A Birthday Letter for Our Grandchildren

My family in 1949: Steve, Dave, Vic with Vicki, Doris, Peter

Dear V and L,

Here it is, September again, the time for your third birthdays. That’s so great. You’ve both grown so much in the past year, and you are becoming such good talkers. Your grandma Katja and I are very eager to see you. We are sad that we can’t be in New Orleans this week, but we plan to visit you soon. In the meantime I am going to celebrate your birthdays by writing you this letter. In it, I will tell you something about my family history, because, of course, now it’s part of your family history too.

V.A. and Olga (seated) at their wedding, June 1, 1904

This picture is of my grandparents, V.A. Sr. and Olga, at their wedding on June 1, 1904, in Marinette, Wisconsin. These are your father’s great-grandparents, and so they are your great-great-grandparents. My grandfather V.A. Sr. was born in 1875 in Ostersund, Sweden, and he came to this country in 1893 with his parents, Carl and Martha. Olga had been born in Landskrona, Sweden. She had moved with her parents to Marquette, Michigan, when she met my grandfather. V.A. Sr. first worked in the logging camps. Then he went to school at Ferris Institute and became a pharmacist. He opened a number of drug stores in our home towns of Menominee, Michigan, and Marinette, Wisconsin, and was a very successful businessman. V.A. was a very kind, gentle man who was a loving grandfather to my brothers, my sister, myself, and his other grandchildren. I didn’t know my grandmother Olga as well because she didn’t live as long, but my parents always described her as a very strong woman who was a leader in politics in the state of Wisconsin. My dad Vic was V.A.’s and Olga’s first and oldest child, and then they adopted twin boys, Kent and Karl (my uncles), and their daughter, Martha (my aunt).

My parents Vic and Doris (about 1940)

These are my parents, Vic and Doris. They are also your dad’s grandparents and your paternal great grandparents. Vic was born and grew up in Marinette, Wisconsin, and he met Doris while at the University of Wisconsin. She was from Omaha, Nebraska, and was an honors student in school. Vic became a lawyer and then a judge and prosecuting attorney in Menominee. Doris worked in my dad’s office, then became a homemaker and our mom. She raised four children and created a beautiful home. They had many dear friends and led a very enjoyable, interesting life in our home town. My parents always emphasized doing well in school and striving to be excellent in whatever one chooses to do. They also believed it was important to have lots of fun and enjoy life. They took us many places and exposed us to art, music, books, museums, plays, and many different experiences. They always encouraged us to do the right thing, make good decisions, and keep on the right track. They were proud of their children and their grandchildren (including your Dad).

My brothers, sister, and myself on the river in Menominee (about 1950)

These are our parents Vic and Doris’ four children: my brother Peter (born in 1945), myself (born in 1937), my sister Vicki (born in 1947), and my brother Steven (born in 1941). I was the oldest, Vicki was the youngest, and Steven and Peter were in between. In this picture we are out on the Menominee River at our house on Riverside Boulevard. You can tell that we were happy children who loved one another. We spent a lot of time swimming in the river, playing in the forests, and going on hikes with our Irish Setter dogs. Peter grew up to become a financial executive in New Jersey with two kids of his own. Steven became a lawyer in Seattle, with three children. Vicki became a family and marriage therapist in Santa Cruz, California, with three children. I was a college professor in Cincinnati, and we had one child, your Dad. For many years we all had family reunions together at Vic and Doris’ Farm in Birch Creek, Michigan. Being with my brothers and sister were some of the best times of my life.

Katja and I at our wedding (1968)

I met your Grandma Katja in 1957 when we were students together at Antioch College in Yellow Springs, Ohio. I wanted to marry her the first time I saw her, and we did get married in 1960. First we went to graduate school at the University of Michigan, and, after that, we moved to Cincinnati where we’ve lived for 45 years. You’ve come to visit us in Cincinnati several times already. (Remember our sheepdogs, Mike and Duffy?) I taught Social Psychology and Katja taught French at the University of Cincinnati. Then Katja became a Social Worker who helped blind people have better lives. Now we have both retired from our jobs.

