Obama’s 2014 State of the Union address will focus on income inequality

[JEDI]

http://thehill.com/homenews/adminis...te-of-the-union-to-focus-on-income-inequality

The president, who has yet to add to the big legislative accomplishments of his first term, will call for raising the minimum wage to $10 per hour and extending federal unemployment benefits that expired last month.

“Stake a beachhead as the champion for the middle class economic security, come hell or high water.”


i'm ok on raising the min wage. level playing field and all that.

no on extending federal unemployment benefits (again).
cant find a job in your field? take any job in the meantime!

 

[Vic]

I'm sure this thread will quickly devolve into how the poor are ripping us all off, but does anyone here actually know why income inequality is detrimental to a capitalist economy?

 

[Jaskalas]

Obama’s 2014 State of the Union address will focus on income inequality

Will we send more money to Wall-Street?

 

[LegendKiller]

Raising the minimum wage won't do shit to solve inequality. The answers are pretty simple.

1. Tax capital gains, no matter the source, as regular income.

2. Enact a reciprocal trade policy with all major "partners". That means that if there are any actions to make our goods more expensive, less available, or less competitive in the foreign market then we will do the same with their goods. Furthermore, any country that pegs their currency to the USD below a market derived price, then there will be tariffs put on those goods equivalent to the difference between the depressed and derived price.

3. Stop all payments, subsidies and medical care to illegal aliens without cash upfront. Tighten the border and deport all criminal illegal aliens for any infraction, even running a red light. Enforce illegal alien punishments rigorously and have them ratchet up for each successive infraction.

4. All welfare is mandated to be workfare past a certain period of time (2-3 years). If you want to stay on the dole, you work. No exceptions. Enact a CCC/TVA type program and have them refurbish national parks and build stuff.

Those four changes would be titanic in proportion to all of the other bullshit being peddled. None of the idiotic "fixes" being suggested by any of the blowhards will fix the issue.

Taxing income as income, homesourcing jobs, getting rid of graft and making people work (and gain pride in their work) is what needs to be done.

Of course the problems and solutions are far more complex and numerous but the above 4 would be a huge start.

 

[Londo_Jowo]

Raising the minimum wage won't do shit to solve inequality. The answers are pretty simple.

1. Tax capital gains, no matter the source, as regular income.

2. Enact a reciprocal trade policy with all major "partners". That means that if there are any actions to make our goods more expensive, less available, or less competitive in the foreign market then we will do the same with their goods. Furthermore, any country that pegs their currency to the USD below a market derived price, then there will be tariffs put on those goods equivalent to the difference between the depressed and derived price.

3. Stop all payments, subsidies and medical care to illegal aliens without cash upfront. Tighten the border and deport all criminal illegal aliens for any infraction, even running a red light. Enforce illegal alien punishments rigorously and have them ratchet up for each successive infraction.

4. All welfare is mandated to be workfare past a certain period of time (2-3 years). If you want to stay on the dole, you work. No exceptions. Enact a CCC/TVA type program and have them refurbish national parks and build stuff.

Those four changes would be titanic in proportion to all of the other bullshit being peddled. None of the idiotic "fixes" being suggested by any of the blowhards will fix the issue.

Taxing income as income, homesourcing jobs, getting rid of graft and making people work (and gain pride in their work) is what needs to be done.

Of course the problems and solutions are far more complex and numerous but the above 4 would be a huge start.

Outstanding post!!!!!

 

[Engineer]

Raising the minimum wage won't do shit to solve inequality. The answers are pretty simple.

1. Tax capital gains, no matter the source, as regular income.

2. Enact a reciprocal trade policy with all major "partners". That means that if there are any actions to make our goods more expensive, less available, or less competitive in the foreign market then we will do the same with their goods. Furthermore, any country that pegs their currency to the USD below a market derived price, then there will be tariffs put on those goods equivalent to the difference between the depressed and derived price.

3. Stop all payments, subsidies and medical care to illegal aliens without cash upfront. Tighten the border and deport all criminal illegal aliens for any infraction, even running a red light. Enforce illegal alien punishments rigorously and have them ratchet up for each successive infraction.

4. All welfare is mandated to be workfare past a certain period of time (2-3 years). If you want to stay on the dole, you work. No exceptions. Enact a CCC/TVA type program and have them refurbish national parks and build stuff.

Those four changes would be titanic in proportion to all of the other bullshit being peddled. None of the idiotic "fixes" being suggested by any of the blowhards will fix the issue.

Taxing income as income, homesourcing jobs, getting rid of graft and making people work (and gain pride in their work) is what needs to be done.

