TEN SONGS FOR THE NEW RECESSION #7: PAYIN’ BILLS FROM THE DAY YOU WERE BORN

Well, we’re seven songs into this series and already it looks like the market’s rebounding.

But don’t let that fool you. There’s a huge difference between Wall Street and street-level, where it’s still hard to make it, and it’s getting harder every day.

The Godfather spells it out for you.

Ain’t it the truth,

This is dF

YOU CAN’T STOP THE GODFATHER

Apropos of the previous post, that track is the title cut from James Brown’s underrated 1974 album Hell. Which features this awesome bit of sleeve art from Joe Belt.



It doesn’t get more bad-ass than that.

Good God,

This is dF

WARREN BUFFETT TO US GOVT: TAX ME, YOU FOOLS

By now you’ve already heard about Warren Buffett’s NYT op-ed saying, “For God’s sake, tax the rich already, you idiots.” (And if you haven’t, well, you have now.)

Buffett has said this before, but now people are paying attention in part because of the recent Debt Ceiling deal that, inexplicably, didn’t include a tax increase on the wealthy and cost America its AAA credit rating. Even Obama is jumping on this – just in time for his campaign – saying, “See, I said all along we should tax the rich.” (Which is why he has yet to do so. Wait, what?)

Anyway, John Scalzi pretty much nails my own thoughts about it, which saves me some typing. One key point to highlight is how Buffett goes against the current conservative meme that we must keep taxes low because if we don’t, the rich either won’t be able to create jobs, or they’ll “go Galt” and move to the Caymans and then we’ll be screwed:

The sort of person who is very rich does not become so by flouncing when the rules of the game change, to sulk in a gully. The sort of person who is very rich becomes so by understanding the rules of the game and leveraging them to their maximum benefit. This is why there have always been the ridiculously rich, even in times when the top marginal tax rate in the United States was 92%. They very rich don’t flounce, they fiddle. They always have. They always will. The fantasy of the enraged rich packing up and going is just that, a fantasy.

Exactly. Granted, there will always be some people who will vow to make less than $250k a year just to keep Obama’s filthy hands off their money. I suspect few of them ever went through with it, and I’ll bet those that did have watched their friends who make over $250k do pretty well and thought, “Well, fucksocks.”

As for whether Buffett’s op-ed will make a difference … I doubt it. For a start, he’s appealing to reason, and the Tea Party isn’t exactly known for being reasonable when it comes to taxes (or much of anything, really).

Between them and selective memory about Ronald Reagan’s tax record, the GOP has painted itself into an ideological corner – which might not matter so much except that it’s an election year, and if the GOP learned anything from the Debt Ceiling debacle, it’s that the Tea Party is not going to take a reversal on tax hikes well. At this stage, the GOP can’t really afford to tick off their biggest and loudest ally, no matter how batshit crazy they are.

And as we learned from the debt ceiling deal, the GOP would rather take its chances with the dingbats.

Eat the rich,

This is dF