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Stop calling it class warfare
Robert Reich
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Kai Ryssdal: President Obama went to the United Nations today. In amongst his thoughts on the Israeli Palestinian question were some suggestions about the global economy: Urgent and coordinated action is what the White House wants.
As you know, the administration released its plan to cut the deficit earlier this week, which has brought us straight back to the same old narrative: taxes or spending cuts?
And that brings us to commentator Robert Reich.
Robert Reich: It is not "class warfare" to ask the rich to pay their fair share of taxes to bring down America's long-term debt.
After all, the richest 1 percent of Americans now takes home more than 20 percent of total income. That's the highest share going to the top 1 percent in 90 years. And they now pay at the lowest tax rates in half a century.
Before 1981, the top marginal tax rate in America was more than 70 percent. And now it's half that, and besides, most of the very wealthy take their income in capital gains. And that's now taxed at 15 percent -- down from 35 percent as recently as the 1980s.
Anyone who says the American economy suffers when the rich pay more in taxes doesn't know history. We grew faster the first three decades after World War II -- when taxes were higher -- than we have since.
And look: If the rich don't pay their fair share, the rest of us have to bear more of a burden. And that burden comes in the form of either higher taxes or fewer public services.
If anything, the people who have declared class warfare are those at the top of big corporations and Wall Street -- and they've declared it on average workers. The ratio of corporate profits to wages is higher than it's been since before the Great Depression. And even as corporate salaries and perks keep rising, the median wage keeping dropping, and jobs continue to be shed.
I mean, you've got the chairman of Merck taking home $17.9 million last year. And then this year Merck announces plans to boot 13,000 workers. The CEO of Bank of America takes home $10 million, and the bank announces it's firing 30,000 workers.
Call me old-fashioned, but the way I see it, we've got a huge budget deficit and a huge jobs problem. And under these circumstances it seems to me people at the top who have never had it so good should sacrifice a bit more, so the rest of us -- who haven't had it as bad in decades -- don't have to sacrifice quite as much.
Ryssdal: Robert Reich was secretary of labor for President Clinton. His most recent book is called "Aftershock: The Next Economy and America's Future." Next week, David Frum. Until then, your thoughts should you care to share them -- write to us.
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The suggestion that the growth we experienced after WW2 was a result of the progressive tax rates on the rich is laughable. Anyone with a cents worth of business understanding would acknowledge that the huge manufacturing base created to fight two wars had allowed huge growth in spite of regressive tax rates. Of course the post WW2 recession was second only to the Great depression and which means that the two worst recessions/depression were experienced during a time of progressive tax rates.
Greetings! Thank you for being one of few who is logical and rational, someone speaking up for us, the truth and facts! Here is a thought I've had for decades, knowing what was going on! And have posted in my Facebook, on my mind once I worked in the Market (Series 7/63 license during the crash of '87 seeing first hand, what goes on there, during the Bolsky years), for a Bankruptcy Trustee during the S&L Crisis, and in particular having worked for Florida's Attorney General in their Economic Crimes Unit:
There is no way we will gain back our 30 years of lost earnings and the embezzlement (an illegal act, BTW) of our savings, that which ALL these scoundrels conspired to cheat us out of! They have a law for that too--RICO, a law used to prosecute criminal activities of groups who conspire, then the Mafia.
From the Right, my friends and family too, who say that government can't do a thing to bring our jobs back or build a whole new economic engine, I say, well, they sure as “HELL†(key word here for the values bunch) passed the laws that took them away, sending our jobs off-shore, and deregulated such that this form of anti-American, much less behavior that reflects a deficit in ethical, moral and humane values, that which has been carried on for far too long must end!
And yes, to you believers--it is Biblical, so read about Usury, greed, and the evils of men. But this time, put your-self into the story—what if it was I who is jobless, lost all my savings, had no insurance, ability to be a successful professionally, can you imagine that?! And too, those who have run this country into the ground, brought us to our knees! (And for most, not in pray.) How ‘bout empathy, compassion, and not leaving it all to faith alone or hope, your god’s will?
Then, perhaps everyone will finally get it! Maybe then, all will finally come to realize once and for all – Yes, history does tend to repeat itself, and "I did nothing to stop them, stop it!" In fact, I have been conspiring with them and allow them by my vote, to steal from the least of us—again, and again, and again. Nobody really wants to live on the dole, something you have never ever really understood, you know?
Bottom-line, there is no way we can re-coup, world-wide, the wealth of our peoples by merely taxing the LOT! And, it will take too long to recoup all we have lost and build back society, at least for some, in our time, but don’t we ALL have a responsibility to those who follow?
So, I challenge you! If you think we can, beyond the slow drip of tax revenues which we will likely never see anyway the way things are, think about what we really ought to and can do for the good of society as we are in fact all of one Nation, a Nation that should afford everyone of its citizens to live with respect and dignity, one that should be enforcing the letter of the law on ALL!
(Lacking imagination or common sense, please return to the first paragraph for your hint.)
Dear Marketplace:
I am a former European socialist transplanted into the US. I have been listening to Marketplace for the past 3+ years and have had enough of Robert Reich. You are doing yourself a disservice by allowing Robert Reich to continue to pester us with his biassed, unscientific ideas. I shiver at the idea that he was part of the executive branch not too long ago.
I understand the need to represent views coming from the whole spectrum of political opinions, but I have to wonder whether Robert Reich is truly the best left-leaning intellectual you could find. Is Robert Reich's propaganda the best you can do, Marketplace? For hearing his propaganda is pushing me more and more to the right, and I am not sure I like that.
On last Wednesday's program, Robert Reich said we “haven't had it as bad in decades†as justification to tax the rich even more. That commentary was followed up on the show by a report from Mr. Dubner of Freakonomics Radio about how the “more important†reason there has been a decline in hitchhiking has been that “car ownership has gone through the roof.†The two opposing statements of Mr. Reich and Mr. Dubner don't square with each other. When I think back on the living conditions of average Joe's when I was growing up, and then on the living conditions of average Joe's now, I have to side with the hitchhiker analysis. We may have myriad economic numbers we can analyze and try to interpret, but from time to time, poking your head up into the air, looking around, and seeing something like the hitchhiking correlation provides a refreshing perspective that pure numbers just can't provide.
I have to agree with Reich, we should not call it class warfare. It is more appropriate to call it dishonest demagoguery, slander, libel, motzi shem ra, hate-speech, poverty-pimping, or crass vote-buying. Please yes... let us get everyone paying their fair share starting with the 50% who pay nothing or get a surplus of "credits."
Of COURSE it is class warfare! Argue all you want, but as more people get pissed off at their declining standard of living while a small few are living like kings then it does not take a genius to see what will happen eventually. It is only a matter of time.
1) If I was making record profits and had mountains of cash in savings, but wasn't going out and spurring the economy, Tess would give me a piggy. When a blue chip does the same thing, they're evil. I think that makes it Class Hypocrisy.
2) I believe low capgains rates are partly responsible for the predicament we're in. You pay capgains when you take money out of a business (as opposed to letting it ride). Let W's tax cuts sunset, and we might see business go back to reinvesting/taking cap losses just to avoid the tax man.
Michael Ugbenoit, according to the Census Bureau, the top 5% of households earned 21.3% of money income in 2010. (http://www.census.gov/prod/2011pubs/p60-239.pdf)
Funny, I keep hearing shifting numbers about what percent of income the "1% wealthiest" are receiving, and the amount of taxes they're paying - I've certainly never heard numbers as high as 20% received and 38% taxed! Can someone point to a non-partisan source for accurate information on this?
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