Out of touch

2011 was a year when the political dialogue in America shifted from the phantom menace of deficits and debt to a much bigger problem, income inequality.  Over the past thirty years, incomes at all levels have stagnated, except for the rich whose share of American wealth has skyrocketed.  The American dream of income mobility is in real danger and millions of lower and middle class American families are suffering while the rich are doing better than they’ve ever done in America.

Against this backdrop, the Republican party is poised to nominate Mitt Romney as their Presidential candidate.
 

Romney made his millions from Bain Capital, a venture investment company that bought control of manufacturing companies, gutted the resources and pensions, and made millions of dollars while thousands of workers lost their jobs when the companies went bankrupt.  For the tens of millions that Romney makes every year, he pays a tax rate of only around 15%, a far smaller percentage than most middle class and many lower class Americans pay.  Romney dismissed the $375,000 he’s made over the past year in speaking fees, an amount that alone would put one in the top 1% of incomes in America, as “not very much.”  On the campaign trail, Romney is so unaware of how he comes across that he’s claimed he’s among the middle class, suggested that he too is “unemployed” and that he’s had to worry about getting a “pink slip”.  He’s also said that those who criticize him for being out of touch with the concerns of Americans are simply “envious” of him.

Romney is not only part of the 1%, he is so rich that he’s among the top 1% of the 1%.

At a time when a majority of Americans identify income inequality as the biggest problem with the American economic and political systems, when millions of Americans can’t find a job, are losing their homes, have no health insurance, and have gotten little help from Congress, the Republicans are about to nominate Gordon Gekko as their standard-bearer.

How out of touch can you get?