The Triggers of Economic Inequality

January 15, 2012

By Troy Oxford and Lauren Feeney

In recent years, the rich have seen their wealth grow dramatically while the poor and middle class have basically flatlined. It’s no accident, argue Jacob Hacker and Paul Pierson in their book Winner-Take-All Politics. The infographic below, which draws from Hacker and Pierson’s book, explains how our politicians — on both sides of the aisle — fell under the spell of corporate dollars and re-engineered our economic system to favor the wealthy. The dark green line shows the income trajectory for the top 1 percent since 1970, while the light green line shows the bottom 90 percent. Click the orange triangles to learn about critical turning points that helped create the skewed system we have today.

More about Paul Pierson »

More about Jacob Hacker »

From the show

Bill Moyers Essay: Occupying a Cause

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TOPICS: Money & Politics

TAGS: economic inequality, glass-steagall, money and politics, mopo, one percent, wall street, winner take all politics

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Normvic1
I like it, is explained why there’s no indept.congress, but failed to explain the superme court’s direction in elections? and what motivates them?
Anonymous
Doesn’t paint an especially good picture for Clinton either.
Brucereno
The best policies money can buy. This is not republican or democratic ineptitude. This is the influence of corporate cash on politicians of both stripes. They call it lobbying….rather than bribery. Its plain and simple bribary. Members of Congress will screw the majority as long as the corporations and weathly keep sending in those checks. If a vote brings in enough cash…what’s the problem?
survivor
Finally, a graph across party lines. Wake up. The idea of the common good has been redfined; free market captialism stands unmasked as not just a political party thing but as a structure created by financiers and the ruling elites. Just say no.
http://www.facebook.com/jamelia.saied Jamelia Saied
And we wonder why a loaf of bread that cost 50 cents in 1967 now costs $2.50–or worse, gas which was at about $1/gallon and now, here in Alaska, is at $3.80/gallon. Somethings got to change before we have a revolution.
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_CKJVNZSSCYC7BRYHQR3EU47COA Roger
One fix: Permit only registered voters to contribute to campaigns and parties in very limited amounts.
Another: Prohibit governments at all levels from borrowing money.
Last: Outlaw inflation by requiring that all loans be repaid in adjusted dollar amounts. (Gummint is the big winner in inflationary times.)
http://www.facebook.com/oldgymrat71 James Michael McDaniel
The regulations enacted by the NEW DEAL were good and necessary. Let’s return to a system that was working before power lusting after more power broke it.
Jeff Little
Please don’t confuse income inequality with inflation. If things cost twice as much but people at the same point in their careers earn three times as much, then you are doing well. This is more a case of things costing 5 times as much, people earning 5 times as much, and the rich earning 15 times as much as before. Of course inflation fails to take everything into account, so if the official numbers say parity with earlier times, then the actuality is worse than that.
Jeff Little
We liberals need to do our part by saying it was the New Deal that brought us out of the Great Depression, rather than world war two. By setting the frame that WWII brought us out of the great depression, they moved the battleground to one where they can sway public opinion more easily.
Robertsmellis
Ahhh. What a difference a Bill Moyers makes. Good to have you back.
masked crusader
Take back the country. Repeal corporate personhood through the constitution!
masked crusader
We need a revolution!!!
Anonymous
Gee, I have to wonder how much $31K in income in 1970 is worth in 2011 Dollars??? Right offhand I would guess almost 500% more, or $150K or so!!! In 1970 I bought gas for a boat at the end of a dock near Pontiac, MI for 28 cents per gallon, and in 1973 in Michigan, gas was 37 cents per gallon for full service and a pack of smokes was 40 cents in a machine. In 1975 I rented a 3-bedroom house in suburban Detroit for $150/month, and in 1979 I earned $9.31/hour as a metal machinist, I bought a brand-new Dodge van for $5600, and I shared a 2-BR house with another guy from work for $200/month total rent, or $100/month each. And in 1982, a newer 4-BR/2-BA house rented for $375/month in suburban Denver too.
Think that’s bad, just wait until the Dollar is only worth 20% of what it is today in another 40 years….while the income of the top 1% exceeds the inflation rate by another 400% too!!! In fact, if the current growth in income disparity that has existed since 1980 continues through 2050, just 38 years from now, by then, 2/3rds to 3/4ths of all Americans will live below the poverty line!!!   Also, if we can only manage an average of 2% GDP growth from now through 2050, by then 40 to 50 million American adults of working age will be unemployed too, which will help keep wages way down too!!!
