There has been a lot of talk about the redistribution of wealth in politics of late. Mostly this is a kind of political talking point, a way to garner support through fear. If you begin to talk to just about anyone about redistributing wealth, they most often think your talking about their wealth.
But the truth is most of us are not wealthy, at least not enough to spare any for redistribution. In fact, most of the people in this country are not even close to wealthy. Without throwing too many numbers around I think it’s fair to say that anything below $150,000 in yearly earnings is not in the running for wealthy. Upper middle class perhaps but not wealthy. Although recently in a vehement defense for Wall street bankers, a Fox news contributor exclaimed that $250,000 was “barely scraping by.” Where does that leave me, scraping or scraped?
Wherever you draw the line between wealthy and the rest of us it does seem that fewer people are wealthy in America, but the ones that are, are wealthier than ever. According to recent studies the top median income, which goes to one tenth of one percent of Americans is just over 26 million dollars a year. That’s not savings and investments, that’s annual money coming in.
The median income for the top 10% is about 1.1 million dollars a year. Down here in the remaining 90% the median income is about 31,000 dollars per year. That includes the lowest 20% who do not make what is termed a “living wage” or enough to pay for food, shelter, and other necessities, America’s poor. Does 20% of Americans being too poor to provide for themselves surprise you? Well, maybe they’re all soulless lazy drug addicts, feel better?
What that means is that 10% of the population controls 2/3rds of America’s wealth. This massive divide between the wealthiest Americans and the rest of us is a recent phenomena, only becoming really serious over the last 30 years. But what to do about it?
Taxes
It’s interesting to note than in 1945 millionaires paid income tax at a rate of 66% and today they pay no more than 32%. But taxes have a very bad name. They are easy to see as an unfair burden, particularly because it’s hard to see when they’re spent well. It’s much easier to enumerate their wasteful uses. After all I don’t think “Ah tax money well spent!” whenever I drive over the massive George Wasington bridge in to New York City, even though I’d be on a barge or swimming without it. However, taxes seem to me like the only fair way to get some of the wealthy’s riches back to the lower 90%. I’m not talking about handing out checks, it should come back in the form of services, infrastructure and opportunities. I am very uncomfortable about just taking someone’s hard earned money and spreading it around, at least with taxes it’s proportional to wealth. Big expensive houses pay more property taxes than little stinky ones. Huge earners should pay more than those who earn less.
I’d love to leave it up to the “haves” to spend their largesse wisely enough to help everyone have a living wage. But in the last 30 years that hasn’t worked out. And in truth, I don’t see it ever happening. Without a strong government tax policy to keep things more even, the divide is going to continue to widen. For example, during the recession most wealthy investors are actually better off today than they were 3 years ago. That’s great, but that wealth came from our hammered 401ks, foreclosed houses, declining property values and not having to pay so many workers. Money has to come from somewhere. There are just fewer jobs today, industry and the wealthy pay less in salaries now and will continue to because a lot of those jobs aren’t coming back. Is that fat being trimmed? Maybe. But that fat is people, Americans.
However, maybe the poor don’t deserve any more than they have. Maybe we in the bottom %90 are all just lazy or unwilling to work hard enough and are right where we ought to be in the economic scale of things. We get the schools we deserve, the services we deserve and the representation we so richly deserve. Maybe that’s just the way “the cookie crumbles” in the world’s largest economy and richest country. Does that sound right?
I don’t think so. I also don’t think the wealthy are any less lazy than people in the bottom 90% who are working 1, 2 or 3 jobs to make ends meet. And, as a manager of 30 years, I think that most people do work hard, really hard. Rich and poor both work hard to earn their money and they all should be fairly taxed on it. If that’s acting like a blood sucking vampire, then sharpen my teeth.
We are getting thirstier and thirstier waiting for the wealth to trickle down. We’re waiting for jobs that aren’t coming back because the prudent and wise decision is to pay as little as possible for work, and that means cheaper workers in far away lands. Smarter investments mean greater wealth.
Saving jobs and services
How many jobs would be saved if the highest tax rate went up 10%? How many with 20%? How many teachers, firemen, police and civil servants wouldn’t have to hit the streets? These people are not our problem, they’re the investment we’ve made. They represent smaller class sizes and better education, faster response times in emergencies and increased vigilance in our communities. All that education, training, experience and our own comfort that we’re just going to throw away in the name of cost cutting and efficiency. And this is because we’re reticent to raise taxes on either 10 percent or only one tenth of one percent of the population? Doesn’t that sound short sited to you?
