When masses of people earn and learn little for long, while the super-rich amass fortunes, trouble should erupt in and outside the temple.
Egypt symbolizes the masses' problems throughout much of the world. Although Egypt ranks as the world's 90th most unequal country (Bahrain 39, Libya 55, Yemen 76,) and America as the 42nd, our masses are moving closer to theirs. As economist Paul Krugman points out:
"from 1980 to 2005, more than 80 percent of total increase in Americans' income went to the top 1 percent. Economic growth was more sluggish in the aughts, of the total increase in Americans' income went to the top 1 percent. Economic growth was more but the decade saw productivity increase by about 20 percent. Yet virtually none of the increase translated into wage growth at middle and lower incomes."
To provide his college bound kids weekend spending dollars, my truck-driving dad had a small time bookie's job, so I'm not an ardent anti-gambler. But those Ohio puritan instincts kick in a lot lately because of such stuff as"
In 2009, the top 25 hedge fund managers took home an average $1 billion.
In 2010, hedge-bettor John Paulson topped his 2009 $4 billion subprime bet haul by hauling in $5 billion. It's a good bet these off-track gamblers pay less than the 16% effective tax rate the top 2% pay.
Such baronial living should tick off hard working puritans, because our lobbyist written tax code, geared to create wealth disparity, is destroying America's Middle Class.
People's Lobby, who as an initiative factory led California's Political Reform Act to a 70% electoral mandate, has proposals to bring back the inventive Ben Franklin oriented middle class. Sign People's Lobby letter at www.peopleslobby.us to push Congress to enact the Fair Tax Bracket Reinstitution Congressional Proposal (FTBRA).
Were it enacted, here's how America would suffer.
Under the FTBRA, those making $5 BILLION paying a 16% effective tax totaling about $800,000,000 and struggling by on $4.2 BILLION would have to pay about $4.29 BILLION in taxes. They'd struggle to live on $704,500,000.
The additional FTBA revenues could provide four years of college grants to 122,729 students, whose families have lost their solid middle class jobs that once paid for college. Since 2.1 million applied for college in 2009, reinstituting fair taxes on one 5 BILLION Dollar Man could provide college to 6% of America' college applicants.
Year/days Gross Compensation Lives on per day
365 $5,000,000,000 $13,698,630
After Fair Tax Bracket Reinstitution Act
365 $704,500,000 $1,930,137
Generating and using tax revenues in such a way would be like reenacting the GI Education Bill, which was one of the engines that built our once growing middle class and put us among the world's leading innovators. Implementing the FTBRA would take us back to some tax rates lighter than those under Eisenhower, Kennedy, LBJ, and Nixon -- when our Middle Class and economy soared.
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