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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: willcousa who wrote (329797)	12/17/2002 8:57:23 AM
From: goldworldnet	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 769670

With or without Bush's tax cut, the wealthy in is country pay more than their fair share of taxes. The wealthy have a responsibility to this country just like everyone else, but being wealthy is not something to be penalized for. * * *

To: willcousa who wrote (329797)	12/17/2002 5:09:44 PM
From: DuckTapeSunroof	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 769670

As I said, I'll look around for some reliable measurements of wealth distribution in America today, and in the past, and in historical 'comparables'. Most of my conclusions - that the rich are getting richer at far faster rates than poor or middle classes, and that large percentages of the total of our national wealth are accumulating in the hands of small percentages of our population, and that near total concentration of wealth and power in just a few hands might, just might, have negative effects on our society and our Democracy - were drawn from memory... from many of the details reported in Kevin Phillips' book: American Plutocracy (chief political strategist for Richard Nixon's victory in 1968 and writer of the bombshell book on the emerging Republican majority), and subsequently cross-reported and discussed in the media. I will attempt to find some of the documentary sources for you... The New Guilded Age In 1998, the top 1 percent of the population, according to an article in the Wall Street Journal, owns 38.1 percent of the wealth of the country; the top 20 percent owns 87.4 percent of national wealth; the rest of the population - 80 percent - own only 12.6 percent of the wealth. These disparities are growing. In the past twenty years, the after-tax income of the wealthiest 1 percent of the population increased by 119.7 percent, whereas the bottom 60 percent grew by only 12 percent. Chapter One: THE EIGHTEENTH AND NINETEENTH CENTURIES: FROM PRIVATEERSMEN TO ROBBER BARONS The people who own the country ought to govern it. --John Jay, first chief justice of the United States, 1787 Many of our rich men have not been content with equal protection and equal benefits, but have besought us to make them richer by act of Congress. --Andrew Jackson, veto of Second Bank charter extension, 1832 Corruption dominates the ballot-box, the Legislatures, the Congress and touches even the ermine of the bench. The fruits of the toil of millions are boldly stolen to build up colossal fortunes for a few, unprecedented in the history of mankind; and the possessors of these, in turn, despise the Republic and endanger liberty. --National platform of the Populist Party, 1892 The debate over the compatibility of wealth and democracy is as old as the republic. From the start, concern that the egalitarian-seeming United States of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries might develop wealth concentrations to match Europe's was a worry for many but also the guarded hope of an important few. wealthanddemocracy.com wealthanddemocracy.com Phillips argues true Laissez-Faire doesn't exist. Rather, large corporations and wealthy individuals use wealth to buy political influence to create conditions that allow them to grow their wealth. And, Phillips says much potential wealth, developed at taxpayer expense, finds its way into the hands of the already rich. For example, Phillips points to the savings and loan bailouts of 1989 to 1992. Phillips writes: "The rescue was financed by floating hundreds of billions of dollars' worth of U.S. Bonds, to be paid for by the public over forty years. Not all of the rescue was necessary. Big depositors were completely paid off in disregard of the $100,000 ceiling of federal depositor insurance, and many of the assets [from the bankrupt banks] were sold in attractive packages to the politically well connected, sometimes with agreed-upon federal subsidies to sweeten the pie." Other examples of bail-outs are given, where the government used taxpayer dollars to protect the financial interests of foreign-bond investors. Rather than forcing wealthy individuals who take excessive risks to suffer the consequences of Laissez-Faire markets, Phillips argues that the government absorbs the risks, encouraging wealthy individuals to take financial risks at the taxpayer's expense. And, he says, the government adopts this policy, because the rich have undue influence upon government. entrepreneurbooks.com Wealth Statistics: wooster.edu highered.mcgraw-hill.com bls.gov uta.fi