"The rich are on strike" - Romney and his allies say the economy will come back if he wins

[Politicub]

These words from an article on salon.com have haunted me all day.

There have been so many wake up calls this election season, but this idea puts the stakes in such stark relief - the rich will continue to hold the economy hostage. It makes my blood boil. The fact that the rich even have this much power is disgusting.

If Romney wins and a GOP majority controls both houses of congress, the poor and middle class will be taxed to the bone so the rich can have their taxes cut. Who will stop them?

I honestly can't wrap my mind around the wealth transfer that has already happened... how corporations became people and limits on political contributions were abolished... the swift gutting of women's rights by the states... the house GOP majority's naked obstructionism.

Equally as mind boggling is the media narrative that rose so swiftly that says Biden was "hostile" and "angry," while Romney's disrespectful debate performance was judged to be the second coming of Lincoln... the Koch and Adelson billions being spent to game elections... a GOP candidate who openly mocks the 47 percent and is within striking distance of the White House.

It's as if we're characters in a political thriller novel. But unless I'm asleep and having a nightmare right now, it's all real.

Had to get all of this out of my head. I don't know what I would do without my kindred spirits on DU.

[sadbear]

1. Holding the economy hostage, huh?

Sorry, Rmoney. We don't negotiate with terrorists.

[Politicub]

2. Right on!

[Raster]

5. That is EXACTLY what has been taking place!

And then of course the rethuglican TRAITORS IN CONGRESS that pledged to do whatever necessary to make President Obama a on-term President, EVEN IF IT HURT THE COUNTRY.

Make no mistake, these people are TRAITORS AND ECONOMIC TERRORISTS!

[2pooped2pop]

9. +1000 n/t

[amborin]

27. probably true of many of them--deliberately doing whatever possible to thwart

Robust recovery--all part of their plan, and many openly admit it

[begin_within]

3. Come back to how wonderful it was in 2008?

[Warpy]

4. What a load of bullshit

The rich are doing what they always do, instructing their underlings to squeeze as much profit as they can out of their holdings but don't bore them with how it was done. The rich are relaxing between "charity" functions where they tart themselves up and go to see and be seen.

Mitt, honey, if all the John Galts of the world decamped for some floating fortress, no one would notice. Business would proceed as usual, the real producers, labor, staying on the job.

[Politicub]

7. Didn't realize how John Galtish the quote sounded

As i tapped out the post.

Thanks for pointing that out. Sometimes people (me) need a reality check.

[theKed]

6. The Rich on Strike...?

But, but...we need them to ...

umm...

Who's going to ...

...errr...

What about all the ...

uhhh...

You know what? Take all the time you need. No, no. Really, we got this.

Hm? Us? Oh, we'll try to keep busy. You know, actually producing stuff, creating wealth and jobs. Let us know how the weather down there in Galt's Gultch is, 'kay? You can come back when you're done holding your breath and stamping your feet. No promises on those tax cuts while you're gone, though. Sorry 'bout that.

[Politicub]

10. The middle class Romney supporters are dunces

I have no idea what they see in him.

[Voice for Peace]

37. yes, without them, we'll

um .. what you said

[Aoxous]

8. They should just leave and go build their own Galt's Gulch.

Let them put their money where their mouth is. If they are so disenfranchised, stigmatized, and tired of 47% of the people leeching off them, then why don't they uphold their Randian philosophy and go built their utopian paradise deep in the middle of nowhere.

[BuelahWitch]

15. Indeed, let them go to some Third World country

Where they can get cheap labor, drink dirty water and eat food full of salmonella. Let them lie awake every night worrying about being kidnapped by the natives. I'll send them a bag of dirty cat litter as a going away present

[Voice for Peace]

38. they need access to the middle class and poor

or their money will eventually run out

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

11. I remember reading Forbes magazine in the mid 1980s and their list of the richest Americans

I recall that there were only a dozen billionaires on that list and I believe several were Waltons. As of the 2011 Forbes list there are now over 400. How is it possible that Americans are struggling to find jobs, to get healthcare, to afford college, to pay their mortgage and yet there are those in the upper class getting richer than ever?

[FirstLight]

12. Eat the Rich...

...actually, we should just let them eat cake and THEN feed them to the sharks...


anyway, i agree with those up thread who tell them to go fuckthemselves, life will go on. And , actually, they can say they are 'staying out of the game' all they want, but they will have to contribute anyway...it's called TAXES. And the Bush cuts are gonna be gone and those top 2% can just write a check to uncle sam instead... so let them think they are 'striking'... We'll get 'em in the end...

[flyguyjake]

13. Please take a moment to read this. You’ll be amazed! It’s a real tickler...

Who are the middle class you might ask?

