Thursday, September 09, 2010 8:41:49 AM
Hell Yes It’s Class Warfare! Parts 1 & 2
by The_Conservative_Lie Blog
September 8, 2010
PART 1
The Distribution of Wealth and Power
There is an intentional misconception out there in the market place of talking points and political discussion – it is that liberals are waging class warfare on the wealthy. It is perpetrated in the right-wing echo chamber by the likes of Neal Boortz, Rush Limbaugh and Fred Thompson. These pinnacles of wit and honesty are correct. There is, and has been, class warfare ongoing in these United States, but it is being waged against the middle and working class by the wealthy, the über wealthy and their lapdog GOP politicians.
Perhaps you might find it debatable that the wealthy and the GOP are waging class warfare against the rest of us. To that, I say “Let’s take a look at some of the facts, shall we?” After all, actions are supposed to speak louder than words, though the republican noise machine has gone a long way toward proving that old axiom wrong.
To give you, dear reader, an established starting point by which to measure the following points, let us first get some perspective.
The top 20% of households in America control an astounding 85% of the wealth, leaving only 15% for the bottom 80%. Those numbers, however, include primary residences. For the overwhelming majority of that bottom 80% of households, the equity, if any, in the primary residence represents most, if not all of the net worth. If you take the home out of the equation, as most Americans cannot effectively liquidate their residence, the numbers are more staggering. Minus residence equity, the top 20% of American households control 93% of the wealth in this nation. (I heard a caller on the Alan Colmes show on Labor Day complain that union auto workers are making $40 per hour and there is “no way” anyone is worth paying that much money. I wonder how he would justify these figures.)
The top 10% own about 85% of all stocks, bonds, trust funds, and business equity, and over 75% of non-home real estate. And as wealth is what really matter in terms of control of income-producing assets, it might be fair to say that a mere 10% of the people control the United States.
According to figures published by the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, only 1.6% of Americans receive $100,000 or more in inheritance. Another 1.1% receive $50,000 to $100,000. On the other hand, 91.9% (that‘s you and I) receive nothing.
Remember learning about the Great Depression? Well, one thing that we have in common today with our forbears is that the concentration of wealth in so small a group of Americans today is just about what it was in 1929.
During the trickle down economic theory period between 1983 and 2004 (the latest figures available), of all the new wealth created, 42% went to the top 1% of Americans, 94% to the top 20% and 6% did trickle down to the rest of us.
How does the U.S. compare to the rest of the industrialized world? Only 1 Western industrial nation has a greater concentration of wealth than we do – Switzerland. Must be the easy access to all those Swiss bank accounts.
As you may have heard, and you certainly have if you listen to Boortz, the economy has been growing and incomes have been rising, even during Bush the Lesser’s reign. To which I say, Touché. Income has grown by about 27% in the last 25 years, 33% of those gains went to the top 1% and bottom 60% were actually making less in real dollars. And the folks who sit between the 60% and 80% numbers saw only a 2% increase over that same period. By 2007, income inequality was at the highest levels since, you guessed it, just before the great depression. In fact, as bad as most Americans had it in 2007, the average income for the top 400 households doubled from 2006 to 07 reports.
Having said all that, you might be thinking that those are impressive numbers, but they hardly suggest, much less prove that the rich (and their Republican lapdog politicians) are waging war on the rest of us. You have a point, if you were indeed thinking that. And I… I have a counter point, in which I will demonstrate to you that, hell yes, it is class warfare. And I will do that… tomorrow
http://cons-lie.com/2010/09/07/hell-yes-its-class-warfare-part-1/
Hell Yes It’s Class Warfare! Part 2
Wealth Is Power
As I demonstrated in Part 1, there is a gross inequity in the way wealth is distributed in this country. And wealth is power – often the self-interested use that power to make sure the playing field remains uneven. Wealth is translated into power in several ways.
As indicated in Part 1, the top 10% of American households own about 85% of stocks. As shareholders, the wealthy are often able to influence corporate policy and corporate culture.
As the majority of CEOs and board members of the largest companies are also included in the top 10%, they more directly influence corporate America. Corporate America spends billions of dollars each year lobbying our politicians to influence public policy and additional billions each election year funding the campaigns of both parties in a very successful effort to “buy votes”.
Private citizens also donate money to campaigns. The top 10% of households contribute 60% of all political and campaign donations, and more than 90% of all donations of more than $200. In 1996, the top 10 highest income zip codes contributed over $7 million dollars, while the bottom 100 zip codes contributed $7,000.
According to Campaignfinance.org, about 90% of congressional elections are won by the candidate that spends the most money. The respective parties have both overwhelmingly chosen the presidential candidate who garnered the most cash as the party nominee.
Wealth also pays for “think tanks” and experts who are employed to influence public and political opinion, or to simply think up new policies to benefit their employers’ interests.
