On April 11, 2014, Thom Hartmann writes on the Thom Hartmann Program:
The wealth gap today is as bad as it was in the 1920s. New research from economists Emmanual Saez and Gabriel Zucman shows that those at the very top hold more of the wealth than at any time since 1928. In fact, only the super-wealthy, the top tenth of the top one percent, have seen huge gains in assets over the last three decades. Even people in the top ten percent of income earners have been losing ground compared to the super rich.
Most of us know that wages have been stagnant for decades thanks to Reaganomics, but the growing inequality problem is not just about our weekly pay. Average Americans have lost wealth from home values, pensions, savings, and total assets, and our broken economy prevents them from making up any ground. Meanwhile, the wealthy elite have seen larger and larger income gains, and they’ve stashed billions away in property, savings, and various types of low-or-no-tax investments.
After the Great Depression, progressive tax systems helped keep inequality at bay. High tax rates on the super rich leveled the playing field, and encouraged business growth and investment. For decades, it made more sense for the corporate elite to higher more employers or expand operations. But today, low taxes make it more lucrative for the rich to screw workers and cash out. If we ever want to close the wealth gap, we need to break this cycle.
We need to return to a progressive tax system – one that rewards hiring workers more than sitting around collecting a dividend check. In fact, let’s put a 100 percent tax on income over a billion, and leave the super-rich with no other money-saving option except investing in our great nation once again. Find out more at NoBillionaires.com.
http://www.thomhartmann.com/blog/2014/04/weve-lost-90-years-fight-economic-equality