Katja and your Dad when he was two years old at Mt. Airy Forest

Your Dad was born in 1969. Having a child became the most exciting thing that ever happened to Katja and me. We gave him lots of love and attention, and he turned out to be a great kid. He could stand on his head longer than anybody in the neighborhood, was an expert at skateboarding and hacky-sack, and was a champion tennis player. We were very sad when he left home to go to college, but we were also proud and happy for him.

Your Mom and Dad

Your Dad met your Mom when they were in college at Columbia and Barnard Universities in New York City, and it was the best thing that ever could have happened. They fell in love right away and have been together ever since. When they graduated from college and went to New Orleans, they decided to become doctors, which required a lot of hard work for year and years. Then it was time for them to start a family of their own. Who do you suppose that could be?

Two darling children on the first day of school

You children are the most wonderful thing that has ever happened for your Dad and Mom. You are lucky to have such great parents, and they are lucky to have you. Your Mom and Dad are patient, loving, and fun. They are thrilled with what you say and do, and it’s wonderful to see all the fun that you all have together. Already you have been to more places and done more things than practically any children we’ve ever known.

So now it’s your turn, with your parents’ help, to grow up and carry on these family traditions. There are many wonderful people on both your Mom’s and your Dad’s sides of your family, and we are thrilled that you will be such an important part of that. We are excited about being with you many times in the coming years. Happy Happy Birthdays!

Lots of Love,

Grandpa Dave

G-mail Comments

-Vicki L (9-9): Hi David, What lucky little grandchildren you have. It would've been so meaningful to me had Vick and Doris delineated our family history with pictures and anecdotes. You've given Vida and Leo a tremendous gift (as well as myself). Hope things are well at home. Love, Vicki

-JML (9-8): Hey dad, such a nice letter! Thank you

-Jennifer M (9-8): This is so sweet. It brought tears to my eyes. A wonderful gift to your grandchildren.

Peshtigo Tidbits and Postcards

Catholic Church, Peshtigo (now the Fire Museum)

Dear George,

It’s a truism to say that our lives and character are shaped by the various communities in which we live and spend time. My early experiences were mostly in Menominee and Marinette, but other places were significant too. Many of our forest outings occurred at Cedar River. Green Bay (pop. 50,000), an hour away, was our closest metro destination for shopping and orthodontics, and family trips to Milwaukee and Chicago provided the year’s other-worldly cultural highlights. Peshtigo (pop. 3,400) was our closest neighbor, seven miles south of Marinette on Highway 41. Though we only visited occasionally, Peshtigo turned out to be the site of some of the more thrilling and scarier experiences of my childhood.

Like Menominee and Marinette, Peshtigo was a logging boom town. French fur traders had explored the area in the late eighteenth century, and a man named J. H. Levenworth built Peshtigo’s first sawmill in 1838. The lumber industry thrived over subsequent decades, with millions of feet of lumber transported down the Peshtigo River to mills on the shores of Green Bay. The town is best known for the Great Peshtigo Fire of 1871, the largest forest fire in American history which destroyed 1.5 million acres of woodlands and killed at least 1300 people. Like many towns in the area, Peshtigo’s name is an Indian word, translated as “wild goose”. Today Peshtigo’s economy is centered around the Badger Paper Mills, a grandchild of the logging era.

Sorting logs on the Peshtigo River

For Katja and I, Peshtigo has always been a landmark on our trips home for family reunions. Driving in, we’d take note of the city limit sign and the Peshtigo River because they signaled that we had just a few more miles to Marinette and Menominee. I’ve always procrastinated on journeys home, so we’d normally stop in Peshtigo to delay our arrival time, typically by having a Hot Fudge sundae at the town’s Dairy Queen. If it were close to supper time, we’d go to Anderson’s Family Restaurant and have a Butterburger (a remarkably delicious, sinful burger that I’ve seen only in the twin city area). For years there was a raggedy junk store on Highway 41 near the middle of town where we’d search for old postcards, antique dishware, and other castoff treasures. Then the world’s greatest flea market was just a couple of miles further up the road, an absolutely essential stop.

