Your Opinion: Response to Brown on economic facts

Dear Editor:

After reading Steven Brown's commentary on my letter on taxes published in the Aug. 5 issue of the News Tribune, I hear rage and fear but I hear very little substance to dispute my facts and deductions. There is the assertion that, "This myth that you speak of Mr. Haslag, the trickle down theory that did not work, well you have the figures that lie and you are a liar." What a brilliant and insightful response. Personal attacks may be emotionally satisfying but add nothing to any serious discussion.

If my facts about the skewed distribution of income are in error, prove it! Snopes.com does not count as a source. Forbes, no liberal media bastion, was my source among others available. The question is about fairness. Is it fair that Americans earning middle incomes should be taxed at a rate 30 percent higher than the top 400 in the country?

If you want factual perspective, I suggest you read an article issued by the University of California at Santa Clara on wealth and income distribution.

If statistics and facts are irrelevant, your participation in the debate can only be a repeat of factually-challenged assertions, personal attacks on an individual's character and a great deal of heat with very little light in terms of actually addressing the issues before us. Again, should the Koch brothers, a legally defined small business and definitely in the top 400, pay taxes at the same rate as someone earning $28,000 annually on average?

As for the job growth percentages, check wikipedia! Please note the percentages are annualized, so it is necessary to multiply by 10 to achieve a figure for a decade. Tax cuts at the upper end do not trickle down. You can assert anything you wish, you may allege anything you wish, but unless you can actually demonstrate that my facts and what I deduced from them are wrong; you are essentially just exercising your constitutional right to assert any inaccurate, baseless charge you wish.

Finally, you decided that race, as an issue, must be included in your "rant." Here is something to chew on. Unemployment among all Caucasians is at about 7 percent. Unemployment in the African-American and Hispanic communities is well over twice that. Total wealth, assets minus liabilities, among all Caucasians average $132,000. In minority communities, that figure is approximately $5,000 in the African-American community and just over $6,000 among Hispanics.