The Rich Get Richer: Time for a Change

The robbery of our country by a small elite has continued, unabated, for the past eight years. That may sound like a radical statement. But, it is simply a fact -- a fact reported today by that radical, left-wing publication, The Wall Street Journal:

In a new sign of increasing inequality in the U.S., the richest 1% of Americans in 2006 garnered the highest share of the nation's adjusted gross income for two decades, and possibly the highest since 1929, according to Internal Revenue Service data.

Meanwhile, the average tax rate of the wealthiest 1% fell to its lowest level in at least 18 years. The group's share of the tax burden has risen, though not as quickly as its share of income.

The figures are from the IRS's income-statistics division and were posted on the agency's Web site last week. The 2006 data are the most recent available.

And:

As the wealthiest Americans' share of income has risen, so has their share of the income-tax burden. The group paid 39.9% of all income taxes in 2006, compared with 27.6% in 1988. In the most recently reported five years, however, the share of income reported by the very wealthy has risen faster than the group's share of income taxes.

In other words, they are stuffing more cash away, while their share of taxes has not kept pace.

So, let's get this straight:

While 47 million Americans have no health care and millions more have pathetic and expensive coverage....

While millions of Americans are staggering from personal debt because of health care costs, rising tuition, gas prices, elder care and a whole host of other basic needs (Americans carry $2.56 trillion in consumer debt, a rise of 22 percent in just eight years, according to the Federal Reserve Board, with the average household credit card debt up 15 percent in that period to $8,565; college debt has doubled since 1995)...

While wages have not kept pace with the ability to pay basic bills...

While real pensions have disappeared... (the Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates that only 21 percent of workers in the private sector have defined-benefit pensions. In 2005, only 55 percent of full-time and part-time private sector workers worked at firms that sponsored a retirement plan. Of those, only 45 percent participated in an employer-sponsored plan. This compares with a 60 percent employer sponsorship rate and 50 percent employee participation rate in 2000.)

While our infrastructure is falling apart and we will soon have a third-world infrastructure because government is being sucked dry by tax cuts for the rich (The Economist recently reported that, "In 2005 the American Society of Civil Engineers estimated that $1.6 trillion was needed over five years to bring just the existing infrastructure into good repair. This does not account for future needs")...

While all this, and more, is happening, the rich have piled up even more money. This isn't necessarily news. But, the facts laid out in these stats are pretty startling.

And to that I ask, to paraphrase Joseph Welch, is there no sense of decency among the rich, and their enablers in the government and in politics and in the chattering classes who worship before the altar of market fundamentalism, a point at which they say "enough is enough. We have enough to last many lifetimes and other need to get the riches of our society"?

If the answer is no, then, this, my friends, means revolution.

Comments

[livewire19]

I don"t buy into this politics of envy and soak the rich stuff. I"m of the mindset that if you give a man a fish you feed him for a day, but if you teach him how to fish you feed him for a lifetime. All the government seems to know how to do is give away fish to rich and poor alike to buy votes.

Many things in Washington need to be thrown away and completely redone"the income tax code being a great place to start. I"d favor a flat tax somewhere between 25-35% that eliminates all deductions and kicks in at around $75K so that we don"t have to continue to have this argument. The working poor would pay no tax, while those rich people earning over $75K would support the country on their earnings. Another idea would be the elimination of the income tax altogether in favor of a consumption tax. Food and medications would be exempt, but everything else is on the table. This way the underground economy, the illegals, the tax dodges, foreign tourist, etc. would all chip in.

Hopefully, we"ll disentangle ourselves from these senseless Middle-eastern engagements and begin investing rid ourselves of this dependence on foreign oil. Strong dollar, drill drill drill, raise fuel efficiency standards, use LNG to run our cars, upgrade the electrical grid, bring on the wind farms, the solar farms, economical biofuels (not corn based ethanol) and let"s make America the envy of the world again.

[schatsie]

Even the Greeks understood Progressive Taxation 2500 years ago. I guess you would not want to go back to the 50s when the upper tax rate was 90% and the rich ONLY earned 40 times what a working person earned...and the working person got real raises instead of the cola adjustments that are being begged for now.. Remember the 50s when Truman was looking for a universal healthcare plan, just like the rest of the developed world.