In our childhood, Peshtigo was the destination for the year’s single most exciting trip. That’s because it was the nearest place that one could buy fireworks for the Fourth of July. Each year on the morning of the Fourth two or three dads would put their oldest kids in somebody’s station wagon and drive over to Peshtigo to buy an array of skyrockets to shoot off that evening at Northwood Cove. The older we got, the more say we had in selecting which fireworks to purchase, and then we’d be allowed to set them off ourselves that night. There were tons of fireworks at the roadside stand, and the young debated endlessly about which ones to choose. It’s hard to describe our level of eager anticipation. When we were teenagers, we’d go back to Peshtigo with our dads a few months later because it had one of the area’s best hunting stores. With the approach of deer season, we’d stock up on ammunition for a November trip to hunting camp in Cedar River. While not as amazing as fireworks, boxes of rifle bullets had their own emotional aura.

The Marinette County Insane Asylum at Peshtigo

Peshtigo was also the source of deep childhood anxieties. The area’s single most frightening place, the Marinette County Insane Asylum, was located on the north edge of town, set in a grove of pine trees about 150 yards off the road. We children would stare intently at it as we passed by and share fantasies about crazed people locked in chains or bashing their heads against the walls of their padded cells. Our stereotypes came from old Hollywood movies like “The Snake Pit.” All of us, we believed, were at risk of losing our minds, and now and then we would hear a rumor about somebody being shipped off to the Asylum. After many such trips, I spent the next few decades worrying about being locked away. It’s probably a good sign that I haven’t thought about that for a long time, but maybe that’s just because I don’t travel through Peshtigo these days.

I’ve collected a big collection of Menominee and Marinette postcards over the years, and I always keep an eye out for Peshtigo too. Here are some images from the early 1900’s to the 1960’s which give a feeling for the history of our next door neighbor.

Love,

Dave

Downtown Peshtigo

Peshtigo's first auto

Employees of the Wisconsin and Michigan Railroad, Peshtigo

Train Depot, Peshtigo

Peshtigo High School, ca. 1910

Peshtigo Gun Club (1909)

Thompson Boat Company, Peshtigo

Badger Paper Mills, Peshtigo

Peshtigo Fire Cemetery

Peshtigo River

G-mail Comments

-Gayle C-L (9-6): David. Great story with great pictures. ;))).

Lots of love.

Heikki Lunta

Kenny Svenson of Traprock Valley as Heikki Lunta, Heikinpäivä Festival, Hancock, MI, ca. 2001 (www.csumc.wisc.edu)

Dear George,

If people aren’t from the U.P., they've probably never heard of Heikki Lunta. In fact, if you're not from certain counties in the northeastern U.P., you still might never have heard of Heikki Lunta. As it turns out, the U.P. is the only place in the country where a number of counties have a concentration of people of Finnish ancestry. Houghton County, with 47% Finnish-Americans, is one of those places. And that's where the modern legend of Heikki Lunta, the Finnish Snow God, was born.

There's a little town called Atlantic Mine about five miles away from Houghton where they hold an annual snowmobile race every winter. In 1970 the race was at risk of being cancelled because there wasn’t any snow. The race was sponsored by radio station WMPL in nearby Hancock. With no snow in sight, one of the station’s salesmen, David Riutta, composed a song called the "Heikki Lunta Snowdance Song." It took him about twenty minutes to invent the lyrics. "Heikki Lunta," it turns out, means “Henry Snow” in Finnish, and Riutta chose the name because his favorite musician was country western singer Hank Snow. Heikki Lunta was said to live in the back woods of a Finnish farming community south of Houghton, and he reportedly had the ability to do a dance which would cause snow to fall from the skies. Riutta’s song asked "Heikki Lunta" to do his dance to make it snow in time for the snowmobile race. They started playing the song on WMLP, it immediately became a local hit, and, lo and behold, it soon began snowing. According to local lore, it snowed and snowed for days. So much so that they had to cancel the snowmobile race.

