![“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 wealthy
*snort, chuckle, bahahaha*
(Source: malefeminist)
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.”
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(Reblogged from tingalingmofo)
Our elites manipulate statistics and data to foster illusions of growth and prosperity. They refuse to admit they have lost control since to lose control is to concede failure. They contribute, instead, to the collective denial of reality by insisting that another multibillion-dollar bailout or government loan will prop up the dying edifice. The well-paid television pundits and news celebrities, the economists and the financial sector leaders, see the world from inside the comfort of the corporate box. They are loyal to the corporate state. They cling to the corporation and the corporate structure. It is known. It is paternal. It is the system.
Chris Hedges, The Empire of Illusion (p 165-6)
(Source: tingalingmofo)