To: FReepers; everyone; All
Posted on 10/27/2011 4:39:22 AM PDT by WOBBLY BOB
WASHINGTON - The richest 1 percent of Americans have been getting far richer over the last three decades while the middle class and poor have seen their after-tax household income only crawl up in comparison, according to a government study.
After-tax income for the top 1 percent of U.S. households almost tripled, up 275 percent, from 1979 to 2007, the Congressional Budget Office found. For people in the middle of the economic scale, after-tax income grew by just 40 percent. Those at the bottom experienced an 18 percent increase.
"The distribution of after-tax income in the United States was substantially more unequal in 2007 than in 1979," CBO Director Doug Elmendorf said in a blog post. "The share of income accruing to higher-income households increased, whereas the share accruing to other households declined."
The top 1 percent made $165,000 or more in 1979; that jumped to $347,000 in 2007, the study said. The income for the top fifth started at $51,289 in 1979 and rose to $70,578 in 2007. On the other end of the spectrum, those in the 20th percentile went from $12,823 in 1979 to $14,851 in 2007.
The report, based on IRS and Census Bureau data, comes as the Occupy Wall Street movement protests corporate bailouts and the gap between the haves and have-nots. Demonstrators call themselves "the 99 percent."
(Excerpt) Read more at twincities.com ...
And we ought to remember where we were in those good old days of 1979....20% interest rates (if you could get a loan) and a ridiculously (then) high unemployment rate.
Regan’s question is the only good one...”Are you better off now than four years ago?”
I guess in your world Ronald Reagan didn’t starve the Soviet Union of US trade and Capital, he instead allowed our manufacturing and technology to be wholesale sent there to increase market opportunities for American multi corporations.
You cheer the forces of freedom and free enterprise getting into bed with the Communist Chinese? You must approve of trade deals such as those which allowed the Communists to steal our missile gyroscope technology. Before that acquisition the Commies couldn’t hit a target 1000 miles away. Now their ICBMs with our technology are on a par with our own. And that is but one of many examples.
What is conservative about that? Those who cheer the bottom line above national security and the welfare of fellow Americans are not conservatives. They are traitors...or just plain ignorant. Which are you?
Like I said Corporate pimps put profit above country.
That’s not just wrong, it’s dangerous to our national security.
Google “wage stagnation”.
This report has been the entire MSNBC programming schedule.
Mobility has stagnated.
Opportunity has been “out sourced”
http://www.conference-board.org/pdf_free/TCB_CK-009_StratOutsourcing.pdf
American workers are forced to compete with communist prison labor in the job market. Trickle down failed. And here we are.
What makes you think this has to do with just Corporations? I see no surprise in this. It would be terrible if the rich did not get richer. So what? I hope they do. Unless you think .gov should take more of their money and give it to you. Once you save or make so much money I hope you are always getting richer. Otherwise our market is in the dumps. Let see someone at age 40 thiry years ago made and accumulated 2 million dollars. I hope it has increased at least 400% in thirty years. Unless they were stupid enough to spend every penny and not invest their money. This is pure propaganda for the masses.
Especially if you are a "Too Big To Fail" Bankster.
Not just Corporations but their political lackeys in Washington also.
Many people seem stuck on the fear of some sloth eating up their taxes as if the pittance spent on programs for the poor are more then a fraction of what the MIC spends on nation building wars and bringing democracy to places like Libia and Chad. But welfare is not the target is it. Social Security is. That is why the GOP is trying to redefine the program in the public mind as a welfare program. The GOP has gone off the rails.
You cheer the forces of freedom and free enterprise getting into bed with the Communist Chinese?
I agree with you that we don't share the same ideology.
I may be making the wrong assumption here, but it appears that you value ideology over humanity. I do cheer the forces of Freedom and Free Enterprise bringing untold prosperity to billions of people in Asia. I have traveled enough to know that there is the "Position of the Government" and there is the "Position of the People". When someone says "Iran wants to destroy Israel/US" it is treated as a universal statement of both the people and the government, when in fact it is talking about policies by some rulers, not necessarily the people. And in the case of Iran, its not the people who are itching for a war with Israel or the US - they mostly want to be left alone to pursue their own lives, not further the crack-pot agenda of lunatics who have managed to grab political power.
