this is the new American economy. The end goal is to somehow magically create wealth without ever having to deal with consumers or labor. A 100% people free wealth building operation.

Personally, I think the biggest problem is that the modern entrepreneur and/or CEO really has no care about society. Business leaders in the past seem to have somewhat a care and concern about society. They wanted the best labor, and retract the most customers, and keep them loyal. Beyond the role unions played, this is why we had a strong middle class.

Now it more seems the modern entrepreneur wants people starving and desperate. More or less forced to buy the goods being offered, and to take the scraps from the table being given. in many ways, its communism. Only difference is instead of a government running everything, it's those with wealth.

It's certainly not communism. It's better described as reverse socialism--everyone sacrifices for the benefit of the corporation and the plutocracy.
It all reeks of fascism. America now has its kings and queens.

It is fascism, American fascism.
"Fascism should more properly be called corporatism because it is the merger of state and corporate power." -- Benito Mussolini

I don't give a damned what it's called. If we don't stand up and stop this now, before it's too late, then we will be condeming our children and grandchildren to a third world economy.

Who said it isn't too late?

Agreed

Corporatism. We can thank idiot economists like milton friedman who convinced other lemmings that corporations should not have any social responsibility. This is an illogical idea, but the economic policy driving the 20th and 21st century can be summed up in one word: greed. And if corporations had social responsibilities, it would dip into their greed funds. We can only thank ourselves, though, as Americans have continued to show up and slave away 40-60 hours a week for a meager paycheck because they're too afraid they'll end up poor. People stopped thinking for themselves and instead listened to a corrupted State.

Where is our National Leadership, from President to top Business and Finance Business School gurus? They are spending too much time generating a major abyss between the haves & those that are marginal or depend on government handouts. The lesson of having a fully employed public that can pay for their needs and save their money in banks, fortifying everybody's ability to borrow for goods and services is passe. We need to wheel in these massive corporate salaries and benefits, pay our workers so they have a healthy buying power and close all tax loopholes.it is mandatory to revamp The US dollar, Federal Reserve calamity and large number of government employees. I do believe the latter group sustains a large part of our consumer base.
It is obvious to me that the billions of dollars that are from non for profits, constitute the bedrock or financial glue that has prevented us from total collapse. It is a mess and as previewed we are losing our way. Last note: where are thede.overpaid CEO's, placing there money?

I'm on the side of the idea that a corporations only responsibility is to its shareholders, but that it's the responsibility of government to regulate their actions on behalf of the people. Instead, we've given those corporations a voice in how the country and it's laws, regulations and taxes are structured, and allowed them to rewrite them all to favor themselves. That's where the failure lies.

I did. Quit my salaried job and started my own LLC.

Not everyone can afford to do that. Or has the skills, product, or desire.
Nobody owes us anything, because we owe them.

Pretty short-sighted reply, that really required no thought, eh?

That reply wasn't meant for you, and I have no idea how it ended up there. But since you know so much about me, please continue to enlighten me about my life, Mr. Quit Your Job, Obstacle Runner.

Congratulations on your success. Just know that your success (no matter how hard you worked for it) doesn't justify income caps on any tax rates (ie social security, property taxes), sales tax holidays for those who can afford to purchase necessities like washers, dryers, refrigerators, freezers or automobiles on a specific date once a year, or the fact that income from dividends or capital gains is taxed at lower rates than that of labor.

I agree with the majority of your statement about work and success. Good for you in achieving your goals. One thing though, how did you get to be such a great predictor of someone's character that you know NOTHING about?? Seems like that ability would make a person rich without ANY other talent, work or education/intelligence.

It's feudalism, not communism

It seems now that the goal in America is to 'cash out'. Companies are not built for the long haul nearly so much. It's all about the next quarter. Drastic moves would be required to stem this tide, but even then, changing the evolution of human nature? Good luck with that.

I agree. Seems like companies in the past were about building empires, long-lasting dynasties.

Now it's all about an IPO, sell to a bigger player, and retire early in life.

