Who pays for a good American standard of living?

[mecch]

Sometimes I wonder if this isn't one of the basic debates in the US today.
Do the poor have a decent standard of living, compared to other highly developed nations?
Do the middle class pay more than their share?
Are the rich getting off easy?  Not paying their "fair" share?
Is big business getting off easy? Not giving their "fair" share?

Liberal columnist Krugman paints a stark picture with stats:

As background, it helps to know what has been happening to incomes over the past three decades. Detailed estimates from the Congressional Budget Office — which only go up to 2005, but the basic picture surely hasn’t changed — show that between 1979 and 2005 the inflation-adjusted income of families in the middle of the income distribution rose 21 percent. That’s growth, but it’s slow, especially compared with the 100 percent rise in median income over a generation after World War II.

Meanwhile, over the same period, the income of the very rich, the top 100th of 1 percent of the income distribution, rose by 480 percent. No, that isn’t a misprint. In 2005 dollars, the average annual income of that group rose from $4.2 million to $24.3 million.

So do the wealthy look to you like the victims of class warfare?

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/23/opinion/krugman-the-social-contract.html?_r=1&hp

Meaning, why is it class warfare to up taxes on the richest Americans.  Even most Americans support this idea.  Except elected Republicans.

Share your thoughts.

For me, I don't think the government should tax to able to "waste" money on big government and effective social welfare programs.  On the other hand, I think the federal government should continue guarantees of social welfare and a safety net, more or less in the standards of other rich and even some developing countries.  (Eg. health care. Humane retirement conditions. Public education. Welfare and assistance to the impoverished.)  I don't think this should be abandoned to the states.

So, tax everyone.  And certainly the wealthiest should be paying the same proportion as the middle class.

Fight for better government, more efficient programs, but not "underfunded" government, and not cowboy capitalist unfettered rich.

[GSOgymrat]

"I hear all this, you know, “Well, this is class warfare, this is whatever.”—No! There is nobody in this country who got rich on his own. Nobody. You built a factory out there—good for you! But I want to be clear. You moved your goods to market on the roads the rest of us paid for. You hired workers the rest of us paid to educate. You were safe in your factory because of police forces and fire forces that the rest of us paid for. You didn’t have to worry that marauding bands would come and seize everything at your factory, and hire someone to protect against this, because of the work the rest of us did. Now look, you built a factory and it turned into something terrific, or a great idea—God bless. Keep a big hunk of it. But part of the underlying social contract is you take a hunk of that and pay forward for the next kid who comes along." ---Elizabeth Warren (MA candidate for Senate)

[mecch]

Wouldn't it be great if she got a Senate seat.   And somewhat in compensation for the republicans never going to let her have control of a Bureau.  Republicans would bomb the White House if it that Bureau ever got real power. Game would be up for elected Republican interests.