The Pain Is Increasing...
It would seem that part of waking up from our collective stupor will result in the realization that in our rush to placate our fears and feed our greed, we have let the rich run off with our nation's wealth and have damaged that which has made us great, the middle class.
-----
Link: http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/06/opinion/06herbert.html?hp
The Mobility Myth
By BOB HERBERT
The war that nobody talks about - the overwhelmingly one-sided class war - is being waged all across America. Guess who's winning.
...
On the same day, in the business section, the paper reported that the chief executives at California's largest 100 companies took home a collective $1.1 billion in 2004, an increase of nearly 20 percent over the previous year. The paper contrasted that with the 2.9 percent raise that the average California worker saw last year.
...
For every additional dollar earned by the bottom 90 percent of the population between 1950 and 1970, those in the top 0.01 percent earned an additional $162. That gap has since skyrocketed. For every additional dollar earned by the bottom 90 percent between 1990 and 2002, Mr. Johnston wrote, each taxpayer in that top bracket brought in an extra $18,000.
...
An analysis by The Times showed the following:
"Under the Bush tax cuts, the 400 taxpayers with the highest incomes - a minimum of $87 million in 2000, the last year for which the government will release such data - now pay income, Medicare and Social Security taxes amounting to virtually the same percentage of their incomes as people making $50,000 to $75,000. Those earning more than $10 million a year now pay a lesser share of their income in these taxes than those making $100,000 to $200,000."
...
The privileged classes, with the Bush administration's iron cloak of protection, avoid their fair share of taxes, are reluctant to pay an honest dollar for an honest day's work (the federal minimum wage is still a scandalous $5.15 an hour), refuse to fight in their nation's wars, and laugh all the way to their yachts.
It would seem that part of waking up from our collective stupor will result in the realization that in our rush to placate our fears and feed our greed, we have let the rich run off with our nation's wealth and have damaged that which has made us great, the middle class.
-----
Link: http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/06/opinion/06herbert.html?hp
The Mobility Myth
By BOB HERBERT
The war that nobody talks about - the overwhelmingly one-sided class war - is being waged all across America. Guess who's winning.
...
On the same day, in the business section, the paper reported that the chief executives at California's largest 100 companies took home a collective $1.1 billion in 2004, an increase of nearly 20 percent over the previous year. The paper contrasted that with the 2.9 percent raise that the average California worker saw last year.
...
For every additional dollar earned by the bottom 90 percent of the population between 1950 and 1970, those in the top 0.01 percent earned an additional $162. That gap has since skyrocketed. For every additional dollar earned by the bottom 90 percent between 1990 and 2002, Mr. Johnston wrote, each taxpayer in that top bracket brought in an extra $18,000.
...
An analysis by The Times showed the following:
"Under the Bush tax cuts, the 400 taxpayers with the highest incomes - a minimum of $87 million in 2000, the last year for which the government will release such data - now pay income, Medicare and Social Security taxes amounting to virtually the same percentage of their incomes as people making $50,000 to $75,000. Those earning more than $10 million a year now pay a lesser share of their income in these taxes than those making $100,000 to $200,000."
...
The privileged classes, with the Bush administration's iron cloak of protection, avoid their fair share of taxes, are reluctant to pay an honest dollar for an honest day's work (the federal minimum wage is still a scandalous $5.15 an hour), refuse to fight in their nation's wars, and laugh all the way to their yachts.
posted by Mike at 9:23 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home