From the Guardian: It's not just the 1%. The upper middle class is oppressing everyone else, too Excerpt: Upper-income taxation in the US is the bane of the nation. It incarcerates people in Poverty for extended periods of time. The rate of Americans below the Poverty Threshold ($24K income for a family of four) has been constant since around 1965 (at around 14% of the population). This level is unacceptable in any nation. And it all got worse in the 1980s, when Reckless Ronnie (along with the connivance of the opposition) changed fundamentally upper-income taxation rates. Which shifted even more quickly Income into Wealth. We can expect no change whatsoever from this present Replicant Triumvirate in power (Executive, Legislative and Judicial) that will only worsen the plight of the poor. Let's not forget that Wealth remains the personal property of families forever (until they lose it). If it "trickles down", it remains nonetheless within families. Taxed Income, otoh, returns to the economy and, for instance, could be spent on a National Health System and Free Tertiary Education would benefit universally ...
I come from a very modest background and was the first one of my family to go to college. My parents scrimped to put me through undergraduate school and I borrowed the money to pay for graduate school and support my wife and son while doing so. Since just a couple years out of school my income has always been above the number mentioned in the article. I don't feel guilty.
The poverty number is a liberal lie of course since it does not include the free education health care housing and food they get
also the idea of stealing at gunpoint from the rich for more crippling welfare is 100% idiotic and liberal when obviously we should help the poor by reversing the liberal programs that sent their jobs to China and by shipping 30 million illegals home to open up 30 million jobs tomorrow for real Americans.
First just want to point out, Brookings Institute is funded by Qatar, a Muslim Brotherhood funderdthat Obama funded throughout his presidency.
Brookings might have 1000 funders and 2000 positions on various things so Qatar is probably insignificant
If the rates have been the same since 1965, how did they get worse in the 80's? This moronic idea that my tax rate has any effect on the poorly planned family in Detroit isn't really worth the time to discuss, not to mention study.
layfayette's idea is that just one more tax and one more welfare entitlement program will solve our problems rather than accelerate the decline!
Self-centered, blind ignorance of the facts. The fact that the EU has high-taxation spent on low-income families is just one reason it has fewer people below the poverty threshold than the US. The fact that EU subsidizes Tertiary Education (unlike the US) is the reason more people are finding jobs (after the Great Recession) at higher pay than before the Great Recession? They are now a skilled workforce, the un- and semi-skilled work long since decamped to the Far East. And all that is due to a much higher collective tax rate in the EU than the US. See here: The US is to the right of center in the lower-than-middle range. And the EU countries are off to the far left. The US economy is comparatively a super-fast revenue-highway employing the poor who are simply road-kill - and it is getting worse. From CNN - Income Inequality worsens: Evolution of pre-tax national income share: Just how long must the US remain blind to the matter of seriously Worsening Income Disparity. Until it all blows up on our faces, like Watts did in 1965? Dontcha think, people, that's a bit too late? Especially with Donald Dork in the White House making matters spectacularly worse ... ?
And again. my tax rates have zero effect on poorly planned families. http://educationnext.org/international-look-single-parent-family/ poorly planned families are the #1 reason for poverty, not my tax rate.
Republicans are very aware. That is why they want to end the liberal programs that have crippled the poor and made it nearly impossible for them to earn a good income.
of course it is!! Why do you think you could not provide any evidence to to support Brookings being bought off??? 1+1=2
You are asking Trump Chumps to think? Facts are rejected, it is all religion to them, "government is bad" - yeah, when the GOP runs it, it is. European countries have a better quality of life, but chanting "we're No 1" makes up for that.
I could not agree more. The problem is myopia, which is all too often misunderstood. When my father migrated from Europe to the US, he knew fundamentally that he had bettered his lot in life. But native-born young Americans cannot see that advances (over the past seven decades since the demise of Nazi Germany) have brought about to European Social Democracies. Of which the Fundamental Purpose was/is not profits, profits, profits but sharing, sharing, sharing. Europeans still think "America is great". Anything new and groovy seems to come from there. Some go there to better their English-language, others because of the free-style of American capitalism. I do not belittle those who do. Yes, it IS easier to do business in the US than Europe. But, that is not the only point in consideration. The major objective is that regardless of the Socio-economic Road each nation takes individually the end-point is to better the lives of as many people as possible. And that is much harder to do in a population of 730 million people (more than twice that of the US) all speaking different languages than in a country of 320 million who all speak more-or-less the same language. (It's taking far longer in the EU than most ever thought it would.) Still, the EU will likely never loose sight of that goal ... which, I think, the US had once upon a time. Long, long, long, long ago ...
no, ****, I agree. No excuse for that level of underachievement, dependency and slug-like behavior. Stop feeding them.
Monotone, one-liner arguments (tinged with sarcasm) that mean absolutely nothing. Wherever do they find them? PS: Thanx for our daily-dose of sarcasm. What would this forum be without it!
I disagree....wealth is fleeting. In a capitalist society there are extreme pressures to spend it. Proof? follow lottery winners after a few years. If you have wealth, the leeches will dog you down and relieve you of it.....that is unless you are wise and disciplined. This post I respond to sounds like the cheering section for those that feel victimized by any form of industry or competition. Sure, life is not always fair, but realize this, some struggle to improve their lot more than others. The true key to success? Be content with where you are. It will allow you joy.
How do European Social Democracies fair when incentive is down and they run out of other peoples money? Kind of like Greece?
