Recent comments
ADHD: Hunter in a Farmer's World
Thom Hartmann has written a dozen books covering ADD / ADHD - Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder.
Join Thom for his new twice-weekly email newsletters on ADHD, whether it affects you or a member of your family.
Thom's Blog Is On the Move
By webmaster
Hello All
Thom's blog in this space and moving to a new home.
Please follow us across to hartmannreport.com - this will be the only place going forward to read Thom's blog posts and articles.
Bob -- I like the 2 hour workday that Thom talks about. It was described in the book "The Original Leisure Society". I wonder how Hansen tries to prove that a 40 hour work week is optimal? How about a 40 hour work week with a 2 month vacation and a year leave for the birth of a child (a year for both the father and the mother).
Gary R -- What was wrong with tax/economic structure of the 30's, 40's, 50's, 60's and 70's? Why try something new when we have a system that worked?
gary r -- Nothing in your blog indicates any detailed policy. Why would I waste my time to go to the links you give? You do realize that half the population has an IQ under 100.
This can't be achieved without addressing this: What should we do with those who can't work, due to health or circumstances, and those for whom there are no jobs? Today's low-wage jobs ensure that people can't accumulate hundreds of dollars in savings needed to tide them over following a job loss. They can't get as job once they no longer have a home address, phone, bus fare. The US shipped out a huge portion of our working class jobs, and then Clinton ended poverty relief, telling the poor to find a job.We've created a surplus population that has no means of providing for themselves. It's great to call for job creation -- been doing that for over 30 years now, and it's as popular as ever. But until those jobs come along...?
Any economic discussion that ignores US poverty is simply not a legitimate discussion. Whether it's fear or arrogance that causes libs to avoid this issue, they need to get over it. America looked at the policies and programs that were in place from FDR until Reagan, which took the country to its height of wealth and productivity, and reversed course. The results are obvious, as rthe US has fallen so far behind all the modern nations. Saving our own butts requires reversing Reagan's deregulation mania and Clinton's anti-Great Society/anti-New Deal agenda -- even if it makes our rich really, really mad! We need to invest in the people and the nation. There is no way to save (much less, rebuild!) the middle class without restoring poverty relief programs and imposing significant financial DISincentives on moving jobs out of the country. We need basic poverty relief because not everyone can work, due to health or curcumstances, and there simply aren't jobs for all who need one. Millions are a single job loss from losing everything, with no way back up. You can't get a job once you no longer have a home address, phone, bus fare. The US shipped out a massive chunk of our working class jobs since the 1980s. People need a measure of economic stability to pursue the education/ttraining required for today's jobs. Because of the agenda implemented from Reagan to Clinton, the US can no longer adequately compete in the world market, threatening the collapse of the country itself.
Thank you, Marc. You are spot-on about "soft genocide", in its various forms, compared to "hard genocide"; the end result is the same... except for one important difference: from the fascists' perspective, soft genocide, lacking all the drama, doesn't attract so much unwanted attention from the rest of the world community. It's more easily overlooked.
Marc says "...when you consider the US funded Death Squads that preceded the overthrow of all the nations we've stepped on, we have actually outdone by far anything the Nazis ever dreamed of doing that involves Horror." No argument there, my friend! American fascists are masters at persuading foreign tyrants to do much of their dirty work for them. I've no doubt the collective death toll from their mischief would exceed that of the Nazis. - AIW
Thom- If we really want a society without billionaires, that 100% tax will have to apply to much lower annual incomes than a billion dollars. How about personal incomes over a million dollars, or even half a million?
I anticipate another outraged response from Kend, our friend the Canadian aristocrat (wannabe?). Save it, Kend. We've heard it all before.
Until we eliminate billionaires from our society, those of us lucky enough to have jobs will continue working our fannies off just to subsidize a lazy, nonproductive, parasitic class who live like kings without lifting a finger, while we struggle just to keep the lights on and feed our families. And those of us not so lucky will continue crowding the sidewalks, holding up cardboard signs that say "Anything will help" and "Will work for food".
