seeing to it that there will be even more of us:
White House Wages Stealth War on Condoms
We need a Dickens for our times. This crap is all right out of Oliver Twist, Nicholas Nickleby and Great Expectations - Read Upton Sinclair's The Jungle, we're right back to the horrors of the industrial revolution. Where are our social reformers these days?
I go to bed angry and I wake up angry. What wrong with us? Why aren't we storming the Capital, the Whitehouse? Too French revolution for us?
This situation is only going to get worse. Do we have to wait till there is absolutely nothing to lose before we start acting?
Work cited:
Allison, Bill, Charles Lewis & the Center for Public Integrity. The Cheating of America. Harper Collins, 2001. Pgs 11-13, 15, 79, 82-83.
Anderson, Sarah, John Cavanagh. Top 200: The Rise of Corporate Global Power. Decemeber, 2000.
In the US, 10 billion dollars a year is lost to corporate tax evasion. That's 10 billion dollars a year that the average middle/lower class American people have to make up so that US corporations and multi-nationals don't have to pay their fair share of taxes - so that these entities can continue to lie to us - tell us how bad the economy is, lay us off work, et cetera.
How do they do they get away with the ole "the economy is bad, we need to lay off people, cut benefits, retirement, and basically ruin people's lives" crap?
In the 1990's corporations were reporting record insane earnings that had no basis in reality. By the beginning of 2002 they then claimed profits had dropped dramatically. For instance, to use a company that isn't Enron, Exxon, Qwest, et cetera, GM reported a 73% loss in profit. It wasn't real - they were never making the earnings they claimed in the 90's - and in 2001, they were still bringing in a profit of 800 million dollars. That's not 800 million total, folks. That's 800 million after you deduct all the costs it takes to run GM. And all the major corporations are doing this. It's not just GM.
To top all that off, IRS tax audit of big business have gone done by 25% while tax audits of people making less than $25,000 have gone up by 13%. That's because someone has to pick up the slack for all that lost revenue and there are more of us than them.
They need more of us, by the way. They're seeing to it that there will be even more of us:
White House Wages Stealth War on Condoms
We need a Dickens for our times. This crap is all right out of Oliver Twist, Nicholas Nickleby and Great Expectations - Read Upton Sinclair's The Jungle, we're right back to the horrors of the industrial revolution. Where are our social reformers these days?
I go to bed angry and I wake up angry. What wrong with us? Why aren't we storming the Capital, the Whitehouse? Too French revolution for us?
This situation is only going to get worse. Do we have to wait till there is absolutely nothing to lose before we start acting?
Work cited:
Allison, Bill, Charles Lewis & the Center for Public Integrity. The Cheating of America. Harper Collins, 2001. Pgs 11-13, 15, 79, 82-83.
Anderson, Sarah, John Cavanagh. Top 200: The Rise of Corporate Global Power. Decemeber, 2000.
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From:
no subject
I find it hard to form a true position, to find a position which is not near-completely negative... What I read and see suggests to me that people are almost unwilling to feel the sort of righteous anger to which the situation entitles them; everyone wants to blame an individual, instead of even considering that perhaps the overall system is at fault. I hate the cult of personality, but it appears to rule almost everything, and be one of the few effective methods to achieve anything at all. I don't know -- I'm not making sense, and my thoughts feel like blurry orange streetlights in blackness... sometimes, people seem so disgustingly self-satisfied, my head hurts.
On a lighter note, I'd rather wish for a Mrs Gaskell than a Dickens. I get so annoyed when the only one in that group people remember is the one with the most insulting view of women. It's such a silly thing to get worked up about; that a man long dead was sexist. *chuckle*
From:
no subject
As for Dickens. . . I don't know. He portrayed most men as such utterly disgusting individuals I almost think it works out in the end. And wrong as it might be - and it is - Mrs Gaskell didn't have the same following. In terms of writers that helped with social reform, it's Dicken people remember - and to give him credit, much of the social reform that occured in his era, did so because of his writing and popularity. While I hate to say it was the popularity of the writer that incited change, rather than people taking note of the injustice all on their own - I can't. Sometimes it needs both pointed out to people and good PR.
