"I could choose to tell my story this way: 'I arrived with $250 in my pocket, and got where I am based entirely on my hard work.' This is true, but it's not the whole truth .... Every day I benefit from schools, hospitals, roads, bridges, parks, and civic amenities that were built and paid for by previous generations who were much less well off than we are today. Yet they had the collective will to invest in their future and the future of their children. I am worried, though, that things are changing in America. The kinds of public investments that made my success possible are vanishing ... But during the last decade, taxpayers in my income group received significant tax breaks ... Taxes are the price we pay to live in a civilized and healthy society. Those of us who have disproportionately benefited from public investments have a responsibility to pay back our society so that others can have similar opportunities."
Arul Menezes
I just finished watching an interesting documentary on this subject - "Park Avenue: Money, Power, and the American Dream". There are 2 parts of Park Avenue. One end is home to the highest concentration of America's billionaires, across the bridge you'll find some of the poorest neighborhoods of the country. The film shows exactly where we are standing today, and where we are heading. America's going down, indeed.
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