Income Inequality Reaches Gilded Age Levels, Congressional Report Finds
The study by the Congressional Budget Office, released this week, found that income has become dramatically concentrated, shifting heavily toward the top earners between 1979 and 2007.
And although incomes at all levels have risen some, they've skyrocketed for the very wealthiest of earners.
At the other end of the scale, Americans in the bottom fifth of earners saw their incomes increase by less than 20 percent across the nearly three decades. Incomes for those in the middle 60 percent climbed by less than 40 percent over the same span.
Things start to look especially good for the top fifth of earners, who saw their cash flow jump by 65 percent.
But it's among the top 1 percent where the growth was breathtaking. That contingent saw their incomes spike by 275 percent.
"It is really stunning the degree to which rewards have been concentrated at the top," said Josh Bivens, an economist at the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute. "We have now returned to Gilded Age levels of inequality."
The hoarding at the top was so great that even after accounting for taxes, the "income received by the 20 percent of the population with the highest income exceeded the aftertax income of the remaining 80 percent," the CBO found.
So-o, as an overview here.......IF you do NOT think the masses will revolt,you have been living in na-na land. From a historical perspective,where there is inequality of any kind,there will be a correction (eventually)......It would be prudent to understand that we
are NOW at that point in history and the following years will be the correction. JMO
I'm just wanting to make sure I understand the equation here...
The top earners are somehow stealing this money they are making from everyone else, is that what I am supposed to understand? To what degree are those below the top 20% entitled to the income they are making?
I guess I'm just confused... is the top 1% running around as masked-men and robbing from the poor? I'm not sure I'm ever going to understand why there is such anger against the top 20%... what ever happened to the statement that it takes money, to make money? I suppose that this validates that thought, and that's the problem for some?
I'd prefer my economy and country to respect the freedom of those at all levels to make money without fear of being punished for being "too successful". I'm also concerned about OWS, because essentially they're equating this distancing with greed, and I have a strong disagreement with that statement. If greed is what is causing these top 20%'ers to make more money, becuase they yearn for more and more and more income... how does that differ from me going downtown to sleep in the park and demanding my share of someone else's income?
SIMPLE statement here.......when done with INTEGRITY and "mindfulness" of your actions,there IS nothing wrong.....however, if you
look deep within this problem you will see that is NOT the case.JMO
Steve Jobs? Who did he screw?
Warren Buffet?
Bill Gates?
Bernie Madoff? He tended to screw the people who had money.
This is free enterprise. Don't like the big banks and their executive bonuses, find a credit union.
Think hedge fund managers make too much, don't buy into hedge funds.
There are choices folks.
And suppose we have riots, who usually gets screwed? The poor who have their local businesses burned out and looted, the working class who gets their cars and homes burned.
The rich will have insurance pay and even more businesses and jobs will move out of the inner city.
It the 99%'s vote, why haven't they changed the tax code to sock it to the rich?
Thomas Sowell: There are no solutions, just trade-offs.
This was interesting, seems like Canada has the same "problem" with income inequality. Seems to me they have a much different system than the US. Doesn't this argue that tax policy is not the quick fix?
The gap between the rich and the rest is growing ever wider -- with the chasm increasing at a faster pace in Canada than in the United States.
That’s the conclusion of a Conference Board of Canada study Tuesday, which says income inequality has been rising more rapidly in Canada than in the U.S. since the mid-1990s.
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If you want to be, press one. If you want not to be, press 2
Republicans are red, democrats are blue, neither of them, gives a flip about you.
IF you look look at this from a MACRO perspective,since the world is NOW a global,interconnected economy.......a few have manipulated
the system (read financial and economic pro's)and it is called COLLUSION........do the research,you will find names,organizations and
affiliations that are interconnected,it will,however, take ALOT of digging,but the alliances are there.......this has NOT happened by accident. JMO (notice my tag line.....it has been my tag line FOREVER.)
Possible solutions. Distribute the earnings of chief executives to the workers. If you did that with the CEO of Wal-Mart, that would amount to $0.25 per worker. That surely will help them out this winter with their heating bills.
Thomas Sowell: There are no solutions, just trade-offs.
