There’s no shortage of amusing stupidity in the lies told to the poor naive tea baggers. From today’s mail box, the honorable (convicted felon criminal) former mayor Roger Hedgecock spews lie after lie after just plain stupidity. Check out how low this man goes in deceiving the poor scared tea baggers. Why do you still listen to those you know are lying to you? Wake up tea baggers. There are real problems we ALL need to be addressing and we can’t while you’re distracted with these silly foolish lies.

Here goes — watch out, be scared, wet your pants, Obama wants to steal your retirement.

The idea to confiscate your retirement money came (no surprise) from academia.

Do you get that? Mr. felon criminal Roger Hedgecock warns you about how Obama wants to confiscate your retirement. Does anyone really believe this filth? Well, obviously a few here and there will be inclined to follow this garbage. It’s sad, but some people don’t have the critical thinking skills required to know up from down. But this is just sad to be taking advantage of the poor Americans that don’t know any better than to believe this nonsense.

Just think about that for a moment. An American president wants to confiscate your retirement? Really? And what’s next? Is he having an affair with an alien from outer space? It’s sad, but yes, some poor people don’t know any better than to believe this stuff. Shame on conservatives like Hedgecock for taking advantage of the less fortunate. Shame on them for taking advantage of our friends and neighbors.

Some people don’t remember much past last week, but about 30 years ago employers used to provide pensions for retirement benefits to their employees. A pension is like an insurance program. The longer you live the more you take out. The shorter you live the less you take out. In the long run, the same amount is taken out as is put in and everyone gets paid until the day they die.

The conservatives have brainwashed us all into thinking 401Ks are the way to go. Think for a moment about your 401K. If you are lucky enough to live a long healthy life, you’ll run out of retirement money and end up homeless or on Social Security or Welfare. Nice! Thank you Republicans for the 401K.

If, on the other hand, you die early, then you don’t get to use all the money you saved up. Thank you again, Republicans, for the 401K.

In other words, you lose either way. Who ever thought up such an awful retirement plan and who sold this lie to us? But, that’s another story.

So, Theresa Ghilarducci (repeat after me, OBAMA’S name is OBAMA, not Theresa), suggests many possible changes to the handling of 401Ks. For anyone alive today and who still has a brain cell, our 401Ks are worthless! The current Republican Depression has wiped them out. Theresa’s recommendations would prevent this from happening again and again. Shame on her for trying to come up with solutions. Let’s all hope the Republicans in Congress continue to obstruct everything that can possibly help us.

Yes, my dear tea baggers, Obama is after your worthless 401Ks and he plans to spend them on dinner and a night out with his favorite alien from Mars.

Oh, and by the way, Hedgecock’s bribery case and lying under oath was mysteriously tossed out by an appellate judge on a technicality. Do you really want to take the word of this man?

From the Las Vegas Review Journal:

Nevada’s budget outlook is so bleak that lawmakers doubt whether state government can remain afloat without drastic cuts to everything from prisons to schools to state parks and services for the poor and elderly.

Legislators met Tuesday with Republican Gov. Jim Gibbons to discuss how they will cope with a short-term deficit of about $900 million during an upcoming special session of the Legislature. Some Democratic lawmakers acknowledge options to bridge the gap probably won’t include tax increases.
…
Assemblyman John Oceguera, D-Las Vegas, said pay cuts and layoffs for state employees are probably inevitable.

“These are drastic, drastic cuts. I would be surprised if some folks didn’t lose their jobs,” Oceguera said.
…
Taylor said such a cut would hit lower-wage employees extremely hard, especially because some lower-paying jobs are held by single parents raising children. There had been talks that salary cuts would be made only to employees earning more than $40,000 a year.

Oceguera was uncertain whether it would be considered “a socialist type thing” to tailor pay cuts according to earnings.

A Chamber of Commerce study released earlier this month found state and local government employees in 2008 earned an average pay of $55,657 in 2008, sixth highest among states and $6,800 higher than the national average. For state employees alone, the average pay was $55,266.

