You’ll need a payday loan after this
Why do people look for a payday loan now and then? It’s not just because it’s a fast, convenient and discreet way to obtain emergency cash. The simple fact is that the cost of living has made it difficult for many American families to stretch their budgets to cover surprise situations. And according to a recent Belleville News-Democrat editorial by Holly Sklar, it’s only gotten worse since 1973.
Yes, the rich get richer…
A glaring example of the workplace divide is what Merrill Lynch did while scores of workers were losing their jobs. Amidst the wreckage and broken dreams, Merrill Lynch paid a small group of employees (around 700) more than $1 million apiece in 2008 bonuses. This added up to $3.6 billion – all of it handed out while the company lost $27 billion.
Since 1973, workers have lost ground in the salary department. Adjusting for inflation, the average full-time workers made $41,198 in 1973 and $37,606 in 2008. CEOs, in the meantime, made 45 times more than workers in 1973. Today, that gap has widened to 300 times more. The tax rate for the top income groups has gone down from 70 to 35 percent, and capital gains tax has gone down from 36.5 percent to 15. This has played a large part in the current disproportionate distribution of wealth. So much so that people in the top income bracket may not even have to think about the aid a payday loan provides.
Brother, can you spare a few hundred thousand dimes?
Sklar bottom-lines it for us. She shares the latest IRS info regarding annual income for the top 400 taxpayers. The average adjusted gross income was $263 million each in 2006 (that’s more than $5 million per week), which was up from $221 million in 2005 and $67 million in 1992, all figures adjusted for inflation.
A lot of people are happy about President Obama’s plan to cap CEO pay at $500,000 for senior executives, but this will only apply to bailed out companies. Furthermore, various loopholes in the plan limit its effectiveness, according to Sklar. Cash Advance Mojo likes the idea Netflix CEO Reed Hastings had about a 50 percent income tax for CEOs who earn above $1 million.
Say you want a revolution
Here’s Sklars conclusion regarding this inequity. See what you think:
If we don’t start taxing the wealthy more now, then you can be sure that the mountain of debt created by tax cuts and the bailout will be used to drive “entitlement reform.” Workers’ last forms of security – Social Security and Medicare – will be on the chopping block to pay for the wreck the truly entitled made of our economy.
A payday loan can help a consumer absorb the shocks between their ever-shrinking paychecks. But a long-term solution to America’s disappearing middle class is needed. If the rich are not willing to submit to greater taxation and try to hide behind loopholes and shelters, they should be tracked down and forced to submit. For their own good and the good of all.
Related articles
- How Will Obama’s Tax Plan Affect Self Employed Americans? (internetbiztaxtips.com)
- Obama’s Old Solutions for a New Economy (spot-on.com)
This is the greatest problem facing the USA right now. Recessions, depressions, whatever – those things are cyclical in nature, they happen every now and again. Throughout human history, there is a nearly universal precursor to dramatic, most often violent, reprisal from the common citizens, and that is the gap between the richest members of society and the poorest. Few revolutions happen without that exact principle as a catalyst. The examples are many – French revolution, Russian revolution, etc. There’s talk about the recession being a threat to national security – it is, but it isn’t nearly the threat posed by the doctrine that has been pursued by both parties of enriching the richest 10% of the nation before the rest of us. News flash folks – that Lafferty Curve, the idea of trickle down economics, it only works on paper. In reality, it has failed – a new way is needed, and I’ll be the first in line.
Public campaign finance would fix so many of our problems. Write your reps.