Of course the problems and solutions are far more complex and numerous but the above 4 would be a huge start.

I would vote for you for President.

 

[michal1980]

Raising the minimum wage won't do shit to solve inequality. The answers are pretty simple.

1. Tax capital gains, no matter the source, as regular income.

2. Enact a reciprocal trade policy with all major "partners". That means that if there are any actions to make our goods more expensive, less available, or less competitive in the foreign market then we will do the same with their goods. Furthermore, any country that pegs their currency to the USD below a market derived price, then there will be tariffs put on those goods equivalent to the difference between the depressed and derived price.

3. Stop all payments, subsidies and medical care to illegal aliens without cash upfront. Tighten the border and deport all criminal illegal aliens for any infraction, even running a red light. Enforce illegal alien punishments rigorously and have them ratchet up for each successive infraction.

4. All welfare is mandated to be workfare past a certain period of time (2-3 years). If you want to stay on the dole, you work. No exceptions. Enact a CCC/TVA type program and have them refurbish national parks and build stuff.

Those four changes would be titanic in proportion to all of the other bullshit being peddled. None of the idiotic "fixes" being suggested by any of the blowhards will fix the issue.

Taxing income as income, homesourcing jobs, getting rid of graft and making people work (and gain pride in their work) is what needs to be done.

Of course the problems and solutions are far more complex and numerous but the above 4 would be a huge start.

not bad

 

[boomerang]

More lies from our liar in chief. He has become oh so easy to just ignore after all this time. I'd love to watch his speech, but I'm thinking I'm going to have a toilet to plunge.

 

[senseamp]

Raising the minimum wage won't do shit to solve inequality. The answers are pretty simple.

1. Tax capital gains, no matter the source, as regular income.

2. Enact a reciprocal trade policy with all major "partners". That means that if there are any actions to make our goods more expensive, less available, or less competitive in the foreign market then we will do the same with their goods. Furthermore, any country that pegs their currency to the USD below a market derived price, then there will be tariffs put on those goods equivalent to the difference between the depressed and derived price.

3. Stop all payments, subsidies and medical care to illegal aliens without cash upfront. Tighten the border and deport all criminal illegal aliens for any infraction, even running a red light. Enforce illegal alien punishments rigorously and have them ratchet up for each successive infraction.

4. All welfare is mandated to be workfare past a certain period of time (2-3 years). If you want to stay on the dole, you work. No exceptions. Enact a CCC/TVA type program and have them refurbish national parks and build stuff.

Those four changes would be titanic in proportion to all of the other bullshit being peddled. None of the idiotic "fixes" being suggested by any of the blowhards will fix the issue.

Taxing income as income, homesourcing jobs, getting rid of graft and making people work (and gain pride in their work) is what needs to be done.

Of course the problems and solutions are far more complex and numerous but the above 4 would be a huge start.

Estates too.

 

[KeithP]

I'm sure this thread will quickly devolve into how the poor are ripping us all off, but does anyone here actually know why income inequality is detrimental to a capitalist economy?

I don't know but I bet even fewer know why taking from the rich won't fix the problem.

-KeithP

 

[waggy]

Raising the minimum wage won't do shit to solve inequality. The answers are pretty simple.

1. Tax capital gains, no matter the source, as regular income.

2. Enact a reciprocal trade policy with all major "partners". That means that if there are any actions to make our goods more expensive, less available, or less competitive in the foreign market then we will do the same with their goods. Furthermore, any country that pegs their currency to the USD below a market derived price, then there will be tariffs put on those goods equivalent to the difference between the depressed and derived price.

3. Stop all payments, subsidies and medical care to illegal aliens without cash upfront. Tighten the border and deport all criminal illegal aliens for any infraction, even running a red light. Enforce illegal alien punishments rigorously and have them ratchet up for each successive infraction.

4. All welfare is mandated to be workfare past a certain period of time (2-3 years). If you want to stay on the dole, you work. No exceptions. Enact a CCC/TVA type program and have them refurbish national parks and build stuff.

Those four changes would be titanic in proportion to all of the other bullshit being peddled. None of the idiotic "fixes" being suggested by any of the blowhards will fix the issue.

Taxing income as income, homesourcing jobs, getting rid of graft and making people work (and gain pride in their work) is what needs to be done.

Of course the problems and solutions are far more complex and numerous but the above 4 would be a huge start.

I agree that this would be a great start.

 

[Engineer]

I don't know but I bet even fewer know why taking from the rich won't fix the problem.

