Top CEO's plan to loot US social programs byMargaretFlowers
To anyone who might believe that the rich ever paid their fair share.
Back in the 50's, when I was still green behind the ears...okay, greener than I am today, I actually remember wondering how a person could become rich when they had to pay 90% of their earning in taxes. "Boy", I told my buddies, "That's just not fair. If I earned a million dollars I'd only get to keep one hundred thousand."
When I uttered these words, Eisenhower had just been elected president. Wage minimum was 75 cents and hour in Washington State.
I had a summer job in a warehouse that sold TV antennas, earning 6 dollars for 8 hours labor, and 30 dollars a week.
My parents had bought a large four bedroom house in 1949, for the princely sum of $7,850.
In 1954 I enrolled at the University of Washington and paid 50 dollars per quarter for 15 credit hours. Books ran between 3 and 4 dollars each. Used books were half that, if you could find them. My bus fare to and from college was ten cents a trip. A cup of coffee, ten cents with plenty of re-fills. A pay phone was five cents per local call.
Well, I could go on, but you get the picture. I was worried that if I made a million dollars I'd only get to keep one hundred thousand of it. Just think of what that money would buy! I doubt that at 17 years of age I could have spent one hundred thousand dollars in a year.
If I had worked a full year in that warehouse I would have made, before deductions, $1,560.
In fact, at that time I'd read an article that informed me of the rising cost of homes in California. The writer said that in Seattle there were no homes costing a million dollars.
And I worried about having to hand over 900 thousand dollars to my government, supposedly to help make my nation a better place for all citizens, and only getting to keep one tenth.
If I'd received my highest salary for all the years I'd worked for the State, it would have taken me better than 17 years to earn a million dollars.
But wait just a minute! The fact of the matter is that these clever millionaires never did pay that 90% income tax on their earned income. They hired even more clever accountants and lawyers to find ways to move that million dollars around until the "earned" portion wasn't all that much more than I was making.
This is a long way around to say that the rich have never paid their full share.
Carl Jarvis
----- Original Message -----From: Bob HacheySent: Saturday, January 26, 2013 9:02 PMSubject: Re: [acb-chat] Top CEO's plan to loot US social programs byMargaretFlowersHi Peter,
You're right on target here. Back in the 1950's 1960's and 1970's, the rich
paid much more in taxes than they do today. They were still rich but, in my
book, they paid their fair share. The middle class then was much more
vibrant.
Now, there are other factors that complicate things such as inflation in the
1970's was way too high, primarily due to our dependence on foreign oil.
Also, there was, over time, more of a keeping up with the Joneses mentality
and les willingness to put off gratification for immediate pleasure such as
folks buying bigger houses than they could really afford, bigger cars,
vacation homes, expensive trips, etc and a lot of that was paid for on
credit that was sometimes given too easily.
One thing to remember is that during much of the 1950's and 1960's, a
vacation meant a trip out into the country for a few days or a week and
sometimes that meant camping. By the late 1980's, many of the same middle
class types took plane trips to Disneyworld or Europe that maybe should have
been simpler trips to the ocean or the country instead.
But the fact that the rich do not pay their fair share of taxes has lead to
horrible inequality that is dragging this country down.
By the way, I'll admit that I sometimes spent beyond my means, particularly
to attend ACB conventions the expensive way, choosing too many times to eat
at the expensive restaurants when I probably should have been eating at the
deli. I also took some expensive side trips to see other parts of the
country after convention. I'm not sure when the next time will come that I
can afford even a simple vacation, so I thin, to be fair about it, we of the
lower and lower middle classes are not blameless.
Still, if we don't return to the day when the very rich do pay more in
taxes, this nation is headed down a very dark road.
Bob Hachey
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