well the back of the big picture on top marvin coming up in this half hour occupy wall street is gain some powerful supporters who are they and their support give occupy wall street the lasting power it needs and into its daily take the nation's wealthiest loved to steal candy from children seriously but what else have they been stealing over the last three days.

is about as the rest of the news in yet another glaring example of why occupy wall street is so necessary take a look at the general electric corporation according to a study by the center for tax justice general electric earned eighty one point two billion in profits over the last decade eighty one point two billion that's eighty one thousand million dollars in profits that's a heck of a lot of money but guess what the average tax rate paid by g.e. over the last decade was well first let's take a look at a hardworking high school teacher for comparison in wisconsin for example who makes fifty thousand bucks a year he or she would pay about twenty five percent income tax rate plus around

twelve percent payroll taxes. but general electric a corporation that's taken home eighty one point two billion dollars over the last ten years well it paid on average over those ten years a mind boggling only low tax rate of just two point three percent american teacher thirty seven can buy thirty seven percent combined tax rate on fifty thousand bucks g.e. two point three percent and eighty one point two billion dollars something seem off to you not only that for four years during the last decade g.e. actually had a negative tax rate with our government writing them to checks for billions of dollars unfortunately when corporations like g.e. don't pay their fair share in taxes and working people have to pick up the slack because ever since reagan here in america we tax working people to pay for tax cuts for the rich here's the bigger picture as corporations as corporate

taxes go down g.e. the bird gets shifted to working people i mean here you can see it in this graph right here this is payroll taxes and this is you know from the one nine hundred forty s. to the to today the purple stuff is payroll taxes and the blue line see how big it is was back here afterwards it was corporate taxes and corporate taxes if they have just you know they've gone from twenty twenty five percent of our revenue and per payroll taxes were a very small portion of it. the payroll taxes by the way are only paid by people who make up one hundred six thousand eight hundred dollars a year payroll taxes have become a larger and larger and larger corporate taxes smaller and smaller and smaller so g.'s income return last year they paid no taxes by the way was nine hundred feet high payroll taxes by the way are regressive they hit only lower income people or people making under one hundred six thousand eight hundred dollars after that the richest americans don't even pay payroll taxes and many you know we've got special tax gain for capitalists called the capitalist gains tax the capital gains tax

maximum fifteen percent that's what mitt romney pays it's paris hilton pays the corporations of the very best tax dodgers the us average for big companies over the last decade has been around twelve percent warren buffett one of the richest people in america broke it down like this. interesting about the corporate rate is the corporate profits as a percentage of g.d.p. last year were the highest or just about the highest in the last fifty years they were ten and a fraction percent of g.d.p. that's higher than we've seen in fifty years the taxes as a percent of corporate taxes apposite percentage of g.d.p. we're one point two percent one hundred eighty billion that's just about the lowest we've seen so our corporate tax rate last year affectively in terms of taxes paid by the united states was around twelve percent which is well below those existing in most of the industrial. industrialized countries around the world so it is

a myth that the american corporations are paying thirty five percent or anything like that you have to pay and twelve percent as he just said it's time to close some loopholes just as occupy wall street is demanding. last night just after midnight local time london police officers began the process of a victim residents of the city's occupy encampment and st paul's cathedral set up on october fifteenth the occupy london encampment was one of the longest running encampments in the nation in the worldwide movement twenty occupiers were arrested in the crackdown and tensing camping gear were trashed so all it appears that the occupy london movement has been dealt a major blow across the pond the occupy wall street movement is about to get even stronger group of business leaders led by ben cohen and jerry greenfield of ben and jerry's ice cream are planning to give substantial funds to the occupy wall street movement in an attempt to sustain the protests and promote political change so now that it appears the occupy movement is gaining some much needed funding and

beginning to develop a clear organizational structure will it become stronger than ever does it now have the necessary ingredients needed to promote lasting change in america joining me to discuss this is ben cohen founding partner of ben and jerry's ice cream and molly croissant a member of occupy the hood welcome to both of you. you know you do it with great great to have you both with us. bad and if i may start with you what prompted you and the rest of your group to decide to help fund the occupy movement. you know i think we've been working on progressive social change economic and social justice for the last twenty or so years and i think we have been getting that far and the missing ingredient has been a massive grass roots movement and that's what the occupy movement has the potential of becoming and. so we're incredibly excited.