Carl Pellonpaa, Finnish-language TV host, as Hankooki Heikki (2004)

Quite a few townspeople believed that Heikki’s snow dance song had caused the excessive snowfall, and there was a lot of public outcry. Riutta was chagrined when a huge lumberjack, infuriated by the amount of snow, threatened to “clean Heikki’s clock.” In an interview one of Riutta’s radio station co-workers said, “It was getting dangerous for Heikki and Dave…people started throwing rocks at them…well, not really rocks, but snowballs filled with rocks.” In response to the uproar, Riutta recorded a new song, "Heikki Lunta Go Away," and it became the flip side of the record. The song apologized for the big mess, and Heikki promised to quit dancing unless he was called upon again. Here’s the first half of the original Heikki Lunta Snowdance Song (1970):

Now I’ll sing my song


To make the snow come down


And I’ll do my snow dance


Whoops! I almost lost my pants


I’ll holler and yell,


And really give it---

It’s Heikki’s snow dance song, 
Heikki’s snow dance song

We gotta have some snow by the 4th of December


“Heikki Lunta, make it snow!” say all the Range Club members


The races are only three weeks away


And if I don’t make it snow, I’ll go back to making hay

It’s Heikki Lunta’s snow dance song,


Heikki Lunta’s snow dance song.

Snow, snow, snow!

Melvin Kangas, Finlandia U. Prof., as Hankooki Heikki (2010)

Heikki Lunta’s fame spread, and the snow dance song was circulated to radio stations around the country. Heikki Lunta’s story was aired on “The Today Show” and The Tonight Show,” and David Riutta was invited to events as far away as California to sing his magical song. Heikki became the focus of many festivals and events throughout the Upper Peninsula, especially in Finnish-American communities, and he’s still around as an important local presence. We’re going to keep an eye out for him on our next trip to the U.P.

Love,

Dave

Sources:

“Not Just Talking About the Weather: Tradition, Social Change and Heikki Lunta”, Hilary Virtanen, www.csumc.wisc.edu/exhibit/HeikkiLunta/index.htm

“Heikki Lunta – A Modern Copper Country Folk Hero,” Jim Kurtti, www.pasty.com/heikki/heikkilunta.html

“Heikki Lunta”, www.wikipedia.org

Photos: Google Images

Sweet Dreams

Ambien Addicts

Dear George,

I used to think Ambien was the wonder drug of the 21st century, but now I’m having my doubts. Lately I’ve found myself writing strange e-mails to friends and family members during the night. They seem amusing at the time, but then I wake up and read them with horror. Last month I discovered that I’d joined an online dating service while in a stupor. That very night I heard from somebody named Tawny Sue, but I just couldn’t deal with it by the light of day. Though I’d been thinking that Ambien makes for blissful, uninterrupted sleep, our son J told me that researchers have found that you actually only sleep 11 minutes more per night when you take Ambien. You only think you’ve slept well because it wipes out your memory. It makes you wonder.

Friday night around midnight Katja nudged me and said she’d like some wine and cheese. I’d been sound asleep, had brushed my teeth, and said I didn’t want any. A while later she poked me again and handed me a cracker with a slice of Camembert on it. She’d opened a bottle of white wine, and I had one sip of that too, but then I drifted back to sleep. When I woke in the morning there was a single slice of cheese left on the bedside table, and the bottle of wine was empty. I went down to the kitchen, and the floor was all sticky and had three dish towels on it. It smelled of white wine. Also there was a salad bowl on the counter stool with some liquid in it. That smelled like white wine too. I couldn’t figure out why the wine was in a salad bowl (or on the floor). When Katja woke up, I asked her about it. She said she hadn’t had any wine or cheese last night, but I insisted she had. She thought maybe I’d dreamed it, but I showed her the evidence. She still thinks it was me.

