Obama’s proposed increases affect miniscule percentage of Americans
While Occupy Wall Street seems to have died down, Americans are left investigating the movement’s slogan still echoing across the states: “We are the 99 percent.” As more attention has been drawn to the “1 percent” of America’s economy, I — and many others as well — wonder if all of the rumors are true.
Owners of large fortunes have been under growing, intense scrutiny over the past year, and as President Barack Obama announces his budget bill proposing to lay heavy taxes on wealthier Americans, it seems unlikely the 1 percent should be able to vote its way out of facing larger tax percentages.
Surprisingly, the top 1 percent of earners in America aren’t as fantastically rich as one might be led to believe. The New York Times published a chart showing that the income for the top 1 percent of earners begins at a fairly reasonable $386,000. Of course, upward from that point, in the hundredths of the top percent, the average income becomes a more predictable $3.9 million. So, if you’re a student here at USC, and assuming you aren’t the heir(ess) to a fast food franchise, congratulations, and welcome — we’re the 99 percent.
Obama spoke on Monday in Annandale, Va., about the 2013 budget, reminding his audience that “a quarter of all millionaires pay lower tax rates than millions of middle class households,” and adding, quite unnecessarily, “That’s not fair.” Rumors about rich Americans exploiting and cheating the tax system have made their way around, but in many cases loopholes are loopholes, and accusing someone of cheating on his or her taxes is difficult to verify.
In any case, the demand to raise taxes on the wealthiest Americans has been quickly garnering public support. As America struggles to place blame on the cause of our economic downfall, its fingers naturally point toward large sums of money, those who hide out in basements of WASP-y men with unnaturally coiffed hair.
While the typical counterargument has been a variation of the phrase “I earned this money,” a close look at questionable tactics and government corruption compounding over the past year has the average American wondering what “earning the money” even means.
It implies that the rest of the population has “earned” the suffering under an impaired economic system. It’s not that the act of hoarding money is just or unjust; it’s that the principle of earning and privatizing wealth is being looked at more closely today, although hindsight is 20/20.
Obama’s budget plan has already been criticized as an unrealistic political ploy, designed to rally up the “poor folk” and distance himself from the idea of “politics as usual.” However, if this is true, Obama’s master scheme seems rather redundant.
If we truly are the 99 percent, and we understand that our economy is set up in a way that projects all of us being financially crushed by an orgy of country club owners and Hollywood stars, it’s a no-brainer. We should raise taxes on the higher income brackets, and make it iron-clad.
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