incredibly hopeful that we'll be able to take advantage of this potential and build it into the massive grassroots movement that it can become that's great tell me about occupy the hood and what you what you folks are you know everybody there by wall street and the groups affiliated with it are thinking about doing with the resources the bens bringing to the table. oh wow. well occupy the hood i wouldn't say this is different we just we just go to task on what the occupiers talk about so we're resources what i would do is we would put it in the community to be more sustainable urban gardens things of that nature we put our signs down a rolled up sleeves because you know what we're going through is a little more present but any help is a good help you know springtime is come in and you can step on the flowers but you can't stop the spirit well said bending a concern here you know the old saying money corrupts and. power corrupts blah de

blah but money you know there's an agenda in this one of the reasons that everybody so concerned about citizens united money corrupts our political organizations are you concerned that or are you putting any any structural measures into place to to avoid the possibility that by giving money to the occupy wall street movement you might be setting up the possibility of factional zation you know somebody stepping forward and saying oh i know how to best use of this money or somebody else these things work you know when that when the stakes are raised i'm curious your thoughts on that dynamic and how you avoid it being you know how you make it productive rather than destructive. right well we established the movement resource group that's the movement resource group dot org where you can go and visit the website and learn about us and let us know if you'd like to make a donation. but we established it to be very open and transparent.

so there's an online proposal process whereby groups throughout any of the occupy in the nation can submit a proposal and you know everybody sees what proposals are submitted online then we have a proposal review committee that's made up of five members of the movement resource group and five occupiers from around the country. and they make decisions on which proposals get funded our guidelines for funding the proposals are up there on our website and proposals that are funded will be listed as well as proposals that are declined so all we can say is that it's going to be right out there in the open and people can make their own judgments blake the occupy movement from its inception has been a very kind of down and dirty grass roots here we are just us in our town it's sort

of movement or at least it's certainly seems that way in what i've seen of it and it's been that those kind of that kind of mentality and i say that as a positive you know as praise. hi how what kind of feedback are you getting from other people in the occupy movement and is there a concern in the occupy movement that this by having money pop or having projects pop up that are funded that they might distort the horizontal nature so far of the occupy movement. i mean let me deal with people so at the end of the day you know those things may come out we have to hope that the people that are receiving the money are honest and they have the best interests of the community in the country that they serve i mean we get a lot of donations early on so it just depends on who handles it think this adds a little more structure being that it can be seen and that is being earmarked for

certain things that you know it's kind of hard to be dishonest but you know you can have dishonesty and when you go so i don't i don't think that you know ben or someone else donating money or helping to raise money would change anything i think if the people are honest in their mortality and a good place is in a good place that it should be ok but people are going to be people so let's hope we deal with good people yeah i got that and i think a transparency goes a long way toward keep people honest i'm more concerned about the possibility that a what what what may come out of this is that some folks will say hey wait a minute. we're supposed to be a grassroots organization you know down dirty in the streets we're not supposed to take money and start doing things or whatever. well freedom doesn't come free yeah i mean i mean people have to eat think things have to be done i mean this stuff isn't coming off the trees here you know it's going to come from somewhere let's not pretend that the movement doesn't need to move with some

type of financial backing like i said you just need to be honest so you know me personally and what we're doing you know i don't care what people say because we come from a good space it sounds good to say hey we shouldn't take any money so how are we going to feed the people that are out on the front lines how is it going to add. i think the important thing to understand is that a big part of what we're funding is an outward facing website so that people throughout the country that are sympathetic with occupy and want to join with the occupy movement will be able to actually make contact with occupy and engage. be able to find things that they can do locally in their own communities to participate in the movement and be part of it i think that's a big. i'm sorry the big problems gone.

and we're out of time i have to wrap it up but but then i so honor what you're doing and it really comes to an end sometimes there you go thank you guys so much for being with us tonight and for watching and for all the great work you do. the occupy movement has done amazing things so far without the help of big donors but with even more resources coming in the one percent should be worried in the meantime a little ben ben and jerrys here well i think of a new flavor for the occupy movement. a. you just put a picture of me when i was like nine years old don't you tell the truth. i confess and i am a total get

a friend that i love traveling hip hop music and pretty. much he was kind of a yesterday. i'm very proud of the will without you she has played. look. you know sometimes you see a story and it seems so for like sleep you think you understand it and then you glimpse something else and you hear or see some other part of it and realize everything you thought you knew you don't know i'm tom hardy welcomes a big picture.

