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Politics : John McCain for President -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Dan B. who wrote (4484)	10/16/2008 12:06:51 AM
From: Nicholas Thompson	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 6579

how come this did not happen in the 1950's when our middle class was strong and taxes for the top people were over 70%?

To: Dan B. who wrote (4484)	10/16/2008 3:50:30 PM
From: RetiredNow	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 6579

Your post contains two thoughts, one I agree with and one I disagree with. First off, trickle down is a fantasy. When we vote in leaders who give the rich and powerful alot of rope, then they will use that power to acquire a larger share of the pie. The fact is that the rich poor divide has increased at a faster rate to the highest levels in history, over the last 8 years. That is an existential problem for a Democracy, which is predicated on a thriving middle class and a dream of class mobility. When the rich and powerful hold all the levers of power, then the end of Democracy is nigh. Second, I really like the idea of the Fair Tax. It is a very sane thing to do. It puts incentives where it should be, on earning power, while penalizing where we should, on spending. Hell, even our biggest national economic metric, GDP, is based on the idea that we should spend, spend, spend. Remember Bush after 9/11 when asked what the rest of us can do to help? He said that we should go out and spend money. Sheesh. We need to change the ethic in this country to one of conservation, savings, and judicious investment. I wish our leaders had the will power to go to the Fair Tax. Have you visited the following webpage? Very nice. www.fairtax.org