All Things Being Unequal- Issue #1

Today, the separation between the top earners and the middle class appears to be growing rapidly. Between the 20 percent of households earning the most, they control about 53.5 percent of the money, and on the other side of the spectrum, the bottom 20 percent earners control only 4.1 percent of the money. The issue now is what we should do to try to solve this growing gap. Do we lessen the tax on lesser earners, like those making about 21,000 a year or even as low as 11,000, and raise it on those making 250,000 or more? Or, do we just hike up the taxes on the CEOs that are making crazy amounts of money, some even making 26 million dollars in one year. Some have criticized the recent CEO pay packages as excessive. At the same time, some people say that we can not tax the more wealthy because their spending is needed to help with the Market-Based Economy. The people that believe to tax the rich, also want to reduce middle and low income taxes to more fairly redistribute the nation's wealth. They also want to add to our safety net programs we have in place. Those opposed to the tax raises, believe that job protecting and trade barriers would reduce business profits and leave less to distribute to employees.



It makes me sad that there is a growing separation between the wealthy and the middle class, but i don't think it is right to punish the wealthy for being successful. Why would someone want to get a raise if it means more taxes? Not everyone was born into that high paying job they have, most have to work very hard to get to where they are. I think that the range making about 250,000 is not above the economic hardships, they may not be able to afford huge tax hikes, but the CEO's making the millions upon millions of dollars can afford tax hikes because most of the time they have good lawyers that get them out of paying the amount of taxes they are supposed to pay. In conclusion, I believe that something needs to happen to stop to separation, but i don't believe we have to right process yet and i have no clue what the right one would look like exactly. I think that if we cap pay, give job protection it will stifle business because there will be less motivation to advance and succeed, which will hurt profits causing people to get less pay which will drastically injure our Market-Based Economy.



Some changes from Bush's cuts, and the good things those cuts did are listed here. (My paste isnt's working so click on here.)
For issue #2 go to Olivia Rice's blog.
For issue #3 go to Steve Carlson's blog.