Speaking On Capitalism

I think capitalism is a great way to run a nation's business - and it's probably a great way to run the world's business - with some restrictions and controls. Entrepreneurial success should be rewarded - financial gain should be associated with taking financial risks and achieving success. BUT - and here comes my caveat - the success should not be so large as to be obnoxious. The wealth and the success should be shared by those who have participated in it and that includes consumers, workers and the very society whose rules and people have allowed for that success.

When the earnings of those at the very top of the food chain in our capitalistic system get disproportionately large, the system will crash to bring them back to reality. It happened to us in the 1920's (remember the robber barons?) and it's happening to us again now. It is time for those of great wealth to give back to society in general. BTW, have you ever visited the mansions of the 20th century robber barons? There are several of them here on the east coast and they are obscene.

At any rate, here's what Robert Reich, a veteran of the Clinton cabinet, had to say recently...

It's about time a presidential budget unequivocally redistributed income from the very rich to the middle class and poor. The incomes of the top 1 percent have soared for thirty years while median wages have slowed or declined in real terms. As economists Thomas Piketty and Emanuel Saez have shown, in the 1970s the top-earning 1 percent of Americans took home 8 percent of total income; as recently as 1980 they took home 9 percent. After that, total income became more and more concentrated at the top. By 2007, the top 1 percent took home over 22 percent. Meanwhile, even as their incomes dramatically increased, the total federal tax rates paid by the top 1 percent dropped. According to the Congressional Budget Office, the top 1 percent paid a total federal tax rate of 37 percent three decades ago; now it's paying 31 percent.

via Crooks and Liars.