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VOLUME14 NUMBER 10  OCTOBER 2012 The The moral purpose of a man’s ❛❛life is the achievement of his own happiness… Any help he gives [to the welfare of others] is an exception, not a rule; an act of generosity, not a moral duty.❜❜ ——RUSSIAN-AMERICAN NOVELIST AYN RAND, goddess of today’s far-right pols seeking “philosophical” cover for their agenda of selfishness and miserliness.

WRITTEN BY JIM HIGHTOWER  PUBLISHER, PHILLIP FRAZER

Bootstrap BS, Grover Norquistian nonsense, and plutocratic pouts of corporate elites The Big Three Myths fabricated by right wing fabulists to frame America’s elections

DURING THE PAST SEVERAL YEARS, a mess of plutocratic  The corporate and moneyed elites (forgive a bit of redundancy myths has been growing like kudzu across our political land- there) must be freed from tax and regulatory burdens that impede scape. This aggressive ideological vine has crept from place to their entrepreneurial creativity; place, incrementally covering over the vital spirit of egalitarian-  The First Amendment must be interpreted to mean that unlimited political spending of corporate cash equals free speech; and ism that defines us as Americans and unites us as a society.  Deliberately planted and nurtured by various Koch-funded front Etcetera, ad nauseam, ad infinitum. groups, these invasive myths (let’s dare call them lies) have been The whopperites are trying to pass this stuff off as some sort of deep political “philosophy” rather than confessing that it is what it spread by assorted Ayn-Randian acolytes, advancing the anti- is: Shameless kleptocratic doggerel intended to disempower the democratic notion that corporations and the wealthy are America’s many and enthrone the privileged few. So, this issue of the Lowdown most able, virtuous, and deserving citizens. takes them on, debunking The Big Three Major Fables of Plutocratic Theology they’ve put out to try and frame the 2012 election. ow, with the presidency and total control of Congress up for grabs in this election year, the Koch-Randians are going THE “SELF-MADE” MYTH: The greatness of America, goes all out to entangle the national policy debate in their lies, the this one, is derived from the individual efforts of the strong. essence of which comes down to this overriding whopper: 1These are the “producers”—the worthy ones who make it on Government is an immoral, blundering menace that must their own, never needing a helping hand or accepting any kind of be shoved aside so a virtuous society run by gifted, self- freebie (certainly not from the government). The claim is that these N reliant “strivers” and efficient corporations can flourish. admirable achievers often rise from the humblest of origins to create If you swallow that bucket of a business and attain personal success, over- Kool-Aid, you might then be able to coming such hurdles as union organizers, accept all sorts of the right-wing’s government meddlers, and other “parasites.” current phantasmagoric policy We’re talking bootstraps, baby: Horatio Alger proposals: and Ayn Rand’s fictional supermen, the industrial  Medicare must be replaced barons of the late 1800’s, today’s up-from-nothing high- with a privatized “VoucherCare” (or, tech billionaires, and such more accurately, “WeDon’tCare”) royal families of the corpo- medical system; rate plutocracy as Coors, DeVos (Amway), Koch, and the Waltons  All poverty programs must of Walmart. In addition, all be slashed or eliminated to across the country, legions of “free”poor people from a crip- lesser lights shine with self-lit pling and shameful depend- luminosity, proclaiming their self- ency on public aid; made success, ranging from the  The government framework richest landowner in town to—well, that sustains a middle class maybe—to your own worthless Rush- (from student loans to Social Limbaugh-worshiping brother-in-law, who, Security) must be turned over to Wall Street so bizarrely, sits in his well-worn La-Z-Boy, prat- individuals are free to “manage” their own fates tling on about how, by God, he got where he is through marketplace choice; without any government help.  Such worker protections as collective bargain- This assertion of individual exceptionalism is said to be ing, minimum wage, and unemployment payments must be grounded in the 19th century writings of the eminent French political stripped away to remove artificial impediments to the “natural thinker and historian, Alexis de Tocqueville. Having traveled exten- rationality” of free market forces; sively in our country, de Tocqueville offered his assessment of the 1210Lowdown_FINAL.qxd:1210Lowdown 30/9/12 7:09 PM Page 2

