General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: We are in a war for our lives. The war is between the 1% elite and the 99%. You are hopelessly [View all]hfojvt
(37,573 posts)certainly we out-number them and can out-vote them.
Collectively, the 99% also has more money than the 1% - lots more. The 1% gets perhaps 22% of the national income, leaving 78% for the 99%.
Two problems with that though
1. disposable income - the 1% may have more of that, because the bottom 80% uses most of our money to pay bills. Whereas the 1% has enough money left over to buy some Senators and maybe a President.
2. Again, the fact that the 2%, and 3% and even 8% are NOT, in general, on our side. The 99% has more income than the 1%, but the top 25% has more money, collectively than the bottom 75% by 31.8% to 68.2% in 2006 http://www.koch2congress.com/5.html
But that is what made BushCo so insidiously clever. The Bush tax cuts were not just for the 1%. They gave significant sums to those in the top 10% and top 20%, and THAT is why they are still with us today. Not because of the 1% stepping on those below them. No, because the top 20% are also quite willing to step on those below them (in general, there are, of course, many exceptions, just no enough exceptions for those of us at the bottom to win). When the Bush tax cuts became permanent, Mitt Romeny got almost a million a year in tax cuts. Why did that happen? I would say NOT because Romney types run the country, but because the same provision that gives Romeny his millions ALSO gives thousands of dollars to other members of the top 20%. They want those thousands and don't really care if Romney gets his millions.
The permanent Bush-Obama tax cuts give $1.3 trillion over the next decade to the top 5%, but "only $666 trillion of that goes to the top 1%, and another $1,1 trillion to the rest of the top 20%. With only $700 billion going to the bottom 60%. All that money is flowing uphill, not because the top 1% is pulling it, but because the other 19% of the top 20% wants, NO, DEMANDS, their $1.7 trillion in tax cuts. And if that means the top 1% get some $666 billion in tax cuts, then in the words of Hard Harry "so be it" and if that means we gotta cut food stamps and social security, then, again, so be it. Woe to the politician that tries to take my $5,000 tax cut away. Not only will I NOT donate to him/her, but I will donate instead to their opponent who promises to restore my tax cut.