Inequality and the Common Good

"I don't know if people believe Obama hates white America, but I think...there was a feeling that this country was no longer the 'white' country people could feel pride in...a country that excludes people with different names, or Latino immigrants like we're seeing now. [Beck's] politic is so different from King's legacy, not just in divisiveness vs. unity, but King was clearly a political progressive, believed that government was what was needed to help working-class people...So the dishonesty is astounding, and something that will be addressed tomorrow," says Dedrick Muhammad.

Beck claims the ideas of Dr. King have been corrupted and that he will resurrect the true MLK. As part of this mission, Beck is trying to separate Dr. King from the cause of social justice and limit him to the advocacy of individual Christian salvation. According to Dedrick Muhammad of the Institute for Policy Studies in Washington DC, "Beck has even reached out to distant relatives of Dr. King, like Dr. King's niece. After questioning her several times, he gets her to say that King was not about social justice or government redistribution of wealth."

"'The ultrawealthy in this country will still be able to pass on enormous wealth to the next generation,' said Chuck Collins, who studies income inequality and has worked with billionaires like Warren E. Buffett and Bill Gates to promote an estate tax. Mr. Collins argues that the tax is a 'recycling program for economic opportunity.'"

"Because as activist and author Chuck Collins has discovered, misery really does love company, especially when social interactions are aimed at helping end the misery. Since January 2009, Collins, an energetic, dark-haired 50-year-old, and his assistant, Andree Zaleska, have launched 115 Common Security Clubs in nine states. The clubs are citizen action groups designed to bring the unemployed — and the anxiously employed — together to help each other. Each club consists of 15 to 20 members, drawn from churches, union halls, environmental groups or neighborhoods. They meet in homes and church basements, and in Marion County, Ore., a group meets in an old Grange Hall."

According to Alternet’s David DeGraw, "The poorest one-fifth of the population pay more than eleven percent of their income in taxes, whereas the top one percent earning an average of more than two million dollars a year, are paying about seven percent." Over the last sixty years, the federal income tax level levied on those earning more than $400,000 has dropped nearly twenty percent from 91 percent to 70 percent, according to a recent report by the Institute for Policy Studies.

The Institute for Policy Studies reported:  '"Today, we have a two-tier federal tax system: one tax system for the wealthy and powerful corporations and another tax system for everyone else. The tax system for the privileged features loopholes and special provisions that enable wealthy individuals and global corporations to hide taxable income and receive special treatment. The tax system for 'regular people' offers few loopholes. Regular people pay the bulk of their taxes automatically, via paycheck deduction."