On 12/28/02 12:49 PM, "[EMAIL PROTECTED]" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> In a message dated 12/28/02 10:02:38 AM Pacific Standard Time, > [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: > >> [MS] - I'm sure a lot of struggling families of any race would support this. >> Too bad the GOP dropped it to pass the big tax cut for the filthy rich >> first, which combined with the big spending increases for homeland security, >> > Dear Mark; I have a small question for you. Is the term "filthy rich" part of > the Green Party's Doctrine? I was surprised when I heard Ken Pentel use the > term in an address to the Property Rights Group before his loss in the last > election. Because of the sweeping negative assumption expressed; it seemed > demagogic to me. Normally I would agree with Keith and apologize for being demagogic, because he's right and I was. However, I won't apologize for it because in this case, given what I am arguing against, I don't feel an apology is necessary because I've just seen too much greed among the very rich and I cannot honestly ignore it anymore. It's just too disgusting. Does anyone dispute this statement that appeared in a Strib editorial yesterday: "To quote the Minneapolis Fed study, "The households in the top 1 percent of the wealth distribution own 34.7 percent" of the nation's wealth, "and they are on average 1,335 times wealth-richer than those in the bottom 40 percent." That bottom 40 percent owns only 1 percent of the nation's wealth; indeed the bottom 80 percent owns only about half as much wealth as the top 1 percent." I know I'm not the only one who is bothered by that. Now please understand that when I talk about the very rich I'm not talking about someone like a Craig Miller or Keith Reitman (or even a Victoria Heller as much as I disagree with her at times) who work hard to provide good living or working spaces for their tenants. They deserve what they earn and for all I know aren't particularly rich anyway. What I'm talking about are the folks like the Bushes and the Cheneys who made millions as CEOs and then defrauded their stockholders to make millions more. And then they pass tax laws that allow them to keep even more of their ill-gotten gains. Or the corporations that register their headquarters outside the US to avoid paying taxes. Obviously nobody in the GOP is inclined to do or say much about this and the one Democrat who might have been was taken from us two months ago. I remember just a few days ago on Christmas being with my family and we were talking about the Vikings and the stadium sites being discussed in the northern suburbs. I'd read that one major reason such sites are appealing to Red McCombs is that he'd be able to collect the parking revenues that he cannot get now around the Metrodome or would have been able to get if a stadium had been built on the U of M campus. My gramma asked the question of just how much money does ol' Red need anyway? Does anyone have the answer to that because I sure don't. The greed displayed by the very rich in this country was part of what drew me to the Greens. I knew the GOP catered to that audience and it was becoming increasingly clear (especially at the federal level) that the Democrats were doing the same. Although it took me a while to fully grasp some of the Green positions regarding PACs and the money that floods politics from corporations, I do truly believe that the only way we're really going to see a change for the better both locally and nationally is if we leave behind the whole "lesser of two evils" mess that so many of us are caught up in and deliver a wakeup call by embracing additional parties. For me it's the Green Party and that's a big reason why I've supported Shane Price's campaign. For others it might be the Independence Party or some other party. All I suggest is that if you're not happy with the way things are going in politics these days, please open your mind to consider something other than the Big Two. Mark Snyder Windom Park _______________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Digest, and more: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