We can change the future but we can’t get there voting Republican, whose leaders would like nothing better than a complete restoration of the robber baron era where workers weren’t even worth a dime a dozen. If you want to go back to earning $2.oo/hour working 75 hours per week in absolutely horrid, unsafe, and unhealthy working conditions, without any Social Security or Medicare for the day when you get too worn-out to continue, vote for the Republicans in 2012. If you want a better future for the bottom 90% of Americans, and if you want the wealthiest to pay their fair share…..,
The top Income tax rate was 70% in 1968 when Richard Nixon was President, and it was also 70% during the Johnson and Carter Presidencies, and the Capital Gains tax rate was 42% too. Isn’t it odd how over 92% of all US Federal debt was incurred since the Reagan tax cuts for the wealthy? How many permanent jobs did those tax cuts create?   100 million jobs in China???
Yeah, in 1973, back when gas was 37 cents per gallon and a pack of smokes was 40 cents, the minimum wage was $1.60/hour, so at that time, you could have bought 4 gallons of gas or 4 packs of smokes for an hour of work at the minimum wage. Today, 4 packs of smokes are averaging $25 and 4 gallons of gas are averaging $15, so I figure that in order for a minimum wage worker to have kept pace, that his wage should be close to $20/hour at the very least.   Instead, your Republicans think that $7.25/hour is way too high!!!
There is an easy solution for this, which would be re-instituting protective tariffs while forcing any American company that wants to sell its products here to manufacture its products here. Yes, costs would rise, and wages would have to rise too, but I for one would be glad to pay double for products made in America if my wages were at least double too.   As wages rose, tax collections would also rise, as well as contributions to Social Security and Medicare too, and fairly quickly our budget deficits would be greatly reduced and the solvency of our State and local budgets and retirement programs would also be enhanced.
What good has unrestricted foreign trade done for you?   How many of our Asian trading partners buy American-made products other than oil, coal, or agricultural products? You want your middle-class job back? We need a 65% majority in the House and Senate plus the Presidency to get there.
For every rich guy who takes his money and runs, there will be several would-be rich guys waiting to take their place too!!!
Bruce Barnes
The wealthiest 400 people are Billionaires and have more
net worth than half of all tax payers. The top 1 percent has over 40 percent of
all personal net worth. The next 4 percent has 35 percent of all personal net
worth. How much money is enough? What would the economy be like if 1 percent
had 99 percent of the money?
“There is one and only one social responsibility of
business — to use its resources and engage in activities designed to increase
its profits so long as it stays within the rules of the game.”
Milton Friedman
Corporations and wealthy people have the ability to influence and write the rules.
The “Laffer Curve” is an untested thought experiment based on payroll like taxes where the first dollar is taxed the same as the last dollar. The basic assumption is “If you tax someone’s wages too high they will stop working overtime and at 100 percent, they will quit their job.”
This is not true for progressive income taxes in the real world where the tax brackets increase with increasing income. Here the assumption is, “People will continue accumulating wealth until they reach their maximum marginal tax bracket and then stop their income producing activities.”
Let’s use Mr. Warren Buffet as an example. I feel that Warren Buffet does more than most to stay within the rules of the game and I use him
as an example only because his taxes are public. Mr. Buffet is on the Forbes 400 list of the wealthiest people and Forbes reports his net worth in 2009 as $40 Billion, in 2010 as $45 billion and in 2011 as $50 Billion. It is safe to say his income for 2010 exceeded $5 Billion. His AGI Income reported to the IRS for 2010 was $63 million and he paid 17 percent in taxes or $11 million. Warren’s first $100,000.00 of wages will be taxed the same as anyone else making $100.000. If the maximum marginal tax bracket is raised to 50 % his tax may go
up to $25 million on his $63 million of AGI, Warren would not skip a beat. He would not close one store or take any money out of the bank. If the maximum tax rate was raised to 100 percent, he would not shut down one corporation. In fact he could not stop making income and then restart the next year. The Laffer curve would be a monotonic increasing line starting at the first tax bracket, which means that government revenue increases as the tax brackets are increase.
Why is this important? Republicans have almost bankrupted the country based on the false policy that “tax cuts will increase government revenue.” It’s especially harmful for the government to issue bonds to give wealthy people and large companies tax breaks.
Bruce Barnes
The wealthiest 400 people are Billionaires and have more
net worth than half of all tax payers. The top 1 percent has over 40 percent of
all personal net worth. The next 4 percent has 35 percent of all personal net
worth. How much money is enough? What would the economy be like if 1 percent
had 99 percent of the money?
“There is one and only one social responsibility of
business — to use its resources and engage in activities designed to increase
its profits so long as it stays within the rules of the game.”
Milton Friedman
Corporations and wealthy people have the ability to influence
and write the rules.
The “Laffer
Curve” is an untested thought experiment based on payroll like taxes where the
first dollar is taxed the same as the last dollar. The basic assumption is “If you tax someone’s
wages too high they will stop working overtime and at 100 percent, they will
quit their job.”
This is
not true for progressive income taxes in the real world where the tax brackets
increase with increasing income. Here
the assumption is, “People will continue accumulating wealth until they reach
their maximum marginal tax bracket and then stop their income producing activities.”
Let’s use Mr. Warren Buffet as an example.

