Time for shared sacrifice

The working poor and middle class, including small business owners, are paying more in taxes for fewer services, either paying out of pocket or living without, while using ever more of their take home pay for medical care and saving for school and retirement (if they can). Public workers across the country are basically taking pay cuts, paying more for health and pension benefits, as fewer taxpayers have salaries that can afford higher taxes while good jobs continue to bleed overseas, benefiting no one but stockholders. These workers, most of whom are us, have made sacrifices for the greater good, even though they didn't want. And these people are the lucky ones in an economy where the unemployment rate remains high. Meanwhile the rich are not asked to do anything. Heaven forbid they, whether they be individuals or corporations, be asked to pay more taxes since they then might export the jobs they are already exporting overseas.

Why must taxes be raised on the rich? Because, despite an economy that's twice as large as it was 30 years ago, most Americans can't afford higher taxes since almost all the new wealth has gone to the rich. Worse, rather then investing this extra money in new jobs for Americans, they are sending this money overseas and creating jobs in other countries. Now you can argue that it is not the rich sending jobs overseas but corporations. However, I have never seen a corporation big enough to export jobs being run by somebody earning minimum wage. Time for those who benefited most from the tax loopholes to pay up.