-KeithP

Then how to fix the problem as obviously, letting the rich keep more and more via lower taxes over the last 70 years has done nothing except cause the problem to get larger. If the rich (job creators) aren't willing to 'trickle down' the wealth on their own (by providing jobs here instead of offshoring them), people will look (right or wrong) to the government to get a piece of the pie (once that doesn't happen, people will gravitate to just taking it themselves).

 

[LegendKiller]

I don't know but I bet even fewer know why taking from the rich won't fix the problem.

-KeithP

The problem isn't taking from the rich, it is incentivizing them to spend the money elsewhere.

Why would an executive ask for $20mm/yr if the last 10mm of that was taxed at 70%? The executive will work just as hard for $10mm as he does for $20mm because $10mm is still a fuck-ton of money.

Taxing cap gains gets rid of the problem of options and stock benefits.

Why do you think companies are buying back so much stock at this point? Because cap gains taxes are cheaper than income taxes, so why pay dividends?

The whole thing is about motivation, remove motivation and they are either forced to pay dividends (and thus taxes) or invest the money in more people, spurring growth.

 

[Engineer]

The problem isn't taking from the rich, it is incentivizing them to spend the money elsewhere.

Why would an executive ask for $20mm/yr if the last 10mm of that was taxed at 70%? The executive will work just as hard for $10mm as he does for $20mm because $10mm is still a fuck-ton of money.

Taxing cap gains gets rid of the problem of options and stock benefits.

Why do you think companies are buying back so much stock at this point? Because cap gains taxes are cheaper than income taxes, so why pay dividends?

The whole thing is about motivation, remove motivation and they are either forced to pay dividends (and thus taxes) or invest the money in more people, spurring growth.

Again, :thumbsup:

 

[Vic]

Raising the minimum wage won't do shit to solve inequality. The answers are pretty simple.

1. Tax capital gains, no matter the source, as regular income.

2. Enact a reciprocal trade policy with all major "partners". That means that if there are any actions to make our goods more expensive, less available, or less competitive in the foreign market then we will do the same with their goods. Furthermore, any country that pegs their currency to the USD below a market derived price, then there will be tariffs put on those goods equivalent to the difference between the depressed and derived price.

3. Stop all payments, subsidies and medical care to illegal aliens without cash upfront. Tighten the border and deport all criminal illegal aliens for any infraction, even running a red light. Enforce illegal alien punishments rigorously and have them ratchet up for each successive infraction.

4. All welfare is mandated to be workfare past a certain period of time (2-3 years). If you want to stay on the dole, you work. No exceptions. Enact a CCC/TVA type program and have them refurbish national parks and build stuff.

Those four changes would be titanic in proportion to all of the other bullshit being peddled. None of the idiotic "fixes" being suggested by any of the blowhards will fix the issue.

Taxing income as income, homesourcing jobs, getting rid of graft and making people work (and gain pride in their work) is what needs to be done.

Of course the problems and solutions are far more complex and numerous but the above 4 would be a huge start.

1. Agreed. Passive income is still income.

2. Agreed.

3. Not so much. I question that the money saved would exceed the cost of enforcement. There would be significant (and costly) legal challenges as well, particularly surrounding any denial of medical care due to inability to pay up front.

4. I agree that welfare should be temporary but have reservations about workfare. Instead, I propose more infrastructure and education investment and growing jobs that way.

Getting the first 2 passed will be next to impossible with the tea party crowd.

 

[monovillage]

If you like your income inequality, you can keep your income inequality! Period.

 

[unokitty]

When the central domestic fact of your presidency was a fraud, people won't listen to you anymore.

No one's really listening to the president now. He has been for five years a nonstop windup talk machine. Most of it has been facile, bland, the same rounded words and rounded sentiments, the same soft accusations and excuses. I see him enjoying the sound of his voice as the network newsman leans forward eagerly, intently, nodding at the pearls, enacting interest, for this is the president and he is the anchorman and surely something important is being said with two such important men engaged.

But nothing interesting was being said! Looking back on this presidency, it has from the beginning been a 17,000 word New Yorker piece in which, calmly, sonorously, with his lovely intelligent voice, the president says nothing, or little that is helpful, insightful or believable. "I'm not a particularly ideological person." "It's hard to anticipate events over the next three years." "I don't really even need George Kennan right now." "I am comfortable with complexity." "Our capacity to do some good . . . is unsurpassed, even if nobody is paying attention."

Nobody is!

He gave a speech on the National Security Agency, that bitterly contested issue, the other day. Pew Research found half of those polled didn't notice. National Journal's Dustin Volz wrote that Americans greeted the speech with "collective indifference and broad skepticism." Of the 1 in 10 who'd followed it, more than 70% doubted his proposals would help protect privacy.