I feel that Warren
Buffet does more than most to stay within the rules of the game and I use him
as an example only because his taxes are public. Mr. Buffet is on the Forbes
400 list of the wealthiest people and Forbes reports his net worth in 2009 as
$40 Billion, in 2010 as $45 billion and in 2011 as $50 Billion. It is safe to
say his income for 2010 exceeded $5 Billion. His AGI Income reported to the IRS
for 2010 was $63 million and he paid 17 percent in taxes or $11 million. Warren’s
first $100,000.00 of wages will be taxed the same as anyone else making
$100.000. If the maximum marginal tax bracket is raised to 50 % his tax may go
up to $25 million on his $63 million of AGI, Warren would not skip a beat. He
would not close one store or take any money out of the bank. If the maximum tax
rate was raised to 100 percent, he would not shut down one corporation. In fact
he could not stop making income and then restart the next year. The Laffer
curve would be a monotonic increasing line starting at the first tax bracket, which
means that government revenue increases as the tax brackets are increase.

Why is this important? Republicans
have almost bankrupted the country based on the false policy that “tax cuts
will increase government revenue.” It’s especially harmful for the government
to issue bonds to give wealthy people and large companies tax breaks.
Mhalligan83
Now how did this happen? Basically, those in power/Congress, don’t represent the middle and lower classes, they represent the upper class, hence the inequality. Daniel Moynihan wrote about this back in the 1960′s.
R U Hertwig
It is the fact that income has remained steady over the past 40 year or so that has brought the American economy to where it is now, in spite of the relatively high rise in labor productivity. Had this rise been acknowledged by the politicians, the lobbyists and all those think tankers out there in think- tank-land that it was due to labor’s skills and efforts and granted to them, the economy and vast majority of the American people would not be in the situation they find themselves today. And the presidential election of 2008 sought to bring about the desired turn of events but it did not, thanks to President Obama’s overriding concern for the rich and wealthy, who, according to our politicians (and Obama too) , are the “job creators” in the American system of politics and way of life. These Americans who think their way of thinking and their way of life is the only thing that matters, and that the rest of us better conform to their rules, are what ruined the American dream, for, as Keynes and his followers have taught the world some 60 or 70 years ago, economic growth and full employment grow hand in hand only if, in the long run, labor receives a fair share of its growth in productivity because the wealthy cannot consume all this additional output, and labor must receive a higher income to consume the increase in output due to the growth in productivity. Instead, the wealthy and the high income earners have taken the income they cannot consume to Wall Street, to the Bankers and to the real estate market to gamble with this excess income in the hope of gaining even more whereby a very small minority, “the experts in finance and corporate affairs” (the very top .1%) enriched themselves with the money provided to them by the Federal Reserve System. The truth is that there is too much saving and not enough consumption, and too little to invest, thanks to the Fed’s “liberal money” producing policy from which no one benefits excepts the bankers, the corporations and Wall Street and all their hangers-on. That is the real tragedy of thee past 35 years of the American way to prosperity.
Anonymous
That is due to NAFTA. I bet he regrets it; I would like someone to ask him about it.
Makirchner
No one has disproved Keynesian economics, almost of Century of prosperity supports it.
But the Austrian School brought the world Hitler.
Can this Republican Austerity bring us anything but poverty to all of America, except the fortunate few who feel “entitled”?
Neal Frankel
Is the $30,981 for 2009 in 2009 dollars, has the amount been adjusted for inflation since 1970?
Pata Man
I sure wish it would have been that easy! Running a business —working or on call 24/7—-sweating how to make the weekly payroll—–etc. along the way I was fortunate to purchase a few properties that were to become my retirement. they have provided an income that is less than that of a goverment worker but adaquet to get by—–My investments put me in the so-called 1%—–I would gladly trade the tough life I endured, for that of a simple goverment job—with a greater retirement that is secure?????
Pata Man
So true, the reality is that one must have the equevalent of severl million dollars to provide the annual income equal to that of the average teacher,fireman,civil employe etc.
Mbfaust
Um. . . I kind of sympathize with your political views, but I have to fault your logic on the money. If you’ll notice, the dollar figures are corrected for inflation using an index of 2008. That does NOT mean that the average person in the lower 90 percent made 30,000 1970 dollars–far from it. It means that they made 30,000 2008 dollars, or the equivalent of that, certainly a much lower figure, probably about $7000-8000.
John D in Branson MO
A different question to ask is “does the membership in the top 1% stay the same?” I don’t know the answer but my guess is no. The top 1% are clearly billionaires. But who are they? Are they people of generational money, wealth passed from one generation to the next? (Earned by being the offspring of wealth) Or are they business people that are newly wealthy as a result of business decisions. Think Google, Yahoo, Microsoft, Dell. These are creators of wealth, not caretakers of money.
How do you redistribute wealth in society without causing unintended side effects? We can raise the Capital Gains rate but that will discourage “risk taking” and so have a chilling effect on new investment.
