Ending Crony Capitalism, Progressive and Corporate Wealth Tax, Banning Corporate Lobbying, Universal Basic Income, Universal Healthcare, Raising Minimum Wage, Worker Unions, Decentralization, Bitcoin
There are 2 predominant reasons that are pretty simple to understand but are the source of much of the contention around income inequality, and that until they become resolved, nothing much will change in America or shift the dynamics of political, economic and power structures.
Crony Capitalism, Deregulation and Corruption
Problem - America has become a corporate state owned and controlled by a handful of billionaires or the top 1%. The same phenomena is taking place around much of the world. Income inequality has always been a problem. But its gotten much worse in the last 3 decades because of major shifts in our economy and winner-take all dynamics that have been fueled by crony capitalism and especially in the last year since the Covid19 Pandemic hit and accelerated the trends in income and wealth inequality.
A few corporations, banks, CEOs, corporate directors, shareholders, and billionaires control much of the economic activity, hold tremendous political power and hoard extreme amounts of personal and corporate wealth at the top but depress wages and earnings at the bottom significantly through deregulation, cost-cutting, offshoring, outsourcing and automation. The Winner-Take All Dynamics leads to socialism for the rich and cutthroat capitalism for everyone else not in the top 0.01% of the country.
Furthermore the top 0.01% pays little to no taxes, enjoys corporate deregulation, while most people pay higher tax rates and small businesses get crushed in the country.
Many of the billionaires, Top 1% and corporate entities pay little to no taxes while the middle and lower class is punished with higher tax rates. This creates corrosive cycles in which billionaires and the ultrarich grow their wealth, which in terms leads to them growing their power and influence much much faster than most other people and leads to income, wealth and structural inequalities which become dangerous.
Billionaires and corporate entities also control politicians through lobbying and by extension controlling the direction that certain laws or rules are written in favor of their agendas or special interests such as lower taxes, and deregulation.
The blurred lines between the state and corporations is highly dangerous and leads to unstable and dysfunctional democracies and corporate-controlled lobbyists, politicians, and governments.
Solution - Ban Corporate Lobbying, Get Rid of Loopholes for Multinational Corporations and Billionaires and Have a Progressive Wealth Tax so Small Business Owners and Middle Class can Compete in the Economy and Grow their Wealth Faster while Billionaires grow their wealth more slowly (They don’t need anymore money anyways). There is only now talk of a $15 Minimum Wage and a Universal Basic Income after the Covid19 Pandemic has already decimated the middle/working class and the poor.
However a higher minimum wage and a Universal Basic Income are essential in lowering income inequality and building back the economy better, by putting less strain on the middle class and poor. If we decouple health insurance from employment and move towards universal health care we will significantly reduce the burden to our healthcare system, improve health and wellbeing and improve our economic growth as a byproduct of helping people, entrepreneurs and the workforce be healthier, less financially insecure and more productive as a result.
If we ban corporate lobbying and help worker unions, then the working and middle class will have better opportunities, mobility and create greater wealth and we will be able to decrease wealth inequality.
Vox | Seriously, just tax the rich
CNN Business | America's inequality problem isn't new. The pandemic is just emphasizing it
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Harvard Business Review | Are Employer-Sponsored Health Plans on Their Way Out?
The Next Zeitgeist | The Case for the $40-An-Hour Worker
Elizabeth Warren | It’s Time For a Wealth Tax
The Economist | Janet Yellen calls for a global minimum tax on companies. Could it happen?
The Economist | Might the pandemic pave the way for a universal basic income?
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Centralization, Special Interests and Debt
Problem - As long as governments and corporations remain centralized, they remain in the shadows and held unaccountable and “above the law”. In the digital age, it doesn’t make sense to concentrate political and economic power in the hands of a few with laws written for the last century in the industrial age. Furthermore, people shouldn’t remain beholden to other special interests such as the government, corporations and billionaires. Politicians today are in example of people in power who are beholden to special interests. The people who write the laws should not be the same people who are incentivized from special interests, corporate lobbyists and Super PAC money.
Today everybody is controlled by special interests and very few people are not bought or not controlled by other special interests. Most people are in debt to others. And so our form of the corporate state today is basically slavery in terms of a few corporations controlling nearly everything from the news we receive to the jobs we have available to us. I think entrepreneurship and small business should be encouraged and free market capitalism should be encouraged. However, what we have today is complete corporate state cronyism where a handful of companies and billionaires have a stranglehold on our entire economy.
Scheerpost | Hedges: Papering Over the Rot
Eudaimonia & Co. | How the Economy is Designed to Keep You Poor and Powerless
Solution - Embrace Decentralization, New Business Models which don’t rely on predatory corporations and which give power back to the people. Cryptocurrency, Smart Contracts, Tokenization, Blockchain and Bitcoin are great examples of a political and economy power shift back towards people.
Decentralized forms of governance can level the playing field and disintermediate political and economic asymmetries that are common in our institutions from big tech corporations to banks and decentralize power from institutions to individuals. Cancel and forgive certain debt also like student loan debt to create an even playing field where young people are debt-free. Don’t bail out billionaires and large corporations that are too big to fail. Allow bitcoin to disintermediate the banking system so we move from centralized finance and power from institutions to decentralized finance and power to individuals. Empower more entrepreneurs and individuals and shift power and authority away from institutions and large corporations such as big banks, big tech companies and big governments toward individuals, entrepreneurs and small businesses. Decentralized Autonomous Organizations may be able to disintermediate traditional multinational organization structures which have massive power, wealth and hierarchy gaps.
Capitalism.com | The Problem with Capitalism Is Too Much Cronyism, Not Enough Capitalists
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