1. Phillips, Kevin. American Dynasty: Aristocracy, Fortune, And The Politics of Deceit In The House of Bush. Viking Penguin, 2004. 67
2. Domhoff, G. (2005, April 1). The Class-Domination Theory of Power. Retrieved January 13, 2015. paragraph 2.
3. Baker, D. (2006). Doctors and Dishwashers: How the Nanny State Creates Good Jobs for Those at the Top. Retrieved January 13, 2015. paragraphs 5 & 12
4. ibid, paragraph 11
5. ibid, paragraph 3
6. Krugman, Paul. The Conscience of a Liberal. W.W. Norton, 2007. 48-49
7. Harvey, David. The Enigma of Capitalism And The Crises of Capitalism. Oxford University Press, 2010. 14
8. Krugman, Paul. The Conscience of a Liberal. W.W. Norton, 2007. 88-89
9. ibid, 150
10. Chancellor, Edward. Devil Take the Hindmost: A History of Financial Speculation. Farrar, Straus, & Giroux, 1999. 263
11. For a whole litany of tax evasion schemes see: Johnston, David Cay. Perfectly Legal: The Covert Campaign To Rig Our Tax System To Benefit The Super Rich---And Cheat Everybody Else. Portfolio, 2003.
Korten, David C. When Corporations Rule the World. Kumarian Press & Berrett-Koehler Publishers, Inc., 1995. 94-95
David C. Korten wrote about Sweden in the early 1980s, which was undergoing a similar transformation as the United States, at about the same time.
"Maintaining a belief in Sweden meant increasing the share of the national product going to profits compared with wages so that Sweden's industrialists would find it worthwhile to invest at home. This was accepted as the price of maintaining full employment at a time when unemployment elsewhere in Europe was running at 8 to 9 percent or higher." page 94
This policy pushed profits for Swedish companies to previously unheard of levels. page 94
He went on: "With so much more money in their pockets than could be absorbed by productive investments, Swedish investors turned to speculation, driving up prices of real estate, art, stamps, and other speculative goods." page 95.
12. Korten, David C. When Corporations Rule the World. Kumarian Press & Berrett-Koehler Publishers, Inc., 1995. 217-218
13. Reich, Robert B. Supercapitalism: The Transformation of Business, Democracy, and Everyday Life. Alfred A. Knopf, 2007. 23
14. Krugman, Paul. The Conscience of a Liberal. W.W. Norton, 2007. 148
15. Johnston, David Cay. Free Lunch: How The Wealthiest Americans Enrich Themselves At Government Expense (And Stick You With The Bill). Portfolio, 2007. 261; Stiglitz, Joseph E. The Roaring Nineties: A New History of the World's Most Prosperous Decade. W.W. Norton, 2007. 115-116.
* Let me add this: Stock options are a boon in themselves. This is to say nothing of the innumerable stock option scandals there have been, since, say, 1980. For example, I don't like to speak ill of the dead but Steve Jobs, founder of Apple Computer was awarded millions of dollars in stock options at a board of directors meeting that never took place. Instead of fixing the mistake, he arranged to have the options converted into restrictive stock, worth hundreds of millions of dollars. The government brought civil charges against Apple's general counsel and its chief financial officer. The latter admitted to wrongdoing, gave up $3.5 million and said that he had warned Jobs about the improper pay.
David C. Johnston wrote: "Still, by late Summer 2007 the government had taken no action against Jobs. The Apple board, which included Al Gore, portrayed Jobs as an unknowing victim of complicated rules even though they have been in effect since before Apple went public decades ago."
Source: Johnston, David Cay. Free Lunch: How The Wealthiest Americans Enrich Themselves At Government Expense (And Stick You With The Bill). Portfolio, 2007. 16
*Let me add one other item I did not touch on in the body of the essay. But another mechanism for excessive elite income is pay deferral schemes. It goes roughly like this:
1. Executive declines to take delivery of a big chunk of his pay, instead deferring payment until some future year.
2. No taxes are taken out, because, technically, the executive has not been paid yet.
3. The executive gets to invest the full amount that is deferred.
4. The company invests the deferred amount. The money could be put back into the company; most often its put into a separate account and cannot be used to finance the company's operations.
5. Money set aside in such separate trusts are often invested in life insurance, mutual funds, or company stock.
6. The dividends and interest earned in the deferral account usually keep building inside the account, untaxed. A few executives do choose to have the dividends paid out, in which case they become immediately taxable.
7. When the executive cashes out (usually at retirement) the company withholds the income taxes and pays the executive the balance, usually in installments over a period of years.
8. Executives, senior sales agents, movie stars, and pro athletes get such deferral deals.
Source: Johnston, David Cay. Perfectly Legal: The Covert Campaign To Rig Our Tax System To Benefit The Super Rich---And Cheat Everybody Else. Portfolio, 2003. 47-49
