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Ear to the Ground

It’s a Good Time to Be a Corporation

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Posted on Jun 16, 2011
Flickr / Funky Tee

With the American corporations in Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index holding a record $960 billion in hard cash and taxes on corporate profits the lowest they have been since the 1950s, the Obama administration appears ready to give them even more in the way of economic breaks.

That “more” will come in the form of temporary payroll tax cuts in the period leading up to the 2012 presidential election, Joshua Holland at AlterNet reports. —ARK

AlterNet:

One would think that an almost daily barrage of grim economic news about working America might inspire a sense of urgency among policymakers, prompting them to think boldly about how to get the country moving again.

Meanwhile, the companies in the Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index are sitting on a record $960 billion in cash—the Wall Street Journal notes that “there is a cash crisis in corporate America—although it comes not from a shortage of the stuff, but from a surplus.” Given that the federal government has been collecting the lowest share of the economy in tax revenues since 1950 during the past few years, one might also expect that giving American businesses more “tax relief” wouldn’t be a terribly high priority.

But this is America, and the White House is reportedly courting big Wall Street donors to help finance Obama’s re-election campaign, so it’s considering the merits of offering a temporary cut in the payroll tax paid by businesses. It’s an idea that might stimulate the economy a little bit and could well gain bipartisan support, but it’s also fraught with risk and represents yet another sign that the administration has thrown in the towel in the larger debate over how to recover from a blistering recession.

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By Lew Ciefer, June 18, 2011 at 4:55 pm Link to this comment

What is this, brainwashing of the public’s mind training it to accept the lie that a corporation is a living, beathing entity? Vote for Exxon for president?

It’s a good day for those that function within the framework of a man-made institution known as a corporation. But then rarely is ever not a good day for them.

Beware the corporate-state owned media people.

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By IceNine, June 17, 2011 at 6:57 pm Link to this comment

If there is anyone frequenting this website who has not yet seen Michael Moore’s “Capitalism: A Love Story” now would be a good time to watch it.

Obama has not done anything terribly surprising in his first term in office. Yes, he made promises from here to eternity and back. I have never known a politician to live up to their promises and didn’t expect this one to be different. All the incentives working on him, work against us.

If we had managed to impeach Bush, we might have at least made it clear that some of the more egregious executive behaviors exhibited during his two terms would not be tolerated from the next individual to occupy the oval office. There was surprisingly healthy support for the impeachment of Bush in the House, but Pelosi refused to even entertain the possibility. Now we are living with a president who is utterly convinced there are no bounds to his power while in office.

His dealings with Wall Street should make it clear to any American who can still breathe in and out that he does not and will not think or act in the best interests of ordinary citizens.

No idea who I will vote for in 2012, but it won’t be Obama and it won’t be a Republican.

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By grindy, June 16, 2011 at 10:47 pm Link to this comment

^ what John R. said…..

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John R.'s avatar

By John R., June 16, 2011 at 5:06 pm Link to this comment

Here is my ‘manifesto’ to any corporate executive, who may not think that some of us here in the U.S. understand the subversive level of control that the corporations’ exorcise on the poor, lower, and middles classes, living in the U.S.

Just to be clear - here is what I feel and believe is happening;

The masses (but not all) live in a type of totalitarianism. A commodity culture, now, based on reflections of the T.V. shows - the winners’ a cult of the self, a superficial charm, enforcing the values of lying, no remorse, no guilt, and the winners if you can consider them that, while they demonstrate they’re missing empathy gene, mask that guilt, that lack of self respect, with spending sprees, unfettered capitalism that helps to ease the pain of the damage done to their own spirit(s), (if any are present/left).

In general, the inverted totalitarianism is applied here is the anonymity of the corporate state.
The corporation purports to cherish democracy, patriotism, the Constitution, and maintains
internal levers to subvert and thwart the democratic process that benefits the poor, the lower
class, and the middle class Americans by way of hired corporate lobbyists, controlling the
mainstream newspapers, magazines, radio, and of course the big television news media
channels - thereby controlling the vote.

Most of the time the masses are diverted with celebrity gossip and trivia. Are teenagers,
distracted by the violent video war games (inadvertent psychological numbing for the real
thing)
 
Yes we know of what your worldwide actions are because we too - are worldwide.

And that day of death is coming to all humans, no one lives for ever, and with any justice, it
will be made known to all of the other spirits in the afterlife (if any) that you, the corporate
executive, or you, whom went along with the suppression of the poor, the lower, and the
middle classes, that you, whom was in favor of war and did not speak out against it or
participate in a protest (if able) will surely relive the pain that the innocents endured.

And that, is what I have to say about the current plutocracy, that runs the United States.

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By TDoff, June 16, 2011 at 1:27 pm Link to this comment

And now that they have been declared legal ‘persons’, they probably don’t feel so silly sitting around in circles in the Bohemian Grove during their business retreats, masturbating and playing with hookers imported from around the world.

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