About 10 years ago, I earned the most money in my entire life. It came to almost $100,000. Yesterday, I read in the New York Times that Jared Kushner earns over a million a year.
Maybe it’s the nature of the work we each do. Kushner is a real estate developer and I am a retired college professor. Let it be known that I have authored two books, and myriad scholarly articles.
If we can’t ascribe our wage differential to intelligence, we must look elsewhere for an explanation.
Over the years, at tax time, I have either paid Uncle Sam a small amount or received a miniscule return. Kushner, on the other hand (with a little help from his tax attorney friends), discovered that he didn’t have to pay any taxes thanks to a depreciation scheme.
For example, in 2015, Kushner took home $1.7 million, but declared losses of $8.3 million. In other words, his net loss was four times greater than his earnings. Why didn’t I think of that?
I live on Social Security and a pension. Need I worry about Kushner’s retirement? Maybe I should focus on defeating the politicians who write the laws that allow the “Kushners” of the world to amass huge fortunes.
Could Karl Marx have been right about the “rich getting richer?” I am not naive and am not calling for a massive redistribution of wealth. What we should be concerned about is that we are all playing on a level field. When some people (the 1% Bernie Sanders talks about) get all the benefits, we have a systemic problem.
Isn’t it time to “throw the rascals out” since they make the rules which enable the plutocrats to “rig the system.” Trump was right. We should “drain the swamp,” but we don’t have the same swamp in mind.
Dr. Hal Sobel
Great Neck