Risk and Capital formation go hand in hand. Small businesses are the primary job creators in our Economy.
Bud mullen
Repeal of Glass-Seagal Act was the cause of this financial collapse. Before that repeal, banks were banks and investors were investors. Banks loaned money to responsible borrowers,and paid a reasonable interest rate for the savers that gave them that privalege. They didn’t make windfalls, but they made a good and reasonable income. And people were allowed to save, borrow and live with there safe savings. Investment entities were free to take all the risks they were willing to take. If they lose they lose, if they win they win. That is the way it should be to be free. With repeal of the Glass- seagall Act, your bank savings money was blended with the highflyer investment (speculative) community. You no longer had any control whatsoever over the fate of your hard earned money. And the likes of Barney Frank an Maxine Waters insisted that they be used for risk in the market for those who had no prayer of making it work financially for them, and even had a Bush Chief regulator fired for wanting to have market discipline. Let’s get real, and reinstate Banks as Banks and investment capital as two different identities. It worked great from 1933 until the 90′s when it was repealed and caused everything to collapse. Bud Mullen
John D in Branson MO
The authors failed to mention two important factors in the world economy and their effects on the American economy; Globalization and Automation. Globalization means that is cheaper to manufacture outside of the US to take advantage of the difference in wage rates. Lower wages in other countries, global shipping and the internet are driving forces. Automation has further reduced jobs. Factories are replacing workers with machines and robots. Productivity is growing at the expense of the labor market. Simply put, we are doing more with fewer people.
Those two trends have and will do more damage to middle America than anything cited by the authors.
John D in Branson MO
No onehas proved or disproved Keynes’s theories. Economics at the Macro level can never be fully tested and so proved or disproved.
Macro Economic Theory (any) is like religion. You believe what you believe and it can’t be absolutely proven.
As for Keynes, Milton Friedman or Pres. Nixon said “we are all Keynesians now”? The problem is, we embrace Keynes during downturns (stimulate by deficit spending) but ignore him when the economy recovers. (pay down the deficit?)
John D in Branson MO
Modest inflation is IMPORTANT to any economy. Why? Buy today because it will be more expensive tomorrow.
High inflation is obviously bad.
Deflation is worst of all. Put off buying today because it will be less expensive tomorrow.
Gloria Dunham
Yes, “bribery” IS a more appropriate term for what went down. But the fact, now proven that people like the Bushes can actually steal elections makes the history of how the American Economy was looted almost a moot point. The senseless wars created by politicians such as they, no doubt, sped up the destruction of our American economy. If we are brain-washed by our big news media as we presently are, people in this country won’t have clue as to who to vote for. I personally watched the players in Congress for a few years. C-Span is not of interest to many in our country, but they ought to be aware of what politicians have proposed what and thereby, be enlightened as to who to vote for. In addition, we have a Supreme Court now out-balanced by conservative justices who’s decisions appear to be for the most part, unAmerican and unconstitutionally oriented. We the People COULD make it our duty to watch Congressional politicians, see how they vote, learn who is consistently FOR our Constitution and who is just looking out for themselves. I learn more by listening to C-Span, but if you don’t have the time, just listen to the best news on NPR Radio.
Gloria Dunham
Yes, the New Deal under the auspices of Franklin Delano Roosevelt was the single cause of our rising to greatness. It created a very widespread and strong middle class and if you have studied Sociology, you know that the middle class is the stanchion for our greatness. When the Bushes touted their “New World Order”, it had great meaning to the powerful 2 or 3% elite. It meant that they would be able to rob, loot and plunder all over the globe. Bush never explained that He made it sound as though it was something which was for everyone’s benefit. Opening trade with backward nations enabled the very rich to become richer. It was in directly antithetical to FDR’s New Deal, in that cheap labor could be had in foreign countries, sans retrictions of our laws.
Gloria Dunham
The super rich now own our politicians, the media is a large part of that group. The watered-down news we now get , the repitition of small happenings which have no bearing nor consequences for the majority of us and which are repeated ad absurdem, are dumbing us and turning our minds to mush. We need to be liberal enough to seek out good sources for our information. Most of all, we need to be skeptical of what the news and the politicians are covering up.
http://www.facebook.com/people/Jean-Sutherland/594842540 Jean Sutherland
Many fail to understand or recognize the part that the 99% played in this debacle. They blindly watched as all this was happening and did not vote people out of office or participate in the political system of voting.
The public has been fooled more than once which is a reminder of the saying, fool me once shame on you. Fool me twice shame on me.
The end result of not watching what was going on is what led to this state of affairs. We the 99% let them do this to us and only we can stop it.
Mary Ann Gundersen
The authors addressed this issue in the television show. They looked at other countries who have also been exposed to the forces of globalization and did not see the same income inequality in those nations. The current state we are in is not simply a result of “globalization” and cheap labor.