Dittos with China. "Management" has one set of goals, and that is to pursue the increased power of the State, whereas those in the fields, simply want what everyone else wants, to enjoy more wealth, leisure and personal pursuits.
Ultimately nearly everyone wants to accumulate more wealth and power. We each have our own way of getting there. Those who feel that power is their divine right and have no problem using force and violence to achieve it naturally gravitate to government positions as their vehicle. Lazy deadbeats empower those who promise to steal on their behalf. Those who haven't lost all of their character and virtue understand that Productivity is the key to their goals. Those who are flexible in their ethics will cheat and swindle others, while the honest will buckle down and serve their fellow man in exchange for their prosperity.
This paradigm is universal, its found in all nations, all people and all cultures. What is different is the government and the market environment. There has always been a tension between the oppressive, destructive and parasitic nature of government, and for the span of time, controlling the beast has been the cause of wars and strife. The free market, on the other hand, thrives with less government and is naturally Productive, Charitable and constructive.
In short, government destroys, free markets create.
It is believed by many that if you make the free market strong enough, that it will resist if not actually change oppressive governments. It looks to me, by your posts, that you don't share that belief. I'm not sold on it either, but even if the government doesn't change by the power of the strengthening market, one side benefit is certain - it improves the lives of those who are touched by the free market.
I care far more about people than the number of missile silos. Two generations have passed with numerous leaders of varying moral stability in control of ICBMs. We are all still here. What has indeed happened in the last two generations is that the poverty and squalor that marked the beginning of the 1900s has largely been eradicated at the end of the 1900s. Communism didn't make anyone better, but the Free Markets did, and the remnants of the Berlin wall is now decorative rock around a free person's garden.
I don't really understand the perverse linkage between the wealthy getting wealthier and how I need to be constantly scanning the skies for falling ICBMs from China, but surely you have made the connection - yet I promise I sleep better than you.
It isn't slogans of the Marxists "People Before Profits" or "Profits before People". Its "Let More People Profit".
Why is the “non-partisan” CBO coming out with these statistics at this time?
another Executive Order?
The goal of Capitalism is profit.
What is the goal of communism?
For one party the end all be all is the profit.
For the other party(communist)it(capitalism)is merely a means to an end. Our end. You seem to have found common cause with our enemy. Your rationalizations are lame, weak and dangerous.
You really believe a “free market” can exist within the ideology of communism? You are either deluded or you have studied very little political science. China is our buddy?
China Threatens to Use ‘Financial Weapon’ Against America
On Monday, People’s Daily, China’s leading newspaper, stated it was time for Beijing to consider using its “financial weapon” against the United States.
The Communist Party’s flagship publication suggested that the Chinese government “directly link” its purchases of US Treasury debt to Taiwan arms sales and “require” ratings agencies to downgrade the United States in order to force up interest paid to China. China should also “launch limited trade sanctions” against states whose representatives in Congress supportTaiwan. “China-US relations will always be constrained by these people and will continue along a roller coaster pattern if China does not beat them until they feel the pain,” the paper said.
The context for the stinging piece in the party’s self-described mouthpiece may be proposed arms sales to Taiwan, but the general message is clear: China should use its holdings of American obligations to accomplish its many geopolitical aims. “In fact, China has never wanted to use its holdings of US debt as a weapon,” the paper noted. “It is the United States that is forcing it to do so”.
http://visiontoamerica.org/3521/china-threatens-to-use-financial-weapon-against-america/
Agreed! There is large mobility between quintiles; did the the study look at the “share” of income for the top quintile, or did it look at the wealth of the individual members of the top quintile, which changed radically over the last 30 years. Think how many millionaires came out of the original move from mini-computers to PCs in the 1980’s, or the dot.com millionaires of the 1990’s.
A more interesting question would be, “what percentage of the top quintile in 1979 was still in the top quintile in 2009?”
This report confirms what is going on.
The govt is screwing us royally! inflation, bailouts, too much FIRE economy, outsourcing, etc.
The problem is that our policies are a frigging disaster for everyone but people in finance or who work for the Govt. .
Oh, yes. Another thing that AP willfully missed in this is that the Gom't hasn't given them raises keeping up with the cost of livin'. The government is the man keepin' em down!!!
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