Community Engagement for the Week of August 15th, 2011
by Danny Fisher
"Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner and staff watch the Senate vote to raise the debt limit on Tuesday, August 2, 2011." Image via U.S. Treasury Department.
I’ve been thinking a lot about the economy lately. Obviously. Like everybody else, I’m sure. I confess that the machinations of the business world are largely mysterious to me. What little I (seem to) understand, though, is the source of some anger and sadness.
I’ve had a few quotes rattling around in my head…
- “If we are serious in our commitment to the fundamental principles of equality that I believe lie at the heart of the concept of human rights, today’s economic disparity can no longer be ignored. It is not merely enough to say that all human beings must enjoy equal dignity. This must be translated into action.” – His Holiness the Dalai Lama
- “Investment that only goes to enrich an already wealthy elite bent on monopolizing both economic and political power cannot contribute toward égalité and justice — the foundation stones for a sound democracy.” – Aung San Suu Kyi
- “We need economies that promote human values, seek to limit suffering, and are committed to democratic principles, rather than ones dependent on global trade and a blind commitment to neo-liberal economic policies.” – Sulak Sivaraksa
- “True compassion is more than flinging a coin to a beggar; it comes to see that an edifice which produces beggars needs restructuring.” – The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
- “True economics never militates against the highest ethical standard just as all true ethics, to be worth its name, must at the same time be also good economics … True economics stands for social justice; it promotes the good of all equally, including the weakest and is indispensable for decent life.” – Mohandas K. Gandhi
I need to do a lot more reading and ruminating before I’m able to say anything skillful or useful about the current financial crisis. I will say at this juncture that what makes me angry and sad is that, as I see it, we’ve once again found ourselves in a situation where the wealthiest among us are being excused from making any helpful sacrifice whatsoever (despite the fact their tax breaks are the single largest contributor to our country’s deficit) while the poorest among us grow yet poorer and the rest of us in between struggle on.
As I said, I’m trying to do the best I can to educate myself in an area (economics/business/finance) that I’m not particularly strong in. I’m also trying to pay attention to news developments regarding the U.S. economy. In the latter endeavor, I’ve found the below resources helpful and am using the space today to recommend them to you. For how can I (or we) effectively engage our community on these knotty issues without keeping up on them? Please pay attention, everyone.
- The Conscience of a Liberal by (2008 Nobel Prize in Economics Laureate) Paul Krugman at The New York Times
- Democracy Now!
- The Nation
- Common Dreams
- The Daily Show with Jon Stewart
And just in case you didn’t see it, Warren Buffet wrote a scorchingly awesome op-ed for the New York Times this week on the aforementioned issue of taxes for the super-rich. The op-ed has in turn inspired a petition from MoveOn.Org, which you can sign here. I hope you will.
SIGN THE PETITION!
“I stand with Warren Buffett. It’s time for Congress to stop coddling the super-rich and make them pay their fair share.”
Danny, I love you and your blog. I’ll try to keep it short here. I would ask you to look into the issue of Leonard Peltier’s unjust and horribly inhumane imprisonment. You can check it out at http://www.whoisleonardpeltier.org.
Being young, you may have missed out on his story. He’s an American Indian activist who will soon turn 67 years old. He’s been incarcerated for the last 34 (!) years, and is currently being held in solitary confinement at Lewisburg, Pennsylvania, in the oldest federal US prison.
I’ve just finished reading his book, My Life is My Sundance. Tears literally spurted out of my eyes. He has a long list of supporters, including the Dalai Lama, but apart from that one lone affirmation, I don’t find any other Buddhist voices. Why this oversight?
I realize that by commenting here on a post about the economic situation, I may have taken a big leap to Leonard Peltier’s solitary confinement. Nevertheless, I sincerely hope you’ll understand the urgency of his situation.
Time is running out for him. Won’t you please help sound a wake-up call before it’s entirely too late?
Sincerely,
Margaret Loyon
Warren Buffett is once more making an argument that would end up making him even wealthier at less wealthy folks’ expense.
IF he were serious he can go to the IRS website….anyone can…and contribute as much as he wants over and above what he now contributes (precisely to the penny getting away with what his accountants tell him he MUST give).
