The two charts above were made from a Rasmussen Poll conducted on November 16th and 17th of a random national sample of 1,000 likely voters. It shows that huge majorities of the population think both fairness (83%) and growth (94%) are important in our economic system.
This brings up an important question. If such large majorities believe both are important, then why is our economy so unfair? Why do the super-rich pay a much lower tax rate (the capital gains tax rate) than workers pay (the earned income tax rate)? Why do the rich get to hog most of the rise in income (about 95% of that rise)? Why isn't the minimum wage a livable wage, and why is the middle class shrinking due to job losses, stagnant incomes, and inflation?
Why are corporations given tax breaks to ship good jobs to other countries? Why are corporations given tax breaks and subsidies that allow them to pay no taxes (even though they make millions or billions in profits)? And why is the wealth & income gap between the rich and the rest of America larger than before the Great Depression (and still growing)?
The answer, of course, is that Republican officials don't believe economic fairness is important. And because of that, they have been able to institute policies that favor the rich and the corporations, and hurt most other Americans. And they have been able to do that because they have convinced a large part of our population that you cannot have both fairness and growth.
They have convinced too many people that raising the minimum wage, making the rich and corporations pay their fair share of taxes, sharing rising productivity with workers, and stopping the outsourcing of jobs -- while creating a fairer economy -- would stunt economic growth (and job creation). They have convinced people that whatever is good for the rich is good for everyone.
Sadly that is not true. While letting the rich hog most income and wealth will benefit them in the short-run, even the rich will be hurt by these policies in the long-run. What's going to happen when the population cannot afford to buy the goods produced by the rich and their corporations?
The truth is just the opposite of what the Republicans preach. In a capitalist system, fairness and growth must coexist. You cannot have one without the other. Fairness depends on rising income and wealth that can be shared, and growth depends on all segments of the populations having money to spend on the goods/services offered by businesses.
Our economy continues to stumble because of the wrong-minded Republican policies -- and can only be fixed by making our economic system fairer for everybody (from the poor to the working class to the middle class to the rich). Whether the right-wing likes it or not, we are all in this economy together. There is no other way for a capitalism to grow, or even to survive.
But the Republicans are not likely to realize this until it is too late -- until they have destroyed our economy and our democracy. They are being controlled by right-wing extremists, who value their seriously-flawed ideology above everything else.
Hopefully, the president (and congressional Democrats) can block the worst of the GOP agenda in the next two years -- and the voters can, in 2016, undo the damage they did in 2010 and 2014 by voting the Republicans out of power. It's the only chance we have to return our country to a fairer economy with robust growth.