We wouldn’t have these difficulties if we were more like the dogs. They stake out their spaces on the bed, don’t ingest anything, and rarely raise an eyelid. That’s partly why we have difficulty sleeping, since we have to find some twisted spot in the small spaces that the sleeping dogs leave for us. Mikey has the enviable of habit of sleeping on his back with his four paws raised in the air. I did a little Internet research, and I learned that dogs do this when they are trying to cool off because they have less fur on their tummies. Alpha dogs never sleep on their backs because that could make them vulnerable to attack, but underling dogs do so as a gesture of submission. That definitely holds for Duffy and Mike.

Katja came home yesterday with a new CD called “The Ison Method – Music for Sleep.” This could help in our efforts to adopt a new drug-free life style. The cover of the CD says it’s being used in Iraq to help soldiers sleep better. If it works on soldiers under the threat of missile attacks, it certainly should work on us. She put it on last night about midnight and turned the lights off. First there was the sound of waves in the distance. Then birds making chirping sounds. Then it played rhythmic, repetitive chords of music. At first I thought it would keep me up all night because I was listening to it carefully. But then I stopped listening. And soon I was sound asleep. I never woke up all night – it was just like Ambien except I didn’t do stupid things.

During the night I dreamt that I was attending a three-day Sociology conference at a hotel in Portland, Oregon. Most of my colleagues weren’t there, so I was pretty much on my own. When I came back to my room there was an Indian doctor there with several female graduate students, and he was occupying the room too. He was puzzled by my presence, and I by his. Though he watched me suspiciously, I decided I would just share the room with him. One of the things I needed to do was to go to another very fancy hotel across town where Katja and I had stayed a year ago. We had left a lot of our belongings in the room, including a library of several hundred books. We’d never paid the bill, and I figured that by now we owed them about forty thousand dollars in rent for the room. I was hoping I could negotiate with them for a lesser fee, maybe two or three thousand dollars (this is a recurrent dream that I’ve been having ever since I retired). Then it suddenly dawned on me that they hadn’t tried to reach us for an entire year. They’d probably cleared out our books and stuff anyway and thrown them away. I didn’t have to contact them at all. We could just forget about it. I had a feeling of immense relief from this insight and ran straight to the phone to tell Katja.

When I woke up after my dream I realized that today is our fifty-first wedding anniversary. That was impressive but a little difficult to assimilate. It’s not as huge as number fifty, but big nonetheless. I decided it means that we are one year into celebrating our second half-century of being married. Just like the books and belongings we’d left for a year in the fancy hotel room, we can just set aside that first half century now and begin all over again. What with Katja retiring and our starting on a new life course, it’s sort of like being newlyweds again. Well, almost.

Love,

Dave

G-mail Comments

-Phyllis S-S (8-29): Dave, I especially loved the part about the dream. pss

-Vicki L (8-28): Happy 51st David and Katja - you can feel proud that your lifestyle gets wilder and more outrageous with each passing year. Keep up the good non-work. Love, Vicki

The Bush Tax Cuts

Dear George,

There have probably have been more painful times politically in the U.S. in the last fifty years (e.g., the Vietnam War era, Watergate, Reagan), but the last two years seem like the ugliest in recent memory. This can mostly be attributed to to the rightwing backlash against President Obama and the election of extremist Tea Party-supported Republican candidates to Congress. It all seemed to come to a head in the recent political crisis regarding raising the debt ceiling. I could barely stand to listen to the news, but I also decided it’s important to try to better understand what’s going on. Democrats and Republicans were most polarized in their stances toward ending the soon-to-expire tax cuts that George W. Bush put in place during his first term. Obama proposed retaining the Bush tax cuts for middle and lower income earners, but returning to Clinton-era tax rates for high income people (i.e., individuals over $200,000; couples over $250,000). This would have meant tax increases for about 2% of the population (for the highest bracket, an increase from 35% to 39.6%). Republicans objected strenuously, vowing to maintain tax cuts for the wealthy at all costs and arguing that the Bush tax cuts should be made permanent for all taxpayers. With the Republicans threatening economic chaos by blocking an increase to the federal debt ceiling, Obama reached a compromise with Republicans in Congress to extend the cuts for two more years for the rich and for everybody else. Many Democrats responded with outrage at what they saw as Obama’s caving in to Republican obstructionism. So what’s this all about?

