Romney Supporter: Billionaires Have Too Little Political Influence

Ken Griffin, a Chicago-based billionaire hedge fund manager, is a Mitt Romney supporter who thinks the super-rich have an "insufficient influence" over American politics, even though he thinks politicians should pay so much attention to CEOs.  He also believes the Obama Administration is at fault for the social unrest over income inequality and that China is pulling people out of poverty by embracing policies favoring the private sector.  He also believes that there is nothing wrong with billionaires, hedge fund managers, and other super-wealthy individuals spending unlimited amounts of money to influence elections.  It took a fraction of this campaign spending to get policies that benefit only the upper part of the top 1% and these lack of spending limits are designed to keep the system from changing.  Although he thinks companies should not directly harm others, he does not want government picking which businesses succeed and which ones fail.  But, he is out of touch by applying this way of thinking to this recent Chicago coal plant closings.  In response to the overwhelming neighborhood and community pressure to shut them down, he does not believe that "the company that injures people to be shut down and for the government to start a competing enterprise."  Which must means that he want business and government to work together, even if it means screwing over other people's health.

http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2012/03/10/442067/billionaire-romney-backer-ultrawealthy-have-an-insufficient-influence-over-politics/; http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/ct-biz-0311-confidential-griffin-web-version-20120311,0,2604121,full.column

Closing Post Offices Hurts Communities & Their Economies

Later this year, 3,830 postal offices will be closed to cut U.S. Postal Service spending by $295 million annually from its budget of $70 billion.  The Postal Service has 32,000 offices and most of the locations to be closed will be those in rural communities.  People living there experience more poverty on average than other Americans.  These small towns usually do not have Broadband Internet and their economies are more dependent on post offices than big cities are.  Shipping rates for UPS and FedEx are higher for those in rural communities.  People in these communities often have to drive on poorly maintained roads to find the nearest post office to send letters, pay bills, receive newspapers, and even file their tax returns.  This affects every business operating in a small town and these communities have a harder time attracting new business.  In other words, Congress does not care that it is screwing over rural communities to cut very little from the Budget Deficit.  Raising taxes on the wealthy, instead, would provide more than enough cash to save these offices, as well as rural communities' economies.  This would boost the national economic growth as the private sector would benefit from greater ease of movement of goods and information.  This important government function of making sure everyone can get things sent to their destinations in a timely way is often taken for granted.  It may be difficult to occupy post offices, but Occupy protesters in big cities protest for them, too.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/02/17/us-usa-usps-idUSTRE81D0M620120217

The Top 1% Cares Most About Deficits, Wants Private-Sector Solutions (for 12/18/11)

Of America's Wealthiest 1%, about 32% thought the U.S. Budget Deficit and Debt is the U.S.'s biggest problem and only 11% thought economic growth/jobs was. Nearly half of all Americans think the economy and jobs are the biggest problem, and only 5% thought the Debt was. The wealthiest 1% often prefer private sector solutions such as philanthropy to the economic problems. But, they often do not engage in more charitable activity, even if they do not trust government. http://fivethirtyeight.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/12/14/the-politics-of-the-1-percent/?hp