Zoom-In on Tax Reform

Thursday, Nov. 21, 2013, 9am to 10:30 in the Meeting Room (behind the fireplace)

In our last meeting we discussed the need for tax reform, but there are many barriers. The law makers are beholden to moneyed interest for campaign contributions. Lobbiest can weaken laws by adding hidden loopholes. Tax attorneys can help the rich exploit many tax shelters. Congress can cut the budgets of tax enforcement agencies.

Even if we were to pass the laws, close the loopholes and fund tax enforcement, we need international cooperation because of the global nature to the economy. Certainly other developed countries have similar problems and should want to cooperate, but many poor nations are willing to let their national sovereignty by used to setup tax havens. No tax reform will be effective unless the problems of tax havens are addressed.

For our Zoom-In meeting on tax reform, we will take a closer look that offshore tax havens. Here are four videos which will be used as background material for our discussion. As always, anyone is welcome to lead the discussion on any of these videos or any other videos that they find.

• How Tax Shelters Work
• Tax Havens 101 - the High Cost of Going Offshore
• Tax Havens - Investigating International Finance
• It's Time to Tackle Tax Havens

The last video leads to a website which suggests ways to take action against tax havens.

Tax Reform

Thursday, Nov. 14, 2013, 9am to 10:30 in the Meeting Room (behind the fireplace)

Certainly our tax system has been a primary driver of wealth inequality. But until recently, it has been taboo to suggest that we should raise taxes on the wealthy. But times have changed. Listed below are several YouTube videos which try to make the case for a more progressive tax code.

For next week's meeting, we will try something different. Instead of showing a single video followed by discussion, we will have a series of short video/discussion mini-sessions. We will do as many as we can fit in our 90 minute meeting. So here is your chance to lead a mini-session on one of the videos listed below or another video you may have found. You can put your dibs on a video by email or by adding a comment to this blog.

1. Tax the Rich: An Animated Fairy Tale
2. Elizabeth Warren: You Didn't Build That
3. Nick Hanauer: Banned TED Talk on Inequity
4. David Cay Johnston: Moral Argument for Progressive Tax
5. Warren Buffet: Taxes are Too Low for the Wealthy
6. Robert Reich: Tax the Rich

High Health Cost, Part 2

Thursday, Nov. 7, 2013, 9am to 10:30 in the Meeting Room (behind the fireplace)

We will be showing the second half of the movie, Escape Fire. We will have 45 minutes after the movie for discussion. Don't worry if you missed the first half of the movie, the second half stands on its own. For those that want to see the whole movie, I have recommended to movie to be added to the Friday Bain documentary movie schedule. However, it cannot be scheduled before January. For those that want to see the movie now, I think that it is being offered free for Amazon Prime members, HERE, and there is a free one month trial membership.

We will use the issues on the website as guide for the discussion.

1. An Entrenched System
1. Employer-sponsored health insurance premiums are rising 4 times faster than workers’ earnings 
2. In 2007, General Motors & Ford spent $1500 on healthcare for each of their cars. BMW & Honda spent $600 combined.  
3. $1.1billion was spent lobbying Washington on behalf of healthcare between 2009 and 2010.
2. Overmedication
1. Only the U.S. and New Zealand allow pharmaceutical companies to advertise straight to consumers.
2. Soldiers’ use of prescription drugs has tripled in the past five years.
3. In the U.S., the more a drug is marketed to physicians, the more likely it is to be prescribed.
3. Overtreatment
1. Unfortunately, 30% of healthcare costs don’t improve health.
2. Only 1 in 16,000 Americans’ lives were saved or significantly extended by improvements in healthcare technology
3. 187,000 people die from medical error a year. Could this be the 3rd largest killer in the U.S.?
4. Paying more getting less
1. Within 6 years, U.S. healthcare costs are predicted to reach $4.2 trillion, 20% of our GDP.
2. Average cost of healthcare is about $3,000 per person in the Developed World. In the U.S. it’s $8,000.
3. For the first time in the history of our country, life expectancy is going down for many Americans.
5. Preventing Disease
1. 20% of patients account for about 80% of healthcare costs.
2. 75% of healthcare costs are spent on preventable diseases.
3. Fast food is given to U.S. patients in almost 40% of American hospitals.
6. Reimbursement
1. American daily hospital costs are $1,666. 4 times more than the rest of the world.
2. 20-50% of medical scans performed in America were unnecessary.
3. The average cost of 1 cardiac rehab session is $100. The average cost of a medicated stent procedure: $40,000.
7. Treating the whole person
1. In 2008, primary care physicians earned about half as much as specialists.
2. 1 in 5 Americans die from smoking.
3. ½ of Americans with chronic illnesses aren’t receiving optimal care due to short doctor visits.

High Medical Cost

Thursday, Oct. 31, 2013, 9am to 10:30 in the Meeting Room (behind the fireplace)

There is an excellent 90 minute movie about high medical cost, Escape Fire. This is an opportunity to try something different. The first half of the movie will be shown at our next meeting. This will give us 45 minutes of discussion time. We will show and discuss the second half of the movie in the followup session on Nov. 7.

The movie website has an issues page, HERE.

Income Inequality Followup

The Bain Center will be closed in the morning of Thursday, Oct. 24

Here is the local inequality for near Howard County. This was emailed by Ken and added as a comment to the previous post. Remember, from Norm's presentation, that the Gini Coefficient is between zero and one, where zero is perfect equality and one is perfect inequality.