What are the Bush tax cuts?

The George W. Bush administration, with the aid of Congress, implemented changes in the U.S. tax code in 2001 and 2003 that lowered federal income taxes for nearly all taxpayers. For example, tax rates for a middle income category ($34,500 to $83,600) dropped from 28% to 25%. Tax rates for the highest income bracket ($379,150 and above) dropped from 39.6% to 35%. The cuts also lowered taxes on dividends and capital gains; reduced estate taxes; lowered tax burdens on parents, married couples, and the working poor; and increased tax credits for retirement savings and education. (13) (4) [Note: Numbers in parentheses refer to sources cited at end.]

How have economists reacted to the Bush tax cuts?

Most U.S. economists opposed the Bush tax cuts (18). At the time of the legislation, 450 economists, including ten Nobel Prize winners, sent a statement to President Bush saying that “these tax cuts will worsen the long-term budget outlook… will reduce the capacity of the government to finance Social Security and Medicare benefits as well as investments in schools, health, infrastructure, and basic research… [and] generate further inequalities in after-tax income.” (18) All of these predictions appear to have been borne out. Despite Republicans’ rejection of tax cuts as a means of helping to reduce the Federal deficit, most economists agree that it’s impossible to maintain the Bush tax cuts and reduce the Federal deficit by spending cuts alone. As the New York Times puts it, “There is no economically sensible or politically honest way to address the deficit without also increasing revenues and reforming the tax code.” (6)

Who has benefited most from the Bush tax cuts?

People at all income levels have had more disposable income as a consequence of the Bush tax cuts. While economists’ opinions vary, many conclude that the rich have benefited the most. According to the Christian Science Monitor (2), a middle-income family ($52,224 per year) has obtained a take-home pay increase of $1,016 (2.4%) as a consequence of the Bush tax cuts. Persons in the top 1%, however, have enjoyed an increase of $72,872 (5.9%). The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities concluded that the Bush tax cuts yielded the “largest benefits, by far, on the highest income households.” (13)

How have the Bush Tax Cuts affected the national debt?

Members of the Bush administration predicted that the tax cuts, because they would stimulate the economy and create jobs, would pay for themselves. This did not happen. The country’s last financial surplus was in 2001 at the end of Clinton’s presidency. From 2001 to 2009 government spending increased from 18.2% of the Gross Domestic Product (hereafter, GDP) to 24.7%, while taxes declined from 19.5% to 14.8% of the GDP. Relative to the GDP, this was the highest level of spending and the lowest level of taxation in 40 years. (19) Due to a combination of tax cuts and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the U.S. national debt grew substantially during Bush’s presidency (2001-2008), both in sheer dollars and relative to the size of the economy, and it has continued to grow under Obama. (19) In 2001 the Congressional Budget Office forecasted a surplus of $2.3 trillion by 2011. Instead, according to the Pew Center, the national debt in 2011 is approximately $10.4 trillion, most of that due to recessions and the effects of Bush’s policies. (19)

How has income inequality in the U.S. changed over recent decades?

Income inequality in the U.S. has been increasing since the 1970s. Among wealthy countries, the U.S. has the highest level of income inequality (i.e., the greatest gap between the rich and the poor), and it has experienced the greatest increases in income inequality over the last 20-30 years. There are more millionaires in the U.S. than in any other country (236,883 households), and the U.S. has a higher proportion of citizens living in poverty than a majority of Western countries. (16) The growth of income in the U.S. has been heavily concentrated in the top 1% (i.e., the super rich). Real income between 1979 and 2005 increased 176% for the top 1%; 15% for the bottom 60%. During the Bush years, only 4% of earners enjoyed increases in real income, and these were mostly high income earners. In 2005, for example, income increased by 14% for the top 1% and decreased slightly (0.6%) for the bottom 90%. (20) The poverty rate, on the other hand, increased from 11.2% to 13.2% between 2000 and 2008. (12) (ww8) As of 2004, the wealthiest 25% of US households owned 87% of the wealth in the country; the poorest 25% owned 0% of the country’s wealth. (20)

What is the argument for extending the Bush tax cuts?