Teacher pay in Nevada averaged $48,257 a year in 2008, below the $50,852 national average, according to the chamber study. University and community college faculty members in Nevada earn $69,282 on average, compared with the national average of $72,959.

The study also found that Nevada has the fewest number of public employees on a per capita basis in the country, at 43.7 per 1,000 residents.

But Gibbons, who sets the agenda for the session, has long said he would veto any tax increases.

“Our only real option,” Horsford said, “is to eliminate or reduce spending.”

This is absolutely shocking. Gibbons is leading us in a race to the bottom.

Nevada state and local government employees get paid more than the average. That means the local employees get paid more than the average and the state employees get paid considerably less than average. But, that’s not what the Chamber of Commerce says since they might have a little difficulty being objective in this matter. What on earth are they even involved for? They’re the enemy and part of what made our current mess.

This seems so terribly obvious to any casual observer to be a race to the bottom. Nevada has been groveling at the bottom of everything important for so long, we just don’t know what to do if we’re not dead last. We seem to be winning the race to be the first state to resemble Haiti. Let’s all compete to see how low we can pay our state employees. Soon we’ll all be greeted by illegal aliens at the state agencies because they’ll work for less than Americans will. Is that what we want in America?

They’re afraid to affect the rich more than the poor because they’re afraid it’ll sound Socialist? This has to be about the most ridiculous thing I’ve heard in a while. When was it considered Socialist to expect those who benefit the most from society to pay the most? Socialist? If this is Socialism, then America’s founding fathers were all Socialists. They expected everyone to pay their fair share. Shame on you for disparaging the names of our forefathers!

And, if you were paying attention, Nevada is paying our educators well below the average. Obviously we’re dead last in education. We only get back what we’re willing to invest. We should be having a race to see how much more money we can put back in the hands of the middle and lower class and we should be expecting the wealthy to start paying their fair share.

Gibbon, oh what a fine example of Republican principles. No new taxes. We wouldn’t want the billionaires to pay their fair share, now would we? No, let’s just take it out of the pockets of those who need it the most.

When will America start to realize that this Republican approach is destroying our country?

Happy New Year to one and all. May this year bring you the financial relief and medical coverage you so deserve. Let’s take a quick look back at the past decade.

Let’s see, it’s January 2000. The economy is booming, the federal budget is in the black for the first time in decades, we were at a time of relative peace. We trusted our sciences and scientists, we had confidence in our banks. We had some control over our banking sector, even though Gramm-Leach-Bliley act had just been passed but the banking sector insanities hadn’t shifted into high gear, yet.

The middle-class American made almost $1700 more per year than today.

Oh, and did I say that we weren’t in the middle of two middle-eastern wars? Oh I did?

So, what, exactly, can you say that America saw in the past decade that was beneficial? Okay, sure, there were a few Peace Prizes, a few discoveries, oh, and we finally pulled the life support from a long gone dead woman.

You can say it is just a coincidence that these were the Bush years, but no one really believes that it was anything but Bush and the Republican politicians who benefited from everything that is now harming America.

Expanding on David’s great post about Welfare for the Rich, I see services in our state shrinking and drying up. Snow plows are just one of numerous examples. Our entire country has been seeing infrastructure crumbling around us which is a direct result of lower tax revenues caused by tax breaks for the billionaires. Reagan’s and Bush’s tax cuts for the wealthy are destroying our once-great country.

And, that was before the Bush recession.

Now that we’re suffering further reduction in tax revenue, the services we are paying for with yours and my tax dollars are shrinking. We’re getting less for our money. But, your taxes aren’t going down and neither are mine. So all you smart readers out there are probably wondering where your tax dollars are going since your services are being curtailed.

We’re seeing services stripped for the middle class and the needy but the services for the wealthy are still being provided, now, out of our tax dollars. That means there’s less left over to provide services to the real tax payers.

It is time to start expecting the wealthy to start paying their fair share.

This week I’ve seen a scenario played out in Nevada that I’m sure most Americans will recognize in their their own neighborhoods. In Nevada, we’ve had a week of cold and snow, the same cold and snow affecting most of the country about now. So what have we noticed during this weather?

