Asheville PARC circulated an invitation to a rally in downtown Asheville today to stand in solidarity for the workers of Wisconsin. Rallies like this were to be held in all fifty states today. “We are Wisconsin,” declared the event organizers. About fifty organizations backed the protest.

Reportedly, hundreds showed in Asheville. Children and anarchists were among those who supported the collective bargaining “rights” of government employees in Wisconsin. I cannot recall a demonstration of this size in Asheville on behalf of North Carolinian government employees who have not been granted the same “rights.”

Protesters demanded:

  • an end to the attacks on workers’ rights and public services across the country.
  • investment, to create decent jobs for the millions of people who desperately want to work.
  • that the rich and powerful pay their fair share of taxes that provide the government services we all need and want.

I didn’t quite follow the second point. moveon.org gave no explication, only video and tweets about how the masses were showing up in solidarity.

Did the organizers want the rich to invest, or did they want government to make the middle class develop portfolios? Supposing it was the former, then the rich would have to pay more taxes, increase the amount of profits going toward investment, hire new workers, and pay employees better. That doesn’t sound reasonable.

Nor does it sound reasonable that higher taxes on the rich are going to help anything, as the ultra-rich can afford the best loophole-finding attorneys. They also can hire attorneys to help them with personal legislation. They have lobbyists, and they make campaign contributions. This week, Rush Limbaugh defended Donald Trump’s $50,000 in campaign contributions to Rahm Emanuel. Trump wants to build in Chicago, and in Chicago one pays to play. It would seem real reform, and the kind that one would expect to have more support from anarchists, would be an end to corporate welfare and better ethics laws separating campaign contributions and special legislation.
 
Today, I spent some time on a humorous blog site that attempted various mathematical models to show how the rich might become super-rich. Granted, one of my pet peeves is how people try to turn any anomalous or personal-choice phenomenon into science for political purposes. Rather than doing that, the author was trying to demonstrate that a mysterious outside force must be behind the power to kick back and live lavishly off interest.

A more recent project is a new blog on how the rich get paid, including the gigantic hidden government subsidies which pump up those payments. Get rid of the subsidies for the already well off, and we can cut back on the taxes and welfare programs for the rest of us.

Unfortunately, the project was left hanging for lack of interest.