Most problems are simple to see. Humankind have a number of serious, easily identifiable problems. Here’s two: About 2.2 billion people do not have safe potable drinking water’…. About 2.5 billion Earthlings subsist on a calorie-deficient (starvation) diet. Those who suffer the most of course are children. Growing bodies and minds without sufficient nourishment or good health never reach their full potential and many die young or in infancy. That’s probably as bad as it gets. And that’s the 3rd world. The poor people.
But what about the most prosperous richest nations suffering the highest infection/deaths on the planet and the greatest economic upheaval due to a virus? How or why is it that any such thing could be?
The answer in both cases is money. M-O-N-E-Y. Lack of money at the government level. Below is a list of five countries. They are the only countries in all the world that have no national debt.
So why are 97.75% of all the countries in the world in debt?
Simple: Because to provide necessary gov’t services and institutions they need to spend more money every year than the taxes they take in.
The solution to this in every country on Earth is austerity, cut gov’t cut taxes cut services the people can tough it out. Get the poor people ever closer to survival mode. And the debt of all these countries grows every year like clock-work, and is perhaps about to get waaay worse fast.
This debt is understandable in military dictatorships and the like where a small cadre of people rule (govern?) by force and intimidation and serve only to enrich themselves. Its clear why their countries are in debt. They’re taking the money for themselves….and..
.they don’t pay taxes.
And that’s the problem in all but 5 countries on Earth. The wealthy elite do not pay taxes sufficient to support the system that gives them the opportunity and security to be the wealthy elite. Italy which has among the highest debt has some of the world’s wealthiest families and the Vatican, Roman Catholic Church (some say the wealthiest entity of all), right smack dab in the middle. Why in hell is Italy in debt? Cuz those people don’t pay taxes.
Not one industrialized democracy should be in debt. They should rather have money to spare for emergencies like maybe a frigging Corona virus epidemic! But they don’t. So not only does the people’s debt grow day in and day out but now they’re needlessly dying from government neglect. Because the wealthy elite don’t pay taxes.
The simple solution to solving the world’s water and calorie deficiencies is to tax the wealthy. Way way more than they are now.
In the 1950s (when America was great) Wall Street millionaires paid 91% income tax. Until 1963 in fact when “liberal” Democrat JFK dropped it to 65% (actually going into effect at 70% under LBJ).
The great leap back was Reagan. He significantly reduced the maximum tax rate, which affected the highest income earners, and lowered the top marginal tax rate from 70% to 50%; in 1986 he further reduced the rate to 28%. He so indebted the country by cutting taxes on the wealthy, bloating the Pentagon/Wall St budget while axing gov’t services that President GHW Bush couldn’t survive it and he was crushed in 1992 for….raising taxes. His son gave all that back to Wall Street and more in 2001.
People in democracies simply must vote people into office who will tax the wealthy, the corporations and the churches 85%. And no one tolerates off-shore out-chicanery and tax evasion.
Just vote for people who will do it. And there can be water and food for everybody. And that’s a human right.
Tax the rich. Its that simple.
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