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idea behind the reagan revolution was that if we kept cutting taxes for the rich it would
eventually trickle down to the rest of us
well that didn't work
instead the rich coverage
but even more importantly that unequal distribution of wealth
has her our whole economy let me show you what i'm talking about
look the richest one percent of americans use a take home
nine percent of the whole national income in nineteen seventy-six now that's a lot but
it make sense 'cause they're the top bracket
but now they take home twenty four percent of the national income
that is enormously high anchorage it dangerous imbalance
the united states now has more unequal distribution of wealth and he did before the great depression
that didn't turn out too well for us
that has more on equal distribution of wealth and countries that we are now call traditionally
banana republics
but actual wealth was created
sis reagan took over in nineteen eighty
so where to go where all the money
well from nineteen eighty two thousand five
more than four fixed for the total increased american incomes went to the richest
one-percent of americans
so almost all the money went to the top
one percent
trickled on economics is ullu
as reagan would say fax for stubborn thinks
nicholas kristoff rotary column bout this very topic
the joins us live from the newsroom of the new york times
necklace uh... you can tell how i feel about this with a difficult main
uh... why you think that that pit this imbalance might hurt the whole without
well i think they traditionally we should have the view that there was a trade-off between
growth an equity and if you wanted to have more economic growth
you may be needed to accept some na disparities between rich and poor and you know what some
level that's reader a certain amount of uh... inequity but i think what we're also seeing
is that when you get huge disparities and i think that we've reached him in this country
then that's not concentration of wealth actually becomes an impediment to growth and there
is so both uh... bill evidence if you look around the world those incredibly unequal
countries have had more trouble making economic growth hot and also there's now some evidence
that by that great concentration of wealth leads to more financial crises that of course
in regard the entire economy i would argue that's what we're just going through right
now you know i show you one other thing that uh... actually you wrote about as well it's
about c_e_o_ pay uh... the lowest american companies their c_e_o_s used average forty
time forty two times as much
as the average worker in nineteen eighty now that's a lot but again there this year
in two thousand one and i was and now all those ten years ago did that number increase
the five hundred and thirty one times more than average worker
if i think that grace to issues one is
and creek nor am wrong here goes one is that they have more money to speculate with it
at least the more bubbles in the second problem is the henry ford problem henry ford knew
that he had to pay as workers more so they could buy this car now or curtailed by the
cupboards so that even creates a problem for the c_e_o_'s in the long run doesn't it
and it jettisoned and more fundamentally if you look around the world and i think this
issue speaks to me too much because i travel a lot q countries that have a great gaps and
when the it becomes increasingly corrosive to with the country's political system to
the social fabric today's tens of national purpose for the country you get these delnet
countries where there's nobody left in the middle and side seems to me that at this point
we're in the u_s_ for example the top one percent own more national wealth than the
bottom ninety percent we've reached that point
and i think that um... backdrop extraordinary inequality pastor shape the present national
conversation about priorities such as right now is our top priority and give side tax
breaks to the don't get people with incomes over two hundred because in dollars or is
it to extend unemployment benefits for people who've been laid off in the our worst recession
in sixty years will it make it more stark so
if we just took the whole bob love republican compromise
it looks like it has not me but it looks like the compromise on two more years of tax cuts
for the top two percent
that would cost our budget one hundred and forty billion dollars
now and i think i have not even going for the whole taneous more than forty billion
dollars further policy those guys are job creators
women make more sense there goes that we took the whole money
and actually created jobs with that instead of hoping that the rich create jobs here that
we started jobs for a week ago more than forty million entirely people with the would not
make more sense
absolutely i mean there's no question that *** on
e if u cut taxes for the rich then there will be some jobs created you know they will indeed
bite some second portis and some new yachts and they will be some jobs created diet those
economic theory and practical experience suggests that it's not that many jobs that in economic
terms the multiplier effect four tax cuts for the very wealthy is very modest because
some of that money is is actually save time and uh... the top point one percent of taxpayers
will get an average tax break if three hundred and seventy thousand dollars now
you can't say that the guy that entire three hundred fifty thousand dollars is going to
go
to worried abt goods and services it's not you're gonna get much more *** for the buck
if you are extend unemployment benefits
and let me ask you one final question about that they note you write a lot about microloans
uh... through developing country south asia etcetera
how about microphones here paid the big banks are plenty of the money or these are not letting
it out in the u_s_
why don't we take a gambling for example a hundred forty billion dollars in dividend
microloans
maybe we do like we do know that these two women and see what they can do it
and there's so many ways we can
and indeed uh... it help people very are microloans their education programs are too many people
from being laid off for example
artistically people in in the market i said there is really waiting to get in the very
least effective is to give largely that pat that marcia tax cuts for the wealthy
articles who saw from the new york times thanks so much for joining sweep reaches