Tuesday, January 1, 2013

Class warfare

We have often heard the Republicans speak about class warfare and wealth redistribution. The truth of the matter is that they are waging that war on behalf of the wealthiest people. It's time that the poor and the middle class started fighting back.

It should prove helpful to reflect on the history of taxation in this country, particularily concerning the top marginal tax rates. I'll provide one that I like because it includes personal inome tax, corporate tax, and capital gains tax rates over a long history, but please to feel free and search and research these rates for yourself.



I'm not sure how that turned out so I'll make it easy so you can just click here, here or here for further reference.

As you can see, there has been a large decline in tax rates for the wealthy over the last fifty years. You may also notice that tax revenue has risen at a much lower rate than the GDP. Where has all that money gone? Not to the middle class and not to the poor.

The truth of the matter is that wealth is being concentrated into the control of too few. Many statesmen have warned us about the dangers of that. It's the inequality stupid argues Mother Jones.
How many billionaires were there 40 or 50 years ago? Click here to view what's been going on. You should also note that there are more than 1,000 billionaires in the world today. Many of those people feel that they have more in common with each other than they do with their fellow country people. Chrystia Freeland wrote an article published in the Atlantic if you'd like to read more. Here's just a bit from that article, "According to the economists Emmanuel Saez of Berkeley and Thomas Piketty of the Paris School of Economics, between 2002 and 2007, 65 percent of all income growth in the United States went to the top 1 percent of the population."

Considering the present situation, I don't think it would be unreasonable for the 99% to rally for a 55% or a 60% top marginal tax rate on the wealthy. That would certainly be less than historical rates 50 years ago. Perhaps we should ask congress to restore the tax structures of the 50's or 60's.

Let's go back even farther and review the Boston Tea Party. Few people today seem to understand what the Boston Tea Party was really about, perhaps you are one of them. Now is the time to get the story straight. The truth is that it was an anti-corporate revolt. Here's a video if you're getting tired of reading....it's the first I've heard of a coffee party. It doesn't have the same pizzaz as a tea party so perhaps we should try something different....how about a tea party 2.2 that might realign the first misguided bunch. Maybe a little schoolhouse rock will help, but I doubt it. Maybe Thom can help, he does his homework. I sure love Thom. He tells us secrets and informs us so well.

Conservative Myths has added content and now has a page concerning Rusticus. So now I wonder....how do we duplicate the good works of the Sons of Liberty and Rusticus? Could we plan a day when many of us post blogs and hang pamphlets and posters on doors....December 16 doesn't seem like a great day to rally comtemporary Americans who will be overwhelmed with the holiday season....hummm, wht to do. It is nice to see though, that Encyclopedia.com has a proper entry about the Boston Tea Party. Good job people!

Wealth and Democracy is another book that I'd like to get my hands on. On a side note, there is a bookswap website, cool! The author is supposedly a Republican. If that's the case, he found a way to reject the con in conservative.

Okay, here we go....lot's of links....
The Case Against Billionaires - thanks to Thom Hartmann and his newsletter....
Article: "Who Got Rich This Week: A New Billionaire" by Edwin Durgy.
Article: "How Rich is Too Rich For Democracy?" by Thom Hartmann.
 
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