Policies favoring wealthy stagnating economy

Economists are baffled as to why job creation and the economy are growing so slowly. Republicans are quick to blame Obama and Democrats but it appears that Republican tax policies favoring the wealthy are the real problem. The reason is pretty obvious. From 1992-2007 the top 400 income earners in the U.S. saw their income increase 392 percent and their average tax rates slashed by 37 percent. From 2009 to 2012, the wealthiest 1 percent enjoyed additional income gains of 31.4 percent while bottom 99 percent incomes grew only by 0.4 percent. Concerning wealth distribution, in 2004 the top 1 percent controlled 50.3 percent of the financial assets while the bottom 90 percent only held 14.4 percent. Most financial assets can be found in the stock markets which are doing rather well. Bottom line, giving tax breaks to the very wealthy who plow the money into stock markets of course boosts markets but does little to create jobs and real economic growth. If the goal is to accelerate economic growth, pay workers living wages and cut sales and other taxes for the bottom 90 percent of earners who will actually spend the money in the economy rather than sock it away in stock markets.

Brian Smith, Biltmore Lake