http://www2.macleans.ca/2010/09/14/third-world-america/

Perhaps a little OTT, but interesting. When will the US finally admit that they have no choice but to raise taxes?

Interesting link. The US certainly has big problems.

http://robertreich.org/post/1163051320

Although this...
...to an extent also applies to Canada and the UK amongst others.

Truer words were never spoken.

1% of the US's population have a third of the wealth, I agree raise taxes, but not for the regular people already struggling to get by. Tax the higher earners and use that money to improve the lives of the people who need it improved.

Very high earners in the US used to pay 90% tax, and that tax bracket is what got the US out of the great depression. Today people would probably describe that as unthinkable.

What interests me about Macleans is that all year around it publishes articles that are transparently rubbish and yet, once a year it wants to be taken seriously.

In this case, for example, adjustments to the City of Cincinnatti's pot hole filling policy are held to be examples of America's need to "roll back the everyday hallmarks of modern civilization". We're not told what the pot hole filling policy was before, what it is now, how it compares to pot hole filling policies in other cities. No attempt is made to explain the importance of pot hole filling policies in the canon of western civilization. It's just tabloid stuff, something that allows the reader to glance down at his plaid shirt and say to himself "better here, eh?"

And yet, once a year, Macleans compares all the Canadian universities, and publishes the equivalent of "The Sunday Sport Guide to Further Education".
How seriously should we take that edition?

The norm through history has been for the top 20% to have 80% of the wealth; which is hardly surprising, since you'd expect the top earners to have more savings than someone living paycheck to paycheck.

No, destroying Britain as an economic competitor and bombing European industry into rubble brought the US out of the depression; suddenly America had most of the world's remaining manufacturing industry. And today people would probably regard a repeat of that tactic as unthinkable.

Funny how you highlight pot holes and not even mention half the police force gone, rendered to a reporting service for the insurance co. I don't doubt that the article smacks of "Chicken Little" but does give some insight to the state of the nation's smaller towns.

Even California had to issue IOU's to state employees as they had no money to pay their wages.

Western democracies already have tax rates getting close to 60% when you consider all taxes, rather than just those on income.