In a couple of weeks, we will celebrate Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, recognizing his fight for equality and economic justice.

Forty-three years after his assassination, that fight continues.

Economic injustice has been increasing in this country where the wealthy become wealthier even faster while the rest of us struggle with stagnant wages and/or part-time low paying jobs or no jobs.  Also contributing to this injustice is taxation unfairness.

The rich and corporations do not pay their fair share of taxes, and haven't for many decades.  Meanwhile, the GOP and more often than not, their DINO colleagues. continue slashing taxes to benefit the wealthy few and corporations (as Obama seeks corporate tax cuts this year) while the common good is dismissed, the not wealthy "others" are told they're on their own and this republican democracy slips into plutocratic dictatorship on its way to becoming a banana republic.

Paul Rosenberg at Open Left writes that if millionaires paid the fair share, state budget gaps, for instance, would disappear.

"My last diary, "Texas hold'em--NOT!" included a look at the unequal tax rates in Texas, which has one of the most regressive tax systems in the country.  But virtually all states have regressive taxes, the only difference is how regressive they are. From "Who Pays? A Distributional Analysis of the Tax Systems in All 50 States", the average tax distribution of all states (as of 2007) is as follows:

"If we were simply to raise the tax rate on the top 1% to the same level as that paid by the bottom 20%, that alone would virtually wipe out all the state budget shortfalls.

"In short, the problem isn't lack of money.  It's lack of fairness.  Just as it was in 1968, when Martin Luther King lost his life, marching for economic justice."