We used to build buildings and products to last and there was a sense of permanence. Now we teach our children in trailers! Soon most of us will live in a trailer or on the street! The US has created the greatest job boom on Earth! In china!!!!

Excellent discussion points. In the seven years or so that we've seen serious employment problems, I have yet to see administration ideas to give incentives to corporations to hire Americans. Incentives can be both positive and negative. For example, rather than lowering the corporate income tax rate, maybe we should raise it. As an offset, allow corporations to take as a tax credit 100% of payroll taxes for American employees and allow dividends to be deducted from taxable income. Both would be extraordinarily easy to administer. We should see increased employment, the elimination of a preference for borrowing money, and the elimination of an incentive to ship jobs out of the country.

Brilliant idea Tom!

Not being a tax attorney, isn't a lot of employee pay already expensed? Just asking.

There's a MAJOR tax benefit to taking a "credit" vs taking a "deduction."

as in stock options?

TOTALLY unrelated! Read the following for a simple explanation of the difference between deduction and credit: http://www.bankrate.com/fin...

Interesting idea.

And the gullible american public keeps electing Republicans to Congress who promise to cut corporate taxes even more so these "job creator capitalists" can cut even more jobs and wages. How stupid is that?

And the gullible Americans keep thinking that anyone in government republican or democrat is the solution.

Go back and look at the voting records and tell us again that it's just those "evil republicans" that voted for those changes.

If democrats had all the answers, places like Detroit and Chicago would virtual utopias.

Which party currently wants to deeply cut taxes on the rich and corporations and even go as far as to completely get rid of the corporate tax?

Which party currently wants to stop minimum wage increases?

Which party threw a hissy fit and caused a government shutdown to keep the temporary Bush tax cuts for the rich while at the same time want the poor to pay more?

It's easy to talk about past mistakes. It's quite another to defend current bad choices because you can find conservative Democrats that had similar positions in the past.

Also, your Chicago and Detroit comment truly shows how little you know about what caused the situation in those cities. You just want to ignorantly blame liberals. Tell me, why aren't all liberal cities like that? Would you say the same about Austin, Texas? Very liberal city.

Even attempting to defend one of the corrupted parties is a display of ignorance or denial. You are one of the lemmings who have played into their hands. It is a shadow government running things, which has herded those who, for a number of reasons, choose to live in ignorance by agreeing with one of two camps. When you look at the big picture, nothing about our country has made sense for over 100 years. It is not one party that is more or less responsible for the situation we're in. It's just a front. Give up whatever it is you're clinging to, face the music, and educate yourself. Who staged the numerous false flags? Who is keeping the federal reserve in power? Who is funneling trillions of dollars into secret black budget military programs? Who is supporting the countless unnecessary wars for the past 100 years? It is not just one party. Since the fed has been in power, the dollar has declined 98% in value. They were there supposedly to "protect the dollar". Wake up, and then wake your friends up.

Tinfoil hat aisle is thataway... Right under the sign that reads "kook".

We govern ourselves here in the US. While corruption and influence are obviously a problem, the government is not some separate entity here. It's us; you and your fellow Americans.

*You* are the government here. *We* can change anything we please.

Also, the basic structure of this country is a republic. It is not a democracy and we are not government officials. I do not have the power to change anything, nor do you. You think by electing corrupt politicians that you somehow have power to end said corruption? This country doesn't read like a 7th grade civics textbook.

Of course it's a republic - representational. There is not one single elected official in office that we did not consent to put there. We literally consent to corruption. We can change it any cycle we wish.

That is called denial and/or ignorance. I am not going to educate you, you have to decide to educate yourself to see if what you believe in is actually true or not. Honestly. It isn't about attacking someone on the opposite camp, it starts with attacking your own beliefs not to reaffirm, but honestly, with the intent on believing something different. Your ad hom is a dead giveaway on your lack of logic.

It's only ad hominem if your ideas are sound and I attack you personally instead. In this case, both your ideas and the way your present them are irrational. Irrational ideas deserve derision.

