Taxes, tax rates and income inequality in the US

The Republicans right now, as we know, want to fight President Obama's--and most of the Democrat's--attempt at having the Bush tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans rescinded so they're increased, yes, but by a maximum of only approximately 4%. And they're complaining and griping and moaning about this possible increase--as though the wealthy are really going to suffer, oh, please--but some interesting statistics have just come out about income distribution here in the US and the increasing "wealth gap" between the wealthy here in the States and all the rest of us. To wit: ...the top 10 per cent of income earners in the US took home an ever more outsized share of the total national income starting at the end of the 1970s. The top 10 percent took 30-35 per cent of total national income from the early 1940s to the earl 1980s. Then their share rose to its current 45-50 per cent level. By (Emmanuel) Saez’s measurements, income inequality in the US is now greater than it has ever been over the last century. It is much, much greater than it was in the thirty years after World War 2 ended. From 1980 to 2007, the US became a far more unequal society. But wait, there's more: Our nation has now created a larger gap in the distribution of wealth than the massive chasm that helped fuel the Great Depression. In 1928, one year before the global economic collapse, the wealthiest .001% of the U.S. population owned 892 times more than 90% of the nation’s citizens. Today, the top .001% of the U.S. population owns 976 times more than the entire bottom 90%. And then there's this, comparing us, the US, to the rest of the world, in income inequality: The size of America’s income disparity is nearly twice that of the average of other nations. But to hear the Republicans tell it, the "poor wealthy people" need their tax cuts from George W. Bush extended and raising them is so tragically unfair to these poor, misunderstood, over-taxed (yeah, right) folks. The fact is, corporations and the wealthy are paying proportionately less and less, over the last few decades at least, while the middle- and lower-classes are paying proportionately more AND being paid less, at the same time, creating a desperate and dangerous situation for those two groups. It's tragic. It's pathetic. It's wrong and it shouldn't continue. It shouldn't continue like this if we're a decent, intelligent and fair people and country. It's blatantly wrong and imbalanced. It's also not sustainable, as a nation. You would think and hope the Republicans and wealthy would understand that. Links: http://www.rdwolff.com/content/rising-income-inequality-us-divisive-depressing-and-dangerous; http://ecolocalizer.com/2010/04/12/plutocracy-reborn-wealth-inequality-gap-largest-since-1928/; http://elsa.berkeley.edu/~saez/; http://www.thenation.com/image/extreme-inequality-chart