Letters: Middle class shrinking

Crony capitalism is the last vestigial form of imperial colonization. We live in an era of more privatized profit and socialized loss on a global level than at any other time in Earth's history. We have multinational corporations to thank for this most embarrassing distinction, and the throne is Wall Street U.S.A.

A disproportionate 83 percent of stocks are owned by the top 1 percent to 2 percent of the population in the United States. Between 2001-2007, 66 percent of the growth went to the top 1 percent. The estate tax everyone is talking about affects almost one-half of 1 percent at the top.

I have asked the question: "Are we an oligarchy?" But clearly we really are a corpocracy.

The Bush tax cuts that everyone is talking about lowered federal income taxes from an almost 40 percent rate to 35 percent, allowing $1.7 trillion more to remain with the top 2 percent of the wealthiest in the country. When Ronald Reagan was president, the top federal tax rate was 50 percent.

The baby boomers were the largest growth of middle class anywhere in the world at anytime in history, but those days are over. Out of 30 industrialized nations 40 years ago, the United States was No. 1 in overall markers for well-being. We now are No. 21 and still sliding down if we don't start making some good choices about who we want to be.

I don't want to achieve "sheeple"-class status. Investigative journalism has all but died, so personal investigation of facts is imperative today.