of. your take my take is your chance to send in your comments questions rants observations about him that we talk about here in the big picture or during my radio show that i was first comment came to us from an anonymous caller on our

viewer rant line here's her suggestion for promoting the use of solar power hi i would like to see president obama when he's reelected and install the solar panels back on the white house roof and by the time he leaves office in another four years it would be shot and it would prove how well the solar power works and how much money could be saved. all he needs to do is contact jimmy carter and find out how to do it they. well actually you're absolutely right in fact bill mckibben went out and got he found jimmy carter's solar panels that he had in the top the white house and put them on a flatbed truck and brought them here to washington d.c. to the white house asking the obama administration put them up the obama administration says it will think about i think i think they didn't want to the jimmy carter association or something but i wouldn't surprise me at all if exactly what you suggested comes to pass our final comments and i come from dave on our

facebook page here's what he had to say corporate profits are not indicative of overall economic health more significant in our long term unemployed durable goods and real estate until those three improve no substantial growth will be realized as we saw the one nine hundred thirty s. this economic morass continues for exactly the same reason hopefully we have to follow the complete history and nationalize the entirety of industry we've already played that game and it took over thirty years to climb out of that mess this time we know it may not be so lucky to emerge with rights and freedoms well yeah rights and freedoms absolutely but there's also a substantial difference between wealth and money and it which is what you're talking about there a lot of these companies particular the wall street banks toure's they make money they don't produce wealth producing wealth is producing things as a topic i talk about my book an equal protection and in fact we're going to send you an autographed copy see the learn more about it that's it for my take your take my take tonight if you like your comments and questions heard on this segment of

the big picture i would like a chance to receive one of my books listening. we want to know your to send us your comments by visiting the thom hartmann facebook page via twitter at tom underscore her or in the chat room on the message boards or through the blog at thom hartmann dot com you can also leave a message on our ramp line at two two by three six fifty three zero six agree disagree sound off it's all welcome but remember that your comments may be used on the air. over the bad of the very very phillips silly ugly the good occupy d.c. the d.c. branch of the occupy movement helped a maryland resident facing eviction keep her home a group of fifty d.c. occupiers protested outside of freddie mac's offices in downtown washington on behalf of bertini jones a woman facing eviction even though she was still making their mortgage payments

thanks to their intervention freddie mac. told and has come up with a new mortgage payment plan for jones to keep her in her. and who said the movement needed tends to make a difference the bad arizona state representative michele. last week in arizona state house committee approved a bill that would require even poverty stricken students to pay a minimum of two thousand dollars a year to attend public universities in arizona in response nearly one hundred state college students showed up at the committee's hearing to voice their concerns over increased to wish to which state representative against a supporter of the torsion hike simply replied welcome to life. more like welcome to life in america one of the only developed nations in the world where college is free and it's politicians like representative again who are responsible for that and the very very ugly wisconsin governor scott walker walker in the wisconsin state legislature are very close to repealing a portion of the state law that prohibits employers from discriminating on the

basis of age race color disability or other personal traits if walker's repeal becomes law and victims of discrimination will no longer be able to challenge the actions of any employer in the state court there's nothing more fundamental in a democratic society to guaranteeing that workers are free from discrimination in the workplace and try to do away with this protection is one of the many reasons why walker is facing a recall and it's also very very of. the bank's toure's it turns out like stealing candy from children no i'm not exaggerating they really do at least according to a new study out of the university of california berkeley in the university of toronto two teams of researchers discovered that wealthy upper class americans are

more likely the middle class or poorer americans to break traffic laws live for financial gain and yes steal candy from children first when it comes to traffic laws people driving higher end cars like b.m.w. mercedes were seen breaking traffic laws and cutting off pedestrians more often than people driving cars like cameras and cool in another observation wealthier people were three times more likely to lie in a game of dice when a fifty dollars prize was a stake for whoever rolled the highest number as the lead researcher paul piff noted even in people for whom fifty dollars is a relatively small amount of money cheating was three times as high i guess they just can't. absolves but the next study takes the cake researchers put a jar of candy in front of someone and told them that the candy was for the children in a nearby lab and then left the room sure enough wealthier people took twice as much candy from the jar as the poor people did based on these observations concluded it