30% of the middle class make an earned income (e.g., wages, salary, bonuses and commissions). That income is subject to Social Security and Medicare taxes. In addition, it is taxed at the standard income-tax rates. For example, the maximum earned income-tax rate is 35%.

Now 70% of the “middle class” are very wealthy and receive most of their income from unearned income in the form of interest, dividends and capital gains. Such income is taxed at a preferential maximum tax rate of only 15%--even with $1 million or $1 billion of annual income.
That is very unfair, unjustified and foolish. Why should unearned income be taxed at less than half of the rate on earned income? Is your money different than mine? No, it’s exactly the same.

Now here’s the meat and potatoes!

Mitt Romney is a shining example of how wealthy individuals can use this preferential treatment of income classified as Interest, Dividends and Capital Gains to minimize payments to the U.S. government.
Most of Mitt Romney’s income comes from Capital Gains. In 2010 Mitt paid $3 Million and in 2011 he paid $1.95 Million. So let’s be clear, Mitt Romney says that he will take away, “zero out” the income tax on Interest, Dividends and Capital Gains!!!

Folks he just saved himself Millions of dollars!

The top 1% pay 21.5% of all State and Federal taxes. Romney says “Kiss that good bye!”
The 99% pay 78.4% of the total taxes in the US. Romney says “Sorry, you’re going to pay 100% now.”

[Bucky]

14. "Rich on strike"? Ridiculous! It sounds like a lame plot for a bad novel.

Nah, no publisher would be dumb enough to try and sell such a ludicrous idea, even in fiction.

[Turborama]

16. They've been holding America's progress hostage since President Obama was sworn in

Holding back investing and employing were a couple of the main ingredients in their recipe to try and make it appear as if he "failed".

The other one was the total obstruction of absolutely anything that would have positive results in Congress.

+infinity on your last sentence!

[LeftyMom]

17. Only people who do labor can be "on strike."

[HiPointDem]

23. 'capital strike'

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capital_strike

[LeftyMom]

41. Co-opting the language and tactics of the working class are not acceptable. Investment is not work.

[HiPointDem]

42. it's an old term. no one is co-opting anything.

[NashvilleLefty]

18. Please, PLEASE "go Galt"! You just fuck everything up, anyway.

I have been at my present Corporation for 21 years today - and I have had positions when I had to deal with the CEO directly.

Let me also make the note that we have more CEO's in that time than I can recall. I can name 4 within the last 5 years.

But the Company has prospered despite the name of the CEO. Why? Because we employees know what the fuck we are doing. In fact, the various CEO's have held us back and wasted money. I would love to see them get out of our way and let us do what we do best.

Please, PLEASE, PLEASE "Go Galt" and get the fuck out of the way of the people who know what we're fucking doing!

[Brother Buzz]

19. In my perfect world, come 07 November.....

The rich realize they can't strike because they've locked out. I'm just saying.

[PD Turk]

20. So let me get this straight

They suck up an assload of profit to the tune of 93% of income growth and they "go on strike"?

WTF do they want? Oh , I know...EVERYTHING!!

I have been working very hard on myself to resist violent thoughts and urges. These assholes are trying real hard to undo all that.

[D23MIURG23]

21. Thats priceless; its almost as if they think they make a contribution to society.

If we really get lucky then maybe they will go Galt after the election and we will never see them again.

But seriously, they don't have the power to put the economy on hold. This business about the "job creator" class is greatly exaggerated. The rich aren't going to stop hiring people if they need new employees to turn a profit, because if they do, their competitors will take advantage. Jobs come from commerce, not from the whims of the aristocrats.

[HiPointDem]

22. 'the rich are on strike' - exactly. it's a capital strike, used to extract labor & regulatory

concessions.

same as the 1975 fiscal crisis in nyc, the template for what's going on now.

symptom of the overwheening power capital has accumulated.

[alcibiades_mystery]

24. The funny thing is that this argument completely invalidates all of capitalist market economics

If the rich or "producer class" were "on strike," it would open up a huge hole in the market that anybody could jump in to, and, according to invisible hand economics, people (as rational actors) inevitably would. This is the basis for all of market / competition theory, and it's the only part of the theory that would guarantee something like the social mobility so promised by capitalist ideologues. If the withdrawal of producers from (already existing!) markets doesn't immediately result in new producers entering that market, then none of capitalist economics makes any sense at all.

It's a really weird survival of feudalism that even sustains this odd "Go Galt" argument, a sense in the inherent superiority of some over others. Notice that this inherent superiority is in fact the opposite of capitalism - it is what the capitalists or emerging bourgeois class fought the feudalists over for 300 years. For the capitalists, superiority is not inherent, but specifically temporary and determined precisely through market competition. That "Going Galt" would actually be a feudalist argument is, of course, not that surprising, since its inventor was essentially a Tsarist.