In Nevada, the ability of the towns to clear the snow has been greatly diminished, mostly because of budget cuts. Many of the businesses are paying fewer taxes and the rich have been paying fewer taxes for 30 years now, and the tax revenues are drying up, so the civic services, like snow removal, are greatly reduced. But, who is getting the services and who is not? Look around your town and you will notice what I see here in Nevada.

The businesses get plowed first, followed by the wealthy neigborhoods. And, if at all, the middle class and lower class neighborhoods get plowed last. Is this because businesses and the rich pay a higher percentage tax than the real Americans? Of course, not, they’re paying considerably less. Corporations now pay less than 7% of the country’s tax burden. Who pays the rest? You and I do. The Rich have seen insane tax breaks over the last 30 years, down form 92% to as low as 15% in most cases.

How much do you pay? 25%? 30%? 35%? Include your income tax and your property tax and your sales taxes and you can bet you’re paying a higher percentage than the corporations or the rich. So, aren’t you glad that your neighborhoods aren’t getting plowed but theirs are?

Isn’t it time to start getting enraged by this theft? Isn’t it time to say enough?

The Tea-Baggers have it right. Something stinks in America and we have to get motivated to get it fixed. Unfortunately for the Tea-Baggers, though, nobody is telling them that it’s the rich that are stealing their money so they think it’s the Mexicans or the Liberals or the illegal aliens to blame. But, eventually they will realize, and we all need ot be ready to stand beside them and demand that this mess get fixed. Or better yet, it’s time we stood up ourselves and let the Tea-Baggers join us. Get motivated!

NO MORE WELFARE FOR THE WEALTHY!

This comment from my recent post, Harold Estes, is such a fine example of conservatives’ talking points that it warrants a post of its own. We are at a critical time in America’s history and some people really believe that parroting their talking points constitutes discussion, or scores one for their team. Why isn’t America their team?

Chuck writes:

DAVID IS CORRECT — Progressives are always right because facts, history and reality are adjustable so listen up:
1. Fair taxes – If you make too much (a floating number based on government need), Uncle Handout takes the rest. If you make less, we “spread the wealth”; oh that’s right we’re broke and it’s Bush’s fault.. Not-with-standing that the top one percent currently pay over 40 percent of all individual taxes and the top 25 percent pay over 87 percent (IRS for 2007), but, they don’t deserve to keep the fruits of their labor like under that foolish old capitalistic free market system.. However, all be be solved soon with the new Cap and Tax Bill, Medical Bill, Chris Dodd’s new financial control legislation, expiration of those silly Bush tax cuts — but no fear, these things won’t affect YOU!!!!!

This isn’t some elementary school spelling bee. These are important issues and should be addressed seriously. How can anyone just take a set of numbers and not look at all sides? My gosh, you mean the ultra rich are paying 87% of our taxes? Oh, cry me a river. Let’s see, that is what percent? Well, since the top 25% make 98% of America’s income and it’s still increasing, that is 11% (98 -87) of those taxes that must be paid for by the middle class and working poor along with paying our own taxes. If they’re making 98% of the wealth shouldn’t they be paying at least 98% of the tax? Why should they get welfare from America’s working class?

Obviously Chuck wasn’t alive eight months ago when Obama dropped the tax on the working people of America, because he’s still wetting his pants worrying that Obama will ask him to pay his fair share. Yes, I do expect them to affect ME. I expect things to get back to being fair like it was before we started subsidising the wealthy.

2. Health Care — Of course we should have manditory Obama government health care to control costs, raise taxes and surpress another private industry.. We need another bloated govt. agency that has the budget and fiscal success like USPS, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Amtrac, Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid (oh, thats right, these three would have been OK but uncle stole the money for other “needs”), etc., etc.. But hey, we’ll all get healthier walking to government clinics, standing in lines and learning to deal with pain while awaiting for our lottery number for that surgical procedure like our socialist country friends.. Besides, if you are over 65 and retired you don’t “contribute” enough in taxes or to the “public good” so of what use are you!!!

