Posted on 01/24/2007 1:59:36 PM PST by Graybeard58
Bloated CEO salaries – subsidized by taxpayers – undermine American values. Congress needs to reform the tax code.
The new Democratic-led Congress has already made great strides on its ambitious legislative agenda. From hiking the minimum wage to cutting interest rates on student loans, Democrats have won impressive bipartisan support for their legislative goals.
Not included on the agenda, however, is any proposal designed to address what may be the most fundamental problem facing America right now: an alarmingly high degree of inequality.
Currently the top 10 percent of income earners in the US own 70 percent of the wealth, and the wealthiest 5 percent own more than the bottom 95 percent, according to a Federal Reserve Study. The ratio of average CEO pay to worker pay in the US shot up from a mere 301-to-1 in 2003 to 431-to-1 in 2004. The average CEO now earns $11.8 million per year, versus the paltry $27,460 for the average worker. As America tries to grapple with soaring healthcare costs and lack of universal coverage, UnitedHealth Group CEO William McGuire received an obscene $124.8 million in compensation in 2005. He's just one of many grossly overcompensated kingpins of the US economy.
Adding insult to injury, taxpayers actually subsidize these bloated CEO salaries. The federal government gives tax breaks to corporations for those salaries, to the tune of hundreds of millions, if not billions, of dollars.
We used to call this by another name: the Gilded Age.
Income disparity hurts democracy
The level of inequality and unfairness has risen to such eye-popping levels that it is attracting attention from unlikely sources. Ben Bernanke, Federal Reserve Board chair, has called rising inequality "a concern in the American economy." Mr. Bernanke's esteemed predecessor, Alan Greenspan, has said that disparate income distribution is "not helpful for
(Excerpt) Read more at csmonitor.com ...
let them go. you can't use that argument to justify massive taxation of those who work, and low taxation of those who relax all day.
"the best way to deal with this problem would be to stop considering "corporations as people for tax purposes"
That's a great idea.
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
Low taxation of those who relax all day? They pay the same income taxes everyone else does. Sure, many of them don't pay SS or Medicare taxes, but they won't be using those services, either.
Unless you think they actually take more from the country (the public, not their accumulated wealth) than they contribute, wouldn't it just cost more to lose them?
all I am saying is - wage earners, people who have to go to work to earn income - are taxed too high in this country, in comparison to those who earn income through passive sources, unearned income, etc.
Of course there too high. My error is that I thought you understood the concepts of taxation. The dirty little secret is that the middle class is the largest tax base and that is where the looters focus. you should note the subtle MARXIST WORD in your sentence... COMPARISON. This is where class warfare starts. Class Warfare is the only war where the underdog always LOSES. This is my original truism.
and they'll tell us that these CEO"s are the "producers" and the rest of us who work are not worthy ....
I know I am in the minority here but why should my wages be taxed more than the gains from stocks?....
Did our Founding Fathers envision corporate owners having private airplanes, yachts, tickets to major sport functions, martini lunches, etc etc all being able to be deducted as work related?
all those millions of frequent flyer miles that businessmen ring up and use, for free.....Did our Founding Fathers envision such luxuries being written off for tax purposes, while taxing every single penny of wage earners?
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
why didn't theresa heinz kerry release her tax statements? because if she had, it would show what people at those levels really earn from passive sources, and what they pay.
no one else gets a choice to opt out of SS and medicare taxes if they "won't be using those services" - why don't I get that choice?
we have two new tax ideas floating around DC now - taxes on employer provided health benefits, and a lifting of the income cap for SS taxes. again and again, they keep coming back to the W2 wage earner for more. let's branch out a little.
Sorry. I can't get by the false premise in the first 6 words.
If you really want equality, mandate that the NBA be 87% white to "reflect the racial mix of the country as a whole."
Note to self...get job as CEO...
Crap like this reminds of winter; no matter how tight you shut the door, if it opens just a crack, the freezing wind comes in.
We are all born equal, but then we all have nothing at birth; therefor, it stands to reason that for us all to be equal once again, we must have nothing again.
Jeez, non-sequitur much? Of course I am rich compared to that gentleman and his family. For that matter so were my great-grandparents who lived in a cabin. But the point of the thread was about the income of Americans. Rich people let their money work for them, and I assure you that my wife and I work hard for our money. The class warriors do enough to confuse these terms while comparing apples to apples, don't go throwing any mangoes in the mix.
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