I think we all can agree that gas prices are ridiculously high. Who does this affect the most? The poor. This answer seems easy enough right? And it is true. But why does it affect the poor the most? Is it due to their lack of disposable income? In part. In addition to the lack of disposable income, their geographical location also plays a role.
Gentrification is the root of the problem for poor people in regard to gas prices.
Gentrification: is the term referring to displacement that results when wealthier people acquire property in low income and working class communities. The average income increases and the average family size decreases, which sometimes results in evictions of low income residents because of rent increases, house prices, and property tax.
In the mid to late 90s urban gentrification became a major focus in many large metropolitan areas such as New York, Los Angeles, Miami, and Houston to name a few. Back in the 80s and early 90s the city was where you could find most, if not all, of the impoverished families. Along with the problems poverty stricken communities face (i.e. drugs and violence). Consequently it was really inexpensive to live in the city. During this same period most of the affluent families lived in the suburbs and commuted to the city for work.
What were the gas price during the period in which the rich resided in the suburbs? 95,97,98,99 cents per gallon. Lets pause for a moment as we reflect on the good ole days........Ok back to the subject. Have you ever priced a condo in downtown Houston? No? Well don't its very depressing. Which is why the poor and the middle class now live in the suburbs. Now that gentrification has taken hold of many downtown areas, the wealthy families no longer need to drive as much. On the other hand the poor and middle class have to drive miles into the city to get work. They are really feeling the crush of 4 and 5 dollar per gallon gas prices.
Why are the gas prices so high? Is it the instability in the Middle East? No, there has always been instability in the Middle East. Is it the war? No, in the early 90s, even with Kuwait's oil wells on fire we didn't see such ridiculous prices (Persian Gulf War). Is it demand? No, demand has went up but so has oil production. Then why are the gas prices so high? It's the intentional price manipulation by speculators in the market in an attempt to keep the rich rich and the poor poor. Gas should, based on "real" supply and demand, not be over $1.80. By investing billions of dollars into big oil the rich are creating an artificial demand which consequently drives up the price of oil per barrel. So while the less fortunate are spending all of their disposable income on fuel, leaving them little or no money to invest or save, the rich are living in their penthouses in the city, not driving as much, investing their disposable income in the oil market and benefiting from terminal plight of the poor.
In closing, it is clear that these oil prices are unbearable. What is not so clear is the lack of effort by our government to curtail this growing atrocity. It is an apparent manipulation of our capitalist system, which is contributing to the wealth gap. What ever the rich can't cheat their way out of in tax loopholes, they get back, and even more, in market manipulations. If this problem goes on unattended, we will continue to see a mass redistribution of wealth. Socialism for the rich. God Bless America.
Thursday, April 28, 2011
Wednesday, April 13, 2011
Political Insanity: Tax and Debt
Taxes are a government's way of raising revenue in order to reinvest in its people. Without taxes the government can not provide basic services like healthcare, education, defense etc... In the United States we have a very serious problem; our government spends alot of money, but we tax very little. There is no way that this type of course is sustainable. This is not politics, its math. As a county we are over 14 trillion dollars in debt(14,000,000,000,000 just so you can see the number).
In order to close this obtuse gap we are going to have to attack it from both ends, cutting spending and raising taxes. First lets address spending. We are pumping boatloads of money into Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security and Defense. These programs if unchanged by 2040 will take up approximately 89 percent of the budget. So doesn't it seem logical to start there? Nope, not what our politicians think. Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security are entitlement programs so I can kinda understand the ambivalency here, but in regard to defense there shouldn't be any. We are currently fighting 3 wars. Totally unacceptable. We have a military base in Italy. Really? Could someone tell me why we are in Italy? How about we end some of these wars, close some of the totally geographically impractically located bases, cease occupations of countries that don't want us there, and put an end to this prehistoric imperialistic ideology. America, just like individuals, if you are shining and taking care of your business you are going to have haters every now and then. The key is not consume yourself with the haters and exhaust all your resources to the point where you destroy yourself. In this scenario the haters win. Lets stop trying to nation build elsewhere when right here in America there were over 30 million people unemployed. But thats another story. Back to the tax and debt issue. By cutting defense, America will be on the right path in reference to fiscal responsibility.
Educationally, America has fallen several notches on the global stage. Fact! Conservatives want to cut the education budget. Fact! I personally have several colleagues that are teachers and they have very serious doubts about their job security. Since when did teachers have to worry about their jobs? If we are on a steady decline when it comes to educational successes, why are we cutting the education budget? Statically speaking people that receive a poor education or no education are more likely to end up on social programs, commit crimes, and consequently increase the financial burden on the government (increase debt). In order to secure this country's intellectual and fiscal future, I have a novel idea: increase teacher pay so that teachers will be motivated to teach and stop threatening the future of their careers, which are predicated on the success of students on unfair standardized examinations. We should be try to be SMART when it comes to education.
The aforementioned issues are just a couple of the many that I feel a certain group of politicians have backwards. Now for the big one. Our leaders are refusing to raise taxes on the rich. They would much rather fire teachers, defund planned parenthood, and stop supplying heating oil to less fortunate families in the winter. Are you kidding me? Planned Parenthood was the program where many politicians drew the line in the sand. Lol. Might I remind you we are 14 trillion dollars in debt. The budget on Planned Parenthood is only 1 billion dollars, which is miniscule relatively speaking. I understand that we have to start somewhere, but "come on man". When you are not even willing to address the 600 billion dollar defense budget, but you are telling me that the real debate is over Planned Parenthood, I cant help but think that either you are a compulsive liar or you think me to be an absolute idiot; neither of which are acceptable conclusions.
