Can you break the numbers down to the last 5% in the nation… so we have a better idea of where the massive seperation of wealth starts?

For exmple:

5% bracket- 200k
4% bracket- 300k
2% bracket- 500k
2% bracket- 1 million
1% bracket-

You won’t get much argument with me on the tax for the wealthy. Tax cuts were given to the wealthiest people in our country while we spent trillions on war… that has a lot to do with why we are where we are today… although no one seems to meniton the war cost to revenue ratios when they speak about our economic problems.

If we had built the war time economy and done the right thing after the attacks on 9/11 .. when we had the will… and the money… man.. if…

The biggest failure of the Bush administration is the failure to bring the nation together for this fight… that includes cost.. not just yellow magnets on a car.

No one is getting rich– but assuming a modest spousal income of $45K, a professorial family is the top 95% of income in the United States. On the one hand that’s not the middle; on the other hand, there is no longer “a middle.”

A thought exercise: what happens if you impose a one-time levy of 10% upon top one-percent of US wealth holders– a levy which would thus be about 10% of the available wealth in the US– and distribute it as a non-spendable (interest dividends, health or education etc only) to the ‘bottom’ 90% by wealth?

And of course it is “not so simple:” the cost of computing devices has dropped by several factors; the cost of a “discount seat” major city “coast-to-coast” RT remains about $200 at its low point — reflecting an ‘actual’ drop; the cost of staying at my (once) favorite hotel in Paris has moved from about $45US/night (at maximum discount) to over $220US; Pana Rudicka’s pension in Prague, from under $10US to well over $100US/night (and I’m certain she gives me some leeway, when I call from the airport, after two decades of visiting her, in still-poor Czech; it helps to know whether one should bring a even or odd number of flowers); the flat itself, could have been purchased for about $25K a decade ago, $500K a year ago, today?

I’m not sure I’m making the point– other than to state that “value” (exchange value) is largely a matter of — should I say– perception, or deception?

What were the words Marx and Engels and Keynes used (what arguments do they carry?)

How many of your readers in the private sector have jobs that require a minimum of about 6 years of schooling *after* college and then are at the mercy of a job market that gives them almost no control over where they can get a job? Economically, being an academic is usually pretty foolish. The obvious trade off is the chance to spend your time thinking about something you love and get paid for it. Of course even that doesn’t quite work out as planned many times.

That being said, for the academic word, Williams profs generally have a really great situation.

I would not bother to clog up the pipe by posting a simple “I agree” comment that added nothing, except that I perceive (I could be wrong) that Dave and others may believe that silence/lack of a firestorm of commentary means that every/most/many readers don’t comment because they agree with the original poster. Not necessarily so…

Having made that point, I’m not going to feel compelled to say “I agree” every time I do.