Progressive taxes led to an expansion of the middle class in the heart of the 20th Century, but recent changes in government policies have reversed many of those conditions, argues a veteran labor journalist.
In his new book, "The Rich Don’t Always Win: The Forgotten Triumph Over Plutocracy That Created The American Middle Class, 1900-1970," author Sam Pizzigati describes conditions a century ago when the United States hosted an extremely wealthy upper class, and the gap between the very rich 1 percent compared to the rest of Americans mirrored that of today almost identically.
According to Pizzigati, 50 years later, the so-called "Super Rich" had almost entirely disappeared in the U.S. Their mansions and estates had become museums and college campuses, and the country had become a vibrant, mass middle-class nation -- the first the world had ever seen.
“We were the first nation in the history of the world with a mass middle class,” said Pizzigati.
He said that the tax system at that time helped boost that middle class with a host of services from the interstate highway system to higher education. This was achieved by keeping the tax rates high on the rich even after World War II, he said.
Pizzigati said the 400 richest Americans in 1955 averaged just under $13 million and paid 51.2 percent of their total income in federal income tax. He said that in subsequent years, tax policies have changed.
“Jumping ahead to 2007, the 400 richest Americans averaged $345 million each, and on that average income they paid federal taxes of 16.6 percent," he said.
According to Pizzigati, change is needed and it will come.
“Just as our forbearers conquered America’s original plutocracy, I think we can prove victorious over the plutocracy that we have amid us today,” said Pizzigati. “The obstacles that we face, when you add them all up, are no greater than the obstacles that the people of the beginning of the 20th Century face. It took them a generation to beat back plutocracy, and it's going to take us a long time as well."
