How America Killed Its Middle Class

[bobabode]

A veritble rogues gallery of neo cons. Hyperbole is their middle name, nice try Whell.

Some AEI scholars are considered to be some of the leading architects of the second Bush administration's public policy.[3] More than twenty AEI scholars and fellows served either in a Bush administration policy post or on one of the government's many panels and commissions. Among the prominent former government officials now affiliated with AEI are former U.S. ambassador to the U.N. John Bolton, now an AEI senior fellow; former chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities Lynne Cheney, a longtime AEI senior fellow; former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, now an AEI senior fellow; former Dutch member of parliament Ayaan Hirsi Ali, an AEI visiting fellow; and former deputy secretary of defense Paul Wolfowitz, now an AEI visiting scholar. Other prominent individuals affiliated with AEI include Kevin Hassett, Frederick W. Kagan, Leon Kass, Charles Murray, Michael Novak, Norman J. Ornstein, Richard Perle, Radek Sikorski, Christina Hoff Sommers, Peter J. Wallison, and Mark Perry.[4

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ame...rise_Institute

[Pio1980]

The American Boobyprize Institute? I should have known, hardly an unbiased and unaffiliated source as a Koch funded operation.
Nevermind.

[MrPots]

True... as in the game of Monopoly, the end game of capitalism is where one person holds all the wealth. We're making good progress on that....

[Tom Joad]

Originally Posted by whell

An alternative view, less some of the hyperbole:

http://www.american.com/archive/2011...r/middle-class

The Myth of Middle-Class Stagnation

We can put that one right up there on the shelf in between "The Myth that Wild Bears Shit in the Woods" and "The Myth That The Pope is Catholic"

[mpholland]

I think this pretty much explains it.

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/...hat/Book1.xlsx

Taken from Wiki, but verified in several other places.

Looks to me like the top rate has gone way down over time, yet at the same time, the top rate is being applied to lower and lower income brackets.

[Tom Joad]

Originally Posted by mpholland

I think this pretty much explains it.

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/...hat/Book1.xlsx

Taken from Wiki, but verified in several other places.

Looks to me like the top rate has gone way down over time, yet at the same time, the top rate is being applied to lower and lower income brackets.

This is true.

In the 1950's the threshold for the top rate of 90% was $400,000 per year.

$400,000 in 1955 dollars is about 3.5 million in today's dollars.

http://www.bls.gov/data/inflation_calculator.htm

And if I had my way that's where I would put it today.

[mpholland]

Noticing another trend, prior to Vietnam taxes always shot up for the rich to finance their wars. I believe Vietnam had the first wartime tax reduction (down to 77% from 91%). Look at the tax base of the last few middle east wars. Middle class is paying extra for those also.

[Dondilion]

Originally Posted by bobabode

A veritble rogues gallery of neo cons. Hyperbole is their middle name, nice try Whell.

Some AEI scholars are considered to be some of the leading architects of the second Bush administration's public policy.[3] More than twenty AEI scholars and fellows served either in a Bush administration policy post or on one of the government's many panels and commissions. Among the prominent former government officials now affiliated with AEI are former U.S. ambassador to the U.N. John Bolton, now an AEI senior fellow; former chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities Lynne Cheney, a longtime AEI senior fellow; former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, now an AEI senior fellow; former Dutch member of parliament Ayaan Hirsi Ali, an AEI visiting fellow; and former deputy secretary of defense Paul Wolfowitz, now an AEI visiting scholar. Other prominent individuals affiliated with AEI include Kevin Hassett, Frederick W. Kagan, Leon Kass, Charles Murray, Michael Novak, Norman J. Ornstein, Richard Perle, Radek Sikorski, Christina Hoff Sommers, Peter J. Wallison, and Mark Perry.[4

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ame...rise_Institute

Damn! Indeed it's a rogue gallery.

[bhunter]

Originally Posted by d-ray657

Oh, yes. Let's look to the AEP for an objective viewpoint.

At least the AEP provided a bibliography for their information. I consider that somewhat better than an editorial piece by Thom Hartmann. I read Hartmann's article and from the onset he attributes the rise of the middle class to have paralleled the rise of progressivism. He misses, or obscures, the reality that the middle class engenderd from the rise of merchants, shopkeepers and the bourgeoisie that clearly predates progressivism of the early 1900s.

I think most everyone knows that the think tanks, whether right or left, are going to produce articles to sell their point; however, that doesn't mean that there are no standards or information that can be found in the articles. Ideally, given the assumptions and data in any given article, one ought to be able to reach similar conclusions.

[bhunter]

Originally Posted by bobabode

A veritble rogues gallery of neo cons. Hyperbole is their middle name, nice try Whell.

Some AEI scholars are considered to be some of the leading architects of the second Bush administration's public policy.[3] More than twenty AEI scholars and fellows served either in a Bush administration policy post or on one of the government's many panels and commissions. Among the prominent former government officials now affiliated with AEI are former U.S. ambassador to the U.N. John Bolton, now an AEI senior fellow; former chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities Lynne Cheney, a longtime AEI senior fellow; former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, now an AEI senior fellow; former Dutch member of parliament Ayaan Hirsi Ali, an AEI visiting fellow; and former deputy secretary of defense Paul Wolfowitz, now an AEI visiting scholar. Other prominent individuals affiliated with AEI include Kevin Hassett, Frederick W. Kagan, Leon Kass, Charles Murray, Michael Novak, Norman J. Ornstein, Richard Perle, Radek Sikorski, Christina Hoff Sommers, Peter J. Wallison, and Mark Perry.[4

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ame...rise_Institute

So what? We know it's a right leaning think tank. Podesta's sand box is much the same, but from the left's perspective.