Every time a Democrat or Independent speaks of the need to repeal the Bush tax cuts for the ultra wealthy, some Republican, or one of their puppets at Fox News, or a talking head like George Will begins screaming, "CLASS WARFARE." This is supposed to suggest to us voters that the Democrats are trying to divide the Super Rich and the rest of the country. Face it, we are divided. Look around and you will see the multiple ways we are divided. To quote Shakespeare, "Let me count the ways." And we are divided not because some want to repeal Bush's "temporary" tax cut for ultra rich, but because Bush and his party passed the damned thing in the first place. And this "welfare for the wealthy" followed years of tax breaks for the rich which started with Ronald Reagan. That was the beginning of class warfare, and guess who won the war. It was not the middle class which has been sliding down the slippery slope to a lower class.*
Those fortunate ones who are among the nation's wealthiest citizens are in that category either because 1) they were intelligent, received a good education, worked extremely hard, had a little luck, and were extremely successful or 2) they are descendants of parents, grandparents or ancestors who accumulated great wealth. Most of us admire those in the first group and do not begrudge them their wealth, but we do recognize that this great country provided opportunities, paid for by tax dollars, that made it possible for them to succeed.. All taxpayers helped them along the way, and now it seems ironic that they don't want to pay their fair share. We wonder, along with Warren Buffet, why his secretary pays a greater percentage of her salary in taxes than he does?
As for those fortunate individuals who did not earn their wealth, but inherited it, we in the middle class can appreciate your good fortune. In fact many of us are in the middle class because our immigrant parents and grandparents worked their butts off to make that possible. Our problem with you is that we are expected to bear a disproportional tax burden. Excuse us, but we think you should be paying your fair share. Quite frankly, those of you who are paying less than a fair share are a drag on our country.
This country is facing a deficit crisis and many of our wealthiest citizens and their minions in Congress are looking for ways to shirk their duty as citizens.
*There is no doubt that our nation's wealth has been steadily moving away from the middle class to the pockets of the most wealthy, but if you need statistics (warning, don't let your children see them; they are too depressing.), here are just a few:
1. 83% of U.S. stocks are in the hands of 1% of the people.
2. 66 % of the income growth between 2001 and 2007 went to the top 1% of all Americans
3. In 1950 , the ratio of the average executives paycheck to the average worker's paycheck was about 30 to 1, Since the year 2000, that ratio has exploded to between 300 to 500 to one.
4. As of 2007 , the bottom 80% of American households held about 7% of the liquid financial assets
5. The bottom 50% of income earners in the U.S. now collectively own less than 1% of the nation's wealth..
6. The top 1% of U.S. households own nearly twice as much of America's corporate wealth as they did 15 years ago.
7. Approximately 21% of all U.S. children were living below the poverty line in 2010 - the highest rate in 20 years.
8.Despite the financial crisis, the number of millionaires in the U.S. rose a whopping 16%t to 7.8 million in 2009.
(These statistics were taken from The Business Insider, July, 2010)
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