It's not about what you believe. It's about the actual evidence and where that leads us. There is no "shadow government". There is undue influence on our system by corporate interests, which is pretty simply corruption. We consent to it, and continue to let it happen.

Any time we wish, we can change that. The system is literally one of self-governing consent. If we remove consent, we change the priorities of the system. There is nothing secret or shadow about it.

So it is the corporations who have staged false flags, lied to the general public through the white house to justify their actions, supplied "terrorists" with money and weapons, and it is corporations who keep the fed in power? I dont think so. It's like you're reading from a public school textbook, it's very naive. It's not that simple.

Extraordinary claims. Where is your evidence?

Why am I not surprised by that response. Lazy, pseudointellectuals often provide similar responses, expecting all of the information needed to convince them of something being true to just pop right in in a comment section for some random article. I am not here to educate you. It takes a lot of effort and time to learn everything on the various subjects. Educate yourself. The information is out there. It isn't "my" evidence, since I am not the one who actually has brought all of this information forth. Good place to start is declassified materials from various governments, including our own (assuming you are american). If you are really interested in knowing what is true, you will educate yourself on all matters concerning any aforementioned subjects. I doubt you are though, based on your responses thus far.

Conspiracy. No evidence. Got it. "Prove it" is not a pseudo-intellectual position. It's pretty elementary. If you have evidence we should consider, present it. Otherwise we go with the evidence we have. Namely, that you don't know what you are talking about.

Unlike the conspiracy gullible, I change my position based on the strength of evidence alone. You've got a skepticism for government. That's good. But you have a gullibility for explanations that have no evidence. That's bad. It makes you jump to conclusions.

What's next? Chemtrails?

Declassified material is valid evidence. The historic value of the dollar since the fed was started is not a conspiracy theory. Its a fact. You have to do is plot its value since 1913. But no, that's a conspiracy to you lol.

What I have said isn't true only if I can provide you evidence. A statement is either true or false for any number of reasons. So just because I'm not going to hold your hand and re-educate you, it doesn't mean a statement is automatically false. That is failed logic you have. I dont need to provide you evidence for anything. Even if I did, you are just going to display information bias and ad hom the sources. If you were educated you'd know what I'm talking about. These aren't conspiracies, and anyone who uses those terms is just displaying their ignorance and their loyalty towards state sanctioned propaganda. Ignorance is a choice. If you knew what you were talking about you wouldn't pit your sad argument on that since I'm not proving it to you it must be false. You understand that *I* dont determine if these things are true, right? The evidence is out there, i didnt just make this up. So if you are that helpless so as to be unable to find the answers yourself, well, enjoy the koolaid. I think you are capable, you're just refusing to.

Evidence of what, exactly? You are not drawing any lines between your claim and your conclusion. That's just irrational. "There is a shadow government... because The Fed." or "What I say is true because... something vague somewhere was declassified in a non-specific way..." Isn't making any sense.

I'm not asking you to provide me evidence personally - I'm asking you to rationally state what your actual accusations are and provide any context as to what actual evidence exists to support your claim. I'll do my own research, but you have to actually pose a rational argument first.

"The evidence is out there, i didn't just make this up. " Make *what* up? You haven't presented a rational accusation - you just stung together random conclusion jumps and weird assertions.

All the evidence I have right now suggests that you are yet another pseudo-skeptic conspiracy-gullible who can't string together ideas enough to make a cogent argument. Please prove me wrong.

The corporations own the government. St. Ronnie made sure of that.

Another reader of World Nut Daily.

I don't read that site but your information bias shows you have chosen to adopt broken logic and ignorance. Being a lemming is nothing to boast about.

But...but... Illuminati! George Soros! Obama is a lizard!

Poll takers should not just ask for opinions but should also ask questions about what the voter actually knows about issues. Jay Leno had a weekly feature of going to the street and asking people basic questions. The entertainment was in the uninformed responses. Too many foolish low information voters and we get the government we deserve.

Not unless there is real choice. You elect one of two people and it turns out they were both the same.