Poor people pay more taxes than rich people

read here.

High top tax rates = growing economy

Someone very clever (Mike Kimel) graphed top tax rates vs. economic growth. Someone else graphed median tax rate vs. economic growth. This median rate included all taxes, not just income. Tax rate and gdp are correllated, if you're curious, and the winning median tax rate is 25% and the best top tax rate is 65%. So. raise the rates on the wealthy and drop them on the middle class already.

Here's the fascinating work.

Dallin Oaks (paraphrased) We don't like gays and we're not sorry about it.

Long, long article here about aversion therapy at BYU. Hint, the participants had to sign releases stating that they knew that they would be shocked and that they would be given pornography to view. The reading is not for the faint of heart or stomach.

The picture is of Brigham Morris Young, Brigham Young's son.

Dallin Oaks, then, here, here, and here; in the thick of things.

Dallin Oaks, now:
"The aversive therapies that have been used in connection with same-sex attraction have contained some serious abuses that have been recognized over time within the professions," Oaks says. "While we have no position about what the medical doctors do, we are conscious that there are abuses and we don't accept responsibility for those abuses."

Notice that Apostle Oaks doesn't say that he didn't know what was happening; he doesn't say that he discouraged (or encouraged) showing pornography to suicidal kids while shocking their genitals (and now shocking our consciousnesses), he merely says that it isn't his fault.

Looking at this in a lawyerly fashion, this non-apology is pretty close to an admittance, and a refusal to be accountable for his actions.

Wet Joseph or in a cage match vote for the "wicked boys" over God

“To convince the unbelievers that he [Joseph Smith] did possess supernatural powers he announced that he would walk upon the water. The performance was to take place in the evening, and to the astonishment of unbelievers, he did walk upon the water where it was known to be several feet deep, only sinking a few inches below the surface. This proving a success, a second trial was announced which bid fair to be as successful as the first, but when he had proceeded some distance into the river he suddenly went down, greatly to the disgust of himself and proselytes, but to the great amusement of the unbelievers. It appeared on examination that plank were laid in the river a few inches below the surface, and some wicked boys had removed a plank which caused the prophet to go down like any other mortal.”(Hamilton Child's Gazetteer and Business Directory of Chenango County, NY for 1869-70)

Ah, Italy

I ran across this building picture serendipitiously. Where's it from? Dunno; but the pic name itself is italian. And the building is lovely. More of this in the USA, please.

Things don't change

“An imbalance between rich and poor is the oldest and most fatal ailment of all republics.” -- Plutarch

Blues and Bach for Easter

I have been attempting to find a mighty fine blues song to celebrate Easter. But, unless your Jesus is a backdoor man, the pickings are mighty slim. Here's something beautiful, biblical, and not even blasphemous.


Bach, handily enough, wrote a legitimate Easter oratorio (BWV 249, for those keeping track), and it is stunning. Here's a taste:

Wonder if he'd be more popular today if his name were easier to spell

Reinhold Niebuhr, "Moral Man & Immoral Society", written in 1932, describes this moment in US history:

[A] laissez faire economic theory is maintained in an industrial era through the ignorant belief that the general welfare is best served by placing the least possible political restraints upon economic activity. ... Its survival is due to the ignorance of those who suffer injustice from the application of this theory to modern industrial life but fail to attribute their difficulties to the social anarchy and political irresponsibility which the theory sanctions. Their ignorance permits the beneficiaries of the present anarchic industrial system to make dishonest use of the waning prestige of laissez faire economics. The men of power in modern industry would not, of course, capitulate simply because the social philosophy by which they justify their policies had been discredited. When power is robbed of the shining armor of political, moral and philosophical theories, by which it defends itself, it will fight on without armor; but it will be more vulnerable, and the strength of its enemies is increased.