I am quite sad to see how little you think of America. Yes, we have some problems that we could clean up, but all in all I think America is a great nation. I wish you did, too. Someone has been nurturing some real hatred in you for your country.

I’m guessing Chuck has been nursing on the crap that Fox spews and the rest of the corporate media repeat. These are all lies and misconceptions. In fact, go to one of the many websites that try to set straight the lies. Any of these, these, these, or these would be a good place to start educating yourself.

The fact that this information is so freely available from the US government, I’m guessing Chuck hasn’t even tried finding the truth from the lies.

And, who do you think is going to pay for the national health reform? How about if the rich start paying their fair share, like Obama wants? Oh, that’s right, we can’t expect the rich to pay their own way, can we?

And, lastly, I bet we would all prefer any of these troubled organizations writing out my medical checks rather a billionaire CEO denying our claims so they can make more money but I’m sure that’s obvious.

3. Christian Nation – Of course we are not.. The 86 percent of the population that thinks we are just “cling to their bibles and guns” in times of stress anyway.. Therefore, ignor [sic] all those laws and rules in our judicial system, Constitution and Amendments because they have a basis in “morality” which comes from religion — bad!!!!

“Clinging to Bibles and guns.” You mean like McViegh and the Oklahoma City bombing by Christian radicals or others that have been discussed here, before?

If you think you get morals from religion, you’re sorely mistaken. Open your eyes. Are these the Christian morals you find in our constitution? No, you’re probably ignoring these. Please start naming them.

4. Immigration Control — Why?? You can’t be the Leader of the World until they are all here – “Come on Down” as they say on the game show..

This is another topic that we all agree on. Let’s find some common ground. Nobody wants illegal immigrants taking our jobs. Obviously we can’t build a big enough fence or murder enough to discourage them. The only way to discourage illegals from taking our jobs is to shut down the businesses that hire them. No jobs? They’ll all go home.

5. Military — Unnecessary… They just cause trouble, scare my friends and take money from our progressive agenda!!!

Our founding fathers would be horrified to know that we had a standing army during times of peace. That’s what the well-trained militia was supposed to be. Now we are controlled (more than half of our tax dollars spent to feed it) by the industrial military complex. We spend more on military than the rest of the world COMBINED!  Know that every dime spent there is a dime that isn’t being spent to make America a better place.

6. Pelosi Recommendation – Move the Capitol to San Fran. so I don’t have to wasted my time flying back and forth at least twice every week in my customized private Air Force jet!!!! The auto exec’s used to do that but we fixed them and are working on Wall Street and the finanical industry!!

Oh, please! Can you be serious?

6. Bowing and Apoligizing – We’re bad, really bad, and “I” know how to tell everyone that you greedy freedom and liberty loving capitalists are sorry… Ignor [sic] that as a nation, we have contributed more aid of every type, both foreign and domestic, than all other contries [sic] combined but YOU can do more and WE will arrange that!!!!

Please try to stay focused. Bowing and contributions and arrange for me, all in one breath? Nobody is saying we’re really bad. Can we and should we improve? The majority of American believe we can and should.

As for us being great contributors, this is so misleading. Americans spend most of our donations paying for million-dollar churches and paying the pay checks of billion dollar con artists. However, we, as a nation are the stingiest of the industrialised countries.

Etc., etc., etc…..
Comrade, I know these “truths to be self-evident” (because my Czars, tax evading appointees, lobbists [sic] and Chicago thugs told me so)!!!

Ah, yes, I believe this is another area where we can all agree: our broken government. Lobbyists are destroying our representative government. We need to get money out of our election process and corporate lawyers out of our Supreme Court. You know, the Supreme Court is soon to be deciding if multi-billion dollar corporations and international corporations should have freedom of speech by buying as much political advertising as they see fit. We need to get the lobbyists out of our government, we need to get money out of our elections and we need to get corporate lawyers out of our Supreme Court.

The Republican party is up their old tricks, exploiting our great veterans for their political gain. Shame on them. I got this in my email today:

WW II Battleship sailor tells Obama to shape up or ship out !

