Oklahoma teachers are swarming to run for office

[RandySF]

(CNN) Oklahoma teachers have been rallying at the state Capitol for eight days, but on Wednesday, many showed up for a new reason -- to register to run for office.

The window to file candidacy opened at 8 a.m. as dozens of people lined up to turn in their paperwork.
Laura Griesel, who was at the Capitol for most of last week, feels that many legislators are not hearing her concerns. The best way to change that, she believes, is to become a representative herself.

"If nothing else I would listen to the people that live in my district, and what they want to do," she told CNN. "And be open to what it is that they want to see happen in Oklahoma, and not necessarily what my own personal standpoint is on things."


https://www.cnn.com/2018/04/11/health/oklahoma-teachers-registering-for-office-trnd/index.html

[bobbieinok]

1. Teacher running for state leg called me. Furious, determined to make a difference for her students

She was excited about all the help, info, and encouragement she's getting from state dems.

[democratisphere]

2. Teachers and others want more pay, but where will the money come from?

How much more tax burden can people living paycheck to paycheck take?!

Answer: NONE!

[RandySF]

3. What about the oil and gas industry?

[democratisphere]

4. Any taxes added to the energy industries will be passed on to the overburdened

consumer and tax payer.

[Blue_true]

9. Taxing executive salaries would not get passed on to consumers.

The problem is states like Kansas and Oklahoma is that high net worth, high earning people do not get taxed at the rate that they should.

On your claim that taxing corporations more hurt consumers. Louisiana was in dire financial straits about two years ago. Voters there elected a democrat governor. He campaigned on rolling back tax breaks to corporations operating there. He was elected and immediately set about rolling back some corporate tax breaks. Today, Louisiana is on better financial footing and the economy there is growing well. Historical data tend to refute what you claim, taxing corporations properly DOES NOT HURT JOBS OR CONSUMERS, the reverse appear to be true, increased tax revenue allow the state to properly invest in infrastructure and education, and that leads to economic growth (for reasons that have been proven over and over, better schools produce better workers, companies go where trained workers are, better roads and ports reduce transport cost for companies, so companies locate where that infrastructure is). Lastly, Wisconsin is growing slower that it's higher corporate tax neighbors, Minnesota and Illinois. Wisconsin has progressively reduced taxes on companies during it's slow growth phase.

[hell674]

5. Sorry but that's not the right way to look at this.

First, I would like to ask, "How much would you charge to teach 120 eight year old children Algebra?" My answer would be, "There is not enough money on the planet.", but you might come in with a lower figure.

Second, teachers are not being paid adequately on the base of it and not even close if you factor in what their contribution to our society is. The problem is not how much resources are limited. The problem is that resources ARE limited. Our nation has enormous wealth. All we need to do demand more of it for our teachers.

[democratisphere]

7. Unfortunately, the people with most of the wealth don't care about education,

specially of the public education kind. The people with most of the wealth want more money to go toward private education where their children go to school. Prioritizing teachers salaries is noble but the same problem still exists; there simply is no money in the budget for increased teachers pay without raising taxes on the overburdened masses.

[hell674]

8. Fortunately, there are many more of us then them.

It's as easy as voting for candidates that have more interest in educating and less interest in imprisoning. Because that's our choice, we can educate our children now or imprison them later. The wealthy elite will not volunteer these funds. They will have to be required to contribute more. Wages have to rise for the working class. Spending priorities have to change. Enormous and fundamental changes to our economic system have to take place over the next 40 or 50 years. The American Oligarchy has to come to it's end.

[quaker bill]

6. we cannot fund services by taxing people with no money.

we have to collect taxes from the people who have the money. They are really easy to find, and they have quite a lot of money. It is pretty easy to create a system to collect it. It is just as easy as it was to make tax cuts for them. No, they don't move away, and no, for the larger part it is not passed down to the "consumer".

Think of it this way, how much did the worker benefit from all the tax cuts? The answer is usually "not at all". Well that is roughly how much they will be hurt by putting the taxes back.

Most people living from "paycheck to paycheck" are net beneficiaries of the tax system, or in short they get more $ in benefits than they pay in taxes. So generally, the more taxes collected, the more they will benefit. The wealthy few spend a fortune to tell you that "taxes are bad", because they are the ones who will pay if we decide to collect.