<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN">
<HTML><HEAD>
<META content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1" http-equiv=Content-Type>
<META name=GENERATOR content="MSHTML 8.00.6001.18882">
<STYLE></STYLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY bgColor=#ffffff>
<DIV><SPAN
style="WIDOWS: 2; TEXT-TRANSFORM: none; TEXT-INDENT: 0px; BORDER-COLLAPSE: separate; FONT: medium 'Times New Roman'; WHITE-SPACE: normal; ORPHANS: 2; LETTER-SPACING: normal; COLOR: rgb(0,0,0); WORD-SPACING: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px"
class=Apple-style-span><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; COLOR: rgb(39,39,39); FONT-SIZE: 16px"
class=Apple-style-span><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; COLOR: rgb(102,0,0); FONT-SIZE: 22px"
class=style1><A
href="http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/2010/wolff270110.html"><FONT size=3
face="Times New Roman">http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/2010/wolff270110.html</FONT></A></SPAN></SPAN></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN
style="WIDOWS: 2; TEXT-TRANSFORM: none; TEXT-INDENT: 0px; BORDER-COLLAPSE: separate; FONT: medium 'Times New Roman'; WHITE-SPACE: normal; ORPHANS: 2; LETTER-SPACING: normal; COLOR: rgb(0,0,0); WORD-SPACING: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px"
class=Apple-style-span><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; COLOR: rgb(39,39,39); FONT-SIZE: 16px"
class=Apple-style-span><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; COLOR: rgb(102,0,0); FONT-SIZE: 22px"
class=style1>Oregon Counters Massachusetts</SPAN><BR><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; COLOR: rgb(0,51,0); FONT-SIZE: 20px"
class=style2>by Rick Wolff</SPAN></DIV>
<P>The stunning win of a Republican novice in the Massachusetts Senate race to
replace Ted Kennedy is well known. It is being interpreted as a sign of
Obama's fading popularity and also as a sign that the US electorate wants more
right-of-center policy. To show the flaw in thinking that right-wing
answers to the economic crisis are the only popular option, consider the results
of the January 26, 2010 referendum in Oregon.</P>
<P>That referendum's 1.2 million voters decisively passed Measures<SPAN
class=Apple-converted-space> </SPAN><A
style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; COLOR: rgb(0,51,0); FONT-SIZE: 16px; FONT-WEIGHT: bold; TEXT-DECORATION: none"
class=style5
href="http://www.ballotpedia.org/wiki/index.php/Oregon_Measure_66_%282010%29">66</A>and<SPAN
class=Apple-converted-space> </SPAN><A
style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; COLOR: rgb(0,51,0); FONT-SIZE: 16px; FONT-WEIGHT: bold; TEXT-DECORATION: none"
class=style5
href="http://www.ballotpedia.org/wiki/index.php/Oregon_Measure_67_%282010%29">67</A><SPAN
class=Apple-converted-space> </SPAN>by margins of<SPAN
class=Apple-converted-space> </SPAN><A
style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; COLOR: rgb(0,51,0); FONT-SIZE: 16px; FONT-WEIGHT: bold; TEXT-DECORATION: none"
class=style5
href="http://egov.sos.state.or.us/division/elections/results/2010S/1372259056.html">over
53 to 46</A>. Briefly, those measures explicitly protected state outlays
for education, medical care, and public safety over the next two years by
raising over $700 million in additional taxes<EM>on corporations and on wealthy
individuals</EM>. The passage of those measures proves that a left of
center coalition -- one that actually does the sorts of things that Obama
promised in his campaign -- can garner mass support and win elections. But
it proves more as well.</P>
<P>A somewhat left-of-center Democratic Party leadership had passed equivalent
bills in the Oregon legislature in 2009. Business and conservative groups
mobilized into and heavily funded Oregonians Against Job-Killing Taxes to
campaign for a referendum that would undo the legislation. The support for
a yes vote in the referendum -- essentially endorsing the bills passed in the
legislature -- was mobilized by unions, teachers' and parents' groups,
organizations concerned about sustaining medical and other public services.
Their coalition with the Democratic party leadership prevailed.</P>
<P>Income taxes on corporations will now be raised in Oregon from a minimum of
$10 per year per corporation (yes, that is not a misprint) to $150 per year.
The original $10 minimum had been set by the Oregon legislature during the
Great depression and never changed. Income tax rates will go up a few
points on households earning over $250,000 per year and a few more points on
households earning over $500,000 annually. Those rates had also not been
changed since the 1930s. In effect, Oregonians voted to preserve basic
social services by taxing corporations and the richest minority of their
citizens by modest extra amounts on the grounds of their greater capacity to
pay.</P>
<P>According to<SPAN class=Apple-converted-space> </SPAN><EM><A
style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; COLOR: rgb(0,51,0); FONT-SIZE: 16px; FONT-WEIGHT: bold; TEXT-DECORATION: none"
class=style5
href="http://www.oregonlive.com/politics/index.ssf/2010/01/voters_pass_tax_measures_by_bi.html">The
Oregonian</A></EM>, the opponents of these new taxes spent $4.6 million while
supporters spent $6.9 million on the referendum. That suggests funding
resources for such initiatives as well.</P>
<P>One obvious lesson from this referendum is that a left-of-center program
responding to the economic crisis is a serious political proposition with the
capacity to win now. More interesting is another lesson implicit in the
first. The referendum endorsed the notion that the burden of state
programs benefitting the mass of people directly and everyone else indirectly
ought to fall disproportionally onto two groups: those most able to pay and
those who have been underpaying for a long time. The campaign around the
referendum effectively exposed that these were largely the same people and
corporations. Maybe now other ways to implement the notion of taxing those
most able to pay and using the funds creatively to deal with the economic crisis
will emerge. Consider two examples.</P>
<P>The inequality of wealth holding in Oregon (and across the nation) is greater
than the inequality of income. Indeed, the very wealthiest Oregonians hold
the bulk of their wealth in the form of stocks and bonds. That form of
wealth is not taxed by any level of government in Oregon nor by the US
government. Wealth held in other forms -- such as land, homes, and
businesses -- is taxed by localities in Oregon and elsewhere. Land, homes,
and businesses are the forms of wealth owned by large portions of the
population.</P>
<P>The people of Oregon would have done more to bring fairness to the tax
structure of their state and the country had they taxed large holdings of stocks
and bonds (perhaps exempting retirement or savings accounts up to a certain
level, etc.). Taxing wealth in the "intangible" form of stocks and bonds
is not only a long overdue correction of a basic tax injustice. It also
taxes just those who gained most in the period from 1980 to 2000 when the stock
market -- and thus the values of their stocks and bonds -- rose dramatically.
