Choice

[merrylander]

"We must make a choice. We can have democracy in this country or we can have all wealth concentrated in the hands of the few, but we cannot have both." Louis Brandies

[Oerets]

The courts have already ceded justice weighted to the wealthy. Just how many of the Wall Street thief's got time. But a poor inner city kid with a joint gets time.

Steal a little and go to jail steal a lot, pay a fine do no time.

Barney

[Pio1980]

Quoting myself from a parallel thread;
"I consider the Progressive era and it's reforms the time this country matured into an admirable 1st world nation, and abhor the aggressive overt and covert tearing away of the checks and balances and protections that were achieved and established then by forces I associate with the Conservative movement and lately the Tea Party in order to IMO return the country to a pre-Progressive era 19th Century industrial feudal State."

[Boreas]

Originally Posted by Oerets

Steal a little and go to jail steal a lot, pay a fine do no time.

Barney

Yeah, pay a fine that turns out to be a small fraction of the amount you stole.

"What?? You stole $3 billion??? You naughty, naughty bankster! Well, we'll show you! What about a $200 million fine, eh? Eh?! How'd you like that?"

John

[mpholland]

Originally Posted by Boreas

Yeah, pay a fine that turns out to be a small fraction of the amount you stole.

"What?? You stole $3 billion??? You naughty, naughty bankster! Well, we'll show you! What about a $200 million fine, eh? Eh?! How'd you like that?"

John

Sounds like a pretty good incentive to me. Work for it and we'll tax you a billion, but if you steal it, we'll only fine you 20% of what your tax bill would have been.

[mpholland]

Originally Posted by merrylander

"We must make a choice. We can have democracy in this country or we can have all wealth concentrated in the hands of the few, but we cannot have both." Louis Brandies

If we can't have both, then I guess we're screwed, because we already have the latter.

[donquixote99]

Originally Posted by mpholland

Sounds like a pretty good incentive to me. Work for it and we'll tax you a billion, but if you steal it, we'll only fine you 20% of what your tax bill would have been.

Legally, you owe the taxes too. Hence the imprisonment of Al Capone. Though I doubt the taxman gets what he should from crooks, generally....

[mpholland]

Originally Posted by donquixote99

Legally, you owe the taxes too. Hence the imprisonment of Al Capone. Though I doubt the taxman gets what he should from crooks, generally....

I am pretty sure "legally" is a pretty suspect term in this arena.

[donquixote99]

Income is proportionate to wealth, for the wealthy.
Income increases wealth, so the income of the wealthy grows.
Wages, meantime, are flat.
The percentage of income going to the wealthy, now vastly increased, will continue increasing.

Here's a simple table, that assumes wealth grows at a net rate of 10% a year:



Wealth % = wealthy income / total income (worker + wealthy)

This is just a figure demonstration, to illustrate the basic process at work.

[4-2-7]

Originally Posted by Boreas

Yeah, pay a fine that turns out to be a small fraction of the amount you stole.

The Fed said
"What?? You stole $3 billion form citizens??? You naughty, naughty bankster! Well, we'll show you! What about a $200 million fine paid to the Fed, eh? Eh?! How'd you like that?"

Meanwhile the citizen got ripped off by the bankster and the fed got there cut.

John

Hey thats the best post I have seen from you. However you didn't mention some things so I'll add.