TELL US WHAT’S 2| Hightower Lowdown October 2012 IN OUR FOOD American character, and today’s hyper-individualists to hell with everyone else. In de Tocqueville’s assess- hail him for proclaiming that “self-interest” is the driv- ment, Americans have an ingrained sense that we’re FOOD FIGHT, EVERYONE— ing ethic and special genius of our society. See, exult all in this together—a characteristic that tempers the let’s all join the fun! the true believers, even a Frenchman can see that animalistic, gorge-yourself-and-go impulse. This is not Actually, this is neither fun greed has been a social good, for it unleashes the derived from altruism, he noted, but a pragmatic real- nor a fight that America’s entrepreneurial creativity of the righteous rich. ization that one’s well-being in a democratic society consumers and organic food In July, Barack Obama stumbled into the unforgiv- is inextricably tied to everyone else’s well-being. In producers wanted to be in, ing brambles of this myth when he said in a Virginia short, we need each other. That understanding is the but we’ve been forced into speech: “If you’ve got a business—you didn’t build essence of America’s uniting ethic of the common it by a cabal of corporate that. Somebody else made that happen.” Instantly, good—a concept so essential to who we are that the profiteers and their govern- the Republican echo chamber went KABLOOIE! Founders engraved it right at the top of the Constitution, ment enablers. For 20 years, “Obama Insults Small Business Owners,” screeched declaring that a core purpose of this nation’s historic they’ve plotted to hurl fields- Fox TV, and Lord Limbaugh, with his usual sophisti- experiment in self-government is to “promote the full of “spoiled” food at us, cated analysis, snarled that the comment shows general welfare.” including corn, soybeans, that Obama “hates this country.” THE “GOVERNMENT CAN’T DO ANYTHING” cereals, bread, and snacks. But wait—the whopper-tellers were intentionally MYTH. This hoary canard has been around since These foods have been editing Obama to pervert his meaning. Here’s his there’s been a right wing, but it’s been pushed comment in context: “If you were successful, some- 2 spoiled by corporate geneti- relentlessly since the Reagan era by such hawkers of body along the line gave you some help… Somebody cists rejiggering the very corporate-think as the Cato Institute (founded in 1974 helped to create this unbelievable American system DNA of our foodstuffs. by Charles Koch). This is the founding myth of today’s that we have that allowed you to thrive. Somebody They’ve taken genes from Grover-Norquistian nonsense that we must privatize invested in roads and bridges. If you’ve got a busi- other species (including every public function and reduce government to a ness—you didn’t build that.” animals and bacteria) and mere appendage of the corporate order. The claim It was the roads and bridges that Obama was refer- is that corporate executives are necessarily efficient, spliced them into nature’s ring to, not the business! He even went on to say cost-effective managers who must be responsive to own healthy products. The explicitly, “We succeed because of our individual consumer (i.e., public) wants and needs, so better industry says that these initiative, but also because we do things together.” that they should run things than the bloated, self- genetically engineered Despite the storyline of today’s libertarian fabulists, serving, out-of-control, do-nothing bureaucracies crops increase yields and even those stern, 19th century titans of American of government. make food cheaper, but in industry—Astor, Carnegie, Duke, Gould, Mellon, Where to start? How about with Mitt Romney’s fact GE yields are down and Morgan, Rockefeller, Vanderbilt, et al.—were hardly rebuke of the president’s “you didn’t build that” state- grocery prices are up. The paragons of go-it-alone individualism. Far from hating ment? “To say that,” snorted the vulture capitalist real purpose of DNA engi- government, these self-proclaimed “free enterpris- from Bain, “is to say that Steve Jobs didn’t build Apple neering has simply been to ers” were extremely enterprising at freeing up gov- Computer.” No, Mr. Mitt, it’s to say that Jobs couldn’t create plants that absorb ernment power and resources to help them amalga- have built it without the helping hand of the so-called more pesticides. mate their private empires and personal fortunes. do-nothing government. The internet, for one monu- And excuse me, but if They brazenly bought public officials, laws, regula- mental example, was invented in a government labo- these