really shows the extreme lengths to which wealth and upper ranks status in society can shape patterns of self-interest and an ethic ality by response to this now kenny so the rich like this still candy from children frankly i doubt most people are surprised but what's really important here is what they've stolen from all of us over the last thirty years like our money did you know that eighty percent of all new wealth created in america since reagan took office in one thousand nine hundred one went to just the top one percent of americans did you know that despite increased productivity working people's wages have barely increased that means americans aren't getting the food fruits of their labor and all the money left over for all or left over from that increased productivity over the past thirty years trillions of dollars that should have gone into workers' pockets was instead taken by the c.e.o.'s and shareholders as this chart shows the top one percent have seen their their after tax income go up two hundred seventy five percent since reagan's

one nine hundred eighty s. while the middle class income gains can't even keep up with inflation not to mention these guys move seven trillion dollars of wealth out of the hands and homes of the middle class when they crashed our economy during bush's presidency. and they're not just stealing our money they're also stealing our commons corporations like the corporations corrections corporation of america conning state governments and is selling off public prisons to be run for profit costing taxpayers far more money in the long run and while they're at it they're stealing our freedom as those same for profit prison corporations for example support candidates who push for harsher and harsher drug and other laws that throw more and more americans into prison making the c.e.o.'s more and more money while devastating the working class as a result america now has the highest incarceration rate in the entire world both per capita and in absolute numbers on top of that michigan governor rick snyder who was

all like that with a little help from millionaires and billionaires signed a financial manager law last year that allows a quota is to collect a quarter million bucks to take control of a city and sell off its commons like public parks and utilities to corporate interests and fire sale prices they're also stealing our right to democratize the workplace through unions since one thousand nine hundred eighty union membership has plummeted beginning with the reagan breaking up patco and most recently indiana becoming the twenty third state in the nation to pass a right to work for less laws meaning workers will earn five thousand dollars less in indiana than in free bargaining states. they've also stolen our right to health care unlike every single developed nation in the world the united states doesn't consider health care a basic human right thanks to a massive lobbying effort by the for profit health insurance industry which makes trillions deny and sick people medical care they've even stolen our piece drive around virginia and you see gigantic mansions belonging to defense contractors who

lobby congress for more and more weapons systems whether we need them or not and beat the drums to war to keep their profits up that's why the defense budget has read polls since one thousand nine hundred seven and why since around that time our nation has been in perpetual warfare. and perhaps most tragically they've stolen our right to self governance the supreme court delivered the terrible blow to our democracy but their two thousand and ten citizens united decision which lets the rich spend unlimited amounts of money to steal our elections more than three hundred million dollars and outside corporate cash we spent the twenty turned twenty ten midterms leading to one of the most corporate friendly house of representatives in the history of this nation and this year's election corporate spending will likely top a billion dollars for the first time meaning our elections are increasingly becoming a game in which only the rich or those sponsored by the rich can compete plus

through shadow corporate think tanks like alex the koch brothers funded american legislative exchange council which lobbyists and corporate c.e.o.'s are now literally writing our laws and handing them off to state legislators to be passed as it is regardless of what we the people have to say as a result of all this theft our equality has been stolen to we now have wealth inequality levels in america not seen since before the stock market crash in one nine hundred twenty nine and in return for stealing all this stuff from us the rich have given us a long list of social ills as kate pickett and richard wilkinson at the equality trust in the u.k. discovered countries with higher wealth inequalities have higher wealth inequalities have higher rates of social ills and here's where the us ranks way he appear at the top being both wealth inequality and not surprisingly social ills so what do we gotten from them well things like drug abuse teen pregnancy mental

illness violent crime obesity mistrust of others you know i wish the rich were only stealing candy from children but the truth is they've been robbing the middle class blind for thirty years and now that the middle class is broke flat broke and disappearing we've got to do something about it and whether it's in certain people's genes to steal and be selfish which in turn makes them more likely to be wealthy. america or whether being selfish just comes with the territory of being born into wealth in america nobody knows yet but whatever it is to paraphrase jim morrison there are ninety nine of us for every one of up and it's time to take back what they've robbed for us and put regulations and taxes back into place that will keep them from stealing from us again regulations and taxes like we had between one nine hundred thirty two and one nine hundred eighty during the period the most rapid growth of the middle class in american history roll back reaganomics roll back the reagan tax cuts get out of the w t o n undo reagan's war on unions don't just stand there occupy something that's it for the big picture tonight don't forget democracy begins with you get out there and get active tag your it will see

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