This is very important!

Check it out at:

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2012/11/30/us/tax-burden.html


It mirrors the two graphs,  using data from the U.S. Census Bureau, below:

Who better to explain "The Buffett Rule" than Warren Buffett? Does it not make sense that those making a million dollars or more per year pay a minimum tax of 30%? Some now pay next to nothing!

November 27, 2012 - Warren Buffett & Carol Loomis

www.thedailyshow.com

Wal-Mart employees surrender their front row Black Friday seats, several parties receive blame for the Twinkie's death, and Warren Buffett and Carol Loomis talk tax fairness.

Independent Bernie Sanders is not afraid to say it like it is!

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10151259118172908&set=a.91485152907.84764.9124187907&type=1&theater

HERE ARE SOME VERY IMPORTANT NEWS ARTICLES FROM THIS WEEK!

Here are some news pieces from this week. This first one is from Duluth:
http://www.duluthnewstribune.com/event/article/id/250903/

Preliminary October 2012 

MICHIGAN CONSUMER SENTIMENT AT A FIVE YEAR HIGH!

by Doug Short, Advisor Perspectives/dshort.com

The University of Michigan Consumer Sentiment preliminary number for October came in at 83.1, up from last month’s final level of 78.3. The Briefing.com consensus was for 78.5, although Briefing.com’s one forecast was closer to the mark at 82.0. Today’s report is the highest level since September 2007.

U.S. ECONOMY SHOWS VERY POSITIVE SIGNS!

Capitol Goods, Orders for Goods, Consumer Confidence and Home Prices are all signs of better days ahead!

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: November 27, 2012

WASHINGTON — American companies in October increased their orders of machinery and equipment that signal investment plans by the largest amount in five months, a hopeful sign for future economic growth.
Two other indicators out on Tuesday — private surveys of home prices and consumer confidence — rose briskly, more signs of optimism. Consumer confidence rose in November to its highest level in almost five years, the Conference Board said.
Orders for core capital goods, considered a proxy for business investment, rose 1.7 percent in October, the best showing since a 2.3 percent rise in May, the Commerce Department said Tuesday. Orders in this category had slowed beginning in the spring, acting as a drag on overall economic growth.

Retailers Keep Deals Flowing on 13% Holiday-Sales Jump

By Chris Burritt on November 26, 2012

Go

U.S. retailers are extending deals into Cyber Monday and beyond to try to sustain a 13 percent gain in Thanksgiving weekend sales.

Spending in stores and online rose to $59.1 billion in the four days starting Nov. 22, the National Retail Federation said in a statement yesterday. A year ago, sales advanced 16 percent over the holiday weekend.

Retailers have turned Black Friday into a week’s worth of deals, with earlier openings and online offers. Thanksgiving Day, once reserved for family gatherings, saw the number of shoppers rise to more than 35 million from 29 million last year, the NRF said. 

WHAT HAPPENED TO THE TEA PARTY IN THE 2012 ELECTION?

12 of the 16 Senate candidates endorsed by the Tea Party Express, one of the fragmented movement’s leading organizations, lost their races. That includes newcomers like Richard Mourdock of Indiana, who toppled incumbent Republican Sen. Richard Lugar in the primary by running to Lugar’s right and disdaining compromise with Democrats, but lost th

e general election after inflammatory comments about rape.

Tea party-aligned lawmakers helped force last summer’s stalemate over raising the debt ceiling, staunchly refusing any deficit-reduction compromise that involved raising new tax revenue.

What went wrong for Grover Norquist was overreach in his protect-the-rich scheme. The deep recession that followed the Wall Street mortgage-greed debacle caused the entire US financial system to go into a meltdown. The working-class Americans on the losing end of the bailout deal got tired of being suckers for CEOs, so they voted, mostly against, the Tea Party and Grover Norquist.

Not surprisingly, the name “Grover Norquist” did not appear on any ballot. However, if Norquist had run on his own pledge to protect tax breaks for millionaires, he would surely have lost.
Americans are catching on. Tax breaks for millionaires really don’t create jobs.
Norquist has used the threat of backing primary challengers to lawmakers who dare to break their vow to his pledge. But that didn’t work in the 2012 elections.
With his weapon to challenge disobedient incumbents losing its power, Norquist is fast becoming irrelevant.

Ten Numbers that Corporations, and the very, very wealthy don't want you to see!

The numbers reveal the deadening effects of inequality in our country, and confirm that tax avoidance, rather than a lack of middle-class initiative, is the cause.

by Paul Buchheit

1. Only THREE PERCENT of the very rich are entrepreneurs.

According to both Marketwatch and economist Edward Wolff, over 90 percent of the assets owned by millionaires are held in a combination of low-risk investments (bonds and cash), personal business accounts, the stock market, and real estate. Only 3.6 percent of taxpayers in the top .1% were classified as entrepreneurs based on 2004 tax returns. A 2009 Kauffman Foundation study found that the great majority of entrepreneurs come from middle-class backgrounds, with less than 1 percent of all entrepreneurs coming from very rich or very poor backgrounds.

photo: withayou via flickr

2. Only FOUR OUT OF 150 countries have more wealth inequality than us.

In a world listing compiled by a reputable research team (which nevertheless prompted double-checking), the U.S. has greater wealth inequality than everymeasured country in the world except for Namibia, Zimbabwe, Denmark, and Switzerland.