[jcorrington]

AND it seems that so many are supporting yet another sustained war in Afgan!!! It just simply defies all logic.. More wasted lives/treasury.

[WorkingClass]

There is nothing left to steal. The uber rich will be leaving the country.

[SCG]

Isn't cheap labor great?

[rupert12]

Of course there's no sense of decency. They're psychopaths. Psychopaths do not have a conscience or feel remorse in any way. Even the members of the "chattering classes" who are not technically psychopaths use the principles of market fundamentalism as an excuse to behave like psychopaths anyway. Unregulated capitalism favors psychopathic behavior, and they get away with it because the rest of us assume all human beings have the same emotional capacity. It has been well documented for sometime, however, that an estimated 4-6% of the population does not share this capacity with the rest of us.

Most people think of psychopaths as serial killers and the like. However, most of them go through life without ever directly committing a violent crime, because they know it is not in their best interest to do so. They're playing the rest of us for fools, and have been doing so for some time.

[Rule Of Law]

Jonathon, of course what you say is correct. I would have more faith in the notions contained in this blog if they could be read in the MSM rather than here, preaching to the choir.

Until you, and others who write here and share those views, can gain access to the media most America reads or watches, then this is just a publishing credit to be added to a writer's vitae.

[caliwebman]

Thats right Jonathan! Change IS ON ITS WAY, coming strong from just left of west, and in a fury!

The true, special, elites that have done the dirty work for these corrupt individuals are now banding together, even those leaving groups such as Force RECON just weeks ago, they are coming, the numbers are building, and not by the day, or even by hour, but it is now by the minute that this special group is expanding. Iti s in our deepest wishes that speedy change from the eleitists and the bankers with riches that true, accurate and equalitive change occurs. This we wish for in peace.

[Rule Of Law]

We had better all hope and pray that if Bush ever does declare a national emergency and martial law, that folks like John Bruhns, and perhaps the people you speak of, will have the ear of real patriots in the Active Military who take their vow to protect the Constitution and the People from All threats, seriously enough to do so.

Having spoken with many returning vets and now, after the incredible reception Obama received in Iraq from our troops, there may be hope that the light has dawned on how misused they have been, and how their allegiance is to something greater than this temporary administration.

[Henry]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gini_coefficient

You can see where America is headed. It seems to be a measure relevant for political measure of candidates.

[livewire19]

How many people would leave the US to become citizens of Germany and France, or any other green colored country such as Vietnam, Indonesia, Egypt? People aren't risking life and limb to get out of this country. They are risking life and limb to get into the country. Relative measures like this are totally deceiving. Why should we begrudge anyone who achieves the American dream through hard, honest work and intelligence?

[schatsie]

good source, very interesting to realize we are more like Mexico and Russia than Germany and France.

[mmerose]

Before revolution, the tax laws will be fixed up to finish wiping out the middle class, while touting progressive tax reform, leaving the super-rich well protected by arcane loopholes.

[SeriousBlack]

"is there no sense of decency among the rich, and their enablers in the government and in politics and in the chattering classes who worship before the altar of market fundamentalism"

Simple answer: Nope.

[jhNY]

Revolution by whom? The Progressive Wing of the American population? That will undoubtedly drive tens of dozens into the streets, right before the streets run red with their blood, if the Progressives are Really Serious. The folks on top of this game are not interested in you getting anything beyond the bill for their degenerate financial gambling. And its their police. And their Police State. And most Americans hate losers, even if that means hating themselves.

[Shortyfuse]

I would like to thank the college professor who called in to Washington Journal and put it into words as I never could. He stated that " It is a failure of capitalism." I have to agree with that statement.
GLOBALIZATION IS NOT THE ENDING OF POVERTY AROUND THE WORLD, IT IS THE UNLEASHING OF THE GREED OF CAPITALISM ON AND OVERPOPULATED WORLD.

[PATina]

You've said it all my friend. We are back to taxation w/o representation.

[SeanGardner]

This is definitely reminiscent of "The Gilded Age" that was reigned in by President Theodore Roosevelt. And know we need someone to come in and reign in the corporate powers that have been on a serious power grab under the Bush Presidency.

[jhNY]

The word you mean is 'rein'.