Ken Watts's blog

I'VE BEEN ALTERNATING, lately, between a series on Reality, Spirituality, and Politics, and various other kinds of posts—and had intended to return to the series today.

But I ran into some interesting information which is actually closely related to that series, and happens also to be relevant to current developments in Washington D.C.

I'll begin with a graph, to give you a peek at where this is leading:

The graph shows the relationship between various top tax rates on the super-wealthy over the last few decades (along the bottom) and the rate at which the third quintile for household incomes (around $61,000 in 2009) grew, adjusted for inflation. [read more]

YESTERDAY I SUGGESTED THAT Democrats respond to the Republican demand for a tax give-away to Big Wealth with a counter proposal that clearly marks Democrats as what they are—the party of the middle class.

They should begin with a simple and straightforward bill, aimed at tax reform, which does nothing except change the rates:

1. taking tax rates on the wealthy back to the Reagan era,
2. taking taxes on corporations even further back—to the golden age of the fifties, when America was the most powerful nation in the world, and
3. giving a a sizable tax cut to the middle class, while
4. keeping enough in the budget to help reduce the deficit without Draconian cuts to programs the American people want.

Introduce the bill, with much fanfare, in both houses, making the case that this approach is sound fiscal policy, attacking the deficit while keeping money where it can increase demand to fuel the economy, help rebuild the American dream, and move our nation forward to recapture the greatness we once had.

And don't stop there—introduce a set of similar bills, each simple and uncomplicated, each clearly designed to come to the rescue of the middle class, create jobs, or attack the deficit.

Some possibilities: [read more]

HAVING BEEN ELECTED TO the high public office of blogger, I feel it's my responsibility to the nation, from time to time, to explain to those who have only been elected to positions in the federal government exactly how to do their jobs.

So, to Obama, Pelosi, and Reid, I say:

The big issue right now is fiscal responsibility: the growing deficit and the national debt.

In spite of the fact that Republicans, historically, have never balanced the budget as well as Democrats, they are intent on making the deficit their issue, and on "solving" it through the same failed mechanism—lowering taxes for wealthy corporations and wealthy people.

This, of course, will mean raising taxes and lowering services for the middle class.

We all know by now—and so do they, in their hearts—that giving more money to people who already have way more than they can spend will not improve the economy or create jobs or increase tax revenues.

Call them on it. [read more]

(This is the completion of a story which begins here. The first part ended by saying...)

THE SECRET TO THIS transformation of humanity from a species of equals into a species of slaves and masters was not, in its essence, a mere matter of economics, or force, or even disinformation about the nature of the world.

No king could ever have tricked or forced or bargained the egalitarian ancestors of humanity into slavery.

There was a difference between the humans who fell on their faces before their king and their forefathers and foremothers.

They had been weakened at the core.

And the secret of this weakening harked back to the lessons learned from the taming of the wolves—to a phrase on the lips of the humans who tamed them.

"Bad dog!"

It wasn't, of course, the exact words that mattered; it was the idea behind them. [read more]

ONCE UPON A TIME, a very long time ago, a species of primates lived on this planet, which we will call, for lack of a better term, humans.

Humans were hunter-gatherers: people who lived in small groups, sharing the work of hunting game and gathering vegetation, and sharing food and the mutual protection of the group as well.

They were egalitarian by nature and by culture—in terms of wealth, of mutual respect, and of power.

They particularly refused to allow any one person to order another about, and had a variety of ways of enforcing this mutual freedom from coercion on any member of their group who attempted to boss another.

They had developed a very high level of social interaction, of technology suited to their lifestyle, and of art. [read more]

IT'S BEEN SOME TIME SINCE I last added a post to this series, so I'll begin with a very brief review for those of you who haven't been following it from the beginning.

There's a general agreement on all sides that the world is currently a dangerous place for humans—as individuals, as groups, and even as a species—and that most of this danger comes from humans themselves.

Whether we think of the danger specifically as nuclear war, socialism, global warming, or fascism—whether we believe the source is liberals or conservatives, religion or atheism, intellectuals or rednecks, latte lovers or beer-drinkers, we agree that the problem has to do with how we humans are managing our affairs.

No one blames the cows, on the whole.

We are all looking for a way out of the mess, whether we think of the mess as global, local, or personal. [read more]