![“How progressive are state taxes? Answer: They aren’t.
The Corporation for Enterprise Development recently released a scorecard for all 50 states… [it] shows that in the median state (Mississippi, as it turns out) the poorest 20 percent pay twice the tax rate of the top 1 percent. In the worst states, the poorest 20 percent pay five to six times the rate of the richest 1 percent… There’s not one single state with a tax system that’s progressive.” (full article on Mother Jones)](http://www.motherjones.com/files/images/blog_tax_burden_states_0.img_assist_custom-414x1380.gif)
“How progressive are state taxes? Answer: They aren’t.
The Corporation for Enterprise Development recently released a scorecard for all 50 states… [it] shows that in the median state (Mississippi, as it turns out) the poorest 20 percent pay twice the tax rate of the top 1 percent. In the worst states, the poorest 20 percent pay five to six times the rate of the richest 1 percent… There’s not one single state with a tax system that’s progressive.” (full article on Mother Jones)
Showing posts tagged elite
*snort, chuckle, bahahaha*
(Source: malefeminist)
How Swedes and Norwegians broke the power of the ‘1 percent’
“When the 1 percent was in charge, hundreds of thousands of people emigrated to avoid starvation. Under the leadership of the working class, however, both countries built robust and successful economies that nearly eliminated poverty, expanded free university education, abolished slums, provided excellent health care available to all as a matter of right and created a system of full employment…
“Although Norwegians may not tell you about this the first time you meet them, the fact remains that their society’s high level of freedom and broadly-shared prosperity began when workers and farmers, along with middle class allies, waged a nonviolent struggle that empowered the people to govern for the common good.”
(Source: tingalingmofo)
“Fault Lines” is a short film by Al Jazeera; an excellent and succinct account of the issues that are bringing Americans and supporters around the world into the streets.
“This inequity will lead to upheaval… politicians aren’t listening. The US will look like it did 100 years ago… where a small group controls a large amount of political power and a large group suffers.”
via adhocumentary
Scenes From a Multiverse by Jonathan Rosenberg
In this segment from The American Ruling Class (2005), Barbara Erenreich speaks passionately on behalf of the unjustified, intentional misery of low-wage earners in America.
There is something fatally attractive about joining the ruling class, starting of course with the pay, but also with the prestige and the like. But fatally ought to go with attractive, in many cases, because it means for a large part you’re getting ready to forget about half of what you learned at Yale or anywhere else, that there are obligations in this democratic republic which I still, perhaps naively, believe need to be factored in. I do not actually believe that society is best served by everybody running avidly after their own self interest. I particularly think: that it is betrayal when the best and the brightest decide that their being the best and the brightest means that they jump on the gravy train and tell everybody else kiss mine as I leave the room. If there is no last morality here to be offered, it is an individual question. The last thing people always say as they go out is not ‘I wish I had had more money.’ They’re usually wishing something else, about what they did with their lives. (former State Dept. spokesman)
The film is a peculiar, unique “musical dramatic documentary” that explores the moneyed seat of power that has been influencing American policy towards its interests for decades. Who are the ruling class? What’s an alternative to the status quo that can be more in line with our imagined, socially-conscious ideals? John Kirby, the filmmaker, presents an enlightening, amusing look at this deeply problematic facet of modern society. His audience is specific. He is speaking to people like me; young mid-twenties, concerned, and modestly privileged enough to make choices, but for whom it is too easy to make the easy ones. The film features some outstanding voices of our time, including scenes with Howard Zinn and Kurt Vonnegut.
Watch the film on Youtube or buy the DVD! The film is also available to view instantly on Netflix. (via tingalingmofo)
(Source: adhocumentary)
Why Inequality is the Real Cause of Our Ongoing Terrible Economy - by Robert Reich (NYT)
“When so much income goes to the top, the middle class doesn’t have enough purchasing power to keep the economy going without sinking ever more deeply into debt — which, as we’ve seen, ends badly…
“The puzzle is why so little has been done in the last 40 years to help deal with the subversion of the economic power of the middle class. With the continued gains from economic growth, the nation could have enabled more people to become problem solvers and innovators — through early childhood education, better public schools, expanded access to higher education and more efficient public transportation… enlarged safety nets — by having unemployment insurance cover part-time work… giving transition assistance to move to new jobs in new locations, by creating insurance for communities that lost a major employer… we could have made Medicare available to anyone… big companies could have been required to pay severance to American workers they let go and train them for new jobs…
“But starting in the late 1970s, and with increasing fervor over the next three decades, government did just the opposite.”
(via: tingalingmofo)
George Carlin on why the American education system blows.
“It’s called the American dream because you have to be asleep to believe it.”