I'm not advocating a system where everyone enjoys the same income level and standard of living regardless of effort, accomplishment or position of influence. But I dream of a society of home owners not renters, with no rich and no poor! Even annual personal incomes as high as $500,000 are hardly conducive to that. While I'm not against meritocracy, there's only so much one needs to live comfortably, even in the lap of luxury! I believe there should be limits to how much compensation anyone receives; even the most distinguished contributors to our society & culture. Besides, there are plenty of non-material ways one can be awarded for great work, such as recognition and acknowledgment in its various forms. As you have pointed out repeatedly, Thom, extremes of wealth and poverty are harmful to democracy, to freedom, to everyone's quality of life; indeed, to civilization itself.
I'll go to my grave an idealist. And there's my two cents for the day. - Aliceinwonderland
P.S. By the way Marc, I too noticed "higher" written where the word "hire" belongs in Thom's introductory post. I've more than a hunch such type-0s stem more from a harried schedule than any lack of writing skills. I can just see that man's fingers flying over the keyboard in a blur. We're talking about the author of more than twenty books, for chrissakes!!
Aliceinwonderland ~ Our prison population is larger than any other country in the history of the world. Not unlike the concentration camps in Nazi Germany. In fact, through FEMA, we have actually built an entire chain of genuine modern concentration camps of our own haven't we? Though what you say about the horrors of Nazis not existing at least within our own borders--YET--when you consider the US funded Death Squads that preceded the overthrow of all the nations we've stepped on, we have actually outdone by far anything the Nazis ever dreamed of doing that involves Horror. Right now in Syria our former enemy--conveniently turned ally--Al Qaeda is beheading members of Christian families in front of each other all in our name. Insurgents backed by US and Saudi Arabia gassed to death over a thousand innocent civilians--including almost 500 children--just for an excuse to go to war. In Fallujah, Iraq we dropped depleted Uranium on innocent civilians leading to the worst outbreak of catastrophic birth defects ever seen. We also used White Phosphorus on civilians. Even the Nazis never sunk that low. When you consider everything the Cabal running our nation is doing in the world--and has been doing in the last several decades--your comparison is not only not an over exaggeration; it is, in fact, an under exaggeration. This country is late for a date in The Hague.
Thom Hartmann ~ Well said! Higher taxes on higher incomes does equal more jobs; and, better jobs at that.
(By the way, that's "employees" not "employers" and "hire" not "higher")
Thom Hartmann is not facing reality. Instead he wants the nation to shift in the opposite direction of technological progress through invention and innovation which creates tectonics shits in the technologies of production. He wishes for the fulfilment of FDR's proposed “Second Bill of Rights,” also known as “The Economic Bill of Rights.” Hartmann states that "one of the rights he proposed was - quite literally, just like the "right to free speech"––that every American should have the right to a job." FDR proposed this in an era when the production of products and services was still relatively labor intensive and technological advancement was not anywhere near of the level it is today.
What Hartmann should be advocating is universal ownership of productive capital assets and the guarantee that EVERY child, woman and man has the equal opportunity to acquire individual ownership in FUTURE wealth-creating, income-generating productive capital with the earnings of capital. Using insured capital credit financing mechanism will enable EVERY citizen to accumulate over time a viable dividend-bearing diversified portfolio of stock in the nation's companies that are growing the economy, and become less dependent on a job and on social insurance programs. This will in turn create significant "customers with money" to create sustainable demand for an affluent, environmental-responsible growth economy in which general affluence will be achievable for EVERY citizen.
Currently non-property-owning Americans are left to acquire, as best as they can, with their earnings as labor workers. This is fundamentally hard to do and limiting. Thus, the most important economic right Americans need and should demand is the effective right to acquire capital with the earnings of capital. Note, though, millions of Americans own diluted stock value through the “speculative stock market exchanges,” purchased with their earnings as labor workers, their stock holdings are relatively miniscule, as are their dividend payments compared to the top 10 percent of capital owners.
A National Right To Capital Ownership Bill that restores the American dream should be advocated by the progressive movement, which addresses the reality of Americans facing job opportunity deterioration and devaluation due to tectonic shifts in the technologies of production and global competitive pressures.
There is a solution, which will result in double-digit economic growth and significant job opportunities, and simultaneously broaden private, individual ownership so that EVERY American's income significantly grows over time, providing the means to support themselves and their families with an affluent lifestyle. The JUST Third Way Master Plan for America's future is published at http://foreconomicjustice.org/?p=5797, http://www.cesj.org/resources/articles-index/the-just-third-way-basic-pr..., http://www.cesj.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/jtw-graphicoverview-2013.pdf and http://www.cesj.org/resources/articles-index/the-just-third-way-a-new-vi....
