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 Michael Medved

The Death of Opportunity?

October 23, 2012 @ 5:35 pm (Updated: 5:37 pm - 10/23/12 )

The Governor of New York alarmed his audience by announcing the death of opportunity in America. "Equality of opportunity as we have known it no longer exists," he said. "We are steering a course toward economic oligarchy, if we are not there already."

Grim news, but the New York governor pronouncing those words was Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1932 - at a time when the top tax rate was 63 percent, nearly double the rate today.

Alarmists have always mourned the end of mobility, and expressed foolish nostalgia for imaginary by-gone eras of brighter opportunity. Costly government programs and punishing taxes on the wealthy do nothing to promote true equality-or else the epic spending of the Obama administration and crushing taxes of the 1930's would have leveled the playing field, rather than contributing to economic stagnation and misery.

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  • cigarfan wrote...
    A wise Political philosopher once said about Capitalists...........
    October 23, 2012 6:08 pm
    "What the bourgeoisie therefore produces, above all, are its own grave-diggers. Its fall and the victory of the proletariat -are equally inevitable."
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  • Cigarillo wrote...
    @Ciggy- Baby
    October 23, 2012 7:31 pm
    If I stood on the corner and announced, "You fat cats are gonna get yours!", people would think I was a bitter have-not. How does re-phrasing it with a few six-bit words make it "wise" ?
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  • cigarfan wrote...
    @Cigarillo
    October 23, 2012 8:19 pm
    I don't think your "announcement" is an accurate distillation of what this Political philosopher -is saying.
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  • Cigarillo wrote...
    @Cig Sr.
    October 23, 2012 8:40 pm
    Says you. I said the exact same thing far more elegantly than that pretentious blow-hard Marx.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • messiah101 wrote...
    But the average worker paid just 4% fed tax
    October 23, 2012 9:29 pm
    The average worker in the USA in 1932 made $1368 a year which equals $23,000 in todays dollars.Someone in the 28% tax rate earned $44000 which is $743000 in todays dollars. To hit that 63% rate you had to earn a $1,000,000 + in 1932 which would be $17,000,000 in todays dollars ,corporate tax was about 14%
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  • Cigarillo wrote...
    @Messiah
    October 24, 2012 6:49 am
    Those on the side of taxing the crap out those that "have more than they deserve" like to site our prosperity when the tax rate on the wealthiest was at 90%. Deductions and loopholes rendered an effective tax rate considerably lower than that and continues to maintain a relatively stable effective rate to this day. It's easy to see the blow-hards d'jour tamper with rates to appease their constituency. It's much harder to read the fine print about the deductions and loopholes or the efforts of the well-to-do to exploit said loopholes that maintain the status quo.
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  • It's me! Ha ha! wrote...
    Cigarrete puffer
    October 24, 2012 12:46 pm
    How is your fraternal socialist brethren Obama's re immaculation chances as compaired to Capitalistic Romney's?
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  • cigarfan wrote...
    @Lord Ha ha!
    October 24, 2012 1:39 pm
    Ask me in two weeks ;)
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  • It's me! Ha ha! wrote...
    Cigarette puffer
    October 24, 2012 7:57 pm
    I am asking you NOW How are your Dear Leader re immac chances now? I know how they will be in 13 days. I will be asking you at that time. Actually I will be Rubbing it in Romney's win. Your Dear Leaders LANDSLIDE LOSS!
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  • allchik wrote...
    Those who never experienced...
    October 25, 2012 12:50 pm
    Sad to see some of these who never experienced Socialism first hand will never understand the privilages of capitolism.
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  • cigarfan wrote...
    @allchik
    October 25, 2012 1:24 pm
    Been to France, pretty wise society, we can do better than Capitalism. (There's no "O" in Capitalism.)
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  • Cigarillo wrote...
    The USA and Capitalism ROCK!
    October 25, 2012 5:43 pm
    Where else in the world can I: 1. Get a lucrative job with nothing more than a public high school diploma. 2. Work my way up the ladder without some government regulation or sanctioned caste system getting in the way. 3. Find a big, red Oldsmobile convertible on Craigslist and buy it? 4. Find a slutty babe with the 70's Farrah Fawcett hairdo and Daisy Duke shorts, on Craigslist. 5. Have a quick background check performed on a sophisticated database to determine that you are NOT a criminal so that you can buy a quality pistol at a gun store within 15 miles of wherever you live. 6. Put the pistol in the glovebox of the big, red Oldsmobile convertible, the Craigslist blonde in the passenger seat and a couple of cases of Schimdt in the trunk and drive 3000 miles without some loser in a foreign uniform harrassing you and "confiscating" the beer?
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  • allchik wrote...
    @TheSymbolForBoron
    October 25, 2012 1:03 pm
    How old are you? Seriously! So childish. What ever floats your boat I guess. But dang! If Bill wants to spew his opinions let him. I find them very entertaining. You... I just find annoying!
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