When economic power desires to be left alone it uses the philosophy of laissez faire to discourage political restraint upon economic freedom. When it wants to make use of the police power of the state to subdue rebellions and discontent in the ranks of its helots, it justifies the use of political coercion and the resulting suppression of liberties by insisting that peace is more precious than freedom and that its only desire is social peace… If psychological and social scientists overestimate the possibilities of improving social relations by the development of intelligence, that may be regarded as an understandable naiveté of rationalists, who naturally incline to attribute too much power to reason and to recognise its limits too grudgingly. Men will not cease to be dishonest merely because their dishonesties have been revealed or because they have discovered their own deceptions. Whenever men hold unequal power in society, they will strive to maintain it. They will use whatever means are most convenient to that end and will seek to justify them by the most plausible arguments they are able to devise.

Founding Fathers more socialist than you might think

The founding fathers were well aware of the problems with great disparities in income and took steps to make life more equal for all.

"In a letter to James Madison in 1785, for instance, Thomas Jefferson suggested that taxes could be used to reduce “the enormous inequality” between rich and poor. He wrote that one way of “silently lessening the inequality of property is to exempt all from taxation below a certain point, and to tax the higher portions of property in geometrical progression as they rise.” "

“The rich alone use imported articles, and on these alone the whole taxes of the general government are levied,” Jefferson wrote in 1811. “The poor man, who uses nothing but what is made in his own farm or family, will pay nothing. (With) our revenues applied to canals, roads, schools, etc., the farmer will see his government supported, his children educated and the face of his country made a paradise by the contributions of the rich alone, without his being called on to spend a cent from his earnings.”

from Here.

Why Wealth Flows Up

I've been trying to figure out why the wealthy get wealthier unless there's some strong societal pressure to keep things even kind of equal. Turns out I'm not the only one. Here's a study, complete with calculus, explaining all about it.

http://www.growthcommission.org/storage/cgdev/documents/EquityandGrowth/Bowles.pdf

Basically, the answer is inheritance. And capital. If you have inherited money, then you can use that money to make more money--you have a head start. Inheriting social position is at least as useful, in that you have a built-in set of people to help you along.

Here's an article discussing wealth inheritance specifically in the US. http://www.economicmobility.org/assets/pdfs/EMP_LitReview_Wealth.pdf It comes to the conclusion that between 45% and 80% of all US wealth is inherited. Nice, if you choose your parents carefully enough.

And, another paper: http://www.nber.org/~denardim/research/denardi.pdf

Have I mentioned lately how good it is to be rich?

The real beneficiaries of the explosion in income for top earners since the 1970s has been not the top 1 per cent but the top 0.1 per cent of the general population. Since 1974, the share of national income of the top 0.1 per cent of Americans has grown from 2.7 to 12.3 per cent of the total, a truly mind-boggling level of redistribution from the have-nots to the haves.

From The London Review of Books.

If our sons die to protect their interests they should have to pay more taxes.

That's what it is, after all.  The whole weight of the American military is used to protect the interests of the wealthy amongst us, and to enhance (through privatization) those interests.  Gah.  Tax the wealthy some reasonable amount. And reinstate the estate tax to some reasonable level. 

Badly done drawing of how much fun it is to be Halliburton feedback loop:

If people die for you, actually die for you and your interests, don't you owe them something?

Bach my way

It's a new world; I follow where his fugues go. It's a rather windy road. Along one of those turns, I ran across "Sacred Masterpieces/Cantatas," a 22 CD set of Bach's church music; including the magisterial Mass in B minor and the equally adjective-worthy St. Matthew's Passion. Along with a harpsichord-full of motets, odes, cantatas and the occasional piece Bach would dash off at lunch. 53 bucks. Everyone run out right now. I don't have the money, but I could not resist. Imagine zombie djinn muttering "Bach" when all the other zombies are saying "brains" and looking at me funny.

Willard Milton Romney

Is running for president. I think there should be a truth in names act, to go along with the new Arizona birther bill. But wait! Romney hasn't released his birth certificate yet, so maybe he can't run in Arizona. Where was he born? Detroit? Really? But his dad was born in Mexico. Milton is clearly as much an illegal alien as Obama. I sense a controversy. Sorry, Willard.

Choice is bad.

Not that kind of choice; that's wonderful, magical, and life-saving. Bad choice is me with Blogger templates. So many choices; so many of them terrible.