Saturday, December 16, 2017 6:32:54 PM
The Tax Bill That Inequality Created
By THE EDITORIAL BOARDDEC. 16, 2017
Credit Carlo Giambarresi
Most Americans know that the Republican tax bill will widen economic inequality by lavishing breaks on corporations and the wealthy while taking benefits away from the poor and the middle class. What many may not realize is that growing inequality helped create the bill in the first place.
As a smaller and smaller group of people cornered an ever-larger share of the nation’s wealth, so too did they gain an ever-larger share of political power. They became, in effect, kingmakers; the tax bill is a natural consequence of their long effort to bend American politics to serve their interests.
As things stand now, the top 1 percent of the population by wealth — the group that would primarily benefit from the tax bill — controls nearly 40 percent of the country’s wealth. The bottom 90 percent has just 27 percent, according to the economists Thomas Piketty, Emmanuel Saez and Gabriel Zucman .. http://wid.world/share/#0/countrytimeseries/shweal_p99p100_z;shweal_p0p90_z/US/2015/kk/k/p/yearly/s/false/13.5605/50/curve/false/1913/2014 . Just three decades ago these numbers were almost exactly the reverse: The bottom 90 percent owned nearly 40 percent of all wealth. To find a time when such a tiny minority was so dominant, you have to go back to the Great Depression.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/16/opinion/sunday/tax-bill-inequality-created.html
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What’s in the Tax Bill, and How It Will Affect You
By RON LIEBER and TARA SIEGEL BERNARDUPDATED 7:32 AM
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/16/your-money/tax-plan-changes.html
By THE EDITORIAL BOARDDEC. 16, 2017
Credit Carlo Giambarresi
Most Americans know that the Republican tax bill will widen economic inequality by lavishing breaks on corporations and the wealthy while taking benefits away from the poor and the middle class. What many may not realize is that growing inequality helped create the bill in the first place.
As a smaller and smaller group of people cornered an ever-larger share of the nation’s wealth, so too did they gain an ever-larger share of political power. They became, in effect, kingmakers; the tax bill is a natural consequence of their long effort to bend American politics to serve their interests.
As things stand now, the top 1 percent of the population by wealth — the group that would primarily benefit from the tax bill — controls nearly 40 percent of the country’s wealth. The bottom 90 percent has just 27 percent, according to the economists Thomas Piketty, Emmanuel Saez and Gabriel Zucman .. http://wid.world/share/#0/countrytimeseries/shweal_p99p100_z;shweal_p0p90_z/US/2015/kk/k/p/yearly/s/false/13.5605/50/curve/false/1913/2014 . Just three decades ago these numbers were almost exactly the reverse: The bottom 90 percent owned nearly 40 percent of all wealth. To find a time when such a tiny minority was so dominant, you have to go back to the Great Depression.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/16/opinion/sunday/tax-bill-inequality-created.html
---
What’s in the Tax Bill, and How It Will Affect You
By RON LIEBER and TARA SIEGEL BERNARDUPDATED 7:32 AM
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/16/your-money/tax-plan-changes.html
It was Plato who said, “He, O men, is the wisest, who like Socrates, knows that his wisdom is in truth worth nothing”
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