I believe the nation is worth saving.
We don’t, however, all act like we believe that simple truth.
Too many pretend it’s the fault of the middle class that our nation is at risk.
That’s ironic because that’s most of us.
We really can’t blame the middle class for not earning a fair wage or salary for their work.
They didn’t make the decision to take home a smaller share of the nation’s income.
In 2007 the median income for a man, half above him earning more, and half below him earning less, was $45,000; that was less than the median income in 1970 even though the economy was much bigger in 2007 and, by right and expectation, he should have earned more -- if he had gotten his fair share.
The wealthy took more than their fair share. Michael G. Morris, the CEO of American Electric (AEP), one of the principals who tried to run that toxic coal-fired power line through Loudoun County, earned $3.2 million in compensation only a few years ago. That’s 71 times the $45,000 median income in 2007. If Morris spent it all in a single year, he would have to spend $8,767.12 a day. Kenneth Lewis, the CEO of Bank America, was paid $100 million in 2007, the year before the bailout. Richard Fuld, the CEO of Lehman Brothers was paid $500 million in salary and shares of stock before Lehman collapsed.
Our elected representatives have deferred to their wealthy patrons when saving the wealthy from taxes, from bargaining with their workers, from “pesky” safety regulations, and they privatized public services to give them a profit with our tax dollars, then allowed our jobs to go overseas, and that’s all meant that the wealthy have realized greater profits, while refusing to share that increase with the middle class in the form of higher wages.
In the late 1970’s, the upper richest 1 % of the nation controlled less than 9% of the total income; in 2007 (when the top 1% earned $398,900 a year and more), it was 23.5 percent of all income.
The middle class tried to keep up their standard of living, on a stagnant wage rate or salary, with extra jobs, by depleting savings, using credit cards, and borrowing against the equity they had in their homes.
When the credit market collapsed, because of all that Wall Street chicanery, the chief asset of the middle class family, the home, sprung a leak and went underwater.
Middle class consumption dropped like a stone. But we were still producing. This led to unemployment as we were over-producing. And it won’t get better until the middle class is working and secure.
Republican Representatives Eric Cantor (VA) and Paul Ryan (WI) want to cut Social Security and Medicare and Medicaid to the middle and lower economic classes and refuse to raise taxes on the wealthy; they appear intent on punishing the middle class for having the temerity to demand a square deal.
Their biggest miscalculation is that the wealthy intend to take their money and hire anyone. The wealthy have alternative and less risky investments for their funds.
The other thing they’ve got dead wrong is that taxing cripples economic expansion. If that was so, then why did President Eisenhower set the tax rate at 91 percent?
Our economic engine will not turn over again unless we redistribute the wealth fairly. The wealthy can’t make profits if the middle class isn’t employed and buying. It’s about increasing the taxes for the wealthiest – and certainly not at the Eisenhower level. Our government is also going to have to create WPA projects that pay people to work. Nor can we be shredding the safety net while the middle class struggles to find its financial footing.
This nation is worth saving and the time to start is now.
# # #
No comments:
Post a Comment