This venerable and much honored WW II vet is well known in Hawaii for his seventy-plus years of service to patriotic organizations and causes all over the country. A humble man without a political bone in his body, he has never spoken out before about a government official, until now.

He dictated this letter to a friend, signed it and mailed it to the president.

Dear President Obama,

My name is Harold Estes, approaching 95 on December 13 of this year.  People meeting me for the first time don’t believe my age because I remain wrinkle free and pretty much mentally alert.
…

I am amazed, angry and determined not to see my country die before I do, but you seem hell bent not to grant me that wish.

I can’t figure out what country you are the president of.

You fly around the world telling our friends and enemies despicable lies like:
” We’re no longer a Christian nation”
” America is arrogant” – (Your wife even
announced to the world,”America is mean-
spirited. ” Please tell her to try preaching
that nonsense to 23 generations of our
war dead buried all over the globe who
died for no other reason than to free a
whole lot of strangers from tyranny and
hopelessness.)

I’d say shame on the both of you, but I don’t think you like America, nor do I see an ounce of gratefulness in anything you do, for the obvious gifts this country has given you.  To be without shame or gratefulness is a dangerous thing for a man sitting in the White House.

After 9/11 you said,” America hasn’t lived up to her ideals.”

Which ones did you mean? Was it the notion of personal liberty that 11,000 farmers and shopkeepers died for to win independence from the British?  Or maybe the ideal that no man should be a slave to another man, that 500,000 men died for in the Civil War?  I hope you didn’t mean the ideal 470,000 fathers, brothers, husbands, and a lot of fellas I knew personally died for in WWII, because we felt real strongly about not letting any nation push us around, because we stand for freedom.

I don’t think you mean the ideal that says equality is better than discrimination.  You know the one that a whole lot of white people understood when they helped to get you elected.

Take a little advice from a very old geezer, young man.

Shape up and start acting like an American.  If you don’t, I’ll do what I can to see you get shipped out of that fancy rental on Pennsylvania Avenue.  You were elected to lead not to bow, apologize and kiss the hands of murderers and corrupt leaders who still treat their people like slaves.

And just who do you think you are telling the American people not to jump to conclusions and condemn that Muslim major who killed 13 of his fellow soldiers and wounded dozens more. You mean you don’t want us to do what you did when that white cop used force to subdue that black college professor in Massachusetts, who was putting up a fight?  You don’t mind offending the police calling them stupid but you don’t want us to offend Muslim fanatics by calling them what they are, terrorists.

One more thing.  I realize you never served in the military and never had to defend your country with your life, but you’re the Commander-in-Chief now, son.  Do your job.  When your battle-hardened field General asks you for 40,000 more troops to complete the mission, give them to him.  But if you’re not in this fight to win, then get out.  The life of one American soldier is not worth the best political strategy you’re thinking of.

You could be our greatest president because you face the greatest challenge ever presented to any president.

You’re not going to restore American greatness by bringing back our bloated economy.  That’s not our greatest threat.  Losing the heart and soul of who we are as Americans is our big fight now.

And I sure as hell don’t want to think my president is the enemy in this final battle.

Sincerely,
Harold B. Estes

When a 95 year old hero of the “the Greatest Generation” stands up and speaks out like this, I think we owe it to him to send his words to as many Americans as we can. Please pass it on.

How very sad to see an American political party trying to make political points by exploiting the delusions of this poor older veteran, and then they have the audacity to ask us to forward their lies. Such immoral political parties should be banned.

Hopefully, soon, if we can fix health care, he may be able to afford the medicines he needs to step back into reality.

Where does one start when there are so many misconceptions, deceptions, and outright lies? How about at the top?

1. America is not and has never been a Christian nation. It was founded to be a nation of all or even no religion. How many times do you see Christ or the Bible referenced in the US constitution? Never. Wonder why? Even a grade school graduate knows this to be a fact. Why are there people lying to us about this and asking us to forward emails about it?

2. If you don’t think America is mean spirited, you haven’t been paying attention. That is primarily what Fox new is. This is so obvious that no one could really miss the fact.

