Veronika Wild

- Image by Copilot Good Morning/ Afternoon/ Evening Class! Today we are going to talk about Taxes – I can hear your collective eye -roll, and why this specifically concerns you. Before we start, anyone who already understands this, such as any member of the Patriotic Millionaire’s Club , Millionaires Against Pitchforks or Millionaires for Humanity, has a hall pass and may skip this lesson. The rest of you please pay close attention and some of you younger ones, especially you Elon, Mark, Sergey and Larry, and you too Jeff and Gina, and anyone else who skipped History classes or thinks they owe nothing to society at large - proponents of "The Virtue of Selfishness" and all that, please sit closer to the front so that you don’t miss anything. There will be a short test at the end of class. Why we need more Taxes As you know if you have read the previous post (go back and read it if you haven't), governments are already struggling to meet the demands of previous...

-Image by Copilot, modified by Cluan  Where we are now Great wealth has indeed been created over the past 40 years. However,  “the invisible hand " of the market, which free marketeers are fond of citing which was to bring wealth to all, has been busily transferring wealth upwards, rather than allowing any to “trickle down” as promised when giving tax cuts to the already wealthy. Under pressure from corporations and wealthy individuals,  both top tax rates and company taxes have been progressively cut, leaving many countries with deep budget deficits and growing inequality, even before the recent automation and AI layoffs.  For the rest of the population, life has become less secure and more difficult since the 1980s and the changes are coming much more swiftly than in the past -far faster than society is able to absorb the displaced workers.  We see the evidence all around us, whether it is in crumbling infrastructure, boarded up shopfronts,  rising homele...