The huge concenctration of wealth destroys our freedom

 

I suggest reading the whole post at the following link: 

http://angrybearselect.blogspot.com/2011/04/robert-reichs-after-shock-and-corey.html

 

Robert Reich's After Shock and Corey Robin's Freedom Arguments

 

Posted by Linda Beale | 4:28 PM

In earlier posts on ataxingmatter (here and here), I reviewed Robert Reich's 2010 book, After Shock, and wrote about his suggested cures for the problems made most visible in the 2007 crash and the Great Depression that followed.

The gist of the book is summed up in the following quote:


    "[L]eft to its own devices, the market concentrates wealth and income--which is
    disastrous to an economy as well as to a society."

•••••

Because the problem we are facing today, with corporate lobbying and campaign contributions reinforcing the elite class's wining and dining of politicians, is more than the dysfunction of the economy. Yes, there is too much money at the top where there is not enough ability to spend it. Yes, there is too little money at the bottom where there is no way to provide for basic needs. Yes, there is barely enough in the middle, resulting in stagnation in local businesses who don't have enough customers to sell to and can't afford to give credit to those who want to buy.

•••••

Our very freedom is threatened. When we are economically powerless, we are also powerless in our lives because we lose our freedom to make choices that are right for us.


    we lose our rights to bargain with our employers (look at how Wisconsin and Ohio have treated their public employees or how WalMart treats its workers and anyone who talks unions),


    we lose the power to improve ourselves by pulling ourselves up by the bootstraps through publicly funded education from grade school through university,


    we are dominated in the marketplace by powerful businesses that use automated systems to turn us off, ignore our calls and letters seeking redress for a mischarge or a poorly done job,


    we lose our jobs, are forced to accept paycuts or furloughs, when the company claims times are tought, yet we watch the same public companies to pay their CEOs millions more

•••••

The reason we need a progressive tax policy--including at the least progressive tax rates with brackets that reach much higher into the stratosphers of the ultra rich (55% for those making $1 million or more annually) ; elimination of the capital gains preference (so that all income is taxed under the same rate structure); and an estate tax with bite (meaning a graduated rate that protects a reasonable nest egg for the next generation while serving as one method of limiting the concentration of wealth)-- is to ensure the freedom of each and every one of us, from rich to poor, from newly arrived immigrant to elderly Native American.