Economic Justice

Economic justice means building a fair economy that works for everyone. It means fair trade policies that protect workers' rights to organize and to receive a living wage for their work at home and abroad. It includes budget and tax policies in which corporations and wealthy individuals pay their fair share, and which support good schools and childcare, affordable healthcare and housing, retirement security, and a safety-net for those in need. It promotes the common good by funding public services. It means calling for new national priorities that reduce wasteful military spending and redirect tax dollars to helping our children, elders, and communities meet their needs. It includes notions of a social contract in which society and individuals fulfill their mutual responsibilities to each other.

http://www.afsc.org/EconomicJustice/US/ht/d/ContentDetails/i/2472

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Taxing Wealth for the Common Good
by Chuck Collins
posted Aug 05, 2009

When members of Congress proposed paying for expanded health care with a tax surcharge on America’s wealthiest citizens, the attack was swift but predictable. Taxing the top was labeled “class war,” an attack on the successful, and bad for business and the economy.

So it was refreshing when the high-income members of a new network –Wealth for the Common Good (WFCG) –stepped forward to essentially say “Sure, raise our taxes.” Why? Because it’s fair, and because they can afford it.

“In hard times it is important for Americans to come together and unite over the idea that medical care ought to be a basic right of citizenship,” said former investment banker Eric Schoenberg, a member of the organization. “It’s only fair for those of us who have benefited the most from this system to contribute the most.”

Over the last 30 years, our economic policies have slowly changed to disproportionately benefit our nation’s top-earners and concentrate wealth into the hands of a few. The members of Wealth for the Common Good, a network of business leaders, entrepreneurs, professionals, and other high-income individuals, are among those who have benefited from such policies. Their goal now is to help shape policy so that it benefits people of all income levels

Wealth for the Common Good went public on July 29th with their public call to immediately reverse the Bush-era tax cuts on households with incomes over $235,000. Thousands signed the petition, including hundreds of high-income individuals who would personally pay the tax.

Many members directly support the health care surcharge, but their objectives go beyond that proposal. The broader debate over taxes will be heated in the coming years as we see the expiration of the Bush-era tax cuts and face the consequences of an unprecedented national deficit. Wealth for the Common Good, advocating for a rebalanced tax code, wants to be part of the debate.

Changing the conversation is key to this effort. Arul Menezes, a principal architect at Microsoft and member of the initiative, acknowledged that fact when describing his own financial success during a Wealth for the Common Good press conference.

“I could choose to tell my story this way: ‘I arrived [in the United States from India] with $250 in my pocket, and got where I am based entirely on my hard work.’ This is true, but it’s not the whole truth.” Menezes then gave “a more honest reckoning” that took into account his publicly funded education, government investments in the technology industry, and all of the benefits he gains from “schools, hospitals, roads, bridges, parks, and civic amenities that were built and paid for by previous generations…[that] had the collective will to invest in their future and the future of their children.”

In the coming months, Wealth for the Common Good is leading focus groups on a number of proposals that would raise revenue, such as eliminating tax preferences for capital gains and subsidies for excessive executive compensation. Later this fall, it will amplify the voices of small business owners that want to close overseas corporate tax havens.

“Our current tax structure is regressive and unfairly burdens those in the middle and bottom tiers,” said Todd B. Achilles, a WFCG member and a leading executive in the telecom industry. “Ensuring that everyone has an opportunity to be successful and pursue their dreams means ensuring that each and every American contributes appropriately to the nation’s well-being.”

http://www.yesmagazine.org/economies/taxing-wealth-for-the-common-good

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Ok. Sometimes I feel so dumb. I mean, why does this bother me so much? I'm not rich. I doubt I will ever be what one would consider "wealthy" so why do I care if they want to promote economic justice?? I'm sure that I would benefit from it so it just makes no sense to me that deep down in my gut I feel such a visceral dislike for the idea of economic justice. I think because, like social justice, I find the idea of economic justice to be artificial. Why, if business owners want to "ensure opportunity"and they are so willing to give up their own personal wealth in the form of higher taxes, do they not just start to pay higher wages? Why not create more jobs here instead of outsourcing (which, ironically, is done to avoid outrageous taxation that many corporations are subjected to)? Why does opportunity have to based on the interference of the government in the form of taxation and social programs?

I was interested to read this quote on the WFCG website:

It is fundamental to our American values that we have a strong meritocracy which provides equality of opportunity to all Americans. Our current tax structure is regressive and unfairly burdens those in the middle and bottom tiers. Ensuring that everyone has an opportunity to be successful and pursue their dreams means ensuring that each and every American contributes appropriately to the nation’s well-being.”
- Todd B. Achilles, Managing Member, Balius Ventures LLC

A meritocracy. Yes, I agree with that. Equal opportunity. Yes, I also agree with that. He starts to lose me though when he talks about a regressive tax structure that "unfairly burdens those in the middle and bottom tiers." The fact of the matter is that:

To put this in perspective, the top 1 percent is comprised of just 1.4 million taxpayers and they pay a larger share of the income tax burden now than the bottom 134 million taxpayers combined. http://www.outsidethebeltway.com/archives/top_1_pay_more_income_taxes_than_bottom_95/

This doesn't even address the people who pay NO taxes at all really. I think that my family is pretty close to the lower-middle of the tax tier. We get a refund every year. Honestly, it's not very burdensome. The only taxes we are burdened by are our property taxes and the taxes we pay on regular goods.

And then this:

However, the recent IRS data bolsters the findings of an OECD study released last year showing that the U.S.—not France or Sweden—has the most progressive income tax system among OECD nations. We rely more heavily on the top 10 percent of taxpayers than does any nation and our poor people have the lowest tax burden of those in any nation. http://www.outsidethebeltway.com/archives/top_1_pay_more_income_taxes_than_bottom_95/

I guess I don't get it. Where is all of this artificial rich-man guilt coming from? Where is it going to take us?