Income Inequality at an All Time High

[Rohirrim]

It's tempting to draw parallels to the last time the income inequality was this high. It's when the Great Depression hit. I guess those who refuse to learn the lessons of history are doomed to repeat it.





Income inequality in the United States is at an all-time high, surpassing even levels seen during the Great Depression, according to a recently updated paper by University of California, Berkeley Professor Emmanuel Saez. The paper, which covers data through 2007, points to a staggering, unprecedented disparity in American incomes. On his blog, Nobel prize-winning economist and New York Times columnist Paul Krugman called the numbers "truly amazing."

Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/0..._n_259516.html

[Rohirrim]

Meanwhile, the silence of OUR government is deafening:

Two years into the revelation that Wall Street was playing a giant confidence game with the world, disguising bad and often fraudulent mortgages as highly rated securities, selling scam derivatives by the trillions, there have been no major prosecutions. Afloat in taxpayer bailouts and the giant bonuses they're awarding themselves once again, Wall Streeters are back to being their feisty selves. No executive has gone to jail. The only ones who've resigned are those who had no choice because their companies disappeared (James Cayne of Bear Stearns, Dick Fuld of Lehman, John Thain of Merrill Lynch) or who were shown to be such astonishing incompetents that their boards had no choice but to can them (Stanley O'Neal of Merrill, Chuck Prince of Citigroup).

http://www.newsweek.com/id/215579

[Garcia Bronco]

Is this your way of asking for a loan?

[Rohirrim]

Indeed, in a recent paper on tax policy prepared for the Hamilton project, my collaborators and I concluded from Congressional Budget Office data that, since 1979, changes in income distribution had raised the pre-tax incomes of the top 1 per cent of the population by $664bn or $600,000 per family - an increase of 43 per cent.By definition what one group gains from changes in the distribution of income another group must lose. The lower 80 per cent of families are $664bn poorer than they would be with a static income distribution, which works out to $7,000 less in income per family or a 14 per cent loss.

Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bruce-..._b_288629.html

[Rohirrim]

Originally Posted by Garcia Bronco

Is this your way of asking for a loan?

Don't you find it a little suspicious that during the longest period of stagnating or slipping wages for the American worker in history that the top !% are raking in more money than ever?

[Garcia Bronco]

Originally Posted by Rohirrim

Don't you find it a little suspicious that during the longest period of stagnating or slipping wages for the American worker in history that the top !% are raking in more money than ever?

Maybe, but what would we do to fix that? Take money from people? The American Dream is alive and well. Everyone has access to it whether we want to admit it or not.

[Rohirrim]

Originally Posted by Garcia Bronco

Maybe, but what would we do to fix that? Take money from people? The American Dream is alive and well. Everyone has access to it whether we want to admit it or not.

Yep. And the top 1% just have a little more "access" than anybody else.

[Garcia Bronco]

Originally Posted by Rohirrim

Yep. And the top 1% just have a little more "access" than anybody else.

That's just it...if you have 10 million you could live just off the interest. That's why it's important to accumulate wealth and have a strong family oriented upbringing. My Grandmother was dirt dirt poor. She obviously grewup during the Great Depression. She had one article of clothing and had 9 brothers and sisters. My mother did have much either, but because they struggled to gain higher socio-economic status thery were able to get me out of public schools and get me a great education that opened all kinds of doors. Sometimes it takes several generations for a family to achieve wealth. Conversely my father's side a great deal of wealth that was lost by the early 1900's. My family in America pre-dates the French and Indian War though.

[barryr]

Gee, maybe it's those in Hollywood making 20 million a film and professional athletes and their salaries that make the difference. Not to mention politicians who can't figure out how to pay their taxes. And just how much do the liberals in Hollywood give to charity? I do more than most of them and I'm hardly wealthy. But nah, blame those evil people on Wall Street and capitalism for that matter.

[gyldenlove]

Originally Posted by barryr

Gee, maybe it's those in Hollywood making 20 million a film and professional athletes and their salaries that make the difference. Not to mention politicians who can't figure out how to pay their taxes. And just how much do the liberals in Hollywood give to charity? I do more than most of them and I'm hardly wealthy. But nah, blame those evil people on Wall Street and capitalism for that matter.

It is easy to be liberal to the tune of 25 mill a year in salaries another 25 in endorsements, **** hollywood.

If I made that kind of dough I would be so consertive it would make Dick Cheney look like a socialist. We are talking reinstating slavery and public flogging of poor people conservative. I know, I am a bastard.

[Brainters]

The good news is that income inequality is going down dramatically over the next few years. The bad news is that it's because the economy is declining.

The wealthy do best in eras of strong growth; that's because their wealth is concentrated in financial assets. The poor also do best in eras of strong growth; that's because they can actually find jobs, although they don't do quite as well (obviously) as the wealthy do. Who does well in recessions? Repo men, mostly.