Why not raise taxes on the rich? When I say raise tax on the rich, i'm simply saying return the tax rate to where it was in the 90s'. During that period there were over 20 million new jobs created and was one of the most prosperous periods of the 20th century. Everyone likes prosperity right? Not true. A certain political party thinks its cool when only rich people prosper. If the middle class is prosperous or the income gap is shrinking theres a problem. We tried the current tax rate for 8 years, and the period ended in a recession. This is not politics its common sense. These people are wealthy they can afford to pay more than the middle class and the poor whom have seen their net income decrease for the first time in 5 generations. Why is this so contemptable? Why must the Democrats continue to capitulate on this issue? We have to raise taxes and cut spending if we are serious about the debt and deficit.
I would like end with this conversation I had with a stranger.
Me: The rich can afford to pay more taxes than middle class or poor, we should raise the rate.
Her: We have high unemployment and i've never seen a poor person hire anybody.
Me: And i've never seen a rich person pay taxes.
Republicans complain about how high the corporate tax rate is, but the reality of the matter is that they never pay them anyway. GE, 14 billion in profits, paid no taxes. You mean to tell me I paid more than GE? Unacceptable. Please forgive my fatigue with this issue of debt. In the paraphrased words of the great Dennis Miller in regard to whoever owe the debt to "F*ck it dont pay'em".
In order to close this obtuse gap we are going to have to attack it from both ends, cutting spending and raising taxes. First lets address spending. We are pumping boatloads of money into Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security and Defense. These programs if unchanged by 2040 will take up approximately 89 percent of the budget. So doesn't it seem logical to start there? Nope, not what our politicians think. Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security are entitlement programs so I can kinda understand the ambivalency here, but in regard to defense there shouldn't be any. We are currently fighting 3 wars. Totally unacceptable. We have a military base in Italy. Really? Could someone tell me why we are in Italy? How about we end some of these wars, close some of the totally geographically impractically located bases, cease occupations of countries that don't want us there, and put an end to this prehistoric imperialistic ideology. America, just like individuals, if you are shining and taking care of your business you are going to have haters every now and then. The key is not consume yourself with the haters and exhaust all your resources to the point where you destroy yourself. In this scenario the haters win. Lets stop trying to nation build elsewhere when right here in America there were over 30 million people unemployed. But thats another story. Back to the tax and debt issue. By cutting defense, America will be on the right path in reference to fiscal responsibility.
Educationally, America has fallen several notches on the global stage. Fact! Conservatives want to cut the education budget. Fact! I personally have several colleagues that are teachers and they have very serious doubts about their job security. Since when did teachers have to worry about their jobs? If we are on a steady decline when it comes to educational successes, why are we cutting the education budget? Statically speaking people that receive a poor education or no education are more likely to end up on social programs, commit crimes, and consequently increase the financial burden on the government (increase debt). In order to secure this country's intellectual and fiscal future, I have a novel idea: increase teacher pay so that teachers will be motivated to teach and stop threatening the future of their careers, which are predicated on the success of students on unfair standardized examinations. We should be try to be SMART when it comes to education.
The aforementioned issues are just a couple of the many that I feel a certain group of politicians have backwards. Now for the big one. Our leaders are refusing to raise taxes on the rich. They would much rather fire teachers, defund planned parenthood, and stop supplying heating oil to less fortunate families in the winter. Are you kidding me? Planned Parenthood was the program where many politicians drew the line in the sand. Lol. Might I remind you we are 14 trillion dollars in debt. The budget on Planned Parenthood is only 1 billion dollars, which is miniscule relatively speaking. I understand that we have to start somewhere, but "come on man". When you are not even willing to address the 600 billion dollar defense budget, but you are telling me that the real debate is over Planned Parenthood, I cant help but think that either you are a compulsive liar or you think me to be an absolute idiot; neither of which are acceptable conclusions.
Why not raise taxes on the rich? When I say raise tax on the rich, i'm simply saying return the tax rate to where it was in the 90s'. During that period there were over 20 million new jobs created and was one of the most prosperous periods of the 20th century. Everyone likes prosperity right? Not true. A certain political party thinks its cool when only rich people prosper. If the middle class is prosperous or the income gap is shrinking theres a problem. We tried the current tax rate for 8 years, and the period ended in a recession. This is not politics its common sense. These people are wealthy they can afford to pay more than the middle class and the poor whom have seen their net income decrease for the first time in 5 generations. Why is this so contemptable? Why must the Democrats continue to capitulate on this issue? We have to raise taxes and cut spending if we are serious about the debt and deficit.
I would like end with this conversation I had with a stranger.
Me: The rich can afford to pay more taxes than middle class or poor, we should raise the rate.
Her: We have high unemployment and i've never seen a poor person hire anybody.
Me: And i've never seen a rich person pay taxes.
Republicans complain about how high the corporate tax rate is, but the reality of the matter is that they never pay them anyway. GE, 14 billion in profits, paid no taxes. You mean to tell me I paid more than GE? Unacceptable. Please forgive my fatigue with this issue of debt. In the paraphrased words of the great Dennis Miller in regard to whoever owe the debt to "F*ck it dont pay'em".
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