Brent Nyitray
Fairlington Blade
Let the mutherfuker burn!
jnc4p
Kevin S. Willis
Michigoose
lmsinca
markinaustin
Arcanaut
novahockey
quarterback
ScottC
yellojkt1988 – Martin Scorcese’s film The Last Temptation of Christ is released. Based on a 1953 book of the same name, the film is hugely controversial for its departure from the Biblical account of Jesus’ life as told by the four gospels, and in particular a scene in which Jesus consummates his imagined marriage to Mary Magdelene. Sparking many protests, including some violence (most notably in France) several theater chains refuse to screen the film, and even after it is released on video, many video stores, including Blockbuster Video, will not carry it. Despite the controversy (or perhaps because of it) Scorsese receives an Academy Award nomination for Best Director.
1981 – IBM issues a press release announcing the introduction of its first ever personal computer. The IBM 5150 comes with 4.7 MHz CPU, 64k RAM, 0 MB fixed disk, and a floppy disk drive (remember floppy disks?!?!), and sells for about $3,000. By 2009, for the equivalent inflation adjusted price (roughly $7,000), you can get a 15,400 MHz CPU, 12,000,000 KB RAM, 5.5 million MP fixed disk, and a blue-ray DVD burner as a removable drive.
1978 – In a meaningless pre-season game between the New England Patriots and the Oakland Raiders, wide receiver Daryl Stingley is paralyzed from the neck down after getting hit by Jack Tatum when stretching for a pass on a cross pattern. The hit, which leaves Stingley unconscious on the field, broke his neck between the 4th and 5th cervical vertebrae, leaving him a quadriplegic for the rest of his life. Stingley died in 2007.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a0vKO-sHZTY
1961 – On the night of August 12 and continuing into the morning hours of the next day, in an attempt to stop the flow of citizens to the west, East Germany begins stringing barbed wire and posting sentries at all points of entry into West Berlin from East Germany, completely isolating West Berlin. This marks the beginning of the building of what will come to be a classic symbol of the Cold War, the Berlin Wall. The Wall becomes the site of many iconic Cold War moments, including JFK’s “Ich bin ein Berliner” speech, Ronald Reagan’s “Tear down this wall” speech, and this classic photo of an East German border guard effecting his own escape:
1944 – Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr., a Naval Aviator and son of former US ambassador to the United Kingdom Joseph Kennedy Sr., is killed over England when the bomb his plane is carrying detonates prematurely. Kennedy was being groomed by his father for a political career, with the White House being the ultimate goal. His death sets the stage for his younger brother, John, to become the standard bearer of Kennedy Sr.’s political ambitions.
1908 – The first production model of Henry Ford’s Model T automobile is produced. The Model T is the first automobile mass produced on an assembly line with interchangeable parts and marketed to the middle class. The first Model T sold for $850, the equivalent of approximately $20,000 today, and revolutionized transportation, making car travel accessible to the ordinary person for the first time.
Filed under: This Day in History |
All Things in Moderation 
Checkpoint Charlie is now a kitschy tourist attraction with fake border guards and tours in Trabants.
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The Trabant.
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Scott — That’s my favorite news photo. I had it as my desktop background for years. The story doesn’t really end happily though.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conrad_Schumann
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nova:
That’s my favorite news photo.
It’s a great shot. I hadn’t realized, as your wiki link says, that the moment was also captured on 16mm film. I’ll have to see if I can find that.
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A couple more Aug. 12th dates of importance, baseball style.
1964 – Mickey Mantle set a major league baseball record when he hit home runs from both the left and ride sides of the plate in the same game.
1986 – Rod Carew became the first player in the history of the California Angels franchise to have his uniform (#29) retired.
I loved watching Rod Carew play. The Angels really suck this year though, we’ve been clicking through most of the games and decided not to go to one this year. We were going to take the train in on a Friday night but decided to save the money instead.
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Carrying over from the last thread, was it tax cuts that ended socially progressive business?
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Tweet of the day.
