My dear friend and writing critic Steve, a retired English teacher, wishes that I would write some more positive, hopeful columns. I too wish I could do so, but right now it seems like we are so obviously in the midst of an ongoing coup d’état of our several hundred-year-old experiment in democracy, that It’s kind of hard to ignore this reality when it is, more and more, in one’s face and of immediate concern.
As the consequences of the Trump/Musk co-presidency are starting to be felt all over the country, one would think that public opinion would be rapidly turning against the chainsaw and wrecking ball tactics of these two monumental egomaniacs, and indeed, there is evidence that people are finally starting to wake up to the inescapable economic and social consequences that WILL occur when mass firings happen on such an enormous number of people working in all branches of the government (except the military). Apparently both of these guys are afflicted with the same absurd hubris, where they believe that they know more than the experts in each and every field of expertise, which thus somehow justifies the completely extralegal activities of their storm troops of teenage tech bro devotees, whom they have sicced on just about every agency (with special emphasis on those which provide services for regular people). Locally, the Anderson Valley senior center, which has for years provided delicious and nutritious meals and Meals on Wheels over there, has suddenly seen their federal budget axed. The irony of these couple of idiot billionaires scouring the federal budget for opportunities to skinflint relatively inexpensive but hugely important-to-many-people expenditures like this in order to come up with trillions of more tax breaks for the morbidly rich is apparently lost on The Donald and his boss, the world’s richest man.
We’re going to see a lot of really painful cuts like that in such vital services as NPR; the essential federal grants to struggling public radio stations like our own KZYX, and thousands of other valuable federal investments in our society, that add so much to our quality of life but do not directly benefit TrumpMusk. And why are they so avid about cutting all these services? MORE TAX BREAKS FOR THE FILTHY RICH!
What is with these billionaires anyway? As the great writer and lecturer Michael Parenti once said, “There’s only one thing that the ruling class has ever wanted, and that is everything!” With a few notable exceptions, the ultrarich seem to share a common characteristic; an absolute rancor for taxes of any kind, never mind that they receive a disproportionate share of the bounty that grows from the enormous investment in civil infrastructure that facilitates the ability of their workers to arrive at their jobs and for the shipment of their goods. It only makes sense for those who benefit from their much greater use of public infrastructure to pay a higher tax rate than the average worker.
Republicans, throughout my life, have relentlessly pushed this fairytale about taxes; often referred to as ‘trickle down’, their relentless obsession posits their completely fictional notion that cutting the taxes of the superrich will inevitably result in those people investing in new plants, equipment etc., thus producing more jobs.
There are detailed graphs about the actual results in the economy going back a number of decades. The fact is that there has NEVER been an instance where cutting taxes for the wealthiest has resulted in ANY economic boom. Quite the opposite; there is a very clear pattern of Republican administrations, who ALWAYS slash the taxes of the wealthy, also invariably are represented on economic graphs with a descending line. On the other hand, that same graph over time will show that each time a Democrat is elected, almost invariably they raise the taxes of the rich slightly, and the GDP or whatever other economic graphs you care to consider, are represented with an ascending line, an economic boom, greater GDP, lower unemployment, less inflation.
And really it’s what you might expect; if you lower the tax rate for the fortunate few, they will be happy to rake that off the top, whether or not they have any interest in expanding their corporate operations or creating more jobs, whereas if you INCREASE those rates, it becomes more fiscally prudent to leave the money in the company (where it can finance the construction of new plants and equipment etc.), and take it out after retirement through deferred compensation, at a lower tax rate.
Taxes are an interesting subject that people should think about more. The Republican orientation when speaking about taxes, is to muddy the water, mush us all all together under the generalized term of ‘taxpayer’, as if the tax rate change for one group will automatically do the same for rest. Taxing systems are not some kind of natural phenomenon; ideally they are man-made decisions about the flow of wealth through the society, where to encourage, where to discourage, made by the will of that all the members of that society.
Unfortunately, in the post Citizens United reality we are burdened with today, the insane, out-of-control wealth disparity in the US gives us an incredibly slanted pinball machine, where the world’s richest man, for basically chump change to him, is able to purchase a position of authority arguably higher than the actual elected president. This wealth disparity is expressed in so many areas! The fact that principled Republicans who, for instance, were a hard NO to installing a drunken, woman abusing white Christian nationalist to be in charge of the DoD, were forced to tuck their tail between her legs and vote for Hegseth after they were advised that Musk would promote a well-funded primary challenger at their next election if they didn’t go along with this odious appointee
It is hard to see a way out of this political morass, but short of a legislative reversal of Citizens United, there are things that could be done; why couldn’t everyone in the country be given a credit card for political contributions, each election cycle, with 100 or $200 to spend on them? That might actually do something to address the situation that we have today, where the ideological far right, almost exclusively funded by the superrich, enjoys an enormous megaphone, their viewpoint is promulgated far and wide, across the fruited plain, where a progressive speaking voices are basically nonexistent, thanks to the economic might of the giant hedge funds who have bought up just about every radio and TV station and dictated that they give daily hosannas to capitalism and the interests of the top one percent.
Maybe its wishful thinking, but ideally the tax rate would not tap out at the relative pittance of 170 grand or so, where it should just be getting started at higher rates. Instead of these silly steps (tax brackets), it would make so much more sense to have a smooth curve of income to tax liability, where every dollar more you make puts you in a minutely slightly higher tax rate, with the rates for those at the very top of the income scale, making millions a year, being back closer to what it used to be when the country really WAS great; at 90% or so. They’ll still have more money than they know what to do with, and we could have a much better society for the rest of us.
For this and other articles, go to; inarationalworld2.blogspot.com/2025/03/my-dear-friend-and-writing-critic-steve.html
John Arteaga is a Ukiah resident.
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