In the Tax Debate: A Blast of Fresh New Air

[marmar]

from Too Much: A Commentary on Excess and Inequality:



In the Tax Debate: A Blast of Fresh New Air
August 28, 2010

‘Soak the rich,’ after years in the shadows, has suddenly become a policy option fit for discussion in ‘respectable’ media circles.

By Sam Pizzigati


At long last, we may be witnessing a fundamental paradigm shift in how we, as a society, talk about taxing the rich.

Until this summer, no national pundit — at least no pundit in good standing with the chattering class — would ever dare suggest a federal tax rate on America’s top income bracket higher than 39.6 percent, the level in place under Bill Clinton.

Now pundits and the policy wonks who hover around them are openly singing the praises of top tax rates calibrated at 50 or 60 or even 70 percent, a level that would double the current 35 percent rate on top-bracket income.

Who deserve the credit for this abrupt turnaround? That honor unquestionably belongs to James Surowiecki, the New Yorker magazine’s top economic analyst.

The New Yorker occupies a rather unique role in the modern America media echo chamber. The magazine’s high-brow readership and legendary reputation for rigorously fact-checked accuracy lend enormous credibility to any outside-the-mainstream point of view that gets expressed in the New Yorker’s pages. .............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://toomuchonline.org/in-the-tax-debate-a-blast-of-fresh-new-air/