Random Thoughts, Notes, & Incidents

"VOTERS AGREE:
Affordable housing a higher priority than new tax cuts
Americans say Congress should spend to help low income people, economy"

A report just issued by the National Low Income Housing Coalition says that while the Bush administration is pushing "additional tax cuts to revive the economy, a majority (52%) of likely voters says spending more money to make sure low income people have housing they can afford to rent is more important than Congress cutting more taxes... In addition, 61% say that Congress spending more money to make sure low income people have housing they can afford to rent is good for the economy."

Read the press release and see they survey results on their web site.

You can certainly put me in that majority. What's amazing is that 48% of people think that tax cuts are more important, when these cuts only benefit about five to ten percent of the population. No matter how put upon the working poor and middle class have become, many still believe that they're part of the elite. Not so; the gap between those in the top ten percent income bracket and the other 90% of us has continued to grow wider.

Many of us now think that we're in a recession. Why wouldn't we think that? The Tech sector is moribund, layoffs are common, the stock market is down. We're certainly in an economically stagnant, downturn situation. But, as Michael Moore suggests, take a look at those at the top. They're not hurting. There's no recession for them. (The proof here locally is that even with 7.5% unemployment, you still can't buy a house for less than $450,000).

The stock market may be "down" - but it's still about three times higher than it was at the start of this economic expansion. The majority of the wealth created in the '90's is still there. But the folks who have control of it don't want any to trickle down to you or me. And so they create the myth of a recession so that we won't ask for our share. At least, that's what Michael Moore suggests in his latest book, "Stupid White Men."