Physics Prof
Re: “These are creators of wealth…” The creators of wealth are the factory workers, the coal miners, the folks working the oil fields and the farm fields, the policemen, the firemen, the bakers, the electricians, the carpenters, the plumbers, the engineers, the scientists, the programmers, the teachers, the janitors, the guys who plow the roads after a snow storm, the airplane pilots, the cooks and the chefs, the accountants, etc., etc. Without them, there would be no wealth. Remove a single one, and the system breaks down. But these don’t share the wealth created. So let’s talk about redistribution of wealth. Let’s talk how wealth is redistributed taken from those that created that wealth and given to the top 1% (perhaps a bit more).
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100002371066874 Andrew John Smith
I SEE A LOT OF RED INK AT THE BOTTOM OF THE CHART AND NOT SO MUCH BLUE. AND AT LEAST JIMMY WAS TRYING TO INCREASE RENEWABLE RESOURCES AND GET US OFF THE OIL MACHINE I THINK OIL & DISTILLATES WILL BE OUR DESTRUCTION . HEY MOTHER NATURE HAVE SOME CANCER.
Leilei
Somewhat misleading. Better to use median income so that extremes don’ t overly influence the results. And it would still tell the same story, albeit not strikingly.
Andy
Maybe that is why greed was once considered one of the 7 deadly sins.
Steve
Rather than whining about the result, work to join the top 1%. I will bet if you had data on what percentage of the same people were in the top 1% in 1970 vs 2008, you would find it quite small. Bill Gates wasn’t even working in 1970 as an example.
Markatus
I will just say the the normal worker model for pay is over anyway. You will now begin to be paid for performance. I’m not judging this i’m just saying its coming. Likewise whats fair, is it fair for a person to be taxed 70% of a certain portion of their income? why is that fair? is it because the amount is so large we are offended by it? did that person work for it? Do they deserve it? Did they create something that allowed them to get paid that much?
I agree the rich should pay a fair share i’m just not sure what that is and where that amount ends. Love thy Neighbor as thyself is probably good advice here. Lastly Greed and Love of money are bad, I agree however money and having money is not bad. Where your treasure is there your heart will be. So treasure something else not the money, However if you make 300,000 and above i’m not going to immediately say you are evil and greedy. I know some evil greedy poor people. Those are human flaws. Wealth and money is a tool and the rich need to learn they have to use it to make the world starting at home better but we can’t make them learn it or force them to learn it.
Peggie
Well said! Who remembers “Fahrenheit 451″?
David
What was WWII but a gigantic expenditure of Government resources.
HMcH
That would be an interesting statistic. But another would be the percentage of the wealth in America that is inherited. Mine is. And I don’t see the poor as “whiners,” necessarily. Neither does Gates or Buffet, apparently. We need to work for ourselves, the harder the better, AND have our work benefit the whole we arise from and belong to. Does that imply a progressive tax or a flat tax?
HmcH
It is a shame that Marx’s thought was taken over by Communism, isn’t it? I was born wealthy — never earned a living, but always taken care of. I admire Gates, et al, but I have a certain sympathy for people who start out in the ghetto or the barrio, instead of at Harvard. So how do we create equal opportunity, really?
HmcH
Question is, does the marginal social benefit of more taxes from capital gains outweigh the marginal decline in risk-taking caused by that increment? I bet the two are not directly related: you don’t lose a dollar in new investment for every dollar in taxation of CG. Anybody know?
http://www.facebook.com/kenichinalita Kenichi Nalita
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hull_note
Ed Bradley
Would be nice to add colored bars below the graph indicating party control of the House and Senate.
Jeff Little
One thing that I think this graph should make us aware of is that the tactics used by neoliberals inside the country are actually very similar to the tactics used as part of foreign policy. John Perkins does a great job of introducing this situation with “confessions of an economic hit man” and follow up works. Naomi Klein has a great talk about how the Iraqi war fit into that. To paraphrase Naomi, somewhat, there was actually not one Iraqi war this millenia, but two, with a bridge of conflict connecting them, but totally different causes. The first war ousted Sadam Hussein. The continued fighting was from people who either knew what was going on or were the last remnants of Hussein influence. Then we installed Paul Bremer. He instituted many of the exact same controls that John Perkins talked about with respect to Ecuador, Indonesia, and similar places. Here is a You Tube link that I would strongly recommend from 2005, which has the advantage of freshness, but is obviously missing later developments. http://bit.ly/AiKG9l The second Iraqi war was basically freedom fighters fighting against us using the transition to take our pound of flesh before they had representation in government. The first war had a relatively small number of casualties; the second killed close to a million Iraqis.
Anyway, the point is, the free market / debt control paradigm is used by politicians here, diplomats abroad, and military establishments abroad all with the same goal: creation of the debt traps and shrinking economies that will allow for control.
Anonymous
Man, Jeff Little, it is so refreshing to read a comment from a truly well self-informed listener.
I am thinking of the hours you must have donated to the general welfare getting all this straight in your head.
