If Corporations Are People and People Pay Taxes Then...

[Indy]

Wow my thread from July got bumped? Oooookay.

However it is topical in light of today's news.

Prof your statement is more inadvertently true than you realize. I remember when that movie came out how appalled people were at the sentiment of "Greed is good." Now, that's basically the playbook for Wall St. Literally, these guys quote that without irony.

But the quote you mentioned is exactly the problem: they create nothing--they own. Or they sit on their money. Yet portray themselves as "job creators," with no jobs created as evidence.

One of the most telling examples I've witnessed was in a film where some super-rich guy was talking about how this can't continue or else the pitchforks and torches will eventually come out from all the have-nots.

He pointed out he can only buy so many cars or so many pairs of jeans--all those millions he has in the bank aren't going into the economy, they're just accumulating interest.

And that's the point: the economy booms when you have a middle class buying stuff (like in the 90s). When you transfer all the wealth to the top 10% and they just sit on it--well, what did anybody THINK was going to be the result of that?

[Mr. Shaman]

[Mr. Shaman]

[Indy]

When you point this out, the standard response is, yes: class warfare!

Or:

-Yew hate rich people
-Yer just jealous
-Why do yew hate capitalism?
-Socialist!