First, here’s Howard County vs. nearby counties and other jurisdictions:

Rank	County	Median Household Income	Gini Coefficient
1	Loudoun County VA	$117,876	0.3670
2	Howard County MD	$108,844	0.3909
3	Fairfax County VA	$107,096	0.4229
5	Arlington County VA	$100,474	0.4294
11	Montgomery County MD	$94,965	0.4504
12	Prince William County VA	$93,744	0.3710
15	Charles County MD	$90,880	0.3937
18	Anne Arundel County MD	$89,179	0.4119
19	Calvert County MD	$87,449	0.4090
21	St Marys County MD	$86,358	0.3779
38	Alexandria city VA	$81,160	0.4404
39	Frederick County MD	$80,765	0.3827
42	Carroll County MD	$80,028	0.3858
90	Prince Georges County MD	$69,879	0.3951
116	District of Columbia	$66,583	0.5343
148	Baltimore County MD	$62,444	0.4396
713	Baltimore city MD	$39,241	0.5008

and then Maryland vs. other high-income states and the U.S. as a whole:

Rank	County	Median Household Income	Gini Coefficient
1	Maryland	$71,122	0.4473
2	New Jersey	$69,667	0.4718
3	Alaska	$67,712	0.4232
4	Connecticut	$67,276	0.4915
5	District of Columbia	$66,583	0.5343
6	Hawaii	$66,259	0.4257
7	Massachusetts	$65,339	0.4813
8	New Hampshire	$63,280	0.4298
9	Virginia	$61,741	0.4661
10	Minnesota	$58,906	0.4441
	United States	$51,371	0.4757

Income Inequality

Thursday, Oct. 17, 2013, 9am to 10:30 in the Meeting Room (behind the fireplace)

Next week, we will start a new topic, Income Inequality. Norm will lead the discussion. Here is his preliminary list of issues we can talk about:

THE  FOLLOWING ARE TYPICAL QUESTIONS THAT WILL LIKELY BE DISCUSSED DURING THE SESSION ON October 17, 2013.

What is income anyway? 

What type of people are in the top and bottom income brackets?

What is a fair wage and how is it determined?  Do market forces matter?

Does income affect life expectancy? obesity? infant mortality?

Does income inequality affect our attitude, philosophy, ideology, health?

What advantages result from income inequality?  Disadvantages?

What is the Gini coeffieient and how is it calculated?

Can we reduce income inequality in a capitalist economy?  Should we? How?  Have other countries done so?  Is the US such an outlier we have no peers?

Why do portions of the lower 90% vigorously resist any effort to increase additional taxes on the top 0.1%’s?  Are the rich really job creators? Is it a fairness issue?  Undemocratic?  Would the additional tax diminish our entrepreneurial incentive to be 0.1%ers some day?

Suggested videos:

• Wealth Inequality in America
• Nick Hanauer: The Banned TED Talk
• Richard Wilkinson: How economic inequality harms societies
• Michael Sandel: Why we shouldn't trust markets with our civic life

Books on Inequality:

• The Price of Inequality, 2012, Joseph Stiglitz (Nobel Laureate)
• The Great Divergence, 2012, Timothy Noah
• Inequality and Instability, 2012 James K Galbraith
• Falling Behind, 2007, Robert H Frank

Zoom-In on Israel Palestine

For the Zoom-In session of the Israel-Palestine conflict, we will focus on two issues, US involvement and the way forward.

1) A good summary of US involvement in Israel can be found HERE in Wikipedia. I was surprised to learn that the US did not really get involved Israel until the 1967 war. Before then the Arabs look favorable on the US primarily because of its role in the Suez Crisis of 1956.

2) The best hope for the way forward seems to be in the growing non-violence movement in Palestine. The referenced article is about non-violent resistance advocated by the Palestinian National Initiative which is independent from Fatah or Hamas.

------------ 10/5 Update ----------

Michael, here are some of the things I would like to emphasize on Thursday (probably more than you had in mind:

    1.  Re article “Obstacles to Peace – Israel’s Duplicity” (which everyone should have received either by blog or in print):  A CHALLENGE:  If you can find one important agreement which Israel has made which it has not reneged on, I will take you to lunch (at McDonald’s or somewhat better); au contraire, if you can find nothing, you take me to lunch.  (Please re-read this article.)

    2.  Zionism vs Judaism (see “Hidden History of Zionism” and quotes from several prominent Jews.  The power of the Christian Zionists

    3.  Arab League Peace Plan of 2002.  Why did Israel not respond to this?

    4.  Is there something more insidious than US-Zionist organization (i.e., AIPAC, etc.) which makes the US so subservient to Israel?  (Ref. “Eisenhower’s Secret Wars,” in which he threatened Britain “ .. with a run on the pound which would drive it into the ground” PBS 3-  -13.  Can one country have that much control over another’s currency?

    5.  The US failure to stand up for its citizens who have been killed by Israel, including the USS Liberty victims

    6.  Hedges quote re “enticing children like mice into a trap.”  I will never forget this.

    7.  Non-Zionist Jews

    8.  US a “dishonest” broker – even though the US should have a lot of clout with Israel, it appears always that Israel is calling the shots.  (George Ball gives many instances of this.)

    9.  Zionist questionable practices in recruiting Jews to Israel (see Zionist Connection).  “False flag” operations

    10.  Palestinian demand, not so much for a “literal” right of return,  but rather a recognition that a wrong has been done them, and that they should have the right to travel freely within Palestine/Israel.

    11.  Israel’s power worldwide

    12.  designation of  “terrorist”(Palestinian) vs “freedom fighter”  (Zionist) e.g., assassination of Count Folke Bernadotte

    13.   US media bias

Dory