McCain suggests Obama's support for progressive income taxes is "Class Warfare". it is not class warfare. Progressive Income Taxes have been a fact of life since the american Automobile Age took off in the late 1910s. The Reagan administration skewed this toward massive budget deficits being a fact of life. It is easier to not pay attention if you are too busy making money.
The suburban strongholds of Republican voters were enabled by one of the greatest wealth distribution operations in history, the Interstate Highway program that took off in the 1950s. Union victories raised the wages of non-union workers also. They had enough money to move to the suburbs and have kids or grandkids that became republicans. The suburban strongholds got much more populated during the artificially low-interest rates of Greenspan's tenure at the top of the Federal Reserve.
Most high tech breakthroughs were only possible after years of federal spending. rockets, jets, computers, radar, the internet.
At this point, if your parents or grandparents were Democrats, your best bet is to return to voting Democrat.
The accepted mainstream Economic ideology behind free trade is itself based on the assumption that the "winners" compensate the "losers. Nobel Prize Winner Paul Samuelson won a nobel prize for developing a rigorous mathematical proof that free trade benefits all nations. Like most economic proofs it is based on conditions and assumptions. Here are some of Samuelsons:
1. There is no government in the economy
2. Gainers compensate the losers from trade
3. Capital or industry stays at home and does not chase low wages abroad.
4. wages at home are equal in all industries
5. the country has no trade deficit
Great American Deception, page 81.
The GDP growth rate generally fallen with decreases in top bracket income taxes from 1950 through 1995:
Decade Avg.Annual GDP growth Top-Bracket Income Tax Rate
Range--------Average
_____________________________________________________________
1950s 4.0% 84-92% 89%
1960s 4.4% 91-70% 80
1970s 3.2 70-70 70
1980s 2.8 50-28 39
1990s(1990-95) 1.7 31-39.6 35
source: Economic Report of the President, 1988 and 1996, The Council of Economic Advisers, Washington, DC, PP.251 and 283; Historical Statistics of the United States: Colonial Times to 1970, 1975, U.S. Department of Commerce, Washington, DC, p. 1095; Statistical Abstract of the United States, 1981 and 1995, U.S. Department of Commerce, Washington, DC, pp.260 and 349. (Great American Deception, page 60).
It is reasonable to conclude that higher corporate tax rates and top bracket income tax rates prevent too many companies from merging into giant companies. Giant companies don't have to compete for workers so vigorously, and so don't have to pay as much. Giant companies have much greater lobbying power, and get more great government contracts and steer more government policy. They may even have enough pull to start wars.
Social security taxes have risen drastically over the years. They are an ultra-regressive income tax. The revenue is pilfered to fund other programs. If I remember my annual income tax returns correctly, the deductions and write-offs only apply to the official "income tax" and not the social security taxes.
[quote]
Year First Bracket Social Security Wage Base
Tax Rate Combined Tax Rate
_________________________________________________________
1970 15.0% 9.6% $ 7,800
1980 14.0 12. 3 $ 25,900
1985 11.0 14.1 $ 39,600
1990 15.0 15.3 $ 51,300
1993 15.0 15.3 $ 57,600
_________________________________________________________
source: Statistical Abstract of the United States, 1981, p. 328: 1991, p. 328; 1995, p.379; U.S. Department of Commerce, Washington, DC.(Great American Deception, page 65).
I'm willing to accept Republican or Liberterian arguments for cutting taxes. But most of the financial services jobs, government contracting, health care administration, CPA, and lawyering jobs wouldn't exist in the context of the small government past.
Republicans try to snag the "pro-life" vote. In the small government past it was also possible to have an abortion. Forensic Police work was often not up to the task of collecting evidence of whether a woman had had a baby or aborted a fetus recently. The topic was frequently taboo in newspapers, beyond the classifieds section which listed "remedies" for "women in circumstances". It was much easier to abandon the baby after it was born. and old people frequently died in squalor or before they hit 60. On the other hand, Babe Ruth was raised in an orphanage, and he turned out alright. We can get rid of social security if old people start killing themselves when it gets too hard to live. The church can deliver rocking chairs, a needle of Opium, and some whiskey.
