If I were Senators Obama and Biden, I'd be asking out loud whether the American people really prefer the current redistribution of wealth to continue enveloping people who once owned part of the American dream.
Do the American people want more of the same, until the only people left standing are the very rich?
Do the American people want to continue feeding what can only be called greedism, just to avoid any faint scent or whiff of dreaded "socialism"?
Instead, isn't it time to recognize greedism for the despicable, addictive, soul-destroying monster that it is? Shouldn't wealth without compassion be despised, not prized?
We've been living the redistribution of wealth to our country's detriment. Look what it has given us. And yet John McCain and Sarah Palin are trying to set one part of the country against the other -- those with money against those without.
They are crafting a fiction that generosity is bad for all of us because it might require that the wealthiest give up something they've long accused the poor of refusing to relinquish - entitlements.
Americans don't fear socialism because it isn't going to happen. They don't fear the redistribution of wealth but the permanent distribution of poverty at their doorsteps. They fear the demise of fairness.
What happened to all of us carrying some burden so that none of us is deprived? "True Americans" are not the people who wear the right hats, as Sarah Palin has implied. They are people who want for their children and other people's children a fair shake, a leg up when needed, and a shot at the dream.
Dr. Reardon also blogs at bardscove.
Why is the ownership of America assets by the top 2% at more than 50% and growing - because the very rich know the net-sum-game is taxes and they have had the PAC's and Republican's helping them handsomely for the last eight years. Do not tax me or thee, but the man behind the tree.
Without a progressive tax system that taxes on ability to pay, rather than just increasing taxes to the lower income groups as Joe notes, this country will end up like Mexico. But, our citizens won't be able to escape to another country. Don't get me wrong, we need thousands for new millionaires, and our system can be changed to enable that. The big guys always take care of themselves, so don't cry too much of the other 98% of us can at least get back to 50% ownership.
Please be specific, when has an increase on taxes or outright theft from people of high net worth ever improved the economy? If this plan made more money for everyone (as opposed to just giving money to people who don't pay taxes anyway) and this has been proven in the past why did we stop having it as a policy? At what point did we decide that the path we were currently on while generating income for everyone was no longer any good and we needed to go on a path that generated less income for everyone?
I think this is the counter Biden (if he can stay on message) should use to McCain-Palin's ridiculous "wealth redistribution! socialist!" speech.
"Are you better off now than you were 8 years ago?" The McCain policies will continue Bush's philosophy of BIG cuts for the richest 5%....cuts in capital gains tax (why does this get cheers?)....and big payouts to the oil companies.
He'll either weaken our economy further by INCREASING the deficit (despite promising a balanced budget in four years) or he's just lying.
Obama will cut taxes for 95% of the people and try to bring the deficit down by raising taxes on corporations and the top 5% of income earners.
'Nuff said.
Tax breaks and capital gain tax relief for the rich is "welfare" for the rich.
They've been engaging in CORPORATE SOCIALISM.
Conversely, Obama/Biden could justifiably accuse McCain of wanting to spread the "F-bomb" -- Fascism.
During the Great Depression most people were out of work. They were hungry. There were soup lines. The phrase, "Buddy can you spare a dime?" was popular.
However, nobody in those days considered help from the government as wrong. If anything, it was welcomed. During this election season, this would be called, "socialism."
However, when politicians think of socialism, they try to make it out to be communism. Nothing can be further from the truth, unless of course, you think England, Canada, Norway, Sweden & Denmark are communistic countries. Each of these countries are well known democracies.
What has capitalism brought us? Greed & applied Darwinism! Darwinism equates to "the survival of the fittest!" Compassion doesn't play a part. Those that are the strongest survive at the extinction of the rest of humanity. If this is what America is about, then we deserve to die with the dinasour. We are then nothing more than dogs in heat looking to satisfy our carnal desires.
If this nation were left to capitalists, the ultra rich would say as Scrooge did in a "Christmas Carol" by Charles Dickens, "Let the surplus population wither & die so that we will have more for the rest of us."
McCain/Palin can't have it both ways. You can't say less greed but I am going to give more tax breaks to the weathiest companies, while forgetting about the cause of the middle class.
Hoover apologized in his memoirs for helping create the Federal Reserve. FDR just took the framework and exploded it.
History does repeat itself. But now, we are a debt/consumer based society and our money is not backed by anything except trust (cough, was).
I am less fearful of a Greater Depression than I am of the potential solution that will be proposed.
Think we'll have more liberties and rights and sovereignty?
Think again.
Its not what you want but how little you need.
He knows how the tax structure of the United States works - the more you make - the more they take.
John McCain also vote for the 2008 Economic Stimulus Package whereby people in the U.S. who make less than $90,000 got a "stimulus" check and those over $90,000 didn't get a dime. Isn't that a redistribution of wealth? Isn't that his definition of socialism?
H.R. 5140: Economic Stimulus Act of 2008: To provide economic stimulus through recovery rebates to individuals, incentives for business investment, and an increase in conforming and FHA loan limits. http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=h110-5140