I have seen this brought up several times. The Russians were imprisoning people that had not committed any crimes. The US does not (generally speaking, I am sure a tiny, tiny minority of prisoners are actually innocent). That is a huge difference. The US could have an incarceration rate 100 times higher than Soviet gulags, and the Soviets would still be worse. The problem was not the number or percentage of the people, it was the incarceration of Stalin's political enemies. They could not avoid the gulags. In the US, all you have to do to avoid prison is not break the law.
To be fair, they imprisoned people for things that aren't crimes in America, IOW things that shouldn't be crimes. I would argue that we are incarcerating a lot of people for things that shouldn't be crimes (possession of drugs as an example) and the result has been the highest incarceration rate in the world.
Occupy Wallstreet needs to man up and go occupy Alan Greenspan's house. Maybe they can occupy the houses of every treasury secretary for the past 20 years while they are at it.
I love this constant effort by our conservative brothers to try and redirct the anger of OWS back to government. just kills me!
Are you saying the govt hasn't been tied to helping big business and especially the big banks and former investment banks? The conflicts of interest with our treasury secretaries is painfully obvious. Also, the Fed still is not technically the government. And can you please not call me conservative. I live a life that is pretty far from that
I stand corrected. And no, I'm not saying gov hasn't had a hand in the mess we find ourselves in now. Far from it. OWS is equal parts protest of government and corporations. Institutions in place that have been geared towards 1% of our population. No one is asking about handouts or entitlements. Just that everyone pays their fair share. Everyone. If corporations are people then they should pay taxes like people. Stop the loopholes. Doesn't it freak your **** that 75 of the largest companies in America paid less taxes than you did the last two years?
<iframe width="480" height="360" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/pW8Qeprahcs" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> looks like a post-apocalyptic warzone
http://money.cnn.com/2011/11/03/news/economy/corporate_taxes/index.htm?hpt=hp_c1 Many companies pay no income taxes, study finds NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- The corporate tax rate is 35%. But an examination of 280 of the nation's largest corporations suggests that many aren't paying anything close to that. The real tax rate paid by a slew of major corporations averages closer to 18.5%, according to a study released Thursday by two liberal tax research groups. The report issued by Citizens for Tax Justice and the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy paints the corporate tax code as wildly inefficient, filled with loopholes and subject to the influence of lobbyists who carve out special provisions for the companies they represent. The study looked at 280 companies in the Fortune 500 that were profitable for all three years between 2008 and 2010. The results: 111 companies paid effective tax rates of less than 17.5% over the three-year period; 98 paid a rate between 17.5% and 30%; and 71 paid more than 30%. The average rate? 18.5%. Some companies paid zero. And 30 actually owed less than nothing in income taxes over the three years. How does that happen? At the root of the problem is a system of inverted incentives that encourages corporations to lobby for special tax breaks -- and politicians to insert them into the tax code. Corporations pay lobbyists. Lobbyists convince lawmakers to add tax breaks. Lawmakers modify the tax code. It wasn't always like this. The corporate tax code was cleaned of special tax breaks during the Reagan administration. The clean slate didn't last long, and over time, special provisions have been added back in. NASCAR racetrack owners are allowed to write off the costs of their racetracks. There's the sweet deal for companies that make Puerto Rican rum. Some of the biggest breaks go to companies that are allowed to write off investments in equipment more quickly than they actually depreciate. The American tax machine And certain companies enjoy incentives geared specifically at their businesses. The oil and gas industry, for example, is allowed to write off some drilling and exploration expenses. All the breaks add up -- sometimes eliminating a company's tax burden altogether. Other companies reported so many "excess tax breaks" that their tax burden went "negative," the study said. According to the study, utility Pepco Holdings and conglomerate General Electric have the highest negative income tax rates. Pepco's profits totaled $882 million over the three-year period, while the company had a negative tax rate of 57.6%. GE earned $10.5 billion, with a negative rate of 45.3%, according to the study. Pepco (POM, Fortune 500) said Thursday that it always operates within the law, and that the IRS audits every income tax return filed by the company. "Pepco Holdings pays all its required taxes, including but not limited to income, sales, use, property, and gross receipts taxes, in all the taxing jurisdictions within which it operates," the company said in a statement. The truth about GE's tax bill GE (GE, Fortune 500), which runs an extremely complicated multi-national operation, took issue with the study, calling it "inaccurate and distorted." "GE paid billions of dollars in taxes in the United States over the last decade, and we expect our overall tax rate will be approximately 30% in 2011," the company said in a statement. "We believe the U.S. tax system needs to be reformed to close all loopholes, to lower the corporate rate and to provide a territorial system like every other major country in the world." GE is not alone in calling for reform. Most lawmakers acknowledge the system is broken. President Obama called for corporate tax reform in his State of the Union address and the concept has support among lawmakers on both sides of the aisle. The idea of reform is to lower the corporate tax rate while greatly scaling back tax breaks, loopholes and other provisions of the tax code that allow most corporate income to avoid taxation. Despite the general consensus that something must be done, lawmakers are not likely to tackle the issue anytime soon. It's possible that the congressional super committee, now trying to find a way to cut the deficit, will make reform recommendations. But don't count on too much action. The political atmosphere on Capitol Hill has prevented movement on many fiscal and tax issues in recent months. Daniel Shaviro, a tax professor at New York University School of Law, said he doesn't anticipate big changes in the corporate tax code, at least in the near term. "There is widespread sympathy for lowering the corporate rates," Shaviro said. "But I I tend to doubt it happens anytime soon."
