In my last post I listed five steps Robert Reich says we could take to reverse the growing inequality in America. The full list was can be found in the May 26 issue of The Nation. Here are the remaining five recommendations. The suggestions are Reich’s; the comments are mine.
6. Make the payroll tax progressive. One huge step would be to remove the cap on the portion of income subject to the Social Security payroll tax. I have never understood the reason for that cap.
7. Raise the estate tax and eliminate the “stepped-up basis” for determining capital gains at death. This is where the arcane rules of our tax system elude me. I have no idea what the “stepped up basis” for determining capital gains at death means. On the other hand, I’ll bet the Koch Brothers or the Walmart family know exactly what Reich is talking about.
8. Constrain Wall Street. Reich suggests that the size of the biggest banks be capped. Nobody should be “too big to fail.”
9. Give all Americans a share in future economic gains. Here Reich suggests that we give every newborn $5000 in a diversified index of stocks and bonds. I am enough of a realist to realize that that one ain’t every gonna happen.
10. Get big money out of politics. The Citizens United decision by the Republican-dominated Supreme Court is destroying democracy in this country. I keep hoping that at some point a populist movement will emerge to fix that decision. If it doesn’t, we are destined to see the end of the experiment in popular government our Founding Fathers envisioned.
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