@Doc_0: Remember when Obama said corporate jet owners were greedy fat-cat Enemies of the People? Now Obama’s dog gets his own plane.
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they flew the dog separately? I thought one of the perks of being in high office was taking your dog with you practically everywhere.
“sorry [head of state], that’s my hound dog’s chair. you can sit over there.”
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McWing
I subscribe to the theory that tax cuts on upper incomes and cap gains have increased income inequality. It sounded like a good idea but the desired “trickle down” never really occurred. Like I said, this is where we are though and I doubt I’ll see any changes in my lifetime. I believe a lot of businesses today, not all though, assume they’ve earned the benefits of a lower tax burden but don’t bear any responsibility to the society or workers that help generate their income. They may increase their charitable donations to ease their conscience but that’s not really what people need I don’t think. When I look around and see so many people we know, all hard workers, struggling to retire, send their kids to college, maintain their homes and stay healthy without medical insurance, I get pretty discouraged.
The top individual tax rate for high earners has generally declined since World War II, and is at 35% currently, down from 94% in 1945, the report noted. Although capital gains tax rates have been more variable, the current 15% rate is the lowest in more than 65 years. The capital gains rate was 25% before 1965.
The government researchers found that “the top tax rates do not necessarily have a demonstrably significant relationship with investment.” The researchers also said that the correlation between economic growth and the top tax rates “is not strong,” and that any links “could be coincidental or spurious because of changes to the U.S. economy over the past 65 years.”
What about arguments that “some income inequality is necessary to encourage innovation and entrepreneurship—the possibility of large rewards and high income are incentives to bear the risks?” The researchers note the argument, but say that the most statistically significant link is between income inequality and tax cuts on the rich.
“As the top tax rates are reduced, the share of income accruing to the top of the income distribution increases; that is, income disparities increase,” government researchers said.
CRS analysts also said that “capital gains and dividends have become a larger share of total income over the past decade and a half while earnings have become a smaller share.” This phenomenon, the researchers said, suggests that labor may grab a larger share of the pie when the top individual and capital-gains tax rates are higher. The past decade and a half covers a period that includes a decline in taxes; the Bush tax cuts were instituted in 2001 and 2003 and extended in 2010.
http://blogs.wsj.com/economics/2012/09/14/report-tax-cuts-for-wealthy-linked-to-income-inequality/
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I guess I’m confused. Are you saying that a higher marginal tax rate on the rich increases middle and lower class income?
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McWing;
Are you saying that a higher marginal tax rate on the rich increases middle and lower class income?
I get the sense that a lot of people oppose “income inequality” as a matter of principle. I don’t understand why one would object to person X making a lot of money just because person Y is incapable of making the same amount, but that does seem to be what drives a lot of these kinds of discussions.
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Scott — https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JEK-0PboML0
it’s a clip anyway
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McWing
Are you saying that a higher marginal tax rate on the rich increases middle and lower class income?
No, I’m saying that trickle down economics and the big tax breaks on the rich have helped the rich but haven’t trickled down as economic opportunity for the middle class and so they have contributed to income inequality. Some people seem to think income inequality and less class mobility are a good or necessary consequence of the last thirty years, but I don’t happen to be one of them.
I also said that globalization has contributed. I’d also add that improvements in technology have displaced a lot of workers. It’s the new reality.
I’m also saying, there’s no going back so those of us suffering the consequences will need to figure out for ourselves how to navigate the new economy. In the meantime, more people are on food stamps and Medicaid than ever. The largest number of those employed by a single employer who are on Medicaid work at WalMart.
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lms:
The largest number of those employed by a single employer who are on Medicaid work at WalMart.
Wouldn’t they be on even more welfare programs if not for the paycheck they get from Walmart?
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Some people seem to think income inequality and less class mobility are a good or necessary consequence of the last thirty years, but I don’t happen to be one of them.
I agree that some believe income inequality is good and necessary but know of no one who believes in less class mobility. Can you name some one?
How does allowing some to keep more of their income disadvantage someone else? In essence, how does Bill Gates wealth harm me?