I agree that possession of drugs should not be a crime (nor should sales or use). That is a political position that is not widely held though, and it is much different to be imprisoned for using a banned substance than it is for holding a political viewpoint that runs counter to the powers that be. Incarcerating people for what the elected representatives have voted to consider crimes is nothing at all like shipping political dissidents off to Siberia. To try to draw an equivalency between them as NS did is asinine. I am just pointing out that comparing the US prison system to gulags at all is meaningless. It would be like saying, "The US spends more money on weapons than even the Nazis." What does that have to do with anything? The reason the Nazis were bad was not the amount they spent on weapons. The reason the Soviets were bad had nothing to do with the number of people in prison, it had to do with WHY they were imprisoned.
This is a brilliant point by the way. I actually was about to agree with S.M. on this one until I read this post.
I am beginning to feel that there needs to be some message consolidation in OWS. I don't mean this in the sense of the airhead pundits and right-wing who keep saying "But, what do they want?" Rather, I mean that the cause has been noticed. The grievances cannot be ignored by anybody who has received a paycheck in the last twenty years or had their benefits snatched out from under them. It is class warfare, as if that were such a bad thing in this day and age. What I mean is that there must be some kind of coherent, sympathetic and populist next step in terms of messaging. A reason that Tea Part messages work so well and are so easily digested by those who don't think critically is that they are simple and oft-repeated; Socialized medicine! Socialized medicine! Socialized medicine! And rather than offer any type of solution, it seizes upon peoples' desire to complain instead of solve. It's much easier that way. I recognize that this is truly an organic movement with hardly a Koch brother to be seen on the pay stub. And I know that different localities have different aims and goals. But by being so inclusive and wary of jeopardizing the movement's organic nature, the fringe is allowed to linger on the edges. That's part I the reason why anarchists pounced last night. It's part of the reason why Occupy Oakland had been referring to the encampment as "Oscar Grant Plaza" (Grant was killed by BART police last year and a small group has been protesting BART ever since). But by allowing a group like the BART protestors to be so vocal in their chapter, Occupy Oakland - and not to mention having rioting associated with it now - is making it that much harder for he movement to gain more traction nationally. People everywhere are frustrated, but by bringing in so many different, leftward causes it's difficult to spread. Americans have proven that we have short memories and like simplicity. Liberals are finally getting this by repeating "We are the 99%!" but it must be repeated. It's only when our system changes and our government is no longer synonymous with corporate interests that little things and hyper-local issues can be addresses. America is too large of a country and we need a message that can be repeated everywhere.
ROBBIE The government has been co-opted by Wall Street money: Campaign Donations, PAC Money buying Propaganda Campaigns, Lobbyist buying influence; K Street Law Firms paid by Wall Street to directly author legislation, designing in the tax shelters and loop holes. Extra! Extra! Read all about it! It's the money! Follow the money! It's Wall Street. That's where the money is. Yes, the people have to take back the elective power but to do that, they have make people understand that they have lost the power of choice to Wall Street. It controls their choice by controlling the narrative, controlling the focus of attention (on what probably isn't of real importance like a constitutional amendment on flag burning) by controling the choices (like funding the Tea Party) with propaganda (like "clean" coal). It is an all out Orwellian battle for the consciousness of the American population. And frankly the favored bet is Wall Street, with the surprise upset possibility being the rise of social networking. Good Luck Peoples!
Hey I've told you my opinion on things. Break up the too big to fail banks. Reinstate Glass Steagall. Cut out the loopholes in the tax code. Term limits. Major campaign finance reform. Etc... And the govt has been co-opted by stupidity and reliance on people that they assume to be the smartest men in the room aka the guys who run the Fed. I mean if you look at the past 10 years how many of the failed economy policies have stemmed from the Fed?
So when I said it was the money, that corporations are organized to be efficient in making money, they are only held to the legal requirements that limit them from making more money, have no moral limits, can use their money to reduce perfectly just limits and taxes, that they are mindless sharks that eat to get stronger, to eat to get stronger, so the CEO and Board can produce and ensure superior progeny with their trophy wives as is their evolutionary instinct ..... it's a question of a complex legislative package? (I'm actually a OWS recruiter trying to make my quota )
up twinkles! <div style="background-color:#000000;width:520px;"><div style="padding:4px;"><embed src="http://media.mtvnservices.com/mgid:cms:item:comedycentral.com:401092" width="512" height="288" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowFullScreen="true" allowScriptAccess="always" base="." flashVars=""></embed><p style="text-align:left;background-color:#FFFFFF;padding:4px;margin-top:4px;margin-bottom:0px;font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:12px;"><b><a href="http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/401092/october-31-2011/colbert-super-pac---occupy-wall-street-co-optportunity---stephen-on-location">The Colbert Report</a></b><br/>Get More: <a href='http://www.colbertnation.com/full-episodes/'>Colbert Report Full Episodes</a>,<a href='http://www.indecisionforever.com/'>Political Humor & Satire Blog</a>,<a href='http://www.colbertnation.com/video'>Video Archive</a></p></div></div>