The bigger problem is that the president stands up there Tuesday night with ObamaCare not a hazy promise but a fact. People now know it was badly thought, badly written and disastrously executed. It was supposed to make life better by expanding coverage. It has made it worse, by throwing people off coverage. And—as we all know now but did not last year—the program was passed only with the aid of a giant lie. Now everyone knows if you liked your plan, your doctor, your deductible, you can't keep them.

When the central domestic fact of your presidency was a fraud, people won't listen to you anymore.

From my perspective, Peggy Noonan has already nailed it.

Uno

 

[Vic]

The problem isn't taking from the rich, it is incentivizing them to spend the money elsewhere.

Why would an executive ask for $20mm/yr if the last 10mm of that was taxed at 70%? The executive will work just as hard for $10mm as he does for $20mm because $10mm is still a fuck-ton of money.

Taxing cap gains gets rid of the problem of options and stock benefits.

Why do you think companies are buying back so much stock at this point? Because cap gains taxes are cheaper than income taxes, so why pay dividends?

The whole thing is about motivation, remove motivation and they are either forced to pay dividends (and thus taxes) or invest the money in more people, spurring growth.

:thumbup:

 

[JEDI]

1. Agreed. Passive income is still income.

2. Agreed.

3. Not so much. I question that the money saved would exceed the cost of enforcement. There would be significant (and costly) legal challenges as well, particularly surrounding any denial of medical care due to inability to pay up front.

4. I agree that welfare should be temporary but have reservations about workfare. Instead, I propose more infrastructure and education investment and growing jobs that way.

Getting the first 2 passed will be next to impossible with the tea party crowd.

thought Clinton changed welfare to last 5yrs total for that persons lifetime?

don't understand how the % of people that don't need to pay income taxes INCREASED to 47% after Clinton cut unlimited Welfare.

it should have dropped because people would be forced to find jobs instead of sitting at home watching Jerry Springer while waiting for the welfare check

 

[Engineer]

thought Clinton changed welfare to last 5yrs total for that persons lifetime?

don't understand how the % of people that don't need to pay income taxes INCREASED to 47% after Clinton cut unlimited Welfare.

it should have dropped because people would be forced to find jobs instead of sitting at home watching Jerry Springer

AFAIK, the Clinton welfare thing was repealed. As for the 47% comment, it has nothing to do with welfare, it has to do with wages being high enough to pay taxes on (after deductions and credits). Tax bracket thresholds are going up but pay isn't, pretty simple.

Also, the 47% is down to 43% and dropping and they do pay payroll taxes and income taxes, just not federal taxes.

 

[Vic]

Why is no one (not even Obama) talking about the deficit?

 

[Engineer]

Why is no one (not even Obama) talking about the deficit?

That's being saved for the next 'raise the debt ceiling hostage negotiations', coming up in February.

 

[Matt1970]

The problem isn't taking from the rich, it is incentivizing them to spend the money elsewhere.

Why would an executive ask for $20mm/yr if the last 10mm of that was taxed at 70%? The executive will work just as hard for $10mm as he does for $20mm because $10mm is still a fuck-ton of money.

Taxing cap gains gets rid of the problem of options and stock benefits.

Why do you think companies are buying back so much stock at this point? Because cap gains taxes are cheaper than income taxes, so why pay dividends?

The whole thing is about motivation, remove motivation and they are either forced to pay dividends (and thus taxes) or invest the money in more people, spurring growth.

You might have something there is our government wasn't horrifically bad at wasting money. Taking money from people we think are wasting it and not spending it the way they should (the rich) and putting it in the hands of people that have a track record of wasting it and not spending it the way they should (the government) doesn't seem like the solution to income inequality to me.

 

[Vic]

That's being saved for the next 'raise the debt ceiling hostage negotiations', coming up in February.

Which would have been this month except the government posted a $53 billion SURPLUS in December.
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/us-posts-53-billion-surplus-in-december-2014-01-13?link=MW_pulse

 

[IGBT]

your obama has no idea what the teleprompter writers will display on his glass..more then likely it will be lots of wordy verbatim designed to appease the popCulture meat heads that elected him. Lots of soaring wordy rhetoric that will support the ideological movement that the democrat party has become. No doubt there will be plenty of rhetorical support for the liberal grievance mongers and eco-KOOK coolers / warmers / mud puddle maggots / sky is falling mythologists. And he will thank the liberal gliteroty hollywood idiots for all the "entertainment propaganda" support he has received. And when it's over his willing accomplices in the media will spin / support / translate / interpret his soaring wordy BS.