The tax paradox

A couple of random views on the new Obamabudget... The first is rather striking in that it portrays how the other side thinks. It also shows to me that there is the proverbial, cliched "yawning gulf" between right and left.

"Lawrence Summers liked to tell a hypothetical story to distill the trend [of growing wealth inequality]. The increase in inequality, Mr. Summers would say, meant that each family in the bottom 80 percent of the income distribution was effectively sending a $10,000 check, every year, to the top 1 percent of earners." --NYT 2/27/2009

To me this akin to "Property is theft!" Pierre-Joseph Proudhon's line from his book, What is Property? Or, an Inquiry into the Principle of Right and of Government.

This next blurb is from Gerald Seib in the Wall Street Journal:

"So the views and support of wealthier Americans are of more than incidental importance to the president. Their election performance suggested many were declaring a willingness to shoulder a somewhat higher tax burden to fix social problems and balance the government's books. Now, though, one of the problems with anything that looks like a soak-the-rich strategy is that a lot of people who felt rich just six months ago don't feel quite that way now. Magnanimous feelings about paying higher dues for a better society likely have been reduced by the hammering that their college savings and retirement accounts have taken." --WSJ 2/227/2009

Seib goes on to note that those feelings of largesse came back in November when rich people were actually feeling rich. Many aren't feeling that way now.

The thing I don't understand is what numbers is everyone looking at when it comes to inequality? And what is inequality vs. quality of life? I would say credit (obviously easy credit) helped those without the income to live pretty well. And are we talking about pay? What about savings and 401(k)s? I would say we all took chairlifts up the mountain, some made it higher, but we all went up the mountain nonetheless.