Too Much: A Commentary on Excess and Inequality

	Dedicated to the notion that our world would be considerably more caring, prosperous, and democratic if we narrowed the vast gap that divides our wealthy from everyone else.


	An American Library Association "Outstanding Title" (Choice, Jan 2006) Read it free online!

Greed at a Glance
A weekly update on avarice in America and beyond

December 11, 2006

Who says lame ducks can’t get anything done? GOP leaders in Congress, roundly rebuffed by voters on Election Day, spent last week completing some unfinished business. In a closed-door session, House and Senate conference committee sachems okayed a tax break for wealthy Americans that had never passed either the House or the Senate on its own. The measure makes “Health Savings Accounts,” a two-year-old tax shelter that overwhelmingly benefits wealthy taxpayers, an even more potent tax dodge. The new tax break lets affluent Americans shift dollars out of IRAs, where they get taxed at withdrawal, into HSAs, where they never face taxes. By encouraging “higher-income, healthy individuals who need little or no health care” to open HSAs, says the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities, the new legislation will likely end up spiking the cost of health insurance for average Americans . . .

A new survey of America’s super-rich — those households worth at least $10 million — is predicting a heavy uptick in luxury spending this holiday season. Deep pockets, says an Elite Traveler poll, will be shelling out 25 percent more this year than last on holiday parties, travel, and shopping. Among the top holiday spending categories: spirits for entertaining (up 57 percent to $22,300) and yacht charters (up 12 percent to $410,600). The awesomely affluent will also be averaging $91,100 on holiday jewelry, $36,400 on designer fashions, $52,000 on luxury watches, and $25,700 on flat screen TVs and other electronics. And, yes, America’s swells are thinking about others, too, this holiday season. They plan, notes Elite Traveler, to average $94,200 in holiday charitable contributions . . .

Here’s some good seasonal news: Fewer cars may be clogging highway holiday traffic. Credit this possible drop-off to America’s richest shoppers. Nearly 25 percent of the nation's $10 million-plus households will “travel by private jet just to shop for holiday gifts.” And Ascend Development, a California-based airport company, will be ready for them. Ascend is now offering — for condo-style purchase — “state-of-the-art” private jet hangars, complete with relaxation rooms, crew quarters, and a host of other amenities “sure to delight the most discriminating clientele.” Private jetsters can even personalize their hangars with custom flooring, either “company logo or family crest.”

The financially fortunate who'd rather spend their travel time on terra firma can now do their customizing on a brand-new Ferrari. Buyers who lay out $175,000 and up for a Ferrari super-car can pick from among "a dozen leather colors and 13 colors of stitching." Lamborghini apparently feels no need to match Ferrari's custom options, even on its $300,000-plus Murcielago LP 640 Roadster. The reason? Sales of Lamborghinis in the United States are already running up 50 percent over last year. DaimlerChrysler, meanwhile, is pushing a new high-tech Mercedes-Benz, the $191,000 S65 AMG. Outfitted with radar cruise control, this V-12 sedan “automatically” slows or speeds up to keep a safe distance from any vehicle up ahead. Mercedes will manufacture 1,000 AMGs next year — and plans to sell half in the United States . . .

White House staffers were crowing last week after the Bureau of Labor Statistics announced that the average hourly wage for Americans in nonsupervisory jobs has jumped 2.8 percent from last to this October, after adjusting for inflation. That’s “huge,” Council of Economic Advisers chair Edward Lazear told reporters. “Huge” may not be quite the right word. Americans workers, after inflation, are still making no more per hour than they made in October 2003. Why the wage stagnation, despite rising worker productivity? The share of the nation’s income going to wages and salaries, the Commerce Department reports, has shrunk to 51.8 percent, the lowest share since 1929.