In a recent letter to the editor, "Class warfare divides" (Oct. 11), Douglass Carter writes, "If you are middle-class, you are being used by both political parties. The Democrats want you to resent the rich while the Republicans would have you resent the poor, a classic example of both ends playing the middle."
He also wrote, "This is nothing more than contrived class warfare trying to inflame emotions where there really is no fire. There is no fighting in the streets, no protests in either wealthy or impoverished neighborhoods." Mr. Carter is apparently under the impression that all warfare involves strife, but there is such a thing recognized as economic warfare between countries where no shots are fired.
An article in the Business Week edition of Oct. 15 is titled, "The gap between rich and poor widens." A chart comparing the U.S. to other nations in income equality, with No. 1 being most equal, shows the U.S. ranked at No. 96, worse than Russia.
Between 1936 and 1981, the top marginal income tax rate was never less than 70 percent. Since then it has trended downward. And many of the wealthy do not pay the current top marginal rate of 35 percent. Those that receive their income from long term capital gains (investments held for a year or more) and carried interest (a tax loophole); pay a maximum rate of 15 percent.
It is self-evident that the upper classes are benefiting not just from low taxes but also from the low wages paid to the working class. The "trickle down" theory of tax cuts has proved to be a fallacy and the benefits have mostly been "trickling up" to those without need.
Any mention of raising taxes on the better to do is met with howls of "class warfare" from the right. If there be such a thing as economic class warfare within a country, it seems that this is a war that the conservatives have long been engaged in and winning.
