Katrina vanden Heuvel: Wealth for the Common Good

[marmar]

from The Nation:



Wealth for the Common Good
posted by Katrina vanden Heuvel on 04/06/2010 @ 09:25am


The challenge for progressives and Democrats in these turbulent times is how to consistently and clearly explain the real causes of our current economic condition.

One problem is that we live in a center-left country with a center-right media that consistently misinforms people about the perils of debts, deficits, and tax increases, and purveys misinformation about a good but modest health care bill that rightwing talk radio, tea partiers and GOPsters would have Americans believe is a "socialist" power grab.

It's against that political backdrop that a just-released report from Wealth for the Common Good--a network of business leaders, high-income households and partners working together to promote shared prosperity and fair taxation--is a welcome and common sense antidote. History is always important, especially in the "US of Amnesia"--as writer Gore Vidal once put it--and this tight, fact-filled report gives us the history we need to understand how enormous tax cuts over the last 50 years have favored the wealthiest Americans at the expense of a strong and secure middle class. Its must-read facts and common sense ideas deserve and demand as much media attention as the tea partiers' kvetching.

What's crystal clear in this well-documented report--whose title might have been "The Real Story Behind Today's Unfair Economy"--is that the middle-class has largely been shafted by both Republicans and Democrats, whose campaign coffers are equally greased by wealthy donors. And the shift in the tax burden has fueled a rising inequality and concentration of wealth that weakens our democracy--as The Nation argued in its June 30, 2008 special issue, "The New Inequality." ........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.thenation.com/blogs/edcut/548904/wealth_for_the_common_good