Revista (PDF) - Universidade do Minho

218
DIACRÍTICA
By 1998, the top one percent owned 39 percent of America’s disposable
wealth, up from 33.8 percent in 1983. During the 1990’s, the share of
total income earned by the top twenty percent has risen to its highest
point since 1947.
European wealth is not as concentrated as American, but there is
little reason to believe that you will escape similar trends in the future.
Only one thing is clear. Our politics has not caught up with this
three-class reality. At the top of the social scale, we heap large subsidies
on the symbol-using class, giving vast subsidies to university
students. At the bottom, we target the underclass with substantial
assistance. But we do relatively little to aid the vast middle. While the
rich have been showered with tax breaks, the middle class has been
treated to a series of symbolic gestures signifying little or nothing.
The result is simmering resentment, which will take uglier forms
as the current economic boom comes to an end. It is past time to
search for a more constructive response to economic inequality. How
can we use the benefits of globalization to ensure that every citizen gets
a fair start in life?
This is the question that Anne Alstott and I asked ourselves in our
book on The Stakeholder Society. 1 Our basic proposal is straightforward,
but it is only based on an intensive analysis of American
economic data. The numbers I will be presenting can only be treated
as suggestive in the European context. Nonetheless, they should give
you a sense of the orders of magnitude involved.
As young Americans rise to maturity, each should claim a stake of
$80,000 as part of their birthright as citizens. This stake should be
financed by an annual wealth tax, equal to two percent of every
individual’s wealth in excess of $230,000. 2 The tie between wealthholding
and stake-holding expresses a fundamental social responsibility.
Every American has an obligation to contribute to a fair starting
point for all.
There are many possible variations on the stakeholding theme,
and recently Tony Blair made one into a centerpiece of his successful
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1 Yale University Press, 1999. All the data provided in this speech are supported
more elaborately in the book.
2 My original proposal provided an $80,000 exemption for each taxpayer, but this
was on the basis of data for 1995 collected by the Federal Reserve Board at a time when
the Dow was at 4500. While the Fed has yet to publish more recent data, we have
recently undertaken a further analysis of higher exemption levels that suggests that,
given the ongoing boom, a higher exemption is now compatible with our proposal. Our
new cut-off of $230,000 would entirely exempt eighty percent of Americans from the tax.