[closeupready]

33. Just what do you think Bilderberg and Davos are for?

Do you know what a cartel is? Cartels might be illegal in the US, but not outside.

[Skidmore]

25. For all the sneering and discounting of this on this thread, there is truth

in it. The wealthy have been extorting this nation for the past four years. They bought a Congress and have held the 99% hostage. This duck quacks and has the makings of a great ad.

[Fresh_Start]

26. Romney and Bain invested outside of the US long before Obama was President, I call BS nt

nt

[closeupready]

28. Of course. And telling them they'll be laid off if they don't vote GOP.

SS. DD.

[KansDem]

29. 30 years of "trickle down;" 10 years of Bush tax cuts...

...were supposed to give more money to the "job creators" to re-invest in America. Instead, the wealthy took their new-found swag and hid it in secret, off-shore tax havens.

IT DIDN'T WORK!!!

Shall I say it again?

IT DIDN'T WORK!!!

...so let's stop this stupid notion that the wealthy are "job creators."

They didn't live up to their part of the agreement so they need to repay what they stole...

[librechik]

30. if he can promise this, then he is admitting that the same 1% has been holding the economy back

how else can he promise such a thing?

BTW, don't believe them. They have absolutely no intention of "saving the economy" for the middle class.

[Zoeisright]

31. The rich can go fuck themselves. Treasonous bastards.

Ship them all off to Somalia.

[unblock]

32. YES!!! YES!!! THANK YOU MITT!!!!

thank you for opening the door to take all the ridiculous anti-union anti-strike attitude and turn it around against this filthy rich!!

all that negative crap going back to the air traffic controllers striking and them getting bad press because they were being greedy, wanting better working conditions while protecting us from air disasters.

you think WORKERS are being greedy when they go on strike?

how about BILLIONAIRES being greedy when they go on strike!

[Ken Burch]

34. I've been saying that for the last four years.

The "Great Recession" was always a capital strike...and the administration should have treated it accordingly.

[Z_California]

35. There is a grain of truth

These corps are sitting on a SHIT TON of cash - holding out hope that they regain unchecked power in DC like 2001-2008. Either way this election goes, this cash is going to start to flow. They can't hold out another 4 years.

[WillyT]

36. LINK TO ARTICLE HERE:

Link: http://www.salon.com/2012/10/14/romneys_magic_economy_plan/

[jmowreader]

39. If R&R are elected the rich will "stay Galt"

I disagree with the theory that says the rich are withholding capital in protest of their having to pay taxes.

Rich people - seriously rich, Romney/Koch/Soros-level rich - don't pay taxes and never have. Oh, they might throw a couple million in the bucket now and again, but look at Romney's 2010 numbers: $25M top line, less than $3M tax paid. He may have picked that year because capital losses (tax reducers) were lowest that year; it wouldn't look so good if Romney showed us a return with zero tax due, and in tax year 2008 he probably had one.

Rich people are on this earth to become richer people. If Michael Dell can become richer by firing the Americans who assemble his computers and ordering them from China preassembled - and he can - that's what he will do.

We are talking a very simple business transaction here: Mr. Dell would think it very poor economy to spend $5 million a year to convert a warehouse back to a factory, hire people, buy equipment for their use, receive more truckloads of parts (cases and finished computers take the same amount of space in a container, but getting them empty means getting a second container full of circuit boards to go in them), etc...just to get a $250,000 tax cut...especially since Romney will cut his taxes whether he creates manufacturing jobs in the US or not.

If you want computer assembling to return to these shores, simply pass a law requiring government-owned computers to be assembled here. The government buys lots of computers and opening a factory for them is not expensive - lease an abandoned supermarket, buy a forklift and put in workbenches. Do that with other easy-to-make products then move on to things that have more complex assembly.

We didn't lose our industry in 2009; it happened long before that. Mere tax cuts and regulation cuts won't magically bring it back.

[Fire Walk With Me]

40. As another DUer said, "Extortion". And the economy will go to China if he's elected. n/t

[lumberjack_jeff]

43. I'm reminded of the movie "Ruthless People"

Kidnappers forced to follow through on their empty threat.

The premise is ridiculous. Romney's allies are powerless to individually suppress the economy. The only power to grow the economy is in the hands of consumers willing to buy stuff. They are unwilling to buy things because they're uncertain about their economic future.

The premise that capitalists are going to hold their breaths unless we elect a capitalist is the stupidest kind of gibberish. No business owner is going to ignore or reject profit opportunities to make a political point, and certainly not *all* of them.

Capital is incapable of collective action. The only time they are is when they form trusts and monopolies, and if Romney is saying that we're in that boat, it's all the more reason to elect democrats.