Monthly Notes:

• Sony & Warner Bros & Universal & Walt Disney & Paramount & 20th Century Fox control 95% of US film industry
• Sony & Time Warner & GE & Walt Disney & Viacom & News Corp have 90% of all US media
• In 2007 the average American household borrowed 127% of its income, now 112%
• Earnings for companies expected to raise 13.6% compared to a year ago
• Older workers are taking teenager jobs so teens are out of work
• Citigroup eliminated 5,000 jobs and only paid 16.9% taxes
• Only 4% of Americans think corporations are paying their fair share
• Corporate taxes in the US are among the lowest of developed countries
• Separation of campaign and state, abusive campaign regulation = no regulation
• In 1980 500,000 people were incarcerated, now 2.3M
• No jobs bill in this Congress, they haven’t doe anything but attack Planned Parenthood
• 88% of income of the economy to profit, 1% goes to wages
• If Apple made everything here they’d still make 50% profit
• 500K less government jobs since Obama took office
• Total revenue as a share of GDP has been under 15% for 3 straight years
• In 1950 corporate tax counted for 5% of revenue of GDP, now 1.2%
• We spend over $1T in loopholes, subsidies, breaks in tax codes a year
• Defense spending 3.1% of US economy in 2001, 4.8% in 2010
• For 14th year in a row the Pentagon asked for an increase in funds
• Bush was the first president to cut taxes during war time
• Reagan more than equaled the entire debt burden produced by previous 200 years
• Michele Bachmann has a farm and takes farm subsidies
• Legalizing pot would give us a profit of $24B over 10 years
• Pass McCain/Kennedy 2007 act would give us a profit of $48B
• First time in 60 years the net immigration is 0
• Financial service industry spent more than $95M last year in campaigns
• If every American gave up meat and cheese for one day a week it would be the equivalent of saving 91B driving miles a year
• Between 2005-2009 the share of wealth of top 10% rose from 49% to 56%
• Median worth of white family is 20 times that of Black and 18 times that of Hispanic
• Total cost of new policies: Bush = $5.07T, Obama = $1.44T
• Exxon profit up 41% or $10.68B even with recent oil spill
• 2025 fuel efficiency at 54.5MPG thanks to Obama
• UN Food & Agriculture (FAO) lifestock farming generates 18% of greenhouse gas emissions while all transportation accounts for 13%
• Reasons why meat generates greenhouse gasses: deforestation, manure (296 times more harmful than CO2), methane gas from cows (200L a day per cow)
• Average person eats 176 pounds of meat a year

Monthly Questions:

• People do realize that companies are sitting on their money rather than hiring? If we were to lower taxes right now with the debt crisis, do people really think companies would hire?
• Why shouldn’t we have regulations? We have laws?