Tax system abused by wealthy too long

Dave Starr, Las Vegas

Monday, Jan. 13, 2014 | 2:02 a.m.

Large corporations and wealthy individuals like to tout how much they pay in taxes, but their actual tax rate is about 13 percent, with respective top tax rates of 35 and 39 percent.

In 2012, Goldman Sachs bragged about the $247 million it donated to charity. That year, its revenue was $34 billion and profits were $7.8 billion. Its charitable donations represent seven-tenths of a percent. Wow! America’s working poor donate an average of 3.2 percent of their income to charity. Goldman Sachs failed at its attempt at reputation redemption with the relative pittance it gave to charity. Why didn’t the company donate more; after all, it is tax-deductible? Remember the stories about John D. Rockefeller giving away shiny dimes when he was taking a stroll.

Wealthy corporations, along with their personal political party, aka the GOP, are sentencing American workers to a bleak future of low-wage, part-time, no-benefits security jobs. Is that the future for America?

Banks have converted into global casinos that churn trillions of dollars through risky stock trades. High Frequency Traders (HFT’s) are the chief culprits in this activity. They’re not investing in businesses or creating anything for the economy.

Currently, the NYSE and Nasdaq make 400 billion buy or sell trades annually, more than 1 billion per day. They do not pay taxes on those transactions. What tax do you pay when you make a purchase? What a gig for the wealthy!