See two references to the proposed Capital Homestead Act, the centerpiece of legislation of The JUST Third Way at http://www.cesj.org/learn/capital-homesteading/capital-homestead-act-a-p... and http://www.cesj.org/learn/capital-homesteading/capital-homestead-act-sum....
For more on how to accomplish necessary structural reform, see "Financing Economic Growth With 'FUTURE SAVINGS': Solutions To Protect America From Economic Decline" at http://www.nationofchange.org/financing-future-economic-growth-future-savings-solutions-protect-america-economic-decline-137450624 and "The Income Solution To Slow Private Sector Job Growth" at http://www.nationofchange.org/income-solution-slow-private-sector-job-growth-1378041490.
To reboot the economy will require a serious reform of the system.
The capitalism practiced today is what, for a long time, I have termed “Hoggism,” propelled by greed and the sheer love of power over others. “Hoggism” institutionalizes greed (creating concentrated capital ownership, monopolies, and special privileges). “Hoggism” is about the ability of greedy rich people to manipulate the lives of people who struggle with declining labor worker earnings and job opportunities, and then accumulate the bulk of the money through monopolized productive capital ownership. Our scientists, engineers, and executive managers who are not owners themselves, except for those in the highest employed positions, are encouraged to work to destroy employment by making the capital “worker” owner more productive. How much employment can be destroyed by substituting machines for people is a measure of their success––always focused on producing at the lowest cost. Only the people who already own productive capital are the beneficiaries of their work, as they systematically concentrate more and more capital ownership in their stationary 1 percent ranks. Yet the 1 percent are not the people who do the overwhelming consuming. The result is the consumer populous is not able to get the money to buy the products and services produced as a result of substituting machines for people. And yet you can’t have mass production without mass human consumption. It is the exponential disassociation of production and consumption that is the problem in the United States economy, and the reason that ordinary citizens must gain access to productive capital ownership to improve their economic well-being.
Binary economist Louis Kelso postulated: “When consumer earning power is systematically acquired in the course of the normal operations of the economy by people who need and want more consumer goods and services, the production of goods and services should rise to unprecedented levels; the quality and craftsmanship of goods and services, freed of the cornercutting imposed by the chronic shortage of consumer purchasing power, should return to their former high levels; competition should be brisk; and the purchasing power of money should remain stable year after year.”
Without this necessary balance hopeless poverty, social alienation, and economic breakdown will persist, even though the American economy is ripe with the physical, technical, managerial, and engineering prerequisites for improving the lives of the 99 percent majority. Why? Because there is a crippling organizational malfunction that prevents making full use of the technological prowess that we have developed. The system does not fully facilitate connecting the majority of citizens, who have unsatisfied needs and wants, to the productive capital assets enabling productive efficiency and economic growth.
Kelso said, “We are a nation of industrial sharecroppers who work for somebody else and have no other source of income. If a man owns something that will produce a second income, he’ll be a better customer for the things that American industry produces. But the problem is how to get the working man [and woman] that second income.”
The "how" is answered in the Agenda of The JUST Third Way Movement at http://foreconomicjustice.org/?p=5797, http://www.cesj.org/resources/articles-index/the-just-third-way-basic-principles-of-economic-and-social-justice-by-norman-g-kurland/, http://www.cesj.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/jtw-graphicoverview-2013.pdf and http://www.cesj.org/resources/articles-index/the-just-third-way-a-new-vision-for-providing-hope-justice-and-economic-empowerment/; Monetary Justice at http://capitalhomestead.org/page/monetary-justice; and the Capital Homestead Act at http://www.cesj.org/learn/capital-homesteading/capital-homestead-act-a-plan-for-getting-ownership-income-and-power-to-every-citizen/ and http://www.cesj.org/learn/capital-homesteading/capital-homestead-act-summary/.
Aliceinwonderland ~ Wow! You are on fire today. Perfectly accurate too. Just thought that little rant deserved repeating. Hopefully, everyone will read it at least once. It's sooo provocative because it is soooo true! Good job! Take a bow!
