What are our Democrats going to do about the growing inequality in America? Nothing?

[Karmadillo]

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/18/opinion/18kristof.html?scp=1&sq=kristof%20hedge&st=cse

Op-Ed Columnist
A Hedge Fund Republic?By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF
Published: November 17, 2010

<edit>

But there is also a larger question: What kind of a country do we aspire to be? Would we really want to be the kind of plutocracy where the richest 1 percent possesses more net worth than the bottom 90 percent?

Oops! That’s already us. The top 1 percent of Americans owns 34 percent of America’s private net worth, according to figures compiled by the Economic Policy Institute in Washington. The bottom 90 percent owns just 29 percent.

That also means that the top 10 percent controls more than 70 percent of Americans’ total net worth.

Emmanuel Saez, an economist at the University of California at Berkeley who is one of the world’s leading experts on inequality, notes that for most of American history, income distribution was significantly more equal than today. And other capitalist countries do not suffer disparities as great as ours.

more...

[SidDithers]

1. Kristof doesn't mention Democats at all in his op-ed piece....

I don't think he would agree with the conclusion you've drawn from his article in your OP subject line.

Unrec & hide.

Sid

Edit: better wording

[Enthusiast]

4. I agree with you.

I can't understand the author of the OP coming to this conclusion-it makes no sense.

[rhett o rick]

5. Rec. I think he would agree with the conclusion of the OP. nm

[FreakinDJ]

13. Mean while we argue about Birth Certificates and Military Records

rather then the actual health of the country

I can say the argument of "Left or Right Politics" is merely anesthesia for the masses while our elected representatives are the paid lap-dogs of the Wealthy Elite

And then I see members of Congress in my own country who argue that it would be financially reckless to extend unemployment benefits during a terrible recession, yet they insist on granting $370,000 tax breaks to the richest Americans. I don’t know if that makes us a banana republic or a hedge fund republic, but it’s not healthy in any republic.

[bread_and_roses]

16. "Our" Ds are absolutely complicit

from the wars for resources that benefit the bottom line of the Corps to off-shoring to tax breaks for the like of IBM to the latest financial and health "reforms," to to to... the Ds are absolutely in the pockets of the Oligarchs.

I can't even imagine the shade of rose-colored glasses that can deny that.

[philly_bob]

22. Misleading subject line. Conclusory, as the lawyers would say. (NT)

[xchrom]

2. recommend

[madrchsod]

3. the democrats ....

no they will appear to do something but nothing will be done.

we have been beaten into a nation of cowards.

[Motown_Johnny]

6. repeal the tax cuts for the rich but extend them for everyone else

what else can they do?

[mmonk]

7. What can they do really?

[Octafish]

9. Try what worked for a Republican president...

Teddy Roosevelt reigned in the "great trusts" through legislation.

[mmonk]

12. That is a great idea. However, in today's world, anyone who tried

it would be attacked by big money and party big wigs connected to K street.

[rfranklin]

14. Most likely assassinated...

They failed to take down FDR but not for lack of trying. They succeeded with the Kennedy's and MLK Jr.

[Octafish]

19. Exactly.

Even my own political heroes own stock in Chertoff's nudie scanners.

We can't overhaul the system -- including campaign finance reform -- while the same players make the laws. It seems impossible.

[mmonk]

21. And that's the real catch when they are the only ones that make

up the voting choices.

[Bluenorthwest]

23. It was always thus.

That stuff is simply not new to this time, it is a political constant in all history. It is fun to pretend that this is the first day of politics, but this is just another day in politics.

[mmonk]

24. Not new as the anti-trust fight against the Robber Barons indicates.

What is new is nobody fighting back.

[Octafish]

8. Good question, Karmadillo. Where are the Democrats on wealth inequality?

From the OP:

The top 1 percent of Americans owns 34 percent of America’s private net worth, according to figures compiled by the Economic Policy Institute in Washington. The bottom 90 percent owns just 29 percent.

If our Democratic representatives don't see a problem, they're not the kind of Democrats who should hold office.

K&R.

[FreakinDJ]

10. Ya - pretty much

[TreasonousBastard]

11. Once again it's "What can 'they' do"....

instead of what can I do.

Why can't we stop waiting for help and start helping ourselves?

[old mark]

15. Democrats can do very little if they do not at least make any attempt...nt

[kentuck]

17. First thing, they have to change the debate.

They have to plant the seed of the discussion in the peoples minds. Until then, it will remain in the darkness.

[Autumn]

18. Democratic and Republican politicians, both

will go right along with it.

[ljm2002]

20. An excellent read...

...good to see it in the NYT.

And yes, I too would like to know what our Democrats are doing about it.

I remember a time when the Democratic Party could reasonably lay claim to be on the side of the working men and women of this country. Now, not so much. They get paid by the big business lobbyists just like the Republicans do. They do union busting with the best of them. The difference between the parties now seems to be, the Republicans will cut us off at the knees and leave us to bleed, while the Democrats will only cut us off at the ankles and they will throw us something to help staunch the bleeding.

[Radical Activist]

25. Obama already supports what Kristof recommends in the article.

So that's part of the answer.
They could also:
Use middle class tax cuts to make the tax code more progressive.
Pass more regulation on Wall Street and speculative lending.
Spend more on infrastructure projects to great good paying jobs.

All of these things have already been done in the last two years.

Next, we should create more jobs building a green energy infrastructure. Obama already made that the focus of the stimulus bill, but we need to do more by passing a climate change bill through Congress.

[MisterP]

26. proactively introduce policies that accelerate it, then scream that we're ungrateful

because there's only so much they can do given Bush's mess and those nasty obstructionists?

[bluestate10]

27. Send taxes back to states that they come from.

Blue states pay an astounding amount of federal taxes when compared to red states. The same goes for FICA and Medicare taxes. My solution would be for the FEDs to send all except 15% of the money collected from each state back to the state, and remove all federal subsidies to states. Blue states will be able to support their aged and poor, fund education, fund renewable energy growth, and some will even be able to give citizens a tax cut on top of that.

My view was called advocating states rights by one poster. Nothing could be farther from the truth. States rights as we know them were arguments set forth by southerners to allow first slavery, then Jim Crow laws. By sending 85% of federal income tax, 100% of FICA and 100% of Medicare taxes back to states then demanding that states care for their aged, poor, do highway maintenance, et al, will finally produce a circumstance where red states voters see the folly of their votes. As long as blue state voters shoulder the cost of government in red states, red state voters will continue to vote blindly and call blue state voters idiots afterward. I for one, am tired of that dynamic and am prepared for a showdown that I know my state will come out a winner from.