The revolutionary wears a suit and trekking shoes. Lunch time in Manhattan, at Madison Square Park. Business people and tourists to keep Sandwiches in their hands and their faces in the spring sunshine. Morris Pearl to come out of the office around the corner. Would not have to work, already five years ago, the 59-Year-old of his Job was at the Wallstreet retirement, but retirement is not got to him. He now has a new task that earns him no money. But it’s not about him at all. On the contrary, Pearl wants to make a part of his money – to the state.
Nowhere in the world more millionaires than in New York. Pearl is one of them. He could not remember when he could not do the last Time because he had the money to do it. This is the essence of wealth, he says: “the fact that you have to make money, no thoughts.” In everyday life, he noted that, for example, when he goes clothes shopping. Once, when he was on the search for a new rain coat, showed him the seller is in a fine business different models. “I asked him: If the coats would all cost the same, which would you take?” It was the most expensive. This is a comfortable life, of course, a privileged. Pearl is like the Kingdom. But probably not more.
It is the growing inequality in the United States, the power to create the Pearl. The top one percent of Americans owns more than 40 percent of the assets in the country. The top 20 percent own 90 percent, and the remaining 80 percent share of the Rest. “We are moving in the direction of Apartheid,” he says. With a small layer of Rich, in all economic and political Power is concentrated. And a much larger layer of poor, who don’t know how to make a living. The middle layer: powdered. Pearl believes that the US citizens will not accept this development. “At some point, the point of an uprising is coming. And for the wealthy class, he is not going to end well.”
traitor to his class
to Avert the uprising in Pearls eyes is only one way: The tax system should be fairer. “People like me should pay more, as we had to do it for the past few decades.” He wants to change a system, it is his Mission. It is also the Mission of the organization he heads. It’s called Patriotic Millionaires, and together they form a group of more than 200 U.S. citizens have an annual income of more than one Million and assets of more than five million dollars. Patriotic millionaires, according to Pearl, because you will find that rich people should pay a fair share of taxes. “This is where America is, historically, that all contribute to the common good.” Some people, says Pearl, considered him a traitor to his class – a revolutionary from above.
Pearl Grew up in the rural North of the state of New York. The father of six village shops, a “general stores”, as they have influenced life in America for a long time. “The kind of area where the seller drags in “death of a salesman” his bags around,” says Pearl. He studied computer Sciences in Philadelphia and worked for several years as a consultant before he moved to New York to wall street. There, he earned at various investment banks a lot of money, and the millionaire he was, as tradition Bank, Paine Webber, for which he was then engaged, was acquired in 2000 by UBS. After a short detour into the science, he joined Blackrock, the world’s largest asset Manager, who advised during the financial crisis, many Central banks.
And so he found himself while in the drama of the Greek government debt in Athens, at a Meeting with executives at the headquarters of a large Bank. After lunch, it moved to Pearl a second Time to the dessert buffet, and because he was a little embarrassed, he stood by the window. As he looked out on the street, he saw a crowd of people, he initially thought it was a Parade. But what he saw was an angry Demonstration against the austerity policies imposed on the country. “I turned around and looked at the people with whom I had just ate, and I realized: Except for a few bankers and I’ll help anyone here.”
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a Short time later gave Pearl his Job at Blackrock and went into retirement. For nearly five years, he now leads the Patriotic Millionaires, who operate in Washington, D.C., office. Their first appearance, the group had, as it was in 2010 about whether a President George W. Bush’s temporary tax cuts for very high incomes would be extended. Today Pearl and his comrades-in-arms would want it to be a comprehensive tax reform. Politically, however, this is not very promising. Therefore, they lobby for intermediate steps – such as the elimination of loopholes. And support claims, as they come from the ranks of the Democrats: a top tax rate of 70 percent on income over $ 10 million. A tax of 2 percent on assets over $ 50 million. “The political climate has developed for our concern just positive,” says Pearl.
How strong high incomes should be taxed? A number of Pearl will not be set. It refers to the fact that the top tax rates were in the Golden post-war years, much higher than it is today: around 90 percent in the 1950s to 70 percent by the end of the 1970s. Only under President Ronald Reagan, the tax began to decline the sentence. After the tax cut to Donald Trump, he is at 37 percent – unfortunately, Pearl. Trump’s claim that he wants to make America great again. “But America “great”, as well as the Rich made a greater contribution – not only in the Form of donations.”
Switzerland: The richest one percent should be more heavily taxed “watch out, your rip-off,” says party President Tamara Funiciello on the occasion of the submission of the signatures in Bern (2. April 2019). Video: SDA
Exactly so – the donations justify many of the Rich in America, why should they not pay more in taxes. It is an Argument that holds a Pearl for a liar. “I could find without any major problems, $ 100 million for a new hall in the New York City Ballet. For such projects, donors. But who donates money for the wastewater treatment plant of 143. Road?” No citizen will ever be completely satisfied with how his government at the onset of the taxpayers ‘ money. “But the point of a democracy is that the voters decide, not a few Rich.”
Broken democracy
in addition to the taxes the Patriotic Millionaires, the growing influence drives wealthy donors on politics. Since the U.S. Supreme court in a controversial judgment in 2010, the limit for campaign donations picked up, poured enormous sums of money into the System – and the money comes from a tiny segment of the population. According to the independent Center for Responsive Politics, an Elite of 0.47 percent during the mid-term elections in 2018 for 71 percent of all political donations to be responsible. “Our democracy and cause damage,” says Pearl. “People like me have our money, access to politicians, which receives hardly anyone else.”
the other day he was at a fundraiser for a Senator in a Penthouse in New York. The politicians had come up to him and have him enthused, he may on such occasions. You were a wonderful opportunity to come under people. “I thought to myself: Is he crazy? He’s hundreds of miles from the voters-away with people who paid 1000 dollars for wine and appetizers to change a couple of sentences with a Senator. So he introduces himself to a Meeting with normal people?”
The USA is not the country in which he grew up, says Pearl. “The American dream for many people is dead.” His two adult sons and his Grand child would make with its own assets, never thought about what school you can afford and what not. “But for most Americans, the reality is different. You do not have the opportunities for advancement that I had.” And that, says Pearl, should not be.
(editing Tamedia)
Created: 04.04.2019, 18:27 PM
