Shift of wealth pulls us backward

Vernos Branco, Las Vegas

Monday, Oct. 31, 2011 | 2 a.m.

Just how tone deaf can our representatives become? Are those on Capitol Hill listening?

Two thirds of this nation’s people polled are asking for raises taxes for the wealthiest. The money is to be used for rebuilding our decaying infrastructure and creating jobs. Another poll designed specifically for the wealthy showed 68 percent of them asked to have their taxes increased. Yet there are those in Washington who insist on lowering taxes to get our economy going.

We’ve been down that path for over 10 years now and lowering taxes has done little other than to create disparity and increase tensions among the classes. The poor are becoming poorer and the middle class is shrinking, entering the ranks of the poor.

Those people occupying Wall Street are just the beginning of dissension that could easily escalate to a full-blown late ’60s movement. Couple that with the labor movement, when unions fought for rights, and we are just a few steps of repeating history of a century ago.

The working class is tired of getting hosed, and many see little growth in their futures. Basically the “American Dream” is no longer available to common people because of the shift of wealth away from them.