......but does it make sense? The sums of money spent on lobbying for the extension of the income tax reductions for the wealthy, if laid end to end, would still not
justify the lost government revenue for a program with no proven economic value to
the overall economy. The theory that reduced taxes lead to greater investments in
the private sector economy, thus producing higher employment has had ten years in
which to prove itself, and it has FAILED. What did occur was a mass export of jobs, a speculative inflation in property values beyond rational boundaries, and the creation of paper assets which turned out not to be worth the paper they were written on. Along the way some unscrupulous snake oil salespeople in the banking and investment fields
became obscenely wealthy, at the expense of vast numbers of savers, pensioners, home owners and individual investors. The wealthy prospered while the middle class majority was taken to the cleaners.
The irony is that the wealthy are now allowing the impoverishment of the
middle class to become a structural feature of our economy, thus not amenable to government action. This is balm to the anti government, anti welfare state constituency. It will also serve to restrain wage increases, and increase profits.
But who and what will sustain our consumer based economy? Prosperity for the middle
class means prosperity for commerce and industry. Mass unemployment and wage stagnation will result in a falling standard of living and a shrinking economy.
We need a new "Age of Enlightenment" to re-energize our people and banish ideological
devotion to selfish, class driven behavior. And we need it now!
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We need a tax system with more tax brackets to recognize the very rich and the super rich.
Right now someone making two hundred thousand dollars a year and someone making two hundred million dollars pays at similar tax rates.
The super duper athlete pays at the same rate as his doctor.
There exists now an upper upper class of executives and of Wall Street traders that would justify a very popular millionaire tax…. even for the Republicans.
The problem is not a new phenomenon either. Since "Tricky Dick" Nixon our country has had no discernible "middle class".
In every industrialized culture the middle class, not the upper class defines the productivity capabilities of the society as a whole.
In the USA "middle class" means citizens with incomes only slightly higher than absolute poverty. Members of this group go to meaningless jobs everyday in the hope that they will someday be recognized for the contributions and be rewarded by increased income (which has become a myth for most).
We definitely need much more regulation over the taxable incomes of the wealth but we also need support and representation for those in the now-unrecognized masses who work feverishly just to stay a step or two ahead of their creditors - the real backbone of our faltering economy.
More than even India, our society has created a caste system that appears to be beyond reconciliation unless those in the super (wealthy) class are forced to participate in common territory along with everyone else.
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