tampered products tions, and court rulings to get subsidies, land, permits, ratory and developed with federal funding, and the are so great, you’d expect rights-of-way, contracts, monopolies, police actions, computer itself was the product of public financing, big food manufacturers to and other major government benefits. not of corporate investment. As Colin Greer notes in brag about their wonders [Tidbit: During August’s GOP national convention an excellent article on government’s role in fostering to shoppers. They should be in Tampa, a right-wing outfit tried to mock Obama’s economic growth (www.alternet.org/story/154538), running ads shouting: “Hey, “You didn’t build that” remark by throwing a grandiose even the core technologies of Apple’s hugely prof- we’ve got GEs in here!” soiree titled: “Salute to Entrepreneurs Building itable iPhone (from the microchips to the voice control Instead, they’ve conspired America.” What entrepreneur, specifically, did the technology) came from years of government funding behind closed doors with group salute? David Koch! Odd—since this “boot- and research. lawmakers and regulators to strapper” started out with gold-plated boots, having inherited a fortune and an ongoing industrial business 12 keep consumers in the dark. ISSUESUESUU S from his millionaire daddy. And, while David and older 15 This brings us to the big BUCKS! brother Charlie did increase the wealth of the family food fight. A coalition of con- empire, they did so in large part by deploying a pack sumers, organic advocates, of mad-dog lobbyists to protect and extend the mas- I want to receive a full year of The Hightower nutritionists, and others 12 sive government subsidies the Kochs still get for Lowdown— issues in all—for an unbelievably have put the “Right to Know their “private” enterprises. Bonus tidbit: Guess who ridiculous, low, low price. Genetically Engineered founded, funds, and directs the group that sponsored Send me one year of The Hightower Lowdown for just $15. Food” initiative on California’s the salute to David? Right! David himself.] Send me two years of The Hightower Lowdown for just $27. November election ballot. It Finally, let’s revisit the claim that de Tocqueville would require food from GE saw “self-interest” as a great American virtue. This To give a gift of the Lowdown, enter the recipient’s name crops to be labeled as such. turns out to be another slice-and-dice job by the and address below and include your name and address on a separate sheet. Spooked by the very mythologists. As economist Joseph Stiglitz pointed thought of consumer dis- out in an article last year, what the Frenchman actually NAME closure, corporate food admired was the fact that American society embraced ADDRESS giants are pouring money what he called “self-interest properly understood.” and lies into the state so we The unedited phrase conveys the opposite meaning CITY won’t know what’s in our of crass selfishness. It says that to understand what STATE ZIP food. For more—www. is really in your self-interest, you have to ponder how Mail this coupon with your payment to: The Hightower Lowdown 3109, 19047 B2A0SA carighttoknow.org others will feel and react if you just grab yours and say P.O. 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October 2012 Hightower Lowdown 3 CEOS MEGABUCKS =| Where would Jobs have been without the govern- neer, for example, costs taxpayers $136,000 a year CORPORATE TAX BREAK ment’s constant, Brobdingnagian investment in and (including benefits and administrative expenses), while construction of America’s infrastructure? Alexander the outsourced rate for the same work was $268,000. SOME STATEMENTS by cor- Hamilton’s Erie Canal, the New Deal’s nationwide Where are the “deficit hawks” when we need porate chieftains tickle my extension of electric power, FDR’s federally-financed- them? Hiding this billable-rate reality, that’s where! funny bone—but more often and-directed mobilization of US industry in WWII, the They have their heads stuck deep up their own ideology they torture my cynical bone. GI Bill that extended college education to ordinary as they willingly force taxpayers to pay billions of dollars Take the hoary claim that families, Ike’s interstate highway network, the tech- extra each year for privatized workers. According to today’s extravagant level of nological leaps produced by NASA under JFK and the last count, contractors had grabbed 7.6 million of CEO pay is the natural prod- LBJ, and so forth? This truly is government in action— our federal jobs—nearly four times the 2 million public uct of the magical free