How do you make a living?
Moyers needs you working at the Company.
Pachmama must have awakened you in the dream.
Anonymous
It’s all the same song.
Anonymous
noblesse oblige, huh? Well, it hasn’t worked.
You sound as though you and your money do it several times a week, Markatus.
70% of a million leaves $3ooK; and 70% of $31K (average wage) leaves $9,300; and so that is why taxes should be graduated.
Someone should educate the public that flat taxes are slavery for the average family.
Then those simpleminded idiots would get no votes.
Anonymous
Yep, and Steve Jobs ain’t in there no more.
You’re really stuck in linear thinking, aren’t you.
You and Jack Benny will always be 39, and Rochester will never get a raise.
Aspiring to join the top 1% is like playing the lottery, and it’s mathematically impossible for anyone to do so without impoverishing many others. Percentages don’t lie and the gap between the parasites and the people who do the necessary work widens every minute.
Concentrated wealth and power are dangerous because they produce monstrous people and decadence, and maladaptive organizations.
A wise man once observed: “It is difficult or impossible for anyone to become or remain extremely wealthy, or extremely poor, in a fair and just society.” It is so basic and so true that it doesn’t matter who said it.
Anonymous
deadly for whom?
Anonymous
It becomes impossible to pick the shell with the pea under it when the operator palms the pea.
If Oligarchs vet and fund the candidates, who serves the general interest?
You have made the familiar error of blaming the bunko victims.
Next you will blame us for not replaying the French Revolution.
But you are correct that the demise is so advanced only the People can stop it.
We are fooled because we are made fools by media, fools in school, fools by the necessity of employment and fools by our fooled parents. Even those who know the truth are paralyzed with fear because they know our leaders are no better than Bashar al-Assad when threatened. The worst and only enemy of the Oligarchy is the People, and that is why they have no remorse in their extraction.
Anonymous
C-span is a mystery and a wonder. Did you see the Chris Hedges interview recently on Bookwatch? Excellent!
Watching politics is like watching sports. It becomes clear with careful analysis that many of the contests are rigged.
Anonymous
Mary Ann is correct. I heard it too. Globalization and automation are minor factors compared to forced rises in productivity without any compensation.
Anonymous
Half-truths and myths are dangerous.
Anonymous
We talk about it at charity events before we snort blow.
Anonymous
Fantasies and lies do not make good arguments. Sounds like you’re copying from that pedophile Horatio Alger.
Anonymous
And it takes a hot stove to boil water, so what?
Anonymous
Yep, all adjusted to 2008 dollars. So the average income for the 90% is falling slightly, but I’d also say that since technology has advanced the basics cost more overall, even exceeding same item or equivalent inflation.
Anonymous
Textbook boilerplate.
Anonymous
So they cooked the Golden Goose and ate it up!
Anonymous
Sort of; Moynihan was also a blame the victim advocate.
He peaked during (1960s) urban renewal when movers and shakers had to depict inner city dwellers as” less than” in order to displace them for big money projects. Kind of like when Gingrich said at the Charleston debate that,”America is big people doing big things.” The things they do might hurt most people but bigness can’t be helped, apparently. Wealth and power find worth in being grandiose, and the cowed public accepts that. How does it feel to be called a “little people” Mhalligan83?
Anonymous
People rightly like your explanation but what you say is irrelevant to bankers looting the federal treasury.
In normal circumstances you explanation might matter, but now all bets are off in a rigged game.
Billions put Oligarchs above the law. Among the Elite chaos rules.
Anonymous
You don’t understand inflation at all.
We can’t “get there” voting for Democrats either.
And that’s a fatal problem.
Anonymous
If only that were possible under laws written by Oligarchs.
Anonymous
Obama double deals.
Anonymous
Inflation tends to favor borrowers and that’s why lenders are always crying about it.
If a dollar became worth a dime while wages rose accordingly we could afford $100,000 student loans which would be as easy as paying off as $10,000 is now.
Anonymous
I bought good bread for $.25 in 1971 and gas for $.25 a gallon. Check your figures.
Today my good bread is $4, and my gas nearing $3.75 a gallon.
Anonymous
Sounds revolting to me.
Anonymous
actuality is always worse than theory
and the past is always the good old days
Please make this Revolution a non-violent one, I beg you.
Anonymous
And several holocausts.
Oakieguy
That’s what (2008 Dollars) means
HmcH
Aren’t we brave to use such bad language in public?! I’m sympathetic to some of your points above, and your scorn/derision here mystifies me.
HmcH
I guess you stopped this discussion for a couple of days, didn’t you? Grady the Dive-Bomber!
HmcH
Suppose the dollar loses its safe-haven value: how secure then is a government retirement fund? Suppose the Republicans capture the Senate: how likely is it then that the middle class will prosper? And I bet you wouldn’t trade your life of self-directed challenge and contribution to the greater good (including your own) for that of a faceless bureaucrat.
