Michigan Nurses: ‘Robin Hood Tax’ on Wall Street Can Heal Detroit

 By Charlie Brown      
       
Nurses are political leaders of the 99%, too.

                                             

                                          Robin Hood Tax:  Take from the 1% and give to the 99%



Nurses are an essential group of CARING LABOURERS as WAGE-LABOURERS ( http://take10charles.blogspot.com/2014/05/free-all-caring-and-re-productive.html). They are by history and custom predominantly women , as we all know.

" Specifically, care work refers to those occupations that provide services that help people develop their capabilities, or their ability to pursue the aspects of their life that they value. Examples of these occupations include child care, all levels of teaching (from preschool through university professors), and health care of all types (nurses, doctors, physical therapists and psychologists).^[3] Care work also includes the array of domestic unpaid work that is often disproportionately done by women.^[4]
Often, care work focuses on the responsibilities to provide for dependents- children, the sick, and the elderly.^[5] However, care work also refers to any work done in the immediate service others, regardless of the recipient’s dependent or nondependent status""


                                   

Michigan Nurses: ‘Robin Hood Tax’ on Wall Street Can Heal Detroit

04.04.2014

 http://www.minurses.org/news-and-events/p/openItem/5502
News from the Michigan Nurses Association
CONTACT: Fran Brennan, (517) 763-1151   

RNs thank Congressman Conyers for co-sponsoring revenue solution

            DETROIT – Michigan Nurses Association members joined RNs in 22 cities nationwide today, on the 46h anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King’s assassination, to push for a small tax on Wall Street transactions that can help heal our communities by raising billions of dollars to invest in programs that address economic inequality and meet basic human needs.
            In Detroit, MNA/National Nurses United members gathered at the office of Congressman John Conyers (D-Detroit) to express their thanks for his co-sponsorship of the Inclusive Prosperity Act. The legislation, also known as the Robin Hood Tax, is widely supported as a way to make Wall Street pay its fair share to repair the damage its greed and recklessness have caused in our communities.
            ““Shortly before he died, Dr. King encouraged striking sanitation workers by telling them they were ‘reminding the nation that it is a crime for people to live in this rich nation and receive starvation wages,’” said John Karebian, Michigan Nurses Association executive director. “Nearly 50 years later, our nation’s systemic economic injustice is destroying even more lives and communities.  We see that all too clearly in Detroit. Nurses know that a wound this severe needs more than a Band-Aid. The good news is that a cure is available, right now, and it’s as simple a tiny tax on Wall Street. We need more leaders like Congressman Conyers who are willing to stand up for this solution.”
            A tax of less than one percent on Wall Street activities like stock trades and derivative sales could raise up to $350 billion a year to immediately invest in priorities that will improve Americans’ quality of life. Traders currently pay no tax on these, while ordinary consumers pay sales tax on our purchases.
Those funds would be used to create permanent living wage jobs rebuilding our nation’s infrastructure, providing quality education for all of our children, greatly expanding mass transit, guaranteeing healthcare for all and providing Americans with retirement and housing security.
            “As a nurse, I see every day how problems like poverty, unsafe communities and unemployment hurt my patients’ health,” said LaShon Hart, RN, a nurse at the University of Michigan Health System. “While men in suits working for giant corporations push buttons and move imaginary money around, real human suffering is taking place – and Wall Street should pitch in to help fix it. The Robin Hood Tax will give us the resources we need to heal Detroit instead of letting Wall Street just cast tens of thousands of retirees aside. Fixing this economic injustice will also go a long way toward honoring Dr. King’s legacy.”
            As tireless advocates for their patients at the bedside and beyond, Michigan nurses have pushed the Wall Street Tax to support America's workers and families who are struggling while corporations collect record profits at their expense.
            The Robin Hood Tax as a revenue solution is especially relevant for Detroit as the city works its way through bankruptcy. Contributors to Detroit’s financial woes include reduced revenue caused by the 2008 recession, which was driven by Wall Street’s greed and gambling, and fees and financing costs associated with Wall Street-engineered debt schemes in 2005 and 2006.
            Even now, companies with Wall Street ties – such as Jones Day, which represents Bank of America – are deeply involved in decisions about Detroit’s finances.
            Meanwhile, tens of thousands of Detroit retirees and workers are being made scapegoats for the financial mess and stand to lose much if not all of their pensions in some “grand bargain.” Their average pension: $19,000 a year.
            A minuscule tax on Wall Street is a fair and effective way to raise the revenue needed to rebuild Detroit without destroying the workers who built it.
            “We would be remiss to think only of civil rights when we think of Martin Luther King, because his journey was about making us understand that we cannot have equality without economic equality,” said John Armelagos, RN, president of the Michigan Nurses Association and a University of Michigan Health System nurse. “Make no mistake – Wall Street CEOs and corporations are making record profits on the backs of workers and our schools and cities. The constant demands for austerity couldn’t be more wrong. We don’t need more cuts to services and programs – we need investments, and Wall Street can and should start making them.”

            The Michigan Nurses Association is the state’s largest and most effective union and professional association for registered nurses, representing nearly 11,000 RNs statewide and advocating for them and their patients.

Background
HR 1579, the Inclusive Prosperity Act, would set a small fee, similar to the sales tax most Americans pay on consumer goods, of just 50 cents on every $100 of stock trades, and smaller amounts on transactions involving bonds and derivatives.
It would raise approximately $350 billion a year, which would be used for priorities such as jobs, health care, education, and housing and retirement security.
 Major sponsors of HR 1579 include National Nurses United and more than 150 national and local community organizations. The legislation is endorsed by business leaders such as Warren Buffett and Bill Gates; Nobel Prize winners Desmond Tutu and Paul Krugman; and more than 1,000 economists worldwide.
HR 1579 is patterned after a similar tax being implemented by 11 European countries, and already in place in every major financial world market except the U.S.  It targets the wealthiest of the wealthy, the bankers and brokers whose gambling broke our economy, and the top 1 percent who own most of the nation’s stocks and bonds.