Posted on 01/23/2013 4:37:27 AM PST by Sir Napsalot
..... from the Declaration of Independence: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal….” Republican presidents talk about freedom. Democratic presidents talk about equality.
Actually, Democratic presidents do more than talk about it. The Vanderbilt political scientist Larry Bartels looked at income growth for families at various income percentiles under Democratic and Republican presidencies. His calculations covered the years 1948 to 2005. The graphic artist Catherine Mulbrandon of VisualizingEconomics.com took Bartels’ data and turned it into a chart that illustrates very dramatically why, if you care at all about income inequality, you should vote Democratic. ....
What Bartels found was that under Democrats, income growth was fastest for those at the bottom of the income distribution and tapered off as you moved up the income distribution. Under Republicans, the precise opposite occurred. Income growth was fastest for those at the top of the income distribution and tapered off as you moved down the income distribution. Another striking feature of the Bartels chart was that overall economic growth was greater under Democrats than under Republicans.
Obama’s first term represents a break from that tradition. Under Obama, income growth has been confined almost entirely to those at the top of the income distribution, continuing a pattern that began under President George W. Bush. As of 2010, 93 percent of the economic recovery (which began the year before) was going into the pockets of the top 1 percent. As of 2011, median income had fallen 8.1 percent since 2007. In 2011 the Gini index, which measures broad-based income inequality, saw its biggest one-year rise since 1993. When you factored in government taxes and benefits and private employment benefits like health insurance, median income was basically flat, but that’s nothing to write home about. ......
(Excerpt) Read more at tnr.com ...
Both Krugman and Stiglitz opined on the 'income inequality' on economy and recovery just the past few days.
We all know that, now we get to see the equality presidency becasue the voting public wanted it also. "Toto, this isn't Kansas anymore."
Income Inequality = Put it more plainly, we are expiriencing the mother of “Grand Theft” of all times.
As Levin put it, Obama's outright Imperial Presidency. Obama no longer needs to hide behind trurhspeak and slight of hands. It is naked there for anyone bothers to see.
Let’s say you make #250,000 a year and I make $50,000. The disparity between our incomes is $200,000. If we both get an identical 10$ pay raise, the disparity will grow to $220,000. Multiply this process over an 8 year term and inequality seems to grow. Depressions, recessions and other economic downturns tend to hurt those at the top the most—the more you have the more you have to lose. Looked at in those terms income inequality is not such a bad thing.
In their math, one person makes 250,000 a year, but 100,000 make 50,000 a year. Thus the great inequality, because MORE people at the bottom ‘suffering the injustice’.
And we will see more and more naked mention of the Collectivism, the Greater All.
Obama's speech updated that to liberte, egalite, sodomie.
He also made clear that to him, "liberty" is a meaningless word. Sort of like the word "Democratic" when used by a Communist regime.
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