re: Identity Politics are being used to divide this Country like no other time

I don’t know about the tax rates but I really don’t disagree with most of what you said. I disagree with high taxes on capital gains though as that money was already initially taxed.

The culprit IMO for a lot of our problems is the Fed and fractional reserve lending. We’ve been sold that inflation is our friend yet people wonder why everything is so expensive and lower income families can’t afford to live. Creating money with credit is great for those that can make money off of money without having to pay interest to the savers for the use of it....but that’s typically not your middle to lower classes.

Housing, food, energy and other necessary goods have exploded in cost over the last 30 years. Great for the stock market but not for the working poor. You can be a conservative as I am and still see the effect of monetary policy. If you can’t buy assets that inflate in value you’re left behind.

Think of what the world would look like if money couldn’t be created out of thin air for borrowing. Sure those of us with means would have less stuff...but govts could not run endless deficits, asset and commodity prices would be much lower, M&A would be a fraction of what it is now (ie more local and regional businesses), and savers would be paid interest for the use of their capital. The distance between lower and higher income would be compressed.

This can’t happen now because the reset would an enormous crash. Also, all politicians are beholden to their donors and the financial elite.

This isn’t a left right issue IMO but a policy issue that nobody wants to address.