dajoki (1000+ posts) Mon Jul-06-09 10:41 AM
Income Gap Highest in 30 Years
by Leigh Graham
Published July 06, 2009 @ 06:34AM PT
The poorest among us have increased their incomes by only $1,600 in 27 years - that's 16 cents per day.
...blah blah blah....
...in 2006, the top 1 percent of households had a larger share of the nation’s after-tax income, and the middle and bottom fifths of households had smaller shares, than in any year since 1979, the first year the CBO data cover...The data reveal starkly uneven income growth over recent decades. Between 1979 and 2006, real after-tax incomes rose by 256 percent — or $863,000 — for the top 1 percent of households, compared to 21 percent — or $9,200 — for households in the middle fifth of households and 11 percent — or $1,600 — for households in the bottom fifth. (my emphases)
Could this data be any starker? Bush era policies, basically Reaganomics on crack (heh), have dismissed the vast majority of us, not just the very poor. But for the most vulnerable, the effects have been brutal. $1,600 over 27 years? I know this isn't really acceptable as a back-of-the-envelope calculation, but consider this: that amounts to less than $5 per month, or about $.16 per day. Heck, we spend more than that to sponsor a child through the Christian Children's Fund.
...blah, blah, blah...
After this, a couple of pie charts indicating that the top 20% of earners in the US get only about half the income, after paying nearly all the taxes.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x5999143 What I notice is that, since 1979, with only 16 cents per day to spend, these people have all added cell phones, computers, high speed internet access, cable television, DVD players, digital cameras, and $100 sneakers. People clever enough to do that shouldn't be mired in poverty...unless they're lazy.
hfojvt (1000+ posts) Mon Jul-06-09 11:07 AM
4. I am surprised that it has gone up at all
Any real increase should make them better off, if not relatively better off. 16 cents a day is not a meaningful figure. Might as well figure .666 cents per hour or .0111 cents per minute or 1.85 x 10 to the -13th cents per nanosecond.
I had read that real incomes of the working poor had fallen, but with after-tax data used then the increases in the EIC must have helped.
Oh yeah, the earned income credit, the DUmmy bonus. That must be why they're doing so well.
TahitiNut (1000+ posts) Mon Jul-06-09 11:11 AM
Response to Original message
6. I've been yelling about this for over a decade. We're becoming a banana republic.
The "colonial economics" with a wealthy management/ownership class and a poor working class is a right-wing wet dream. Cheap labor and the commoditization of human beings.
DUmmy TahitiNut, a proud American patriot, will never rise to the level of a commodity.
JNelson6563 (1000+ posts) Mon Jul-06-09 11:19 AM
Response to Original message
8. Hooray! We suck!
But save the rich! Sometimes the state of affairs in our counrty makes me want to vomit.
Thanks for posting this important info. If only it had the appeal of Michael Jackson or gay marriage. Sadly it may well sink like a stone.
Here's to hopin' it doesn't.
Julie
This thread is really attracting the patriots. Must be carryover from the Fourth.
Hold on, here comes useless old DUmmy earth mom.
earth mom (1000+ posts) Mon Jul-06-09 11:24 AM
Response to Original message
11. A lot of us knew this and have experienced it first hand ever since Reagan.
Okay! So have we heard from everyone in the lazy, dirty, smelly bottom one percent of the population barrel? No? Oh, I see:
bobbolink (1000+ posts) Mon Jul-06-09 11:58 AM
17. "If only it had the appeal of Michael Jackson or gay marriage." You've said it all!
"Progressives" are just as culpable with their silence.
"First they ignore you, then they fight you, then you win." So, when can we get out of Stage 1???
You can't talk about dirty, smelly losers without a comment from dirty, smelly DUmmy bobbolink.