3. Imagine being so deluded to think Americans would believe that a man from a poor single parent family doesn’t feel gratitude. He has expressed gratitude repeatedly. Turn off Fox news and wake up.

4. It’s nice to have a president acting like a president rather than a war criminal. The majority of America are glad to have Obama representing us. Anything is better than the past eight years. Many US presidents have been diplomatic enough to show respect for the customs of visiting dignitary (like bowing). Where was the outrage when Bush was out there holding hands and kissing Saudi kings and princes on the mouth? Remember Saudi Arabia? The country where the 9/11 terrorists came from?

5. America is obviously not living up to our usual standards when so many people are so weak and frightened by terrorists that any Muslim in the news turns into the next terror plot. We are not all afraid of our shadows and there’s no reason to demand that our leader be so weak. “We have nothing to fear but fear itself.”

6. Yes, please bring back the economies we had after the last Great Depression. Bring back the New Deal, the committees that oversee the excesses of the banks and the criminality of the insurance industry. Please bring back the bigger more effective government. Our country has fallen apart because people have been listening to the “smaller government” fools. How do you think we got in this mess?

7.And finally, any president that just takes whatever his appointed generals tell him should be immediately impeached. Bush, you know, the one who never served even though he was enlisted? AWOL? He replaced the generals he didn’t like in order to hear what he wanted. Look what a mess that has created. Two more Vietnams and despised around the world. America is lucky Obama knows better and questions his generals. If you’ve ever been in the military, you know that generals advance their careers during wars, not during peace so of course they prescribe more war.

There is so much more wrong with this rant but I’m tired.

What is a fair tax?

I’m not surprised when I hear the rich crying and whining about having to pay their fair share. After all, our broken predatory capitalist system requires people to be immoral and predatory to be successful and we wouldn’t expect anything less when it comes to paying back for the wealth this country has given them. What, then, is fair?

Let’s take the plight of the poverty stricken worker, making some CEO rich while she raises her family in poverty. When she goes to the grocery store, she pays sales tax, usually in the range of 7-10%. In other words, this country is taking food off the tables of the poor in order to pay taxes. Another way to look at this is to say that 100% of the poor working mother’s discretionary spending (money she doesn’t need to survive) is spent on taxes. The middle class has a negative savings rate. In other words, all the middle class’ money is going to pay for their dwindling “American Dream”. How much of their discretionary spending is eaten up in taxes? Obviously 100%. This is immoral for so many reasons. How can a society tax their people to death? Shame on us.

Okay, so our government, pandering to the rich, have decided that it’s okay to tax people 100% of their discretionary income. Well, then that means 100% of what the rich make, after paying for a meager middle class life style, should be taxed. But, no, instead the poor and middle class are paying the taxes for the rich. The uber rich are paying about 10% of their discretionary income in taxes while the rest of the country is paying 100%.

If we’re in agreement that we don’t want to tax anyone 100% then it should be pretty obvious that the only moral solution is to levy taxes proportionate to the amount of discretionary income. This is called a progressive tax. In other words, the tax progresses up as the income goes up.

Back in the days when this country used to function successfully, we had a top marginal tax rate of over 90% on the uber rich. Isn’t it time we went back there? Isn’t it the moral thing to do?

Sales taxes, on the other hand, are regressive. They affect the poor considerably more than the rich. Fuel taxes affect the poor disproportionately. Property taxes should be more progressive, with low cost primary homes paying nothing in tax but million-dollar mansions pay a high percentage.

We’ve discussed the concerns over our Commons in previous posts, specifically on Reinventing Capitalism.

The Commons were originally defined as the parts of the property of a society that all or most of the people shared. As an example, a small tribe may need nearby grazing lands where they can allow their horses to graze.

As long as the tribe is small and as long as none of the tribe members decides to make a profit off the commons, everything works perfectly. But sooner or later someone will find a way to make money off allowing his cattle to graze and the more cattle he can use to exploit the free commons, the more money he can make at the expense of the rest of the tribe.

This situation typically leads to an agreement (law) that the commons are for everyone equally and nobody should make a profit at the expense of anyone else.