Aliceinwonderland ~ Well said, and soooo true! I'll never forget Mitt Romney saying, "I don't really care about poor people." You can actually see a level of disdain and raw resentment in the eyes of these people whenever the topic of the poor and needy is brought up. Your figures comparing the Holocaust with the casualties of the American healthcare system are very accurate and reasonable. In fact, you should also figure in the staggering casualties of cut welfare, unemployment insurance and the death toll of homelessness. There is little difference between soft genocide and hard genocide. They are both genocide and a crime against humanity. The mere fact that this time the Nazis have learned that it is easier to get away with soft genocide doesn't make it any less of a crime; and, doesn't make Republicans anything less than Nazi cold blooded killers. All these monsters should be made to stand trial in The Hague
Oh and by the way, as Thom pointed out the other day, the U.S. imprisons about 50% more of its population than Russia, and between three and four times more than China! Home of the brave, land of the free... And these wars are protecting whose freedom, now? - AIW
Excellent, Bob! Take a bow. - AIW
I am currently reading Tim Taylor's comments on the speech given by Hansen before the AEC (?) in 1938. He,Hansen, makes some remarks which reminds me of your comment on the effect of lowering the top bracket of Income Taxes below 50%. My understanding of what you have explained in your experience is that when the top bracket is over 50%, the incentive for earners in that bracket, having excess incomes over their Samuelson necessities, will invest the excess or savings, into greater productive capacity. When the top bracket is less than 50%, the incentive is for the top earner to take more time for his hobbies, vacations, trips to Europe, or other leisure activities which he wants to enjoy. There is a reason why productivity in the Ford production facilities increased after the change in the standard work week to 40 hours per week that bears this out. Even the ordinary wage earner desires time for his family, his hobbies and his leisure activities and he will work harder if such time off is available. The apparent economic breakeven point is about 40 hour work per week and less than 10 hours of commute time per week (per Jay Forecaster’s "Urban Dynamics" conclusions).
Hansen stats in his speech that Secular Stagnation is dependent upon a reduction in population which had occurred as a result of families not having enough income to support additional children. However, my reading of the history of Germany's development from the 1873 through 1900 that one of the most important factors in rapid industrial development and economic growth of the economy is in the freely available education of the youth to the maximum potential and desires of the student. During this period of Germany's history, the Iron Chancellor, instituted several social changes in order to unify Germany. One of these and the most important was the increase in the education of the population by having "free" education. Another factor was the raising of the social level of the working class to the "middle" class by putting some responsibility of industrial management on the working class. This was achieved by having large corporations having 50% of their directors from working class unions. this is also demonstrated by the "rotation " of management positions practiced in the Mondragon movement in northern Spain. Check with Richard D. Wolff on this important managerial practice. Growth of population as well as growth in financial accumulation are not necessarily constructive in improving the overall economy of a country. I like the idea of cultural gifts to art museums, concert orchestras and bands by wealthy individuals. Carnegie’s recognition that his children would not use his potential wealth beneficially wound up giving the libraries of the U.S. gifts which had to be matched by the local communities to build libraries, an important cultural addition to community life and development. The practice today of reducing education and such cultural community features because the apparent costs are too high and the desire to reduce property taxes has been an important political development in the last few decades,plus the reduction in status of the teaching and professorship position reduces the potential for economic growth.
Nora, I agree with your basic premise. But I think that universal, comprehensive, cradle-to-grave healthcare, without barriers to care like co-pays & deductibles, are what is meant by Medicare For All: everybody-in-nobody-out. I'm certain this is what Bernie Sanders is talking about. We need only eliminate the profit factor entirely to make Medicare the kind of efficient, affordable, streamlined healthcare delivery system we all need and deserve. Long as the status quo exists, Medicare will never be comprehensive or even adequate. Meanwhile my husband & I have determined that our best defense is to lay off junk food, eat lots of veggies, stay active and trim... and pray. (SIGH...) - Aliceinwonderland
Yes, the slogan "Medicare for All" does not reflect an idea that has been thought through to a superior conclusion.
Medicare is way better than nothing. But Medicare is not comprehensive medical care.
The co-pays can still be prohibitive for those on a fixed income! The medical costs can still outdistance the Medicare participant's ability to meet co-pays resulting in a descent into pauperism. And this descent is rapid if you have any type of illness with high costs and so on.
Medical bankruptcy is an everyday tragedy in this country simply because our government continues to fail to provide the citizenry with UNIVERSAL COMPREHENSIVE BIRTH/CRADLE TO GRAVE healthcare coverage.
