After the fat tax cutting years of the Bush regime would it be ungracious to suspect that maybe the rich have eaten their fill pushed themselves away from the table and some are able to feeling like sharing? Burp.
A recent study from the University of California-Berkeley shows that, in 2007, the wealth disparity grew to its highest number on record, based on US tax data going back to 1917. The top 0.01 percent of earners in the US are now taking home six percent of all the income, and a whopping six-fold increase since the start of the Reagan administration
Tax me more please is unlikely to be the next big thing among the moneyed but a group called Wealth for the Common Good has called on President Obama and Congress to rescind the Bush tax cuts immediately According to their website’s latest update they have more than 1,000 signers. About 300 of them are from high-income households. Good for them, because as the familiar saying goes “Taxes are what we pay for civilized society”. The Bush tax cut would sunset at the end of 2011 automatically if left unchanged.
Commenting on the Wealth for the Common Good concept the Wall Street Journal noted that the recession weary rich may have already suffered enough and naturally aside from having greater ability to pay them, the rich, you know just don’t like taxes . First, the rich pool has been drained markedly by financial crisis. And second, the wealthy — like many Americans — don’t really like paying taxes.
The head of an organization called Wealth for the Common Good is hitting the airwaves to urge wealthy Americans to sign a petition that would reverse the Bush-era tax cuts on household incomes of more than $235,000.
The group seeks an increase of the top tax rate to 39.6% from 35%, which it estimates could raise $43 billion in tax revenue a year. “We believe high-income households want President Obama to move our country toward stability, fiscal responsibility and sensible taxation and investment,” the group states.
One of the group’s co-founders is Chuck Collins, great grandson of hot dog magnate Oscar Mayer, who has been a vocal proponent of the rich sharing more of their wealth with society. In 2003, he co-authored the book Wealth and Our Commonwealth: Why America Should Tax Accumulated Fortunes with William Gates Sr., father of the founder of Microsoft.
http://online.wsj.com/article/…
http://rawstory.com/08/news/20…
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