From:
no subject
No, seriously. I was just thinking about this the other day. People fought and died for the right to organize in labor unions. But when Reagan illegally fired the striking air traffic controllers, that was, essentially, the end of the Wagner Act. Why didn't we see people doing something about it?
Well, what's the main cultural difference between now and the heyday of the unions? I think it's TV. I think people go to work, and it sucks and they have no power and they're treated like shit and they hate it... but then they come home and turn on the TV, and forget about it until the next day.
Maybe it's a crackpot idea, and probably TV is only one of many factors, but just think about it. It does kind of make sense.
From:
no subject
I also think it's what we see on TV - and I don't mean violent or sex crazed TV shows. I mean the news media. Since September 11th we've seen nothing but pro-Bush/pro-totalitarian crap broadcasted on every major news network. Keep us in terror and we'll support anything the government wants to do. The Bush administration's got's it's own multi-network propoganda machine working for them. CNN, ABC, CBS and NBC at your service. Who will the sniper get next? Will it be you, John Smith of Gary, Indiana? Watch things explode over and over again in slow motion. See Satan in a puff of smoke from the collapse of the towers - *CNN* ran that story! My God.
You have the major comglomerate corporations with the politicians and the news media in their own back pocket. Who would have thought TV would come in so handy 60-70 years ago?
I also think it's high school education of American History. Ever read one of those text books? Americans always do things from the stand point of the peace keeper. The good guy. Columbus was a daring explorer of great innovation in seafaring. Very humaine, full of good intentions. Never mind that between first contact and Columbus's death that the entire Arrawak nation in Haiti had been completely wiped out. Most text books will say Columbus died in poverty to give it that extra nobel spin. In reality, he died very wealthy. His son inherited the wealth and used it to continue the rape of the new world.
The lies and ommitions get worse the closer you get to the 20th century.
How are people suppose to remotely know what's going on, if the kids are getting a fabricated history of what their nation does? From grade school it's beat into our heads - we're number 1! We're the good guy! We look out for the best interest of the world!
We aren't taught how the US acts in it's own best interest - or more to fact these days, in the best interest of Big Business.
From:
CNN
And speaking on CNN and the "multi-network propoganda machine," maybe it's news only circulating in Atlanta so far, but CNN is being seriously courted for acquisition by ABCNEWS. If/when that happens, it would be CNN (which as we all know is part of the Turner / Time Warner / AOL etc. thing) merged with ABC (and Disney and who the Hell knows what else). Analysts predict that while there would be no immediate changes to CNN, eventually this would lead to a reduction in the number of correndenents and bureas, since there would be consolidation. Also the international burueas and reporters (CNN's mainly) would get whenever they decide they need to "tighten their belts." Oh, and CNN would probably move out of Atlanta :(
There's no signed deal, BTW, but CNN keeps being courted by different networks and newsgroups and this particular situation has been covered by the local media as well as CNN itself, I believe.
From:
Politics ranting!
I've been reading your political rants on and off for the past month or so, and I am of a similar mindset in regards to the Bush administration, the American media and etc.
To add in my own input (wanted or not), I think the American people lack a sense of cultural awareness. Well, there's a few other things that our society lacks, but I think cultural ignorance is at least one root of many an American's dismissive attitude toward world events. We sit on our fat country with two oceans surrounding us and enjoy being the most powerful nation in the world.
Most of what I hear from my work colleagues and just general idle political chit chat is anti-"evil doer" rhetoric that picks up the commercial patriotic pride that's been flying around like a virus and throws it back in your face. Nevermind the fact that America has had its naughty little fingers in the Middle Eastern pot for so long and has had so many non-kosher encounters with various groups (e.g. Afghan rebels in the 1980's helping to fight the Soviets), and people are shocked that we would be attacked in such a way.
So, my thought is that due to this complete lack of awareness and a sense of responsibility, the American people don't know any better. And you know, I have to question that even if the masses did know, would they care? They're too comfortable driving their cars on the oil that we send our soldiers for fight for on the basis of "pre-emptive strikes", wearing the cheap clothes that some poor bastard made for 5cents an hour and pretending that everything is hunky dory.
Now don't get me started on television...
Hope you don't mind me adding in a thought or five. ^_^;
Haze