ISN’T IT TIME FOR WALL STREET TO PAY THEIR FAIR SHARE?

 

Wall Street........the place where the banksters continue to screw the American public.

So tell me, why is there no transaction tax on stock trades?

I find it highly bizarre that the $21 million-dollar-a-year and Chief “Bankster” at Goldman Sachs, Mr. Lloyd Blankfein, that presided over the bank’s multiple acts of fraud against its own customers, lobbied furiously against proposals to restrain Wall Street’s CEO pay, this man then had the gall to declare that, “I’m doing God’s work!” ......Really?

At this same time, the Goldman Sachs Foundation decided that they needed a PR make-over, so they started trying to portray themselves as a “Magnanimous Philanthropic Organization” by making $241 Million in charitable donations.  Sounds pretty good, “yes”? 

Well no, because it’s a drop in the bucket when compared to the bank’s $34 billion in annual revenues and $7.48 billion in profits.  Actually, it’s totally pathetic as it’s only seven tenths of one percent of their annual revenue.

To put this in perspective, America’s working-poor regularly donate an average of 3.2% of their meager annual incomes to charity versus these billionaire “gold-diggers”.  That’s nearly 5 times more generous donations by the poor than these multi-millionaire banksters.

The New York Times actually referred to the bank’s PR attempts as their “reputation redemption gambit”.

This lack of generosity and PR approach was also recently compared to the many years past actions of the old “robber baron”, John D. Rockefeller. 

In Rockefeller’s later years, he would fill his pockets with shiny brand-new dimes.  And whenever the billionaire tycoon would step out for a stroll from his elegant New York flat, he would stop someone walking by, especially if there was a child along, and he would dig into his pockets and dole out a single, shiny dime.  There are even old news reels showing the then richest man in the world, doling out dimes to the poor children, as if this approach would improve on John D’s very poor public relations image. 

Yes, this is how the Goldman Sachs’ comparative “great humanitarian donations” are being viewed today by today's news media.

What is really sad is that this Goldman Sachs donated money is actually “our” money.  By that I mean, the bank will just deduct this donation money from the taxes they owe to the US government.  So, from that point of view, it really is “our money”.  And this is the tax money that “We the people” seriously need today for our schools, roads, clean water and other public essentials that they, the bank’s executives and their employees, also make use of.

The reality is that the American people could care less about these paltry Goldman Sach’s donations.

What is really desired is an end to the bankster’s endless and totally destructive greed.  What we really want is an honest, restructured, decentralized banking system that is focused on the common good of the American poor and the middle class.

And by the  way, we would also like our government back.

Just as the Koch Brothers have done, these banksters have used their giant bank rolls to dig into Washington’s back-room deal making and they have extracted trillions in government bailouts, tax breaks and regulatory favors.

Through their lobbyists, front groups, economic shills, media hacks, and unscrupulous politicians, these high finance executives have a strangle hold on US economic policies.  They have choked off public investment and have claimed that "America is broke!”, saying spending is the cause.  So we must never cut their piles of income, but we should instead cut Food Stamps, unemployment insurance (which working people already pay for), job training programs, then de-rail and defund Obamacare, and cut Social Security and Medicare.

Even the high priest of the GOP, Mr. George Will, recently declared, where else, but on Fox News, where he declared victory over the conservatives taking over the DC conversation on cutting public spending.  Will stated, “We are now talking entirely on Republican terms, in Republican vocabulary.  No taxes, but how much the spending is going to be cut?  The federal workforce being cut….”

And Mr. Will is correct.  But this Republican approach is totally against the basic essence of our American Culture , as are the following issues

·       In the “Richest nation on earth”, we should have the best public education system.  It is instead the worst of the wealthiest nations.

·       Obamacare should not be defunded, but it should instead be changed to, “Medicare for all”.

·       The US needs to rebuild out technical supremacy as it was when we first went to the moon.

·       Our public parks should be the prize of our nation instead of firing the park rangers and the locking of the entry gates.

·       Minimum wages should be increased and work / job skill education increased to get the US back to full employment.

·       Stop the GOP’s disgusting efforts for keeping people from voting and we need to stop the corporate control of the US economy.

The reality is that all the financial power in America is with the banks and Wall Street.  This is why and where we need to get a Financial Transaction Tax (FTT) for all that goes on with the Wall Street transactions.  Just as in many states we pay a tax whenever we buy a pair of jeans, a cup of coffee or a package of toilet paper, the banks and Wall Street should pay a tax on any bank or trader’s transaction. 

This idea is also currently blessed by the likes of Bill Gates, Occupy Wall Street and now even Pope Francis and the Vatican.

It’s being called the “Robin Hood Tax” and is being led by the National Nurses United, National People’s Action, Health Gap and Progressive Democrats of America.  They and 150 other organizations are backing the “Inclusive Prosperity Act (IPA)”.  This would propose a 0.5% tax on all stock transactions.  This would put $300-$350 billion into the US national coffers where today there is nothing for these stock transactions.  So, you should now ask, “If I have to pay X.XX% tax when I buy a bicycle for my son, why shouldn’t the stock brokers pay 50 cents for every $100 in stock trades?”

As was recently stated by the editor of the “Hightower Lowdown Newsletter”, Jim Hightower.

“The new conversation should be, ‘Look under that rock.  There’s the money we need to invest in [the American] people.  Let’s get America moving again.”

I don’t think I could have said it any better.

Copyright G.Ater  2014