3. An amount equal to ONE-HALF the GDP is held untaxed overseas by rich Americans.

The Tax Justice Network estimated that between $21 and $32 trillion is hidden offshore, untaxed. With Americans making up 40% of the world's Ultra High Net Worth Individuals, that's $8 to $12 trillion in U.S. money stashed in far-off hiding places.

Based on a historical stock market return of 6%, up to $750 billion of income is lost to the U.S. every year, resulting in a tax loss of about $260 billion.

4. Corporations stopped paying HALF OF THEIR TAXES after the recession.

After paying an average of 22.5% from 1987 to 2008, corporations have paid an annual rate of 10% since. This represents a sudden $250 billion annual loss in taxes.

U.S. corporations have shown a pattern of tax reluctance for more than 50 years, despite building their businesses with American research and infrastructure. They've passed the responsibility on to their workers. For every dollar of workers' payroll tax paid in the 1950s,corporations paid three dollars. Now it's 22 cents.

5. Just TEN Americans made a total of FIFTY BILLION DOLLARS in one year.

That's enough to pay the salaries of over a million nurses or teachers or emergency responders.

That's enough, according to 2008 estimates by the Food and Agriculture Organization and the UN's World Food Program, to feed the 870 million people in the world who are lacking sufficient food.

For the free-market advocates who say "they've earned it": Point #1 above makes it clear how the wealthy make their money.

6. Tax deductions for the rich could pay off 100 PERCENT of the deficit.

Another stat that required a double-check. Based on research by the Tax Policy Center, tax deferrals and deductions and other forms of tax expenditures (tax subsidies from special deductions, exemptions, exclusions, credits, capital gains, and loopholes), which largely benefit the rich, are worth about 7.4% of the GDP, or about $1.1 trillion.

Other sources have estimated that about two-thirds of the annual $850 billion in tax expenditures goes to the top quintile of taxpayers.

7. The average single black or Hispanic woman has about $100 IN NET WORTH.

The Insight Center for Community Economic Development reported that median wealth for black and Hispanic women is a little over $100. That's much less than one percent of the median wealth for single white women ($41,500).

Other studies confirm the racially-charged economic inequality in our country. For every dollar of NON-HOME wealth owned by white families, people of color have only one cent.

8. Elderly and disabled food stamp recipients get $4.30 A DAY FOR FOOD.

Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) has dropped significantly over the past 15 years, serving only about a quarter of the families in poverty, and paying less than $400 per month for a family of three for housing and other necessities. Ninety percent of the availablebenefits go to the elderly, the disabled, or working households.

Food stamp recipients get $4.30 a day.

9. Young adults have lost TWO-THIRDS OF THEIR NET WORTH since 1984.

21- to 35-year-olds: Your median net worth has dropped 68% since 1984. It's now less than $4,000.

That $4,000 has to pay for student loans that average $27,200. Or, if you're still in school, for $12,700 in credit card debt.

With an unemployment rate for 16- to 24-year-olds of almost 50%, two out of every five recent college graduates are living with their parents. But your favorite company may be hiring. Apple, which makes a profit of $420,000 per employee, can pay you about $12 per hour.

10. The American public paid about FOUR TRILLION DOLLARS to bail out the banks.

That's about the same amount of money made by America's richest 10% in one year. But we all paid for the bailout. And because of it, we lost the opportunity for jobs, mortgage relief, and educational funding.

Bonus for the super-rich: A QUADRILLION DOLLARS in securities trading nets ZERO sales tax revenue for the U.S.

The world derivatives market is estimated to be worth over a quadrillion dollars (a thousand trillion). At least $200 trillion of that is in the United States. In 2011 the Chicago Mercantile Exchange reported a trading volume of over $1 quadrillion on 3.4 billion annual contracts.

A quadrillion dollars. A sales tax of ONE-TENTH OF A PENNY on a quadrillion dollars could pay off the deficit. But the total sales tax was ZERO.

It's not surprising that the very rich would like to fudge the numbers, as they have the nation.

What is Move To Amend really all about?

Here are two graphs that reveal a serious problem!

You can also check out more information about this at: 

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Whats-Going-On/241304559284144

What do you think of the trends in our economy that these two graphs detail for the periods from 1947 to date?

Do you see any solutions to these trends that can be taken at the national or state level?

The incredible good fortune for those earning over $500,000 per year mirrors the falling of the chances for most everyone else to be upwardly mobile in social and economic areas?

Why do you suppose that is?

Decades ago, the U.S. led the world in the chances for its citizens to be upwardly mobile - moving from low to middle or middle to high economic levels. Why do you suppose the U.S. has been falling behind in the ability of its citizens to be upwardly mobile and has been passed up by Denmark, Australia, Norway, Finland, Canada, Sweden, Germany and Italy?

Do you see the impact of this data on our children, and their children and basically everyone who has joined the workforce since 1979?

Do you think it is merely a coincidence that the good fortunes of those earning more than $500,000 per year directly mirrors the chances for low and middle level citizens to improve their situation during that same time period?

You can do something about this by learning about, and joining us, at: https://movetoamend.org/

Citizens United May Have Met It's Match!

Watch Out Plutocrats, the Progressive Pro-Democracy Movement Is Savvy and Gearing Up to Take on Citizens United!

There's a sophisticated pushback against corporate power in the works.

Check it out at:



http://www.alternet.org/watch-out-plutocrats-progressive-pro-democracy-movement-savvy-and-gearing-take-citizens-united