And how have the self-interested among the wealthy used this power to wage war on the rest of America? By putting into office politicians who write and vote for policy that is intended to keep the money at the top of the social pyramid and out of the hands of The Great Unwashed.
As shown in Part 1, the wealth of the top 400 Americans doubled during Bush the Lesser’s administration. Where did that money come from? The liars who are selling America the myth of trickle down economics would have you believe that it is not a zero-sum game; that the pie gets larger for everyone. However, it is obvious that the money came from the bottom 80% of Americans, who lost median income and increased personal debt over the same period of time. This was done in a variety of ways with the help of mostly Republican politicians who also lined their own pockets along the way.
The most obvious are the gratuitous tax cuts for the wealthy – the tax cuts about which in no less than two presidential debates Bush promised you, the American public, “overwhelmingly favored the middle class.” In addition the tax cuts in capital gains and inheritance, which only benefit the wealthy, Bush sold you a pig in a poke with income tax cuts. Obviously, the more money one earns, the larger the dollar figure results from the same percentage of tax cuts; but more to the point, most Americans pay the majority of their taxes in the form of payroll taxes. Most Americans, but not the wealthy. So a cut in income taxes results in staggering amounts of money for those in the top 10%, but the rest of us received an average of $800 a year as a result of these tax cuts. And to make it even more unfair, the wealthy only pay payroll taxes on the first $150,000 of their income, while the rest of us pay it on all of ours.
The effective tax rate on the top 1% of families has decreased from 85.5% in the 1950s to 30.9% under Bush’s latest tax cut. In contrast, the effective tax rate on the middle class has risen from 5.3% in 1948 to 24.6%.
Sales taxes also work on an unfair sliding scale. Because it is a flat tax that everyone pays, and the working and middle classes spend more of their income by necessity, they pay a higher percentage of their income in sales taxes than do the rich.
While working and middle class Americans put nearly 100% of their income back into the economy, the rich continue to amass and hold more and more of our nation’s total wealth. As our economy nose dives, and wealth continues to become more concentrated, it is imperative that those who both use and benefit the most from our system of laws and governance, infrastructure and populace return to paying their fair share of the burden.
In part three I will address how special interests (read wealthy) have influenced policy on issues that have weakened labor unions, weakened bankruptcy protection, and weakened entitlement and social programs all the while putting more money in the hands of those who already have it.
http://cons-lie.com/2010/09/08/hell-yes-its-class-warfare-part-2/
by The_Conservative_Lie Blog
September 8, 2010
PART 1
The Distribution of Wealth and Power
There is an intentional misconception out there in the market place of talking points and political discussion – it is that liberals are waging class warfare on the wealthy. It is perpetrated in the right-wing echo chamber by the likes of Neal Boortz, Rush Limbaugh and Fred Thompson. These pinnacles of wit and honesty are correct. There is, and has been, class warfare ongoing in these United States, but it is being waged against the middle and working class by the wealthy, the über wealthy and their lapdog GOP politicians.
Perhaps you might find it debatable that the wealthy and the GOP are waging class warfare against the rest of us. To that, I say “Let’s take a look at some of the facts, shall we?” After all, actions are supposed to speak louder than words, though the republican noise machine has gone a long way toward proving that old axiom wrong.
To give you, dear reader, an established starting point by which to measure the following points, let us first get some perspective.
The top 20% of households in America control an astounding 85% of the wealth, leaving only 15% for the bottom 80%. Those numbers, however, include primary residences. For the overwhelming majority of that bottom 80% of households, the equity, if any, in the primary residence represents most, if not all of the net worth. If you take the home out of the equation, as most Americans cannot effectively liquidate their residence, the numbers are more staggering. Minus residence equity, the top 20% of American households control 93% of the wealth in this nation. (I heard a caller on the Alan Colmes show on Labor Day complain that union auto workers are making $40 per hour and there is “no way” anyone is worth paying that much money. I wonder how he would justify these figures.)
The top 10% own about 85% of all stocks, bonds, trust funds, and business equity, and over 75% of non-home real estate. And as wealth is what really matter in terms of control of income-producing assets, it might be fair to say that a mere 10% of the people control the United States.
According to figures published by the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, only 1.6% of Americans receive $100,000 or more in inheritance. Another 1.1% receive $50,000 to $100,000. On the other hand, 91.9% (that‘s you and I) receive nothing.
Remember learning about the Great Depression? Well, one thing that we have in common today with our forbears is that the concentration of wealth in so small a group of Americans today is just about what it was in 1929.
During the trickle down economic theory period between 1983 and 2004 (the latest figures available), of all the new wealth created, 42% went to the top 1% of Americans, 94% to the top 20% and 6% did trickle down to the rest of us.
