Viewing things only from the lense of percentages can be a little misleading. Another balancing statistic is that the rich poor gap has not only widened to all time highs under the Bush Administration, but it actually accelerated under him.
What I try to keep in mind is that everything has to be balanced. If we want to have a vibrant Democracy that lasts the ages, then we have to protect the Middle Class and keep the American Dream alive, the dream that any American, no matter how humble their beginnings, can rise from nothing to achieve great wealth or great power, like Obama. When we allow the rich poor gap to rise so fast and get too large like Bush did, then we are destroying the Middle Class, which statistics show is exactly what happened.
Also, something to keep in mind is that if we allow the rich poor gap to continue to increase and all the money and power to be placed into the hands of the top 1%, then we don't really have a Democracy anymore. That will be a de facto Oligarchy, which is what happened in Russia. So it may have all the trappings of a Democracy, like voting, but the will of the people won't really be represented.
So I'm always for a progressive tax structure, because I think it is one of the greatest tools we have to 1) keep the Middle Class vibrant and 2) generate enough tax revenues to pay for the large things we need our Gov't to do. |
