The End of Welfare as We Don't Know It

Charles Brown CharlesB at CNCL.ci.detroit.mi.us
Tue Oct 13 12:44:24 PDT 1998


Isn't Max alleging that the rich don't have enough money to pay for these ? That the rich are too poor to pay for the masses' socialism ? In other words, there isn't enough money for socialism , et al., period ? Sort of rederiving scarcity theory.

One question is : Do the Commerce Department categories of profit etc. hide large amounts of surplus value, such as the profits of control that economist Victor Perlo analyzes in _Superprofits and Crises_. ?

Charles Brown


>From the market to the Marxit
>>> "James Baird" <jlbaird3 at hotmail.com> 10/13 1:15 PM >>>


>
>Bottom line is that the rich will not finance
>socialism, social-democracy, or even national
>health insurance. Not even close.
>

But they can sure give it the old college try, can't they?

How about, for starters, cutting some of the overt subsidies to the rich - most pentagon spending, mortgage deductions, state and local corporate givaways. Remove the cap on SS, and reduce the rate. Practice confiscatory taxation above say, $2,000,000 (I'm a Huey Long fan, but with inflation and all...) Institute a wealth tax. Raise gas taxes, move the money into mass transit. You could get your extra $500b or more without breathing hard.

I realize there's not a chance in hell this will come to pass, but come on Max, this ain't brain surgery! Have you been in D.C. so long you can only think in terms of making things worse less quickly?

Jim Baird

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