Bravo coastal post.  Re taxes on the people--I know you recognize that
the huge SS tax is part of the tax burden (our betters insist, improperly
that it be included in the general fund).  This SS tax increase under
our newly sainted ex-pres, led to a major shift of tax burdern from
the wealthy to the other 99% of us.
wcm
>
> COASTAL POST
> (415)868 1600 FAX (415) 868 0502
> P.O. Box 31
> Bolinas CA 94924
> http://www.coastalpost.com
> email: [log in to unmask]
> June, 2000
>
>
>
>  The End or The Beginning?
>
> During what we are constantly told is a period of economic boom ,  the
> majority has slipped into deep debt, and often, even deeper mental
> depression. Were it not for the massive market in legal and illegal
> drugs in America, our dysfunctional families and even more
> dysfunctional highways might be the scenes of an even higher death toll.
> It’s all due to a dysfunctional  system.
>
> When Clinton took office in 1992, the top 1% of American households
> controlled 37.4% of the nation’s wealth. By 1999, their share  had gone
> up to 40.1%.
>
> Back in ‘92, the bottom 40% of households had .9% of the wealth. By ‘99,
> they had slipped to -.7%. That’s right, a negative figure, meaning they
> were in debt.
>
> Consumer debt has increased by more than 75% over those eight years, and
> it accounts for most of what we are told is the “boom” for average
> families. In truth, the top is doing better than ever, the bottom has
> dwindled by a fraction, and the middle is  doing  worse, since its wages
> have remained static, while its debt has skyrocketed.Three cheers for
> the “new” economics?
>
> During this same  period,  taxes on the average citizen have increased,
> while they have gone down for major corporations. This more unequal  tax
> system is attributable to our sham democracy, which finds more money
> poured into  politics, with greater representation for wealth , and less
> for everyone else. The  gap between classes in America has never been
> wider. But of course, we are not a class society.
>
> While ministers of the market lead their  parishioners in hymns praising
> profit,  growing numbers of citizens are at a loss to  find affordable
> health care or housing. But they are able to purchase affordable
> automobiles or  guns. They can use these to act out their frustrations
> over the  economic boom, which is busting them, and ruining the
> environment for even those few who profit. How much longer can this go
> on?
>
> We are  practicing  the most socially gross national behavior , in order
> to create the most socially  gross national product.
>
> Our dangerous and stupid nuclear arsenal  costs us billions, even after
> the legendary communist menace has vanished. We spend even more billions
> on weapons and armed forces that appear almost everywhere on the globe,
> and are appreciated almost nowhere on earth. We maintain poverty
> standards for much of our education and health care, while squandering
> our wealth on prisons and warfare.
>
> The same  forces which said It was wrong to put people in  death camps
> back in the 20th century, say that it is right to turn the   nation of
> Iraq into a giant death camp in the 21st century. Makes you wonder?
>
> A  system that can practice  murder and  call it peace , is a system
> that can impoverish billions and call it a triumph of  political
> economics. It can see itself as the center of progress , while pushing
> the planet closer to the edge of doom.  It can see the majority of the
> world go hungry while a minority goes on a diet, and interpret this as
> the triumph of capitalism .
>
> Ecological   disasters that are called “natural” are like the mass
> murders that are called peace keeping. These assaults on logic and
> language are based on a double standard inspired  by our warped
> interpretations of mythology and legend. The religious teachings that
> help some to find hope for mankind are interpreted by others in  ways
> that support the perpetuation of despair.
>
> Worship of market forces and the continued reliance on fossil fuels are
> an indication of the systemic unwillingness to treat resources as
> anything but things to be exploited for profits. Some  industry experts
> forecast that we’ve already  peaked in production, and that petroleum
> sources will be  in steep decline for the near future. That means prices
> will go up, even for subsidized Americans. The handwriting is on the
> wall, but few establishment leaders or their apologists seem able or
> willing to read.
>
> Thankfully, there is an international movement  that seems to want to
> create a new way of treating the world and its people. It speaks of
> putting them before the notion of profit, and  trying to resolve
> differences between nations in ways other than war. You’d never know
> that to listen to corporate capital’s  information ministry, which heaps
> ridicule and disrespect at any resistance, while praising the acceptance
> of madness as a sign of  sanity.
>
> But change is in the air. After a generation of attacks on government
> and the  notion of social responsibility, a comeback may be under way.
> The  heavy-handed assault of Thatcher and Reagan, followed by the
> smiley-faced theft of Clinton and Blair,  could be nearing its end.
>
> A sign of this is in the tiny nation of New Zealand. It has elected a
> woman prime minister on a platform of rejection for the “new” politics
> of neo-sadism, calling for a progressive return to concepts of  worker
> organizations, human rights, peace and social responsibility.
>
> The UN proclaimed 2000 the “International Year for the Culture of
> Peace”, and though you’d never know it from the behavior of the U.S. and
> its NATO flunkies , there are indications that the people of the world
> are responding.
>
>
> The less powerful and more numerous nations are banded together in the
> group of 77, which represents  the world’s developing majority and
> tries to counter  the minority masters of the planet. They  often find
> unity with  NGOs  from the euro-american north, whose system is the
> source of most global problems. That north could also play a major role
> in solving those problems, if democratic efforts can bring it  to its
> collective senses. The hope of the future may reside in the strength of
> the democratic impulse in that developed world.
>
>     Copyright (c) 2000 by Frank Scott. All rights reserved.
>
>              This text may be used and shared in accordance with the
>              fair-use provisions of U.S. copyright law, and it may be
>            archived and redistributed in electronic form, provided that
>             the author is notified and no fee is charged for access.
>            Archiving, redistribution, or republication of this text on
>           other terms, in any medium, requires the consent of the author
> .
>
>
> frank scott
> http://www.marin.cc.ca.us/~frank
> email: [log in to unmask]
> 225 laurel place, san rafael ca. 94901
> (415)457 2415   fax(415)457 4791
>
>
> I
>