Tuesday, April 17, 2012

Quotation for Today: People Who Fill In Line Seven on the IRS Form 1040

Wages and salaries that are insufficient to support families, as represented by the Brookings-reported fact that 28 million American tax filers received the earned income tax credit (E.I.T.C.) in 2010, is an indictment of Wall Street-based capitalism and Republican economic and monetary policies.  


Across the jump, the quotation for today aims our attention at the problem of stagnant wages and salaries; wages too meager to support a family.
“The E.I.T.C. is one of the best social policies we’ve ever devised, but it does not solve the fundamental problem that you still can’t live on your wages.” 
Kathryn Edin
Kathryn Edin is a professor of public policy at Harvard University and author.  Her coming book is It’s Not Like I’m Poor: How Working Families Make Ends Meet in a Post-Welfare World.


Kathryn Edin, in her comment above, captures the essential and horrific impact that 30 years of Republican economic and monetary policies have wreaked on middle- and working-class Americans.  These Republican economic and monetary  policies, the same policies favored by Rep. Paul Ryan and GOP presidential wannabe Mitt Romney, have resulted in either stagnant or decreased, inflation-adjusted wages and inequity in America that is beyond shame. 


You can read the complete article on the E.I.T.C. by following the link enclosed in the citation.


Also, explanations of the E.I.T.C. are available here, here and here.

Tavernise, Sabrina. "Antipoverty Tax Program Offers Relief, Though Often Temporary." The New York Times 17 April, 2012: online edition.


Related information:


Internal Revenue Service Form 1040, Line 7 - the income tax line for the 99 percent.


Wealth and income inequality in America.

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