FinanceMyMoney: "Controlling the wealth of America – top 1 percent control 83 percent of U.S. stocks. As a share of personal income mortgage debt ate up 19 percent in 1949. In 2003 it went up to 85 percent. 80 percent of Americans 65 years and older depend on Social Security for half of their income.
Unemployment is still extremely high and most Americans still live with the effects of a recession. The housing market is still in disarray yet the boom in stock values has benefitted those that least need it in the market. The notion that stock wealth is evenly disbursed is nothing more than Wall Street propaganda."
Geld dat verdiend wordt door de grote verdieners vloeit niet terug naar de maatschappij (meestal wordt het geïnvesteerd in nog meer casinotransacties). Geld dat verdiend wordt door de kleine verdieners gaat als consumptie en betaling voor diensten meteen weer de economie in.
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Guardian: "Firms in the private sector are being hit by government plans to slash public spending. RM Group, the schools IT company, warned that contracts worth £200m are at risk."
TheDailyBeast: "Fourteen million out of work! Sixteen notable economists and historians have joined in a consensus statement for The Daily Beast demanding urgent action on unemployment and the faltering recovery. Joseph Stiglitz, Alan Blinder, Robert Reich, Richard Parker, Derek Shearer, Laura Tyson, Sir Harold Evans, and other thought leaders have produced a manifesto calling for more government stimulus and tax credits to put America back to work."
James K. Galbraith: "While seers from Wall Street proclaim a 'deficit crisis', obviously the capital markets don't take that talk seriously. If they did, they wouldn't be willing to lend to Uncle Sam for thirty years at four percent! But in fact they are doing this every week.
Medicare pays doctors' bills for the old. It pays out at lower rates than does private insurance for working people. Cutting Medicare would mean two things: less health care for the elderly, and therefore more financial stress on their families. And more health care costs overall, as people substitute with private insurance for the public cuts. Both of these are very bad ideas.
Social Security pays to keep working people (and their dependents and survivors) out of poverty when they are old. It spreads its benefits to all who have worked, whether they have children who would otherwise support them or not. The payroll tax spreads the burden to all working people, whether they would otherwise be supporting elderly parents or not. Both of these transfers are fair, modest, and sustainable. Cutting Social Security would simply create more poor elderly—those who could not turn to their children—and more stressed working families—those with parents in need. Both of these are very also bad ideas.
Encouraging early retirements would mean that young people—just out of school, with fresh skills, good health, and high energy—would get the jobs they need now. They would not be stuck waiting, or spinning their wheels in school, for years and years. Meanwhile, the retirees, supported by Social Security and Medicare, would provide a continuing stable support to total demand, creating jobs for others as they get older.
This is the way the economy should work. When we have older people, we must care for them, and the best way to do that is to give them the resources to support themselves. There is no 'burden problem' as our economy is plenty productive for the working population to support the elderly in modest comfort, particularly if we include some of our truly wealthy in the tax base.
Care for the elderly, energy, climate change, the Gulf of Mexico catastrophe, our decayed infrastructure, public health—these are real issues. Let's deal with them. The 'long-term budget deficit' is a phony problem, ginned up by politicians, some economists, and the historic enemies of Social Security and Medicare on Wall Street. For God's sake, let's not sacrifice our most successful social programs to the hysteria we're hearing from them.
In fact, the right response to the crisis is to expand, not cut, both Social Security and Medicare."
Hetzelfde geldt voor Nederland. Uitkeringstrekkers en ouderen zijn geen last voor onze maatschappij. Hun geld gaat meteen weer de economie in. Gezondheidszorg, het milieu, openbaar vervoer, energie, dit zijn de dingen die er toe doen. Het begrotingstekort is een vals probleem bedacht door neoliberalen die terug willen naar de situatie van 1900 met arme en dus goedkope arbeidskrachten. De VVD is een hysterische partij en als hun bezuinigingsplannen doorgaan zal de Nederlandse economie in een diepe recessie komen. En het gedoe rond die onnozele Wilders dient enkel om het werkelijke probleem, de graaiende financiële wereld, te verdoezelen. Het neoliberale financiële systeem zelf is een last, dé last, een onredelijke last, geworden voor onze maatschappij. Het is de privatisering die alles onbetaalbaar maakt, gezondheidszorg, energie, vervoer.
BNR: "De Griekse schuldencrisis en het ingrijpende bezuinigingsprogramma die het land van een bankroet moeten behoeden, hebben zware gevolgen voor bedrijvigheid in het Zuid-Europese land. In de agglomeratie Athene is in de afgelopen tien maanden 17 procent van de bedrijven gesloten. Dit meldde de Griekse pers zondag op basis van een studie van de Griekse vereniging van handelaren ESEE.
De sterke economische teruggang is ook aan het bestedingspatroon van consumenten te merken, zo blijkt uit de studie. De Grieken hebben begin dit jaar ongeveer 20 procent minder schoenen gekocht dan in dezelfde periode vorig jaar. Ook de aankopen van kleding liepen met bijna 20 procent terug.
Naar verwachting zal de Griekse economie dit jaar met 4 procent krimpen."
quod erat demonstrandum...