Dalmatian90
Why would you want to lie like that?
Yes, parts of FDR’s programs were very good; like all widespread efforts other parts failed (and FDR himself recognized part of his basic strategy was to throw a lot of things against the wall and see what stuck.) Of course, on a strictly technical basis the Great Depression had ended before the New Deal could ramp up — but we often consider the longer economic and social doldrums from 1929 — 1945 in contrast to the boom and confidence of 1950 — 1968 so I’m assuming that’s what you’re trying to express.
But would have any of the “Golden Age” of American consumerism from the 1950s into the 1970s existed without World War II having decimated the industrial capacity of all other major industrialized nations? Savings in the form of war bonds, plus built up demand from war-time rationing, plus the baby boom, plus the dominance of American industry as other nations had to rebuild their basic industries (along with proportionality higher losses of working age males), plus the Soviet decision to center their economy around the military (which we didn’t realize until after they fell amounted to around 50% of their GDP) were all direct results of World War II on the post war boom.
Even this diagram seeks to distort and tell half-truths. Absolutely in today’s world having a Capital Gains tax half the rate of earned income is bad. But it wasn’t as simple, as the diagram’s notes state, as greedy corporate barons wanting to be taxed less. In the 1970s we were in a period of sustained and substantial inflation previously unprecedented. Workers for the first time started to see Cost-of-Living raises become a standard expectation, as well as indexing things like Social Security. People — not just the rich, but relatively ordinary investors and businessmen — were being taxed on “phantom” capital gains that were largely attributed to sustained, higher then ordinary inflation. In the days before we had TurboTax to figure out such stuff easily we simply cut the Capital Gains rate in half to try and reduce the tax burden caused by inflation. The problem is we never eliminated it once we brought inflation back down to a sustained and predictable 2.5%-3%; or adopted a more accurate but complex calculation that assesssed capital gains by including into the basis the annual inflation by a standard measure like the Consumer Price Index.
But by all means, try to tell a simple story — even if it’s at best a half-truth like the “they” you feel you’re in a battle with. Thoughtful, reasoned, understanding policies shaped by a sense of fairness and honest accounting for what factors have and have not worked in the interest of most Americans is a terrible way to try and run this nation.
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_WAPIY755Z4BUDE5BMQB5X2Z44I Dred
I wish the chart had included the US going off of the gold standard under the Nixon administration and how China has been allowed to peg their currency to the dollar. Why, you may ask. Bccause China has gradually manufactured our goods. Good paying manufacturing jobs has been lost here in the US as our plants have closed. This also contributed to the lack of growth of the bottom 90%.
I also believe that the IPO’s of the 90′s helped create the corporate culture of rewarding CEO’s for stock growth rather than actual company balance sheet value. Those CEO compensation packages helped with the imbalance of the 90% to the top 10%.
AndyMac71
Read Bill Clinton’s new book, Back to Work, why we need smart government for a strong economy. We are all in this together. Corporations may have winners and losers but human society still survives based on values such as compassion, humility and enlightened self interest.
Bob2
Wasn’t it one of RR’s economic guys who said “Supply Side and Trickle Down Economics was a way to move money to the rich”?
Michael Howerton
So we needed an enormous over the top expenditure of funds to get the economy roaring white hot. Isn,t that what Keynes said to do? So FDR’s programs were the direct cause of getting us out of the depression. We just needed a world war to make the country realize what we had to do to save ourselves.
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100001611660675 Sofia Khwaja
Ca
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100001611660675 Sofia Khwaja
The steadiness in Clinton era is remarkable.
john
First of all even though the difference between the very rich and the middle class or bottom 1/5th of americans has increased , its important to realize the the bottom 1/5 of imcome earners are BETTER off now than they were 20 or 30 years ago. So EVERYONE has gotten richer but the rich have gotten ever richer.
The reason for this is simple. The US governmentn and treasury have inflated the value the of dollar massively since nixon severed the last ties to gold in 1971. In the last 30 years the inflation of the dollar has allowed the wealthy and well connected to profit massively through cronyism and the availability of low interest loans and gov guaranteed credit while the rest of the country has had to “pay” for this profigacy with a dollar of diminished value which they see directly as a higher cost of living.
When interest rates are kept artificially low it discouraged savings and investment which poorer people need to build wealth and stimulates borrowing and leverage and speculation which will benefit wall street hedge funds.
So Mr. Moyers the sad sorry state of the economy , the impoverishment of the middle class is due DIRECTLY to the liberal progressive welfare mixed economy state that you champion. YOU mr. Moyers are the middle classes worst enemy,
If you want to fix it:
1) ABOLISh ALL corporate and capital gains taxes at all levels
2) abolish all personal federal income tax.
3) means test and phase out social security.
4) repeal obamacare and return all medical care to the private market and the states. get the federal gov completely out of health care.
5) abolish the dept of energy
6) abolish the dept of education
7) immediately bring all the troops home from Iraq and Korea and Japan and just about everywhere else ( end the imperial wars of agression)
Government deficit spending IS the culprit.
