The tax inequity problem is a result of the labor inequity problem.

[dkf]

Shouldn't we be trying to fix the latter instead of trying to paper up the problems through tax policy? If workers got their due, there wouldn't be such an outsized disparity in pay. Then the tax inequity problem would be moot.

[daleanime]

1. One feeds the other...

and you have to start some place.

[dkf]

3. Not really.

If my boss gets taxed more that doesn't help me out a bit.

[daleanime]

6. Schools, police, and roads are of no use to you?

Need to work on both ends of the problem, but should start with taxes.O8)

[dkf]

12. Schools police and roads are mostly local.

And I agree that most people are directly affected by local government and that is where we get most of the benefit from Government.

I just laugh at the idea of $700 billion over 10 years...our deficit this year alone was in excess of $1 trillion and we aren't close to balancing the budget much less reducing the debt.

Telling ourselves that taxing the rich will solve things while leaving this inequity in place is a scam.

[leftstreet]

2. WalMart's CEO makes $16,826.92 an hour

Autoworkers are starting out at $14 an hour.

What could possibly go wrong?

Walmart CEO Pay: More in an Hour Than Workers Get All Year?

Walmart Executive-Worker Pay Gap Strikes Chord in Chicago and BeyondJuly 2, 2010

By Ed Smith's math, the CEO of Walmart earns more in an hour than his employees will earn in a year.

Smith, an alderman in Chicago, presented posters at a city council meeting showing that Walmart CEO Michael Duke's $35 million salary, when converted to an hourly wage, worked out to $16,826.92. By comparison, at a Walmart store planned for the Windy City's Pullman neighborhood, new employees to be paid $8.75 an hour would gross $13,650 a year.

http://abcnews.go.com/Business/walmart-ceo-pay-hour-workers-year/story?id=11067470

[dkf]

4. Why are there no policy discussions addressing disparity in pay?

[checks-n-balances]

13. Bringing it up also brings up the label of "communist"or "socialist"

The rationalizations for why CEOs are paid as they are defy logic, so questions about it must be dismissed as coming from communists and/or socialists. Most politicians today, including Democrats, are avoiding those labels.

[dkf]

14. Yet benefits have top heavy tests to make sure not all the benefits go to the upper end.

[Catshrink]

7. Hourly salaries of CEOs

Here are a couple of examples - see link for many more. Who is worth $16,000 an hour?

Former Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer
MERCK & CO (MRK)
In 2009, Fred Hassan received $49,653,063 in total compensation. By comparison, the average worker made $32,048 in 2009. Fred Hassan made 1549 times the average worker's pay.

Fred Hassan made $49,653,063, which is equal to:
30 Nobel prize winners
124 average university presidents
124 U.S. presidents
182 AFL-CIO presidents
264 Chairmen of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
1549 average workers
3,292 minimum-wage earners

President and Chief Executive Officer Director
VIACOM INC (VIA.B)
In 2009, Philippe P. Dauman received $34,009,990 in total compensation. By comparison, the average worker made $32,048 in 2009. Philippe P. Dauman made 1061 times the average worker's pay.

20 Nobel prize winners
85 average university presidents
85 U.S. presidents
124 AFL-CIO presidents
181 Chairmen of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
1061 average workers
2,255 minimum-wage earners

http://www.aflcio.com/corporatewatch/paywatch/

[leftstreet]

9. Unbelievable

Great link!

[Catshrink]

10. It's an eye opener.

[RandomThoughts]

5. First they say nobody is to blame for anything.

So they fight against justice,

then they say someone in hardship is suppose to be there, so they ignore them.

[Catshrink]

8. We need to rebuild labor unions.

Of course, there is too much resistance to that - from both Reps and Dems.

[NNN0LHI]

11. We never had a problem paying government workers when we had an industrial base to pay them

There was no talk of raising property taxes on the middle class and running them out of their homes or cutting their SS and Medicare to pay government workers salaries and pensions back then.

I know this is a fact because I was around then.

Don