How does the U.S. compare to the rest of the industrialized world? Only 1 Western industrial nation has a greater concentration of wealth than we do – Switzerland. Must be the easy access to all those Swiss bank accounts.
As you may have heard, and you certainly have if you listen to Boortz, the economy has been growing and incomes have been rising, even during Bush the Lesser’s reign. To which I say, Touché. Income has grown by about 27% in the last 25 years, 33% of those gains went to the top 1% and bottom 60% were actually making less in real dollars. And the folks who sit between the 60% and 80% numbers saw only a 2% increase over that same period. By 2007, income inequality was at the highest levels since, you guessed it, just before the great depression. In fact, as bad as most Americans had it in 2007, the average income for the top 400 households doubled from 2006 to 07 reports.
Having said all that, you might be thinking that those are impressive numbers, but they hardly suggest, much less prove that the rich (and their Republican lapdog politicians) are waging war on the rest of us. You have a point, if you were indeed thinking that. And I… I have a counter point, in which I will demonstrate to you that, hell yes, it is class warfare. And I will do that… tomorrow
http://cons-lie.com/2010/09/07/hell-yes-its-class-warfare-part-1/
Hell Yes It’s Class Warfare! Part 2
Wealth Is Power
As I demonstrated in Part 1, there is a gross inequity in the way wealth is distributed in this country. And wealth is power – often the self-interested use that power to make sure the playing field remains uneven. Wealth is translated into power in several ways.
As indicated in Part 1, the top 10% of American households own about 85% of stocks. As shareholders, the wealthy are often able to influence corporate policy and corporate culture.
As the majority of CEOs and board members of the largest companies are also included in the top 10%, they more directly influence corporate America. Corporate America spends billions of dollars each year lobbying our politicians to influence public policy and additional billions each election year funding the campaigns of both parties in a very successful effort to “buy votes”.
Private citizens also donate money to campaigns. The top 10% of households contribute 60% of all political and campaign donations, and more than 90% of all donations of more than $200. In 1996, the top 10 highest income zip codes contributed over $7 million dollars, while the bottom 100 zip codes contributed $7,000.
According to Campaignfinance.org, about 90% of congressional elections are won by the candidate that spends the most money. The respective parties have both overwhelmingly chosen the presidential candidate who garnered the most cash as the party nominee.
Wealth also pays for “think tanks” and experts who are employed to influence public and political opinion, or to simply think up new policies to benefit their employers’ interests.
And how have the self-interested among the wealthy used this power to wage war on the rest of America? By putting into office politicians who write and vote for policy that is intended to keep the money at the top of the social pyramid and out of the hands of The Great Unwashed.
As shown in Part 1, the wealth of the top 400 Americans doubled during Bush the Lesser’s administration. Where did that money come from? The liars who are selling America the myth of trickle down economics would have you believe that it is not a zero-sum game; that the pie gets larger for everyone. However, it is obvious that the money came from the bottom 80% of Americans, who lost median income and increased personal debt over the same period of time. This was done in a variety of ways with the help of mostly Republican politicians who also lined their own pockets along the way.
The most obvious are the gratuitous tax cuts for the wealthy – the tax cuts about which in no less than two presidential debates Bush promised you, the American public, “overwhelmingly favored the middle class.” In addition the tax cuts in capital gains and inheritance, which only benefit the wealthy, Bush sold you a pig in a poke with income tax cuts. Obviously, the more money one earns, the larger the dollar figure results from the same percentage of tax cuts; but more to the point, most Americans pay the majority of their taxes in the form of payroll taxes. Most Americans, but not the wealthy. So a cut in income taxes results in staggering amounts of money for those in the top 10%, but the rest of us received an average of $800 a year as a result of these tax cuts. And to make it even more unfair, the wealthy only pay payroll taxes on the first $150,000 of their income, while the rest of us pay it on all of ours.
The effective tax rate on the top 1% of families has decreased from 85.5% in the 1950s to 30.9% under Bush’s latest tax cut. In contrast, the effective tax rate on the middle class has risen from 5.3% in 1948 to 24.6%.
Sales taxes also work on an unfair sliding scale. Because it is a flat tax that everyone pays, and the working and middle classes spend more of their income by necessity, they pay a higher percentage of their income in sales taxes than do the rich.
While working and middle class Americans put nearly 100% of their income back into the economy, the rich continue to amass and hold more and more of our nation’s total wealth. As our economy nose dives, and wealth continues to become more concentrated, it is imperative that those who both use and benefit the most from our system of laws and governance, infrastructure and populace return to paying their fair share of the burden.
In part three I will address how special interests (read wealthy) have influenced policy on issues that have weakened labor unions, weakened bankruptcy protection, and weakened entitlement and social programs all the while putting more money in the hands of those who already have it.
http://cons-lie.com/2010/09/08/hell-yes-its-class-warfare-part-2/
**Happy Trading**
Your Economy #board- 1948
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