Why the rich are rich

Since the 2000 election, George Bush has given the wealthiest Americans a $375B tax rebate. This is a major component of ‘compassionate conservatism’. The idea behind ‘trickle down economics’ is if you give more money to the richest people, they will in turn, ‘invest’ their savings into creating jobs and also, if the IRS gets less, charities will get more. On the one hand, if conservatives cut back on social programs, it will make ‘faith based’ charities more competitive with state welfare programs. But in an article in last Sunday’s New York Times, called ‘If The IRS Gets Less, Do Charities Get More?”, apparently not. Interestingly, last year it was reported that the poorest states, Mississippi and Arkansas contributed more per capita to charities than ‘rich’ states such as Massachusetts.

So there you have it, the reason why the rich get richer is because they are too cheap to spend any of their money. But we have been led (read: brainwashed) that talking about class warfare is ‘socialistic’ or ‘Marxist’ as we all know, we fought a 40 year Cold War so we could defeat the concept of class warfare.

Charitable Giving as a Proportion of Income

Income Group 2000 2003

$15,000 and under 23.0 26.0
$15,000 to $30,000 7.8 9.2
$30,000 to $50,000 4.9 5.3
$50,000 to $100,000 3.4 3.8
$100,000 to $200,000 2.8 3.0
$200,000 and over 3.7 3.4

Source: Analysis of Internal Revenue Service data

One justification for high CEO salaries is the belief that at the level of income (multi-million) would make these people immune to corruption. Obviously, that myth has exploded – just look at Andy Faistow, Ken Lay, Waxman, et. al.

Meanwhile, it was reported today that Dick Cheney does NOT have to reveal who was involved in his dealings with energy execs (Ken Lay?) which shaped the country’s all business all the time energy policy that still hasn’t been approved by the Republican Congress. So to quote Bill O’Reilly: “Whose Looking Out For You?”