July 15, 2013

Ashbury Park Press: Columnist dead wrong on economic equality

media mention

(Original Post)

5:58 PM, Jul. 12, 2013
Patrick Buchanan’s July 7 column, “The top threat to liberty: Freedom lost when the state mandates equal outcomes,” is peppered with fallacies, distortions and paranoia.
Exactly which state programs or policies “mandate equal outcomes,” as Buchanan contends? If the U.S. is so focused on equality, as he argues, why are we last in economic equality among comparable wealthy, democratic nations?
Buchanan states that the government “confiscates” 40 percent of the earnings of the wealthy. According to the Congressional Budget Office and the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, if you look at total taxes, not just income tax, the top 1 percent pay only 29 percent of their incomes in taxes. This is barely more than the 28 percent paid by the middle class.
Income tax rates on the wealthy have declined significantly in recent decades, and measures of economic equality in the U.S. based on income or wealth show greatly increasing inequality over the last 30 to 40 years.
He also states that government “punishes” employers who “reward some workers more than others.” Is he aware that the average CEO now earns more than 300 times what the average worker makes?
And Buchanan appears to endorse the good old days of racial bias and segregation when he reminisces about times past when businesses could practice “personal biases” and before forced busing mixed “underachievers” with overachievers.
I agree with Buchanan that we have a serious problem related to equality, but the problem is that we’re losing more and more of it.
Tony Giordano
Howell

5:58 PM, Jul. 12, 2013

Patrick Buchanan’s July 7 column, “The top threat to liberty: Freedom lost when the state mandates equal outcomes,” is peppered with fallacies, distortions and paranoia.

Exactly which state programs or policies “mandate equal outcomes,” as Buchanan contends? If the U.S. is so focused on equality, as he argues, why are we last in economic equality among comparable wealthy, democratic nations?

Buchanan states that the government “confiscates” 40 percent of the earnings of the wealthy. According to the Congressional Budget Office and the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, if you look at total taxes, not just income tax, the top 1 percent pay only 29 percent of their incomes in taxes. This is barely more than the 28 percent paid by the middle class.

Income tax rates on the wealthy have declined significantly in recent decades, and measures of economic equality in the U.S. based on income or wealth show greatly increasing inequality over the last 30 to 40 years.

He also states that government “punishes” employers who “reward some workers more than others.” Is he aware that the average CEO now earns more than 300 times what the average worker makes?

And Buchanan appears to endorse the good old days of racial bias and segregation when he reminisces about times past when businesses could practice “personal biases” and before forced busing mixed “underachievers” with overachievers.

I agree with Buchanan that we have a serious problem related to equality, but the problem is that we’re losing more and more of it.

Tony Giordano

Howell

 



Share