Tag Archives: class war

Occupy Wall Street, Class War: Latest study says Big Corporations do not pay their fare share of taxes

Not only are many of the biggest corporations reporting big profits, they’re paying small taxes.  The official tax rate for corporations is supposed to be 35%, but the latest study shows the average effective tax paid is about 18.5%.

Some corporations pay no taxes, and a handful actually have negative taxes!

280 companies in the Fortune 500, that were profitable for all three years between 2008 and 2010, were studied.

111 companies paid effective tax rates of less than 17.5% over the three-year period.  98 paid a rate between 17.5% and 30%.

The average rate is 18.5%.  But wait, there’s more.  Some companies paid zero taxes!  30 actually owed less than nothing over the three years!

Two of those corporations are Pepco Holdings and General Electric.  Over the 2008 to 2010 period Pepco made $882 million in profits, but had a tax rate of -57.6% (yes, put a negative sign in front of that)!   But here’s a bigger shocker: GE earned $10.5 billion, with a tax rate of 45.3%!   How do you make big corporate profits, and then effectively have the government owe you money?

Lobbyists hired by Corporate America convince your elected lawmakers to create more corporate tax breaks.

The study was done by Citizens for Tax Justice, and the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy.

Israeli soldiers join lower class in protesting bad economy in Israel, class warfare within the Israeli army

At least eleven Israeli soldiers, with Kfir Brigade’s Duchifat Battalion, are refusing to follow orders, on the grounds they are not getting any financial help from the military, and they can not afford to buy their own military related supplies.

Military service in Israel is mandatory. Men must serve three years, and women must serve two years.

For weeks now poor Israelis have been protesting the skyrocketing cost of living.  Now the protests of eleven soldiers reveals that the Israeli military is divided along class lines.  The soldiers from lower income families claim they are constantly ridiculed for their economic situation.

They also claim the military is depriving them of meals, and they deserted because they’re going hungry.  They have tried using the chain of command to report what is going on, but have been ignored.

 

 

What Economic Recovery? Greece secretly defaults on bailout loans, on the verge of class war

“The measures that have been adopted are not to avoid the default, the default already took place, but it was not declared.”-Paolo Raffone, Secretary General of CIPI Foundation

Greece has cut even more social services and programs, and has jacked up taxes, in an effort to get more bailout loans approved.   The problem is that at least 16% of the Greek people are unemployed.

Analysts say most of the loans that Greece has gotten, have been going to pay previous loans.  Nothing is being used to try and build the Greek economy, like creating jobs.  The result is that the Greek government is just digging a deeper and deeper debt hole.

One analysts says what the Greek government is doing is called “virtual economics”, meaning the economy is based on loans, there is no true economy in Greece: “Economic specialists are trying to prop up an inherently unsustainable project, which is based on sometimes virtual economics.”-Sahara Ali, Green Party

Ali warns that continuing bailout loans will only make things worse for Greece, it’s really being done to save the European Union, and the Greek people know it: “That is what the general population has realized, that it’s increasing its indebtedness in order to prop up the Euro Zone.”

Ali suggested that part of the bailout loans require Greece to buy more products from other European countries, which actually works against building a Greek economy.

Paulo Raffone says the situation in Greece is heading towards a civil war based on class, rich vs poor: “The leadership in the country is always the same now for more than 40 years, and they’ve been profiteering on the People. There’re a few families that are sharing large shares of take in the national wealth.”

Raffone also says the control of Greece by the elites extends to the rest of Europe: “You have external European profiteers, which are the banks from Germany, France, Belgium and others, that have been profiteering on the Greek situation no matter what currency is there.” He says the elites don’t really want to change the current situation, because they’re making money off it.

Sahara Ali says the elites have revealed the “stupidity” of their economic reasoning: “Nobody’s actually able to eat the number of zeros, the negative zeros, in their bank balance.  What they actually are faced with, on a daily bases, is making ends meet.  Are we really thinking it’s reasonable to demand extra taxes from people in Greece who are on the minimum wage?”

Regarding the recent vote in the Greek Parliament, supporting their president’s latest efforts to get more loans,  analysts point out there is a huge gap growing between the People and their government officials.  The People do not want any more bailout loans.

More and more analysts are thinking that default, by many countries including the United States, is inevitable.  The problem is that the ruling elites of most countries are not being realistic, and are trying to pass the buck of responsibility of their bad choices onto the People/taxpayers.  This could result in class/civil wars on a global scale.