mar- innovator, builder, job creator—quite the opposite of employees in the federal workforce. ket. To attract top executive the kudzu being spread by the corporatists. THE “GOVERNMENT PUNISHES SUCCESS” talent, goes this line, it’s sim- As for bloated, self-serving, out-of-control bureau- MYTH. This one is personal. It’s the cry of the ply essential to lay out a feast cracies, how about dealing with insurance giants, country club—the long, high-pitched whine of of big bucks. Not mentioned credit-card gougers, cable TV monopolists, or Wall 3 the smug super-rich and corporate chieftains who feel is another “magical force” Street banksters? The corporate entity is an arrogant, put upon by a public that “envies” their wealth and by bloating the big boss’ pay- autocratic, unaccountable fiefdom that insists it has “moochers” who want to seize the rewards that the check: You and me, taxpayers. no responsibility to anyone but its top executives and achievers have earned. Thus, goes the myth, Big America’s tax laws—rigged big investors. Cutting every corner it can—on workers, Government redistributionists feel free to sock the by and for the elite—provide customers, suppliers, shareholders, products, serv- successful with burdensome taxes. that the more the chief is paid, ices, communities, the environment, public health, Romney has plopped this plutocratic pout right into our nation, ethics, and the law—is considered a legiti- the bigger the tax break the the center of the presidential campaign, denouncing corporation gets. mate part of the corporate business plan. Why bring Obama for even daring to point out the widening So, they get a lot. In its this malicious ethos into the public sector? chasm between the rich and the rest of us. Obama annual report on executive Then there’s the counterintuitive assertion that “attacks success,” wailed Romney when the Democrat excess, the watchdog privatization saves money for taxpayers by replacing went after his ducking and dodging on the issue of his “overpaid” government workers. Well, corporations personal use of offshore tax shelters and a secret Institute for Policy Studies certainly are energetic pay-slashers when it comes Swiss bank account. Then came The Video—Romney, recently documented 26 to workers, but—hello—the corporation tacks a hefty speaking to a group of fellow millionaires at a $50,000- corporations that lavished profit onto each job it snatches, plus adding on such a-plate fundraiser in Boca Raton, was caught on cam- an average of $20 million on overhead costs as the CEO’s lavish pay, the palatial era casually sneering at almost half of the US popula- each of their CEOs last year, corporate headquarters, and marketing expenses. tion, dismissing them as slugs who’re “dependent including CBS, Citigroup, Still, the myth persists, kept alive by such tireless upon government.” They “believe that they are vic- Discovery, Motorola Mobility, promoters as the Heritage Foundation, yet another tims,” Romney opined, adding condescendingly that Oracle, and Viacom. In every Koch-financed front group. In 2010, a team of Heritage they are “people who pay no income tax.” case, the compensation loop- fabricators issued a report showing that federal wages There’s the rub for the far-right rich these days. hole and other special breaks were 22 percent higher than what privatized workers They’ve internalized a self-pitying myth that they alone meant that the corporation would get for doing the job. Heritage’s hide-the-pea are forced to shoulder America’s tax load, while 46.4 paid more to their top guy calculation, however, counted only the salary of the percent of the people pay zero federal income tax. To than they paid in federal contract employee, not the total that the corporation add to the outrage of the swells, these “shirkers” are income taxes. charges the government to provide that worker. also said by the whopperites to be “takers” who’re on Also, thanks to the Bush Last fall, the watchdog Project On Government Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, unemployment tax giveaways to the upper- Oversight analyzed the full price (called the “billable comp, food stamps, veterans benefits, and (in Mitt’s most upper-income takers, rate”) for farming out a public job. On average, corpo- words) “you-name-it.” more than half of last year’s rations charge more than double the amount that a Let’s dissect this urban legend. First, who are these 100 top-paid CEOs were able public employee costs. An in-house computer engi- freeloaders, these “lucky duckies,” as the Wall Street to dodge at least a million dol- lars each in personal income