It’s argued that in the currently weak economy raising taxes could reverse our economic growth. If tax bills go up, Americans will have less money to spend and invest in the economy, and that could erase whatever economic ground has been recovered to date. (4)

How would the national debt be affected by extending the Bush tax cuts?

Many economists believe that spending cuts by themselves cannot reduce the national debt and that increased tax revenues will be necessary as well. The non-partisan Pew Charitable Trusts recently made the following estimates: (a) If the tax cuts were made permanent for all taxpayers at all income levels, this would increase the national debt by $3.3 trillion over the next ten years. (b) If the tax cuts were extended only to individuals making less than $200,000 and couples earning less than $250,000, the national debt would increase by $2.2 trillion over the next ten years. (c) If the tax cuts were extended for all taxpayers for two years only and then ended, the national debt would increase by $561 billion over the next ten years. (13)

Who would be negatively affected if the Bush tax cuts are made permanent?

Compared to other countries, government spending in the U.S. is comparatively low except for Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and the military. Spending cuts in these domains, in the absence of increased tax revenues, will disproportionately harm the elderly, minorities, and the poor, as well as reducing resources available for national security. (12)

Do Americans pay higher taxes than citizens of other advanced economies?

No, just the opposite. Tax rates in the U.S. are lower than those in nearly all other advanced industrial economies. In the Group of Seven large industrial economies, Japan and the U.S. are tied for the lowest ratio of tax revenue to the Gross Domestic Product. (3) In 2006 U.S. taxes were lower than 26 of the 30 member countries of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development. U.S. taxes of all types claimed 28% of the GDP, compared with an average of 36% for the 30 OECD member countries. Only Mexico, Turkey, and Korea had lower taxes than the U.S. (9)

Do rich people in the U.S. pay higher taxes than in the past?

No. According to an Associated Press report (Seattle Times, 4/17/11), the wealthiest families in America are paying substantially lower taxes than they did a couple of decades ago. (8) In 1950 the tax rate for those earning $200,000 or more was 91%. In 1980, when Reagan became president, individuals earning over $108,300 had a federal income tax rate of 70%. Reagan cut the tax rate to 50% and then to 28% in 1987. George H.W. Bush and Clinton then raised taxes; George W. Bush lowered them again. (8) In 2007 the average worker in the U.S. earned $26,000 in annual income and paid 23.4% of that in income and payroll taxes. Americans in the Top 400 of the income distribution made an average of $344,759,000 per year and paid 18.7% of that in income and payroll taxes. Though the highest income tax rate is 36%, there are so many tax breaks and loopholes available that the super rich, on average, pay about half that amount. (8) Thus, on a proportion of income basis, average workers’ burdens were about 25% higher than those of the Top 400. (12)

Where does the American public stand on the issue?

According to a recent New York Times/CBS Poll, 63% favor helping to address the federal deficit by raising taxes for households that earn over $250,000 a year. (6)

My conclusions

There are no absolute, hard-and-fast answers in these political, economic, and social policy domains, and reasonable people can differ in their conclusions. Given that caveat, my personal opinions after digging around in this material can be expressed in terms of six conclusions:

(1) The Bush tax cuts are one influential factor contributing to an immense and unsustainable federal debt.

(2) The Republicans’ insistence on addressing that debt problem exclusively through government spending cuts is unrealistic and harmful.

(3) There are enormous economic disparities in the U.S. which have increased substantially in the last four decades, and the Bush tax cuts have further accelerated those huge gaps between the rich and the poor.

(4) Tax rates for the richest Americans are substantially lower than in other advanced countries and substantially lower than they have been historically in the United States.

(5) Keeping the Bush tax cuts in place for the super-rich and addressing the federal deficit through spending cuts alone means that much of the economic burden would fall upon the poor, minorities, and the elderly.

(6) I personally think that President Obama’s proposal to maintain tax cuts for lower and middle income people and to return to Clinton-era tax rates for the highest income brackets is a pragmatic, fair, and rational approach.

