DUmbass posts an interesting chart

[SSG Snuggle Bunny]

Hm-m-m-m...


Now let's compare it to THIS chart:



Other data points to consider:

Reagan has a democrat congress throughout

Clinton has a GOP congress from 1994

Dems take back congress in 2007

Conclusions:

* Wealth goes up in the 90s as deficit shrinks.

* When dems take back congress wealth continues to grow but deficit sky rockets.

* 9/11 hits the top 1% and top 5th hardest while the middle 5th actually sees growth.

* Those who are dependent on government suffer most when personal wealth declines.


The DU thread itself is a bunch of but here's the link for formality's sake:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x8639878

[NHSparky]

Sorry, I'm having a hard time believing that median (and that's what the middle fifth effectively is) income has only gone up 25 percent in 30 years.  A REAL hard time believing that...to the point I'm going to look it up.

[DumbAss Tanker]

Sorry, I'm having a hard time believing that median (and that's what the middle fifth effectively is) income has only gone up 25 percent in 30 years.  A REAL hard time believing that...to the point I'm going to look it up.

Have to say I agree, what I did 30 years ago now pays more like 3 times what it did then, and it may actually fall in the second-lowest quintile instead of the middle one.  Even the minimum wage has almost tripled over that time.  Are these supposed to be inflation-adjusted dollars, perhaps?  But hten, that would seem to be just as big a distortion in the other direction.