... A THOUSAND CUTS

On June 18, 2011 artists Ligorano/Reese presented a temporary monument in the garden of Jim Kempner Fine Art in NYC called "Morning In America." The installation was witnessed by hundreds and lasted a total of 8 hours throughout the hot day.

...A THOUSAND CUTS is a timelapse video of the event. The soundtrack mixes an excerpt from Senator Bernie Sanders 8 hour filibuster on the U.S. Senate floor against the extension of the Bush tax cuts with music by composer/violinist Michael Galasso.

Special Thanks
Dru Arstark, Anthony Caputo, Dan Walworth, Okamoto Studio, Postworks NY


The entire text of Senator Sanders speech is available as a book, published by Nation Books, The Speech: A Historic Filibuster on Corporate Greed and the Decline of Our Middle Class,

For more information about Michael Galasso's music and soundtracks http://michaelgalasso.com.

For more information on the artists, see http://ligoranoreese.net

This video is licensed under Creative Commons,
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/b...

Attribution — You must attribute the work as by Ligorano/Reese.
Noncommercial — You may not use this work for commercial purposes.
No Derivative Works — You may not alter, transform, or build upon this work.

• Category

  Film & Animation

[greatunclekevin]

You fail to remember that the top 25% pay a whopping 85% of all the taxes. How would you feel having 65-75% of your income taken away just for taxes alone? I'm nor rich, not even close, but you folks only look at half the picture.

[Ligorano Reese]

Thanks for your replay

In the 50's the tax rate was 90% for corporations - I'd say the wealthy are doing just fine. Not to mention low capital gains taxes, and other write-offs and tax loopholes. & if you earn more than $106,800 annually - you do not pay any additional FICA tax. These are just a few statistics of how the burden of taxes have been shifted to the working and middle classes.

[LaughingLefty]

Nice, please make this video listed so we can share it on Facebook. More people should see this and hear Bernie.

[Kevin Boston]

Phenomenal. Really makes you think, doesn't it?

[luver209]

For the last two years ive have been looking into this issue in the video. Comparing democrat v republican policy's. I have found that democrat policy's are a bit more helpful towards mid to lower income family's. While republican's are very much geared toward the rich. What the democrats are offering are not as much as they say, but nonetheless it is more helpful then republicans. I will vote dem this election cycle.

[kim baker vidas davey irvin]

The perception that the rich (top 1%) don't pay enough taxes is due to the disparity in both annual income and accumulated wealth. When you're trying to live and take care of your family with an income of $50,000/year or less, and have no accumulated wealth, then a 38% tax on the top 1% doesn't look very big.

[musicofdave]

Give to Ceasar what is Ceasars' and I'm not talkin salad:)

[Dave Horne]

@greatunclekevin, the top 400 wealthiest individuals in the US pay a personal income tax rate of 18 percent. Now, I'm sure that's a lot of money, but I think in term of percent. Why should they pay such a low rate of personal income tax?

[forevertruth1206]

I wish there were more legislators like Bernie Sanders. He is pretty much alone in a Washington full of vicious monsters who want to take the skin off of anyone who's not a billionaire or a corporation.

[GuitaristInProgress]

[cont'd from previous comment] Meanwhile, thanks to Reagan's mistakes, the top 5% of income earners are earning an average of 200% of what they made in 1980, and the .5% of income earners are earning an average of 400% of what they made in 1980. Unless you're in the top 5%, I don't know why that's a good thing. And that's still *with* a progressive tax structure, just a very reduced one. Institute a flat tax, and middle class income won't just flatline, but actually fall. You want that?

[GuitaristInProgress]

Even with a progressive tax, under current tax structure, the wealthy pay wind up paying a much lower percentage of their income than anyone else - if they pay anything at all, which they often don't.

This country's most prosperous periods (say, the 1950's) have coincided with the times the top tax brckets were as high as 80-90%. When Reagan chopped that down to about a third of that, middle class income flatlined... average middle class income today is 103% of what it was in 1980.