Love,

Dave

P.S. Usually this blog likes to contain some humor. This topic doesn’t seem that humorous.

ONLINE SOURCES CITED:

(1) www.bargaineering.com (“Official 2011 US Income Tax Brackets (IRS Tax Rates)”; 1-10-11)

(2) www.csmonitor.com (“Bush tax cuts 101: What changes could be in store for taxpayers?”; 9-13-10)

(3) www.csmonitor.com (“US tax bite smaller than other nations’”; 4-11-10)

(4) www.money.cnn.com (“Bush tax cuts: What you need to know”; 9-15-10)

(5) www.nytimes.com (“Bush era tax cuts”; 12-17-10)

(6) www.nytimes.com (“The truth about taxes”; 8-6-11)

(7) www.nytimes.com (Warren E. Buffett, “Stop coddling the super-rich”; 8-14-11).

(8) www.seattletimes.nwsource.com (“Super rich see federal taxes drop dramatically; 4-17-11)

(9) www.taxpolicycenter.org (“The Numbers: How do U.S. taxes compare internationally?”; 3-16-10)

(10) www.washingtonpost.com (“5 myths about the Bush tax cuts”; 9-1-10)

(10) www.welkerswikinomics.com; “Tax progressivity in the US”; 9-16-10)

(12) www.wweek.com (“9 things the rich don’t want you to know about taxes”; 4-13-11)

(13) www.wikipedia.org (“Bush Tax Cuts”)

(18) www.wikipedia.org (“Economic policy of the George W. Bush administration”)

(20) www.wikipedia.org (“Income inequality in the United States”)

(14) www.wikipedia.org (“List of countries by income inequality”)

(15) www.wikipedia.org (“List of countries by percentage living in poverty”)

(16) www.wikipedia.org (“Number of millionaires by country”)

(19) www.wikipedia.org (“United States public debt”)

(20) www.wikipedia.org (“Wealth in the United States”)

G-mail Comments

-Vicki L (to her friend April; 8-27): Hi April, I'm sending along one of my brother David's (uncharacteristic) blogs - just in case you're in a political snit and need to draw on some statistics to give someone a good talking to. (My sense, though, is you're in a harvesting and canning phase - how much more fun.) Love, Vicki

-Gayle C-L (8-25): David Darling, Such wonderful information. You should be President. After all you are the perfect age. You have an extremely clean record a perfect wife. A perfect son and daughter in law and babies. You are extremely smart Kind. A great sense of humor. You come from

A great family Farm Included.. And most importantly cute:)) Given all of that .. In case you decide to run... I will just have to be your publicist .:())) Think about it. I m sure you are more qualified any other candidate that will soon run:)

Lots of love. G

Tennis Lollapalooza

Dear George,

Thanks to our friends Paula and Frank, we got out to Cincinnati’s Western & Southern Tennis Tournament this week. This used to be the ATP, and before that the Tri-State Tournament, but now, for the first time, they've combined the men's ATP and the women's WTA tournaments into a single event, bringing in nearly all of the top pro tennis players in the world. The men's draw includes Djokovich, Nadal, Federer, Murray, Fish, and most of the other top-ranked sixty players. Likewise, the women's draw has included Serena Williams, Sharapova, Wozniacki, Zvonareva, Li Na, etc. Aside from the Grand Slams, Cincinnati is one of only five events in the world to combine top-level men's and women's competition in a single tournament (the others: Rome, Madrid, Miami, and Indian Wells). To accommodate the newly expanded tournament, the tennis center built six new courts, a grand entry plaza, and a bigger retail area. Last Sunday Katja and I saw James Blake vs. Marcos Bhagdati. Then Donna joined us on Thursday, and we watched Roger Federer vs. Blake and Jelena Jankovic vs. Francesca Schiavone. We had a great time, and it’s exciting to be out and about in the big-time tennis world. Here are some photos which give a feel for our adventure and how the Tennis Center is looking these days.

Love,

Dave

G-mail Comments

-Jennifer M (8-21): so fancy!