Dateline February 3, 2012 Los Angles Times: “Citizens For Tax Justice, a liberal tax reform group, figures that the Buffett Rule woljd affect about 0.08 percent of taxpayers, or 1 out of every 1,250. People will be tempted to think that by enacting the Buffett Rule, we have solved the problem of growing income inequality, when we won’t really have even touched it. The medium family income in Ameri…ca is about $50,000, which means that if two people in your family are working and they bring in a total of more than $50,000, you’re in the top half, and any redistribution through the tax system for the purpose of reducing inequality might increase your taxes, not reduce them.”
There continues to be heated discussion about tax reform and tax reduction, as well as budget cuts. However, as widely discussed, the proposals will both further concentrate ownership of productive capital and result in the requirement for further redistribution through the tax system in order for the 99 percent to have income to create consumer demand. Still, there are no leaders who are advocating a reform of our financial system that will end the monopoly the 1 percent now enjoys, which empowers them to continue to amass concentrated ownership of productive capital (represented in income through capital gains and dividends taxed at 15 percent). This unjust system must be reformed so that the 99 percent can acquire productive capital ownership simultaneously with the economy’s growth and pay for their acquisition out of the future earnings of the new capital formation investment. This is the Just Third Way that over time will empower the 99 percent to build viable capital estates, while simultaneously optimizing the application of technological innovation and invention and providing jobs as a result of far greater economic growth.
