It's Perfectly Legal

The Minnesota Council of Nonprofits sponsored a lunch presentation by David Cay Johnston about his new book Perfectly Legal: The Covert Campaign to Rig Our Tax System to Benefit the Super Rich--and Cheat Everybody Else.

Some interesting points from his DEPRESSING presentation:

• The 28,000 wealthiest Americans have the same income as the bottom 1/3 of Americans.
• We are not seeing normal capitalism--we are seeing rigged capitalism.
• With the current federal tax policies CEOs would not be fulfilling the fiduciary responsibilities if they didn't move jobs, capital and intellectual property out of the U.S.
• We have a socialist tax system that redistributes income from the middle class to the filthy rich.
• The basic, conservative basis of a progressive tax system was developed in ancient Athens. Basically, those who get the greatest economic benefit from society has the greatest obligation to make sure it endures.

With the current tax system, nonprofit organizations are going to be in deep shit.

• Lower tax rates will reduce giving
• Lower state tax income will reduce state funds for nonprofits.
• As the middle class struggles with the reduced income this greatest source of nonprofit contributions will shrink.

sheldon