Ms. Metcalfe, I sure can relate. I was getting online solicitations from the GOP for awhile. How I wound up on their e-mail list is anyone's guess. For awhile I had fun sending flip, smart-ass replies, telling them to go to hell, to kiss my liberal ass, etc. etc. until finally, I got bored and hit the "unsubscribe" button. Of course that "unsubscribe" button is very tiny and hard to find, waaaay down at the bottom of the page... but it works. Haven't heard a peep from 'em since!
"Stecoop", thanks for the reply. This kind of feedback assures me that I'm not going crazy, becoming paranoid or suffering from delusions. Much appreciated!
As for Thom having to answer to "higher-ups" who might take offense, he oughta be the least likely to suffer such consequences. Being the only progressive talk radio host who actually owns the show from which he broadcasts, Thom should be fairly immune to that stuff compared to his colleagues.
I've heard Thom, several times, express disapproval of us drawing parallels to Nazi Germany. And while we have yet to reach the level of horror that Nazis are remembered for (on our home turf at least), these parallels are getting harder & harder to overlook. Privatization of the commons (schools, post office, the military, our media, the Internet, etc.), rampant hate rhetoric polluting our airwaves, the shredding of our safety net (with its tragic consequences), environmental destruction, eminent domain that serves private interests, pay-or-die healthcare extortion, de-regulation of banks, junk mortgages & mass foreclosures, rampant usury (and other forms of financial terrorism); Ayn Rand worship, corporate "personhood", corporate hijacking of state-run institutions, corporate control of our food supply, the "war on drugs", institutionalized child abuse, stop-and-frisk, indefinite detention without charge or trial, so-called "extraordinary rendition", Guantanamo, torture, murder-by-drone, the "war on women", the targeting of certain groups (Muslims, gays, blacks, immigrants, etc.), voter suppression and election fraud, attacks against unions and workers' rights, debtors' prisons, the militarization of our police forces, the militarism of our youth, Obama's Mafia-style hit list, our out-of-control spy dragnet, not to mention our military industrial complex with its long & growing list of war crimes... Not looking too good, is it? - AIW
YOU are so correct. The last time I signed a petition against the Republicans, I was inundated for 3 years by all the Republican propaganda they send out EVERY DAY! I kept telling them to take me off their e-mail lists, and it took them forever to finally give up on ever getting another response from me. I counted one day - 102 e-mails from every PAC they had, and from the Senators and Congress, too. I won't make that mistake again.
AIW - I'm no historian, but I have, for many years now, seen similarities between the rise of Nazism in pre-war Germany and events that are happening these days; the only real difference is the Nazis rose to power in less then a decade, where as our "parallel events" have thus far taken over three decades. The comparison is not at all unreasonable, and I wish Thom would dedicate at least one entire show to a discussion of the similarities. But he may have to answer to "higher-ups" who would probably take offense.
Right under Thom's introductory post is this photo of John Boehner on display with a caption that reads: "Tell John Boehner and Republicans to extend unemployment insurance." How many petitions like this have I signed already?! Telling a Republican to be nice to poor people is like telling a Nazi to be nice to the Jews. Now, I'm well aware that Thom tends to frown on such parallels involving Nazi Germany... but I look at it this way: 45,000 annual casualties from our uniquely American pay-or-die heatlhcare system adds up to nearly half a million per decade. Multiply that times two decades, three decades... If we can't find a way to put these insurance hacks out of business and rectify this problem, it's only a matter of time before we can count six million Americans murdered by healthcare denial.
Petitions, petitions, petitions... I'm getting petitioned out, folks. - Aliceinwonderland
Marc, I'm with you about Al Gore. While vice prez, he did nothing to counter Clinton's push for NAFTA, which is the real culprit behind the mass outsourcing of jobs in this country... not to mention the increased number of "illegal aliens" here thanks to NAFTA. I have way more trust in Elizabeth Warren than Mr. Gore. And by the way, I voted for Ralph Nader in the 2000 election; not Al Gore!
At the risk of sounding redundant, I repeat: without "move to amend" and campaign finance reform, we can forget about enacting any viable solutions for global warming. These must come first; without them, nothing else is possible. - Aliceinwonderland
P.S. By the way Marc, I signed Senator Franken's petition.
Taxation without representation! Wheeeee! - AIW
Thank you for your announcement today on your radio/Free Speech TV program that you find it hard to believe that a Republican could be a Christian. I too find that today’s Republican and the Righteous are mutually exclusive.