When humans weren’t over-populating the earth, many argued that the commons were limitless and we could always move to a new land once we’ve exhausted the current commons. Back when America was young, we could dump all our waste in the rivers and it would just mysteriously disappear, or so we thought.

This misconception that the commons were limitless caused America’s forefathers to overlook the immense need to protect the commons. They didn’t say we shouldn’t protect the commons but they didn’t explicitly protect them to the level we need today with our over population problems.

Today we are beginning to realize that everything provided by the earth should reasonably be considered the commons and protected as such. Automobile manufacturers are making profits by building cars that spew their waste into our limited atmosphere and not paying to clean it up. Eventually there won’t be any clean air left unless we protect our commons.

Many industries are making a profit while they dump their poisonous waste into our rivers and streams. Eventually there will be no more clean water unless we start protecting our commons.

Many more industries are treating our earth as a dumping ground for their toxic waste, and then moving on to new land when the run out of room. Eventually we will run out of land unless we start protecting our commons.

In present times, we consider our commons to include things like our airwaves. Also, utilities that have a right-of-way across our properties are also reasonably society’s commons.

Another kind of common is that which is required for a successful society. This includes education, the press (or specifically newspapers as defined by America’s founding fathers). Some argue that reasonable medical services are required for a successful society and should also be treated as our commons. That is a whole other topic for a post of another day.

America felt that phones where required for a functioning society so American tax dollars were spent to ensure that everyone could get phone service. The same applied to the supply of energy. These are also commons. That’s not to say that nobody can make money off them, but that no one can have such a strangle hold on them that people die so big business can make more money. Sounds like America’s medical system, doesn’t it?

Protecting the commons is the only way, I repeat, the only way that society can survive.

As we’ve seen, commons can change over time. What is required for a society to flourish today is not the same as what will be needed in the future.

I’ve written many times about the problems with and the need to reform our current financial system. Stepping back and taking a look at the bigger picture, the problem isn’t limited to our banks, but is a fundamental problem with our entire approach to commerce.

Just think for a moment about the American approach to business. In a dog-eat-dog market, only the greedy and unethical survive. Sooner or later you’ll either get big enough to control your part of the industry or you’ll get gobbled up by a bigger fish. And, the harder you drive your employees and the less you pay them, the better are the chances you’ll be one of the big fish. The more inferior products you’re able to sell, the better for you, sure, better for you, but worse for your community and worse for your workers and worse for America, well, basically worse for everyone else but you.

That’s the foundation for commerce in almost the entire world.

Today, in this economic tsunami, is the grandest of opportunities to fix this upside down situation. In fact, looking back at the past 30 years, it’s plain to see that it was our current economic/financial/commercial system that has caused this mess, AGAIN! Businesses and wealthy get stronger and richer over the years until they have undue influence over the government and then start breaking down the barriers society put up to control them.

We, earthlings, need a new set of rules on which we play this game of capitalism. Here is my list of recommended rules for the new game:

1. Half of all boards of directors in any company must be representatives of the employees. Employees are guaranteed a certain percentage of the company’s stocks.
2. Outlaw all personhood for corporations. This is a big deal and too big an issue to discuss here, but check it out. Google “corporate personhood”.
3. No business can control more than 15% of a market. Any more and the corporation or business is broken up. Sure, we’ll all pay an extra buck-and-a-quata for a week’s groceries, but we’ll all get paid considerably better, even the owners.
4. If the business is a natural monopoly, such as phone, energy, health insurance, water, sewer, fire, it is managed and provided by We the People.
5. If the business controls the commons, it is managed and provided by We the People.
6. Businesses are dissolved immediately when guilty of defrauding our governments. The same goes for donating even a single dime to politics. If your ad looks a little bit political, good by and good riddance.
7. All businesses must function primarily for the purpose of providing benefit to society.
8. All businesses must be evaluated annually by the community and the employees and any three years of failure to operate in the community’s best interest causes the business to be broken up and all assets sold off.

These simple changes will still make businesses profitable but they will want to share the wealth with the workers and will want to provide the best, not the cheapest, service to the community.