Keep in mind he and the other wealthy types who “talk the talk” do NOT walk the walk because he doesn’t get his massive wealth from a salary (which is what is taxed) but from his investment holdings.
This was the same ploy Ted “the swimmer” Kennedy used for years in fighting to keep and enlarge the inheritance tax in the USA. What he always left out was the fact his criminal father and family had and continue to have THEIR inheritance money tied up in tangled trusts in Samoa and other Pacific nations.
The Left has always used the good intentions of people with consciences to screw them by arguing for them, but protecting themselves from their own criticism.
Again, if ANYONE wants to overpay their taxes THEY CAN with a single computer transaction. They don’t because they consider “compassionate” people stupid…..and they keep demonstrating they are correct.
Thank you for these links and your thoughts on the financial situation in our country. As was spoken about in a Buddhist Geeks podcast, money is often an issue that is glazed over in the Buddhist world. It’s great to see that you are trying to find out information to help others. I appreciate it because, like you, this area is fuzzy for me and it’s not always easy to find out the information you want. Appreciate it! Namaste
Religious blindness to leftist criminality and non-mindfulness behavior continues to condemn Buddhism to a joke among the puppet masters.
Wake up!!! But only if you want your Buddhism to really be meaningful in a world led by the Leftist, non-religious press.
NEW YORK POST
Warren Buffett, hypocrite
Last Updated: 11:51 PM, August 28, 2011
Posted: August 29, 2011
More Print
This one’s truly, uh … rich: Billionaire Warren Buffett says folks like him should have to pay more taxes — but it turns out his firm, Berkshire Hathaway, hasn’t paid what it’s already owed for years.
That’s right: As Americans for Limited Government President Bill Wilson notes, the company openly admits that it owes back taxes since as long ago as 2002.
“We anticipate that we will resolve all adjustments proposed by the US Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”) for the 2002 through 2004 tax years … within the next 12 months,” the firm’s annual report says.
AP
Warren Buffett
It also cites outstanding tax issues for 2005 through 2009.
Obvious question: If Buffett really thinks he and his “mega-rich friends” should pay higher taxes, why doesn’t his firm fork over what it already owes under current rates?
Likely answer: He cares more about shilling for President Obama — who’s practically made socking “millionaires and billionaires” his re-election theme song — than about kicking in more himself.
Buffett’s free to back Obama, of course.
And if his firm wants to keep its tax bill low, well, that’s its right, too.
But it would be nice if this “pro-tax-hike” tycoon were a bit more honest about it.
Start, for example, with his grossly disingenuous recent claim that, as he wrote in The New York Times, he paid only 17 percent of his income last year to the government — even as many working stiffs who make far less than him coughed up higher percentages.
Fact is, unlike most other folks, Warren Buffett gets most of his income from dividends and capital gains, which are nominally taxed at 15 percent.
Left unsaid is that much of that is taxed at 35 percent (via the corporate income tax) before he even gets his hands on it. So in effect, he’s paying taxes twice (that is, when his companies actually pay, anyway).
Counting both taxes, his effective rate would really be well north of 40 percent for a big chunk of his income.
There’s more. Obama, and co-conspirators like Buffett, claim to want to slap only “millionaires and billionaires.”
But in 2009, for instance, fewer than a quarter-million taxpayers (less than two tenths of 1 percent) reported income over $1 million — and their combined bill was less than $200 billion.
Raise the top tax rate on them by 13 percent, as Obama wants (from 35 percent to 39.6 percent) and you bring in only another $26 billion, tops — and that’s if your tax hike doesn’t stifle the economy and kill jobs (which it surely would). Yet what’s $26 billion in a world of $4 trillion federal budgets with trillion-dollar-plus deficits?
No wonder Obama’s hikes on “millionaires and billionaires” actually start with folks earning as little as $200,000.
Looks like Buffett’s not the only disingenuous one here. But again, that’s clear from their individual behavior: Obama, Buffett and Democrats like Bill Clinton keep saying they want to pay more taxes.
Fine. They can always write checks.
Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/editorials/warren_buffett_hypocrite_E3BsmJmeQVE38q2Woq9yjJ#ixzz1WRcLotIh