Reform Taxes Now or Face the Music

As Income Inequality Grows, Hope Dissipates and Society Cracks

Can we agree that laws, rules and opportunities to develop and grow should be perceived as fair by most people in society? Can we agree that a fair system coupled with hard work should give everyone hope for a better future? Can we agree that without hope for a better future, resentment brews, and society begins to crack? Can we agree that when society cracks, trusts evaporates and mayhem — political and economic — follows? If we agree to all of this, then what’s the flashing red light in our country? Historic and growing levels of economic inequality.

Economic inequality keeps growing and will continue to grow unless we reverse the egregious tax “reforms” that have been enacted since the 1980s. Today, the top 1 percent in the United States owns 27 percent of the country’s national wealth, an amount that is more than the entire wealth of the middle class. This represents the most extreme wealth inequality in U.S. history, and it is growing.

It is not only the distribution of wealth that is becoming increasingly unequal. Income inequality is also extreme and it is also growing. In 1980, the top 1 percent in the United States earned 10 percent of the total income and the bottom 90 percent earned 70 percent. By 2019, the top 1 percent nearly doubled their earning share to 19 percent of total income, while that of the bottom 90 percent declined to 60 percent.

This trend has alarmed economists and policymakers, and the COVID-19 pandemic has made matters worse with higher prices for rent, used cars, food and energy putting millions of vulnerable families on the edge. There are many more numbers, but everyone, except the top 1 percent would probably agree that inequality in the United States is extreme, unhealthy and dangerous — the most unequal among advanced countries in the world.

In the 1960s, most people believed that they had a fair chance to succeed. This is no longer the case. Yes, in the 1960s there were more opportunities for the average man or woman to make a reasonable income and save a little with hard work. And as a result, income and wealth were more equal than they are today, resulting in a more united society.