Near the end of 2008, the stock market had crashed at a record pace, gas was fluctuating at around $4 per gallon, the big banks were in serious trouble, the housing market crashed, and the auto industry was tanking.
The country was veering into depression the likes of which most people today have never seen.
Through stimulus packages and revitalization of the auto industry, the country did go into the great recession, but never fell off the cliff.
Now the time has come to pay the price.
In a story by Deidre Walsh and Ted Barrett of CNN, there seems to be indications that some of the loopholes in the tax code would be eliminated. Plus, there seems to be some indication compromise to avoid the fiscal is coming down the pike.
The elimination of loop holes and moderate tax increases for the one percent are needed. The wealthy have benefitted most in the past thirty years,
For example, Gregory Rayburn, CEO of Hostess took home $1.5 million in pay, despite driving the company into bankruptcy while workers got an 8 percent wage cut. They asked the bankruptcy judge to allow 18 executives to receive millions in bonuses.
Hello!
Not only are they depriving Americans everywhere of one of our favorite comfort foods, the executives are being rewarded for failure. They are also depriving 18,000 people of their jobs.
These executives are the ones that need higher taxes. Clearly, they are not using the income they make to create jobs. In fact, had they spread those bonuses out a little more, taken some pay cuts themselves and gotten rid of some dead weight, they could have paid the 18,000 workers a little more.
Over the past three decades, CEO pay has risen dramatically compared to the average worker’s wage. According to some estimates, CEO pay compared to production worker pay is 39:1, the highest in the world and a gap that is 20 times larger than is was in 1965. It is 400 times the average workers.
It is time for the CEOs to give back and pay their fair share. Clearly, they haven’t been using the money to create jobs, or the country wouldn’t be in the trouble it is in now.

Karen La Pierre