HOW-OF-WHY

In the USA the wealthiest 5 percent own more than half of all wealth.

1998 figures: they owned 59 percent of all wealth.
Or to put it another way, the top 5 percent had more wealth than the remaining 95 percent of the entire population, collectively.

The top 20 percent owns over 80 percent of all wealth.
This is a very concentrated distribution.

The bottom 20 percent basically have zero wealth.
They either have no assets, or their debt equals or exceeds their assets.
The bottom 20 percent has typically accumulated no savings.

Households in the middle — the "Average" median household — has wealth of about $62,000.
$62,000 is not insignificant,
but if you consider that the top 1 percent of households’
average wealth is $12.5 million,
you can see what a difference there is in the distribution.

Under a One Tax* (all others abolished) System if you were the "average median household" — with wealth of about $62,000 — and the One Tax, the National Wealth Tax, was one-tenth of one percent of total wealth, per year, you would have paid a total tax of $62!

A top 1 percent of household with wealth of $12.5 million would pay would have paid a total tax of $12,500! (not really that bad, considering)

The wealth inequity in the United States is more unequal than any other advanced industrial country in the world.

What was not always the case.
Up until the early 1970s, the U.S. actually had lower wealth inequality than Great Britain,
and even than a country like Sweden.

But things have really turned around over the last 25 or 30 years.
In fact, a lot of countries have experienced lessening wealth inequality over time.
The U.S. is atypical in that inequality has risen so sharply over the last 25 or 30 years.

One reason we have such high levels of inequality,
compared to other advanced industrial countries,
is because of our tax system.

A National Wealth of $25.4 trillion (1997 estimate) would created $25,400,000,000 in tax revenue
(a trillion is 12 zeros, right?)

* Every politician that we elect should push for policies and practices
that best serve the interests if their citizen constituents.
So, elected officials, please drop me a note as to WHY you are not advocating and
facilitating the following idea:

"Here’s my proposal: Get rid of the property tax altogether—
Property taxes are wealth taxes that end up discriminating against poor
and middle-class communities. Let’s move instead to a national wealth
tax—say, one-tenth of one percent of everyone’s total assets each
year..." – Robert B. Reich (2004 commentary on NPR)

Robert B. Reich is the Maurice B. Hexter Professor of Social and
Economic Policy at Brandeis University, and was the secretary of labor
under former President Bill Clinton.

Edward Wolff, a professor of economics at New York University, is the author of
Top Heavy: The Increasing Inequality of Wealth in America and What Can Be Done About It.
He has written many other books and articles on economic and tax policy, and is managing editor of the Review of Income and Wealth.
I recommend that every working & middle class taxpayer educate themselves on this issue.
And then act.