hefty political questions
recently i had a small dinner-table fight/discussion with my family and guests on the merit of obama's socialism. and by that, i mean, my family slammed it. absolutely slammed it. i felt crushed -- obama wants to tax much higher than i ever expected, and spend lots. he wants to redistribute the wealth, as my dad put it. which is, essentially socialist. mind you, i couldn't care less if he were socialist or not. sounds fine to me. redistribution of wealth so that the country will equalize a little and the middle class will reform again. so says my friend glenn. he explained a few things:
the middle class has essentially disappeared since off-shore jobs have been raised. the middle man's jobs have disappeared, which means that most people are in the high middle--people like my dad, who owns a successful business of 4 stores and a selling dog food, and who makes a lot of money, enough to fund my grad school wants, and three children's college bills over 12 years--or the lowest middle, which means they're scraping by waiting week to week to see if their pay check's gonna pay the rent, buy the food and gas, etc.
this is a product of the bush trickle-down idea. but since no one infused lots of money into the economy, because of gas prices, food prices, etc, the lower middle keep scraping by with no solution that wants to be had. even when democrats were in power in senate and congress, and, all offense to my party, i think it was a stupid move, they just kept themselves bogged down in the iraq war timetable and other international things that didn't boost our own economic grievances and woes. a double-whammy, i suppose.
so, with more of a mind towards the country as a whole, instead of individual pockets, the taxation of the entire country will eventually lead to a burden on the wealthy (including my dad), and allow the poor and low middle to not collapse under the pressure of the failing economy.
this is what obama wants. more of a mind towards the country as a collective, which upsets a lot of different people: namely the black community, who want what a black man will do for the black community. this, admittedly, i find a little concerning. as a universalist among white folk, he's great. but i wonder how popular he really is among black folk? if his plans would work towards helping the economics and hardships of the black community, the poor white community, and the poor hispanic and other minority community.
but moving back to the economics side, my question points towards all that taxation. is it really a recession waiting to happen? is almost 40% marginal tax rate good? what aabout 25-28% capital gains tax? or 28% dividend top tax rate? what does all that mean, essentially? in plain english, if you will? and what does that mean for a not so fantastic economy at the present moment?
andrew
the middle class has essentially disappeared since off-shore jobs have been raised. the middle man's jobs have disappeared, which means that most people are in the high middle--people like my dad, who owns a successful business of 4 stores and a selling dog food, and who makes a lot of money, enough to fund my grad school wants, and three children's college bills over 12 years--or the lowest middle, which means they're scraping by waiting week to week to see if their pay check's gonna pay the rent, buy the food and gas, etc.
this is a product of the bush trickle-down idea. but since no one infused lots of money into the economy, because of gas prices, food prices, etc, the lower middle keep scraping by with no solution that wants to be had. even when democrats were in power in senate and congress, and, all offense to my party, i think it was a stupid move, they just kept themselves bogged down in the iraq war timetable and other international things that didn't boost our own economic grievances and woes. a double-whammy, i suppose.
so, with more of a mind towards the country as a whole, instead of individual pockets, the taxation of the entire country will eventually lead to a burden on the wealthy (including my dad), and allow the poor and low middle to not collapse under the pressure of the failing economy.
this is what obama wants. more of a mind towards the country as a collective, which upsets a lot of different people: namely the black community, who want what a black man will do for the black community. this, admittedly, i find a little concerning. as a universalist among white folk, he's great. but i wonder how popular he really is among black folk? if his plans would work towards helping the economics and hardships of the black community, the poor white community, and the poor hispanic and other minority community.
but moving back to the economics side, my question points towards all that taxation. is it really a recession waiting to happen? is almost 40% marginal tax rate good? what aabout 25-28% capital gains tax? or 28% dividend top tax rate? what does all that mean, essentially? in plain english, if you will? and what does that mean for a not so fantastic economy at the present moment?
andrew