I often wonder why raising the taxes on the top 10% is so scary. Do we think the wealthy will all just up and leave the country? Will all those benefits from the top down theories of economics just evaporate? Would we notice? Will the world’s largest economy be destroyed or seriously wounded? Maybe the wealthy will just give up trying to make more? Somehow I doubt it.
It won’t pay off the deficit, nor will it cure world hunger, but it would help. It would save a lot of jobs, those held by dedicated civil servants. I never had that kind of dedication myself, but I’m willing to fight for those that do.
Copyright Prentiss Gray 2011
Prentiss Gray is a writer and columnist and currently writes the Domesti-Tech Blog for Gannett. He can be reached through his website at www.prentissgray.com
Prentiss Gray
Prentiss Gray is a writer/columnist/blogger from New Jersey. After 27 years as a Information Systems consultant and the death of his wife of 21 years, he returned to his roots as a writer, creating the national column Adventures of the Lone Dad/ Daddy chronicles. He now Blogs for Gannet on domestic technology, and writes feature pieces and stories for general publication. He is a member of the American Society of Journalists and Authors and contributes to Bloomberg News, Daily Record, Gannett and the Tribune Syndicate.
Follow Me:
1. All your liberal masters pay less tax than you do.
2. Fire and police are overpaid and underworked who suck up almost as much in overtime as base pay. They take, not give.
3. Fireman is the biggest racket in America and that is why they have second jobs or side business”.
4. Our schools and universities are continually on the decline and that is why foreign student enrollment has fallen so steeply.
Finally, public employees are the financial boat anchor around the public’s neck. Nothing they offer could not be better and more cheaply provided by the private sector. Government employment grows while government intervention kills jobs and companies go overseas. Under the Obamanation unemployment stays at approximately 10% and underemployment is nearly 20% and he wwants to bring in more illegals and create more government workers to be paid for by a smaller and smaller American job base. I hope your wife manages the household budget or “Daddy” provided for you.
Liberals have their heads so far up their asses brain surgery cannot help them. You are witnessing the intentional destruction of the American economy and remain in denial. Read the following from today’s Wall Street Journal while you drink that liberal Kool Aid.
‘If you want to understand better why so many states—from New York to Wisconsin to California—are teetering on the brink of bankruptcy, consider this depressing statistic: Today in America there are nearly twice as many people working for the government (22.5 million) than in all of manufacturing (11.5 million). This is an almost exact reversal of the situation in 1960, when there were 15 million workers in manufacturing and 8.7 million collecting a paycheck from the government.
It gets worse. More Americans work for the government than work in construction, farming, fishing, forestry, manufacturing, mining and utilities combined. We have moved decisively from a nation of makers to a nation of takers. Nearly half of the $2.2 trillion cost of state and local governments is the $1 trillion-a-year tab for pay and benefits of state and local employees. Is it any wonder that so many states and cities cannot pay their bills?s Wall Street Journal:”
Wasn’t it JFKennedy who lowered the tax rates to spur on the economy? I don’t believe we don’t tax enough, but spend too much on silly things. We need to control spending better before we go around taximg more. There are taxes on everything now already.
The movement of increased wealth to a continually shrinking percentage of the population has occurred during the period of the progressive movement starting in 1913. If honesty were to prevail it would be recognized that there has not been any administration of either party that has markedly changed this trend. So who is to blame for what exists? I say neither party although one party more predominant in advancing it since it supports the movement.
The obvious cause was the enactment of the 16th Amendment that sent vitually the complete power of the purse to the central government, followed by the enactment of the 17th Amendment emasculating State’s Rights by taking away Senatorial appointment power from State legislatures. The icing on the cake was the enactment of the Federal Reserve Act providing for a separate Corporation to control the money supply to complement the purse now under central government cotrol.
A conspiracy by seven men representing approx. one-fourth of the total wealth of the world existing at that time created this monster. The financial dynasty’s of J.P. Morgan, J. D. Rockefeller and the Rothschilds encompassed the interests of the group which included a U.S. Treasury executive and a Senator (Rockefeller relative) who introduced the bill establishing the Fed in the Congress. There is no doubt that the intention of this group was to protect their respective financial interests by artificially controlling to the extent possible the economies of the world. Especially those of the established world powers. In doing so they also had to have control of the power of the purse and were successful in 1913, in the same year, in enacting the 16th Amendment abrogating the provision in the original Constitution that taxes from one State could be arbitrarily given to another State or entity.
It should be apparent that before a problem can be solved its cause must be known. It would seem that for you, in order to be credible, would have justify your position in light of what actually occurred and created the problem attempting to be addressed. You are not alone since there are many others who have to do the same should they desire to be honest with themselves.