MONEY MATTERS

The Republicans oppose President Barack Obama’s decision to make the rich to pay more in taxes. They call this “class warfare,” it is in deed they who want to exempt the rich from bearing any of the burden to make the economy sustainable, who are waging class war. If we look into the incomes of the past three decades it shows that between 1979 and 2005 the inflation adjusted income of families in the middle of the income distribution rose by 21%. Over the same period the income of the rich rose by 480%. In 2005, the average annual income of this group rose from $4.2 million to $24.3 million. Does this look like “class war” as the Republicans say? There is argument over the government policy that was responsible for this difference in income growth. We all know for sure that the policy tilted to the advantage of the wealthy. The important aspects of tilt involved things like the sustained attack on organized labour and financial deregulation, which created huge fortunes even as it paved the way for economic disaster. The federal tax burden has fallen for all income classes. This has fallen much more for the wealthy. The pay roll tax paid by the workers has gone up. People with multi-million dollar income pay lesser tax than the working class. Elizabeth Warren, the financial reformer who is now running for the United States Senate in Massachusetts, has said that the rich can only get rich. It is unfair that the rich are not a part of the society that is worried on budget deficits, for they too are at risk when the nation’s future is under threat. If they are exempted from the social contract that applies to everyone then that is clear “class war.”

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