Those years were also the time when the average real wages of American
(and Oregonian) workers -- those who own land and homes if they own anything --
did not rise at all.</P>
<P>Oregon's December 2009, unemployment rate was 11 per cent, above the national
average. If you add those Oregonians who have part-time but want full-time
jobs and those unemployed who have stopped looking for work, the total number is
more like 17 or 18 per cent. Nearly every Oregon family likely has someone
close -- a relative, a friend, a neighbor -- in that situation. Everyone
is affected by it. A small extra tax imposed on those most able to pay
would affect them minimally, but it could provide a large fund to provide
start-up cash for unemployed people seeking to form new business ventures.
Here's how it might work: only unemployed could work in such new
businesses (thereby maximizing the employment impact). They would form,
work in, and run these businesses. They would be their own board of
directors (thereby maximizing the range of skills such ex-unemployed could
acquire). Once such new businesses earn profits, a portion of those
profits would have to go to repaying the start-up cash they received so other
unemployed can use it in the same way. Existing businesses, unions,
churches, and community groups could all assist such new businesses with the
state of Oregon matching that support dollar for dollar.</P>
<P>These are but examples of creative ways to respond to the economic crisis and
to make positive changes in the lives of those most damaged by it. If
people can get out of the mental straight-jacket of thinking that "the
government has no money" to do things or that nothing new or creative can be
done, they can generate many more new programs. The money for government
programs is there if and when people challenge the ruling conservative wisdom
that only thinks in terms of more or less taxes instead of thinking about who
can and should pay the taxes that are now so desperately needed and might
accomplish so much. In a small but significant step, Oregon's referendum
moves in that direction.</P>
<DIV>
<HR>
</DIV>
<DIV><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; COLOR: rgb(0,51,0); FONT-SIZE: 16px"
class=style3><A
style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; COLOR: rgb(0,51,0); FONT-SIZE: 16px; FONT-WEIGHT: bold; TEXT-DECORATION: none"
class=style5 href="http://www.rdwolff.com/">Rick Wolff</A><SPAN
class=Apple-converted-space> </SPAN>is a Professor Emeritus at the
University of Massachusetts in Amherst and also a Visiting Professor at the
Graduate Program in International Affairs of the New School University in New
York. He is the author of<SPAN
class=Apple-converted-space> </SPAN><A
style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; COLOR: rgb(0,51,0); FONT-SIZE: 16px; FONT-WEIGHT: bold; TEXT-DECORATION: none"
class=style5
href="http://www.umass.edu/resnick-wolff/Wolff_curriculum_vitae.pdf"></A><A
style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; COLOR: rgb(0,51,0); FONT-SIZE: 16px; FONT-WEIGHT: bold; TEXT-DECORATION: none"
class=style5
href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/0415770262/202-6233462-4423822?v=glance&n=266239"><EM>New
Departures in Marxian Theory</EM></A><SPAN
class=Apple-converted-space> </SPAN>(Routledge, 2006) among many other
publications. Check out Rick Wolff’s documentary film on the current
economic crisis,<SPAN class=Apple-converted-space> </SPAN><EM><A
style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; COLOR: rgb(0,51,0); FONT-SIZE: 16px; FONT-WEIGHT: bold; TEXT-DECORATION: none"
class=style5 href="http://www.capitalismhitsthefan.com/">Capitalism Hits the
Fan</A></EM>, at<A
style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; COLOR: rgb(0,51,0); FONT-SIZE: 16px; FONT-WEIGHT: bold; TEXT-DECORATION: none"
class=style5
href="http://www.capitalismhitsthefan.com/">www.capitalismhitsthefan.com</A>.
Visit Wolff's Web site at<A
style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; COLOR: rgb(0,51,0); FONT-SIZE: 16px; FONT-WEIGHT: bold; TEXT-DECORATION: none"
class=style5 href="http://www.rdwolff.com/">www.rdwolff.com</A>, and order a
copy of his new book<SPAN class=Apple-converted-space> </SPAN><EM><A
style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; COLOR: rgb(0,51,0); FONT-SIZE: 16px; FONT-WEIGHT: bold; TEXT-DECORATION: none"
class=style5
href="http://www.rdwolff.com/content/capitalism-hits-fan-global-economic-meltdown-and-what-do-about-it">Capitalism
Hits the Fan: The Global Economic Meltdown and What to Do about
It</A></EM>.</SPAN></SPAN></SPAN></DIV></BODY></HTML>