Dear Planet members:
I’ve started the satirical opinion piece below—a critique of the recent Supreme Court decision on campaign financing. I thought it could be our first collaborative writing project. In the comment section, please add to the text, suggest edits, or brainstorm places where we might send a finished piece.
Collaborative writing can be a challenge, because writing partners don’t always agree on content or language. But let’s see how it goes. We have a very creative and respectful group. I’m going for a lighthearted tone in this piece, but it can be our test case for the more serious documents we hope to produce in the future.
As inspiration, we found out last night that an editor at the Crossville Chronicle in TN has asked for permission to run AdLib’s “Corporations Are People Too!” in their paper. “It’s our first pickup from a paper, so a big thanks to John Wund for his interest and sharing a piece of The Planet with other “pinkos” in TN!” says AdLib. As a debut article from the Planet, it’s witty, incisive, and timely—a wonderful representation of our community. A big heartfelt congratulations and thank you to AdLib!!
Thanks, everyone, for your comments! They have been very helpful in thinking about the best way to go about a project like this. I’m going to reboot at Op Ed 2.0
Perhaps a mention about the corporate tax rates compared to actual living, breathing citizens.
I know that in Arizona, our Republican Governor and Republican Legislature just passed 4 pieces of legislation lowering the taxes for corporations at a time when our state is bankrupt.
Adding insult to injury, the very same group of Republicans have cut into school funding and raided the school funds (b’ito found an article about that and it’s in the OT/TO section).
They’ve raided the state park funds, while closing all the parks except for 4 or 5, they’ve cut health care for the poor, including children, and they are closing a detention center and releasing hundreds of teens back into their communities and these teens are gang members and more violent than some prisoners in Florence.
They’ve also closed a mental health institution that houses severely mentally challenged folks, and those people will be out on the streets, similar to what Reagan did in California.
I can find all the links if you’re interested or think it’s attention worthy, and I’m not certain if all states cut taxes for corporations like Arizona loves to do.
I did catch an article earlier though at raw story about Oregon raising taxes on corporations.
Corporate welfare is a huge issue for me, and the outsourcing of jobs is another.
Good idea here is a great link and image to show what corporations really pay. The tax rates are relatively high but the rates don’t mean that’s what corporations pay. The tax burden American corporations have are some of the lowest in the world and much lower than the individual taxes. This info is from Forbes so of course they call it something dramatic “Tax Misery Index” but it’s really just tax burden.
Tax Misery Index
We pay some of the lowest taxes in the world ESPECIALLY corporations and the tax burdens for the middle class have gone up while corporate tax loopholes and taxes on the rich make their tax burdens go down.
Excellent, KQ!!
I do know that we pay lower federal taxes than France and Canada.
I’m not so sure about state taxes, though, including property taxes.
All I know is that our property taxes have more than quadrupled in the last 5 years, and yes, part of that is due to the housing bubble, yet the state is trying to keep our rates at that level even though our property values have fallen dramatically.
Another thing Arizona is doing – they are going to begin taxing prescription medicines and food, and all labor, such as labor for haircuts and auto repairs.
They’re also trying to pass an additional cent sales tax on top of our already high 6.5 percent sales tax!
We’re on a fixed income and it’s starting to take a toll tax-wise.
This includes all taxes but remember state and local taxes vary quite a bit.
Taxing medicine and food is just criminal.
Exactly.
Taxing food and prescription meds is criminal.
Do other states do that, I wonder?
I’ll google it.
In Japan we pay a 5% consumption tax on everything, including food and other essentials too. With the price of things already sky high, shopping just for the weekend becomes very expensive, with nothing much to show for it in the fridge.
If you look the real lower taxes we pay are social security type taxes which are much lower than the rest of the world. But then again we get what we pay for with a minimum safety net.
KQ excellant chart, looks like the only one in the black for Tax Burden vs. Govt Spending is Norway.
Very informative, should be sent to the teabagger’s associations to put them in their place.
Ooh, pretty colors!
http://www.jsonline.com/news/wisconsin/29437539.html
Accessory!
I know Xe and Evergreen are more obvious, but for the funny, I still like the Cigna militia, Teabagger division.
Don’t get me started on Cigna.
That’s what we are stuck with, and really, it’s the best we can get considering.
Oh, I could tell you stories.
Okay, will tell one and try to keep it short.
My husband’s first wife, Cigna changed her meds for her epilepsy, and within weeks, she was dead.
Okay, a short 2nd story – I had to go out of network to get a diagnosis, which had Cigna known, they could have canceled me.
I have asthma yet Cigna would not treat me, so I went out of network and paid out of pocket hundreds of dollars for all sorts of tests.
Once I found out it was asthma and learned my triggers, I cleaned the bathrooms with Pine Sol and that sent me into a full-blown asthma attack and then we could go to Cigna triage and get treatment.
Oh my dog, don’t get me started on Cigna.
An already apathetic electorate will shrink further, as more and more citizens realize that their vote is meaningless. Why vote when dollars speak louder than the powerless masses? And why donate to political Parties, when no individual citizen can compete with the hundreds of billions available to private corporations? How much money would each of us be required to contribute in order to achieve a voice? In the 2004 elections, there were 217.8 million eligible voters. If each of us gave the maximum allowed for an individual (or $2500, and how realistic is THAT?), we might have a voice. But that means we’d still only have a chance, not a guarantee, that our vote would count.
One other thing Nellie. On China we might give them a scenario….should the multinational corp decide to start moving back to the US it could seriously impact the US deficit of which China is guaranteeing a good chunk. The Chinese could call that loan and bankrupt the US Govt making it easier for the corp to take control. Geez, now I sound like one of those woo woo’s LOL. But after reading how the right plans world domination, it is probably right on the mark.
Nellie – Great idea, here are some of my thoughts………..
A world without limits
First paragraph after without limits, I would add “at least for corporations”….At the end, “and your vote will be lost in the frenzy”
Second…………We voted for change in November 2008. The Supreme Court has just guaranteed we
disregard the without public limits and just go on to the paragraph below. i did not edit very good LOL, but form in that paragraph should be from. spellcheck would not catch that one.
Hey Nellie, I have a bunch of work to do today so I’m going to come back to this later this eve (must resist getting sucked into it right now!!) My initial thoughts: 2) I love the tone. It’s perfect. 2) I think each “example” needs some fleshing out as to how we got to this conclusion so that it doesn’t look like a leap of logic. Perhaps a bit more up front about the general implications of unfettered corporate politicking…which then leads more solidly into the examples. 3) As another example, I’m imagining a multinational corporation with most of their workforce in Bangalore, who wants to manipulate some law or other in the USA (just thinking out loud here)… more later.
nellie…my thoughts:
Put “Re-balancing the Trade Imbalance” above “Side Arms”, seems to flow better.
Would like to see something about our local police forces being outsourced or being taken over by the MIC and Private Mercenary Companies…could happen, everything could be privatised and all govt departments outsourced.
Just a thought….also:
“Candidates won
Thanks BDM.
Re candidates — the voters don’t need backing. It’s the candidates that need to raise money in order to mount a campaign. That’s what I was thinking.
Wasn’t clear for me…maybe “Canidate(,) won’t need…so hard w/o a red marker! 🙂