But hey, income inequality is going down. Break out the booze and celebrate!

ETA: Am I the only person to note that the chart in the OP ends sometime around 1999? Was income inequality at an all-time high during the halcyon years of the Clinton Administration?

[L.A. BRONCOS FAN]

Originally Posted by Brainters

Was income inequality at an all-time high during the halcyon years of the Clinton Administration?

Red Ink Ron ushered in the "greed is good" and "get government off our (read: corporate oligarchs and the already super-rich) backs" era.

Prior to Saint Ron's arrival, it was generally accepted (by both conservatives and liberals) that if you made more than $3 million a year then that was probably too much.

Nowadays, thanks to Red Ink Ron, it's taboo to even raise the subject of (or acknowledge the existence of) greed. The minute you do, you're accused (by the greedy themselves) of engaging in "class warfare."

It's OK to talk about the minimum amount of money someone should make (i.e., the minimum wage) but it's completely taboo to discuss what the maximum ought to be.

That just wouldn't be right. There just shouldn't be any limits to greed!

[L.A. BRONCOS FAN]

"Capitalism" Marches On

by Michael Moore

Link

Excerpt:
It wasn't till last night, at the annual convention of the AFL-CIO in downtown PittsburgH, PA, that a packed house of rank-and-file union members -- plumbers and nurses and steelworkers and 73 other trades -- watched the U.S. premiere of our film and, I kid you not, the roof practically came off the place as the credits rolled. I've never witnessed, in my 20 years as a filmmaker, such a response to one of my movies. The theater management must have thought a riot was going to break out. After years of having the crap kicked out of working people of this country, the crowd in Pittsburgh was ready to rumble after watching two hours of cinema that laid it all out about how Corporate America has gotten away with murder. I was profoundly moved by this overwhelming and enthusiastic response.

"Capitalism" will open in New York and L.A. next week and everywhere else on October 2nd.

Will the poorer-than-middle-class GOP-voting idiots see themselves and change their ways?

Hell no - they won't be happy until the Confederate flag flies over the White House.

[baja]

Originally Posted by Garcia Bronco

Is this your way of asking for a loan?

So are you remaining the loyal stooge for the elites.

Hint Garcia they don't care about you and no matter how you work my friend you will never be one.

[baja]

Originally Posted by Garcia Bronco

Maybe, but what would we do to fix that? Take money from people? The American Dream is alive and well. Everyone has access to it whether we want to admit it or not.

Sorry Garcia the American Dream is on life support and the plug could be pulled any day.

[baja]

Originally Posted by Garcia Bronco

Maybe, but what would we do to fix that? Take money from people? The American Dream is alive and well. Everyone has access to it whether we want to admit it or not.

The French had an interesting solution....

[rastaman]

Originally Posted by Garcia Bronco

Maybe, but what would we do to fix that? Take money from people? The American Dream is alive and well. Everyone has access to it whether we want to admit it or not.

Get the money from CORPORATIONS! Last time I checked a corporation isn't a person.

Garcia....pull your head out of your Republican-Pro Corporate Ostrich Hole.

[rastaman]

Originally Posted by Garcia Bronco

That's just it...if you have 10 million you could live just off the interest. That's why it's important to accumulate wealth and have a strong family oriented upbringing. My Grandmother was dirt dirt poor. She obviously grewup during the Great Depression. She had one article of clothing and had 9 brothers and sisters. My mother did have much either, but because they struggled to gain higher socio-economic status thery were able to get me out of public schools and get me a great education that opened all kinds of doors. Sometimes it takes several generations for a family to achieve wealth. Conversely my father's side a great deal of wealth that was lost by the early 1900's. My family in America pre-dates the French and Indian War though.

Thats just it...Gar, conservatives only think about themselves! GOP Conservatives in general seems to have gotten the gene-DNA marker of "I've Got Mind-Screw Everyone Else" mentality and its obviously passed down from generation after generation. Thats whats wrong with America today----There is nothing UNITED about the United States of America. Thanks to the Corporate-Republican-Conservative Ideologly that infects this country.

[L.A. BRONCOS FAN]

Originally Posted by rastaman

Get the money from CORPORATIONS! Last time I checked a corporation isn't a person.

Garcia....pull your head out of your Republican-Pro Corporate Ostrich Hole.

Co-sign.

Incredible how easily right-wing numb skulls like GB are hoodwinked into supporting reverse Robin Hood economics by corporate oligarchs and their sock puppets in the right-wing media.

No need to stress: you right-wingers who are frothing about "socialism" are always free to choose the conservative lifestyle anytime you want - just pay double whenever you stop to fill your tank. Or you could just send a check to ExxonMobil (or Lockheed Martin or Halliburton) at the end of every month.

[L.A. BRONCOS FAN]