What If the Greedy Rich Paid Their Share? 8 Things to Know About
Wealth and Poverty in the US
/By/ /Les Leopold <http://www.alternet.org/authors/8894/>
/We're far from poor -- we just have a wildly lopsided distribution of
wealth that makes us seem poor.
(snip)
It wasn't an act of God, or the blind forces of technological change, or
the mysterious movements of markets. Nor did the super-rich become
enormously smarter than before. Instead, flesh-and-blood policy makers
decided that deregulation and tax cuts should become the order of the
day starting in the mid-1970s. The idea was that if we cut taxes on the
super-rich and deregulated the economy (and especially Wall Street),
investment would dramatically increase and all boats would rise. But as
we can see from the chart below, the average worker's wage in real terms
stalled and even declined after the mid-'70s. The fruits of productivity
no longer were shared equitably. The enormous gap between the two lines
(trillions of dollars per year) went almost entirely to the super-rich.
The wealth of the wealthy skyrocketed, not by accident, but by policy
design. "Greed is good" replaced the middle-class American dream.
(snip)*
What Is Wealth and Who Has It?*
Wealth or net worth is the total value of what you own (your assets)
minus the total value of your debts (your liabilities.) Our collective
net worth is really huge. We're talking big, big numbers. As of the end
of 2011, U.S. households had $30 trillion in private assets and $13.6
trillion in liabilities for a total net worth of $16.4 trillion (PDF
<http://www.federalreserve.gov/releases/z1/current/z1r-5.pdf>). How much
is that? It comes to an average of $141,000 per household -- free and
clear of any debts.
(snip)
full story with graph at:
http://www.alternet.org/economy/155025/what_if_the_greedy_rich_paid_their_share_8_things_to_know_about_wealth_and_poverty_in_the_us
/(my comment)/
*Apart from reversing market deregulation and tax exemptions for the
wealthy, he may have mentioned that many industrialists are wealthy
because government allows them, by virtue of promises like job creation
and economic stimulus, to exploit the commons without much compensation.
Such agreements result in unjustified tax exemption, despite immense
profits. Corporations today fail miserably to employ or stimulate
regional economies, as do ever floundering free-market entrepreneurs.
http://capitalism-creates-poverty.blogspot.ca/2012/03/free-market-myths-no3-entrpreneurs.html
Government should, on behalf of the people whose commons are being
exploited, have recourse to tax the income (profits) of the corporation
by the same measure as for individuals. If the corporation downsizes and
ships most production overseas, citizens should have recourse, through
government, not only to tax that income as well, but to revoke the
agreement within the first year of outsourcing. With proper taxation of
industry, there wouldn't be so much concentration of* *wealth.
Further, if the commons were legally recognized as incorporate of
predominately finite resources, we would be looking at sustainable,
rather than exploitative, approaches toward extractions, and industry
would be paying high taxes for the privilege of using public lands' raw
materials.
Natalia
*
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