there's lots of yammering these days about whether or not the bush tax cuts should be extended. i really don't give a shit either way, but if arguing over what amounts to a rounding error when we're on the hook for upwards of $80 trillion in unfunded liabilities over the next 20 years makes people feel better, then what the hell, i'm in.
the democrats maintain that the rich are rich enough and should give some back, and the republicans scream in horror that raising taxes on the $250k-and-up crowd will kill business investment, and thus jobs.
for some perspective on this issue, here are a couple charts* (because you know i'm all about the charts). first, let's look at a couple income trendlines from 1979 to 2001:
if you just look at the lines, there's no real surprise--since about the time reagan took office, the rich have been getting steadily richer, and the middle-class and poor have been getting poorer--there's a shock, right?
it's when you look at the percentage numbers going up the y-axis that your eyes start to bug out. to make it clearer, take a look at this chart:
that's right, folks--today, in the united states of america, the top 1% possess a third of the wealth of our nation, while the bottom half--150 million people--possess a mere 2.5%. it's a slow swindle that's taken a hundred or so years to pull off, but it's damn near complete.
thing that kills me about republicans is, they know this. they know, and they still--even the poor ones--happily and with great moral conviction vote year after year to continue to tilt the playing field in favor of the robber barons who are sucking what's left of the lifeblood outta this country's veins.
back when i was young and semi-idealistic, i once asked a very smart (and very rich) man if he didn't think it unfair that the rich were so rich and the poor so poor. i'll never forget his answer--he laughed and said, "mike, if you took all the money from the rich, gathered it in a big pile and distributed it equally to everybody in the world, within five years it'd all be right back where it started from."
sad thing is, he was probably right--aside from the advantage of having the politicians in their pockets, the wealthy will always be far smarter and savvier when it comes to money, and more self-disciplined and able to delay gratification than the unschooled, impulsive poor. but in their overreaching hubris, that elite 1% have apparently forgotten that they're far outnumbered--and the way things are going, that may end up being all that matters.
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*h/t clusterstock
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