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OUR BRAVE NEW 4| Hightower Lowdown October 2012 ROBOT WORLD Mitt’s Millionaire Club because their incomes are too low to be taxed, “CURIOSITY” IS NASA’S lov- one bunch of them has lots of income. In fact, able robot that’s now probing DURING HIS INFAMOUS, surreptitiously video- last year, about 4,000 households with incomes and analyzing the red planet taped, $50,000-a-plate fundraiser in Florida, above a million dollars each ended up paying with human-like dexterity Romney was full of disdain for poor people “who zero federal income tax. But Mitt, speaking to a pay no income tax.” He didn’t mention, how- room full of millionaires, expressed no disdain and abilities. Meanwhile, ever, the most interesting fact about this No Tax for these real tax dodgers. Perhaps he was just back on Earth, 128 similarly Club: While nearly all of its members are in it being polite. sophisticated robots are making electric shavers for Philips Electronics—work Journal calls them? Overwhelmingly, they’re poor the nonpartisan Citizens for Tax Justice analyzed the that would take ten times people! They’re those who labor in menial jobs that actual tax bills paid by 280 of America’s biggest cor- that many humans. pay less than $9,750 a year, (the level at which they’d porations in the previous three years. They averaged A New York Times article begin owing income tax); low paid single moms and paying only half the official 35 percent rate, and a marveled that the robots’ even some of our poorly paid soldiers in Afghanistan fourth of them paid less than 10 percent. Thirty of arms “work with yoga-like who qualify for the Child Tax Credit; disabled veterans the giants paid zero during those three years. Among flexibility… well beyond and people maimed on the job; and elderly folks these was General Electric, which had a $5 billion the capability of the most whose Social Security benefits are too low to be profit on its US operations alone in 2010. Far from dexterous human.” Plus, taxed. Yeah, lucky duckies all! paying Uncle Sam, GE got a $3.2 billion tax rebate exclaimed the Times, Second, while 46 percent of Americans don’t pay for that year—a product of the 1,000 accountants, “They do it all without a income taxes, they do pay billions of dollars in federal lawyers, lobbyists, and voodoo artists on its internal coffee break—three shifts payroll and excise taxes and fees. These are very tax team. “We are committed to complying with a day, 365 days a year.” regressive assessments—people who earn $20,000 the rules and paying all legally obliged taxes,” said a Corporations have hun- to $33,000 a year pay 10.5 percent of their income in spokeswoman. Sure—rules they write. dreds of fully robotized man- such taxes, while those hauling in more than $450,000 You might remember that Obama appointed General ufacturing plants already in pay less than half that rate. Likewise, state and local Electric’s CEO, Jeffrey Immelt, to be chairman of the operation or planned, and taxes hit low- and middle-income people dispropor- President’s Council on Jobs and Competitiveness in Philips’ manager says, tionately hard—those earning under $20,000 a year, 2011. So much for punishing success. “[With these robots] we can for example, shell out 12.3 percent of their pay for make any consumer device state and local taxes, while the $450,000 class pays Debunk their bunkum in the world.” Indeed, Apple’s only 7.9 percent. By no means are the Big Three Myths that I’ve cov- iPhone maker in China plans Then there is the gnashing of right-wingers’ teeth ered here the only ones that the plutocracy promoters over the “crushing” 35 percent tax rate that US corpo- want us simply to “believe” (a word, you might notice, to install more than a million rations face. It’s a job killer and a stifler of economic that has LIE positioned right at its center). But this robots to displace untold growth, they sob, lambasting it as the second highest trio of myths—“Self-Made,” “Government Can’t Do numbers of workers. rate in the world. Well, yes, unless you figure in the Anything,” and “Government Punishes Success”— Likewise, robots are now plethora of loopholes punched into the tax code by are the key perversions of language and truth they assembling Boeing’s wide corporate lobbyists. have crafted to detour us off of America’s historic body jets, packing California Corporate executives are gold medal champions path to egalitarianism, plunging us instead down lettuce in shipping boxes, in the Olympic sport of Creative Tax Dodging, which the rabbit hole of corporate rule. making Hyundai and Tesla results in American corporations ending up with the If we are to stand up successfully to the myriad cars, and operating our second lowest tax payments in the developed world corporate policies and laws that they want to impose nation’s largest grocery —not only lower than corporations pay in such glob- on us, we must confront, expose, and reject at every warehouse. The Times says ally competitive nations as Japan, Canada, Sweden, turn their nefarious lies. Don’t let them rewrite the flatly: “This is the future.” and Korea, but also lower than the amount paid in basic truth that unites us as a democratic people: Oh? So, what are millions the Czech Republic, Hungary, Turkey, and Slovenia. We need each other for all of us to succeed, both of displaced human workers In a comprehensive study released last November, personally and as a nation. to do? No one knows. Worse, no planning for or even think- ing about the human future is You can comment on stories in the Lowdown on our website Moving? Missed an issue? underway. Instead, we’re Please call or write us at: hightowerlowdown.org The Hightower Lowdown getting balderdash and BS PO Box 3109 about how “This is the march Langhorne PA 19047 of progress” that’ll “make [email protected] America more competitive.” Subscribers’ toll-free number: “More competitive?” For (877) 747-3517 whom and to what end? Too 14:10 October2012 often, the power elites wave THE BIG THREE MYTHS FABRICATED the flag of “progress” as BY RIGHT WING FABULISTS TO they march over the well- FRAME AMERICA'S ELECTIONS being of the many. We need Tell us what’s in our food...... 2

a national discussion about CEOs megabucks = corporate

their grab for robotic profits 19047 PA Langhorne tax break ...... 3

and our collective need to 3109 Box PO ...... h ihoe Lowdown Hightower The Our brave new robot world 4

address the crucial human PERIODICALS issues involved.