On October 18, 2008 (almost 7 years ago) I wrote a commentary here in "PolitiDose" concerning Hedge Fund Managers, the staggering amount of money they made and the resulting power they possess on the economy and the nations financial system. It was just another example pointed out in "PolitiDose" many times over how wealth was being transferred from the middle class to the wealthy.
That October 18 commentary talked about an article in Forbes magazine reporting that the top 20 Hedge and private equity fund individual fund managers earned a combined total of $18.7 billion in 2007, up 43% from 2006. In other words those 20 earners earned an average of $935 million each for that year. Oil man T. Boone Pickens was one of the 20 hedge fund managers. Pickens has also been the subject of past "PolitiDose" commentary
Now comes two articles published in the Huffington Post dated September 10 concerning the same subject matter written by New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio and filmaker Robert Greenwald. Their two articles reported that the 25 top hedge fund managers in 2014 made more money than every single kindergarden teacher in America, over 150,000 of them and paid a lower tax rate than the average kindergarden teacher because of an IRS loophole that was created for other purposes before hedge funds even came into existence.
Some other findings in the articles are as follows: (a) If hedge fund managers were taxed like everyone else, there would be at least $17.7 billion tax dollars to: (b) pay the salary of 560,000 new classroom aides for over crowded classrooms, (c) fund free school lunches for the entire country with $5 billion to spare.
Those two articles are certainly welcome and should have been recognized by the two authors a long time ago, but better late than never. The subject matter of fair taxation for all and the transfer of wealth from the middle class to the wealthy was put at the top of "PolitiDose" commentary long before any one started to talk about income inequality, for that is what the transfer of wealth is all about.
It is another example why the public needs to elect serious public officials to make a difference and rewrite the tax code where everyone pays his or her fair share and to eliminate the special interest of those who care only of themselves.
This commentary written by Joe Lorio
