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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