So, the watchword du jour during these uncertain economic times has been “shared sacrifice”. That ought to be pretty easily understood. It means that everyone is going to take a hit when the country’s budget problems are addressed. That should include cuts in programs that benefit the poor and middle classes, but also higher taxes for the well-heeled of the country, Grover Norquist notwithstanding.
Except that those really well-to-do, the ones the Grand Old Tea Party (GOTP) is most concerned about, really aren’t feeling the effects of the recession the way the everyone else is. Consumer sales of luxury goods (Mercedes Benz autos, designer shoes @$700.00 a pair and up, $11,000 Gucci coats and assorted watches such as Rolex, etc.) are all said to be flying off the shelf. No lay-offs in those quarters.
Meanwhile, those of lesser means are haunting the Mega-Lo Marts of the world, the various dollar stores and whatnot, and even these stores are reporting drops in earnings. Now if that doesn’t tell you what it’s really like out there, nothing will.
And the chief reason for the pain being felt by the poor and middle classes, the ones who “fight for us in Afghanistan” and “struggle to make ends meet”? According to Warren Buffet, it’s because-“…we mega-rich continue to get our extraordinary tax breaks”.
By the way, the information in this column comes from an op-ed piece billionaire Warren Buffet wrote for the New York Times, so even if he is one of them, this isn’t going to go over well with some of his ultra-rich buddies such as the Koch Brothers, the scions of a man who made his pile by collaborating with Joseph Stalin in the years before WW2, by showing this brutal dictator how to refine gasoline from crude oil. It’s been said that the elder Koch soon disavowed his involvement with Stalin, but there are those of us who believe his sons are recreating Stalin’s methods of taking over governments.
For those who don’t know the whole story on who Warren Buffet is, let me say that he is the CEO of a little company called Berkshire Hathaway. To get the 411, you might want to look at Wikipedia’s entry on this incredibly successful corporation. This should tell you all you need to know.
Buffet says quite plainly, in the title of his piece that we need to “stop coddling the super-rich”. And how do we coddle the billionaires among us? Buffet shows that in 1992, the top 400 earners in the county had an aggregate income of $16.9 billion dollars. Their tax rate then was 29.2%. By 2008, that income had raised, no, soared, in Buffet’s words, to $90.9 billion, while the tax rate plunged to 21.5%.
And the cries of the GOTP that a substantial raise in the tax rates of these billionaires would cost the country any chance at job growth? Buffet notes that between 1980 and 2000, there were some 40 million jobs created, but since the Bush era tax cuts were enacted, there’s been a substantial slowdown in new jobs.
To ease your minds, Buffet envisions tax increases for incomes over $1 million only, and he would include dividends and capital gains. For those who earn more than $10 million, there would be an additional increase.
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