You may have heard there's no such thing as a free lunch, but David Cay Johnston says there is — and wealthy Americans do get richer because of it. Johnston is Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter and author of "Free Lunch: How the Wealthiest Americans Enrich Themselves at Government Expense (and Stick You With the Bill)."
This week's Word for Word featured David Cay Johnston's speech at the Commonwealth Club of California, in which he outlined how government-private sector collusion affects the middle class and the poor. Johnston says the government pays subsidies to some of the richest people in America, including the owners of the Wal-Mart chain:
"The Walton family are the richest family in America. They have more money than Warren Buffet and Bill Gates together. That's how rich they are and yet they are feeding at the public trough everywhere they can-- they are getting taxpayer dollars... So, how many hours are you willing to give up every week to give money to the Waltons? I'm not willing to give them one minute. This is how much I'll give them: zero."
What do you think? Do the wealthiest Americans deserve to "feed at the same trough" as those with less wealth? Should the very wealthy be taxed disproportionately higher than the rest of the country? Listen to this week's speech and share your thoughts below.
________________________________________
Suzanne Pekow
Word for Word
APM|MPR




Comments: 33
I don't know that for sure, but it seems logical to me. If, for example, your household makes over $100,000 per year, you wouldn't be qualified for food stamps, medicare, etc. Right? Therefore your benefits per tax-dollar would be proportionately smaller than a family that makes much less.
Am I missing something here?
Uh, I'm going to restrain myself, and just say, hmmmm.............could be.
Does "Lex Luthor" think he should pay taxes that go NOT to government, but to the Waltons and other rich families and individuals? If so, please explain.
Also, tell us how many hours or days you are willing to work each year to add to the fortunes of the Waltons and others like them? And explain why you do not believe the market is sufficient and people like the Waltons need to be subsidized.
The wealthy do not own the majority of corporate wealth, the middle-class does through its retirement funds.
The wealthy pay most of the bills in this country and the wealth the middle-class has invested in its retirement funds is placed there tax-free, not taxed as it grows and taxed less when it is withdrawn.
I've had a conversation with people who think at the end of the day they're getting low prices at Wal-Mart. I remind them that as taxpayers we may be paying small amounts at the W-M cash registers but we're footing the bill for its employees' health benefits, vis a vis community health services and emergency rooms.
I dispute the statement that the wealthy pay most of the bills in this country, and the suggestion that the middle class is getting away with something by investing in retirement funds. Frankly, if I could convince my husband to pull all our 401k money out of the stock market and stick it under our mattress, I would. The market is one more racket that the middle class is forced to enter (in the guise of "growing" its nest eggs) but it mainly seems to enrich the wealthy and powerful, who can dump shares quickly and easily.
The question above misses the point. I don't believe the wealthy should be taxed disportionately; rather, they should be taxed at a progressive rate, same as the middle class is. The more money you make, the more you pay. Very simple.
Very cool article..........
I wish some of this kind of money would be put into stretch marks research, but then again, I guess you could put the money into just about anything health-related.
Nicole
ameda Ultra
There's nothing surer: The rich get rich and the poor get—children;642-825 exam
and, later:
There's nothing surer: The rich get rich and the poor get laid off;
Note too that the Kahn and Egan lyrics say "the rich get rich," not richer.[7][8][9]
The line is sometimes mistakenly attributed to F. Scott Fitzgerald. It appears in The Great Gatsby, as
the rich get richer[sic] and the poor get—children!642-436 exam
The character Gatsby orders the character Klipspringer, sitting at the piano, "Don't talk so much, old sport.... "Play!" and Klipsprinter breaks into the Kahn and Egan song.
Why do the rich continue to get richer, at an accelerated rate? Well, history helps to explain this. In the years leading up to the Great Depression, most of the newly rich acquired their income from equity. Now of course, we all know that came crashing down, but the ones who survived or returned to the game had a sophisticated financial mindset. Promotional Products Promotional Products Corporate Gifts
In this book, Reiman shows how the criminal justice system discriminates against the poor at every turn. The anti-social acts most likely to be committed by poor people are crimes, while those most likely to be committed by rich people are not. Of people who commit the acts which are considered criminal, the poor are more likely to be caught. Of these people, the poor are most likely to be convicted. Of those convicted, the poor get harsher sentences. Reiman presents lots of interesting and convincing evidence to demonstrate these points.
However, he goes further and attempts to show how this helps to reproduce the capitalist system, and that this is why these inequities persist. Unfortunately, his analysis in this regard is very much wanting. Some of his arguments that these inequities help reproduce the system are good, some aren't. At the beginning of the book, Reiman promises to demonstrate how the benefits to capital of this irrational system of "justice" keep us from fixing the criminal justice system without resorting to conspiracy theory. His starting point is basically that we have this system because of historical inertia. Those who benefit from it didn't create it, but they keep us from fixing it. However, it seems as if all of his criticisms of the idea of a conspiracy to create it would apply equally to his idea of the powerful preventing the system from getting fixed, or even their inactivity with regards to reform (his main criticism of conspiracy theory is that people usually don't do things they know are this socially harmful in order to benefit themselves, so why do they allow this system to keep going in order to benefit themselves?)
In some editions of this book, there is a supplementart chapter in which he tries to sketch an alternative to his "historical inertia" theory. However, it is based on the outdated writings of certain Marxian legal theorists, without any mention of more current Marxian legal theory. This chapter is totally useless, although I think that some application of Marxian legal theory (but not the way Reiman does it!) would be the key to understanding the origins and reproduction of htis inequitable system of criminal justice.
iphone blog SEO Company Corporate Gifts
blu ray porn
Just my 2 cents anyway.
James Wight
From the Acne Treatment Blog
accutane settlement