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Dear Editor,
Today the top 1% of our citizens control 40% of all the wealth in the USA. Between 1972 and 2001, as the top 1% moved up, wealth increases ranged from 37% to 497%. Much of this is taxed at a relatively low level. How well did you do?
In the lower 90% of the people, 2.6 million slipped into poverty. We now have the highest number of people living in poverty since 1993. The middle class has shrunk and been squeezed to the lowest median level of income in years.
Supreme Court Justice Brandies said that we can have democracy or extreme wealth at the top but we cannot have both.
A higher tax on large fortunes would interrupt this cycle of wealth concentration. Current inheritance tax exempts the first 5 million dollars. The inheritance tax was actually suspended in 2010. We now have around 400 billionaires, some having up to 50 billion.
How do people get so rich? Strange as it may seem, luck is the #1 factor. Hard work fits nicely with luck, but luck is still the #1 way to get rich.
Luck, according to Bill Gates, means being at the right place at the right time. Luck included the date of your birth, your inheritance (including genetics), your choice of a spouse, who you know and countless other things.
The best thing that you can do about these problems is to vote every time you have the opportunity. Do you?
Malcolm Brandt, Madelia
Dear Editor,
Today the top 1% of our citizens control 40% of all the wealth in the USA. Between 1972 and 2001, as the top 1% moved up, wealth increases ranged from 37% to 497%. Much of this is taxed at a relatively low level. How well did you do?
In the lower 90% of the people, 2.6 million slipped into poverty. We now have the highest number of people living in poverty since 1993. The middle class has shrunk and been squeezed to the lowest median level of income in years.
Supreme Court Justice Brandies said that we can have democracy or extreme wealth at the top but we cannot have both.
A higher tax on large fortunes would interrupt this cycle of wealth concentration. Current inheritance tax exempts the first 5 million dollars. The inheritance tax was actually suspended in 2010. We now have around 400 billionaires, some having up to 50 billion.
How do people get so rich? Strange as it may seem, luck is the #1 factor. Hard work fits nicely with luck, but luck is still the #1 way to get rich.
Luck, according to Bill Gates, means being at the right place at the right time. Luck included the date of your birth, your inheritance (including genetics), your choice of a spouse, who you know and countless other things.
The best thing that you can do about these problems is to vote every time you have the opportunity. Do you?
Malcolm Brandt, Madelia