Corked by Scott
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Here’s a good research paper, IMO, which I have bookmarked, that discusses income inequality, the middle class and economic growth. There’s a downloadable pdf at the bottom of the introduction. I’m not going to repeat all the theories here but read it if you want.
http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/economy/report/2012/05/17/11628/the-american-middle-class-income-inequality-and-the-strength-of-our-economy/
This is one of those discussions we’ve repeated here and at the PL so many times that it’s interest for me has really waned. IMO the focus on short term gains and profits has risen above the concept of long term economic growth and stability. As I said, I don’t think there’s any going back and so we need to accept that workers with families who are uneducated and unskilled will be a drain on the safety net indefinitely. The goals of a safety net should be temporary not long term but the economy of today stifles growth and mobility so here we are. Apparently there is no benefit to the “WalMarts” of the world to invest in their employees at the expense of their profits.
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I heard about and looked up the CRS report on the affects of raising/lowering taxes on the wealthy last fall. They produced the report at the request of Congress, spent a very long time on it, and when they published it in Sept of last year, McConnell, at the request of the Republicans, for the first time in history, had the report pulled. They reportedly didn’t like the findings, nor the wording… they balked at the term “bush tax cuts”, etc. Anyway, it is still out on the web to find.
In summary, after researching how our economy responded after either a tax hike or tax cut for the wealthy (using 5 years following of data), they discovered that whenever there was a tax hike, the economy picked up, employees were better off with better wages, etc., the entire country prospered. Following a tax cut, they did not see the same results. And as far as cutting taxes on the wealthy allows them to create jobs, they found that not one single time after cutting taxes were jobs created. They found that unemployment increased and that incomes became more and more distant.
Their summary on why the results were what they were is that when the wealthiest pay more in taxes, they actually invest into their business more, expand, hire more for the expansion, etc. in order to recoup the loss due to increased taxes… and the country prospers. And when taxes are cut, since the wealthy, the “job creators”, already have more than they can spend, they don’t invest it, they don’t create jobs, they simply hoard it away, and the CRS stated, mostly in offshore accounts.
I believe them since I know that there is appx more than $21 trillion of U.S. corporations money sitting in offshore accounts. Yet we still have massive unemployment and underpaid, underworked employees.
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Oh, I forgot, the CRS went back 65 years in their research.
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I clearly don’t object to income inequality per se, but I’ll easily join in David Stockman’s critique of preferential rates for capital gains and other investment income coupled with Federal Reserve loose monetary policy as being a driver of “casino capitalism” and an associated growth of income inequality.
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Worth noting:
“Tax Code May Be the Most Progressive Since 1979
By ANNIE LOWREY
Published: January 4, 2013
WASHINGTON — With 2013 bringing tax increases on the incomes of a small sliver of the richest Americans, the country’s top earners now face a heavier tax burden than at any time since Jimmy Carter was president.”
See also:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/08/12/liberals-and-libertarian-populists-are-wrong-politics-isnt-a-zero-sum-fight-between-corporations-and-the-poor/
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One thing that really struck me in that Stingly video is how much people were moving him around on the field after the hit. His teammate walks up and shakes his shoulder and then it looked like he touched his head or other shoulder again before the trainers run out. And then, after testing his reflexes, the trainer is shaking his leg back and forth. Wow!
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IMO the focus on short term gains and profits has risen above the concept of long term economic growth and stability. As I said, I don’t think there’s any going back and so we need to accept that workers with families who are uneducated and unskilled will be a drain on the safety net indefinitely. The goals of a safety net should be temporary not long term but the economy of today stifles growth and mobility so here we are. Apparently there is no benefit to the “WalMarts” of the world to invest in their employees at the expense of their profits.
One thing that I’ve been doing some reading about is the velocity of money, and income inequality has a direct effect on that. The more wealth gets concentrated into fewer and fewer people the less it moves around–which sounds to me like the exact opposite of “trickle down”.
So, yes, I have a problem with the extent of income inequality that we have in this country now.
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