ABOLISH the federal reserve bank, and return the country to a sound gold money currency system.
This is just a start.
mike in NJ
GradyLeeHoward
I would disagree that the bottom 20% percentile is better off. More of them are in dire absolute poverty by objective measures.
At the same time there are more and more services and devices they can’t afford that those competing with them economically usually have. John may have mistaken the 4th 20% percentile (barely making it) for the 5th because the abjectly poor are hidden in this country.
GradyLeeHoward
Many human rights and regulations were sacrificed for a temporary and false prosperity.
Productivity rose because exploitation intensified. Where were you living then, Sophia?
GradyLeeHoward
Without living waged secure jobs for the 99% this economy goes nowhere.
What has Commissioner Bill Clinton done for Haiti lately?
He’d do similar for us. Not to say Romneyomics wouldn’t be worse.
GradyLeeHoward
More than abolishing the FED and going for the Gold Standard will be required this time.
An entirely new appreciation of necessary labor and human rights is in the offing.
GradyLeeHoward
Your condescending attitude is worse than any vulgarity or crude terms.
You are upset because I ventured too near your gated community.
We know how you do in there. Some of us are your paid help.
GradyLeeHoward
I, unlike your underlings, am not at your beckon-call.
You may have leisure but I must work.
My mind must reason on these matters while I budget my paycheck and worry about my employment.
Look, no matter if you are personally well off, you are not a model for everyone else.
Capitalism produces at least 10 losers for every winner, and you guys are gloating about your temporary musical chairs as if you arrived there by merit. This, more than the fireman expecting his retirement check and medical insurance, illustrates a demented sense of entitlement with no regard or empathy for those who work much harder than you and do all the “right” things without your jackpot. I know because I got most of the money I have through the same cronyism and inside fixes as you did. I am not proud of success in such a corrupt and degenerate system.
Know what, I’ll comment when and where I damn well please.
GradyLeeHoward
Warren Buffet may own the BNSF choo-choo, but in his methods he is not an admirable person.
Dnadanyi
How do I communicate that the graph is not exactly working. If the curser is taken off of the top icon then one cannot move down to read the longer and important happenings leading to the economic problems.
DJN
Dnadanyi
Gloria
You are so right about the news. I started reading books sometime during the G.W. Bush administration when I saw how many books were being written about W. My eyes have been opened. The Washington Post used to have a wonderful book section-no more. The New York Book Review is an excellent source, Comcast has a cspan book review program. The latest two books I am reading are Age of Greed and the above discussed book Winner Take All Politics. Blackwater,Top Secret America, Fiasco, Hubris,Screwed, Vultures picnic, The Best Democracy Money Can Buy, the Man Who Got The US into the Iraq War- Ahmed Chalabi,Plan of Attack,Reckless Endangerment, Blood Money, The Dark Side,Tim Flannery’s book on climate change-The Weather Makers, The Super Rich. the list goes on. I tell people “you cannot believe what is going on”. But people do not want to read. If they have money they are busy enjoying it. If they don’t have money they are too busy making ends meet. They listen to Rush or FOX or MSNBC and that iis the extent.
DJN
Dnadanyi
Gloria
I also like to listen to Thom Hartmann on Sirius satellite at 3pm est
DJN
Dnadanyi
A female Physician and fellow traveler remarked that Bill Gates is so wonderful. His charitable contributions to AIDS etc in Africa have an agenda behind them that has to do with protection of intellectual property rights and trade agreements etc-he is a good one to talk. And Buffet gives them his money to distribute also.
DJN
Dnadanyi
Read Age of Greed by Jeff Madrick. You will see how some very greedy people have caused great have to our country. He names names but unfortunately they got away with slaps on their wrists and are now sitting on Corporate boards like Jim Johnson etc.
DJN
Dnadanyi
Hi
Naomi Klein book Title? Read Blood Money. The war was about a free trade zone and oil and making money.
DJN
Dnadanyi
Jean
And they are still listening to Rush talking about BIG Governmant etc and voting against their own interests. What several of my friends living in small towns see is people getting medicaid, disabled veterans getting tax fee incomes,unemployment checks etc. What they don’t see is Corporate wellfare. What they don’t see is where the government is spending the big money like Top Secret America etc. So they will vote against their own interests because the people they will vote for will take away their Medicare and Social Security. They don’t even consider that this is possible-HA.
DJN
http://www.billmoyers.com/ AnneLBS
If you move your cursor into the text box itself when it pops up, the box will stay visible until you “roll-off”. You may need to enlarge your browser window to read the whole thing. On some mice, you can also use the scrolling wheel to move up and down while that window is open. I hope this helps.
Dnadanyi
There was a huge redistribution of wealth in 2008 which continues. Hedge funds bet against our stocks and won our money. Congress also did the same. The changes in legislation like repeal of Glass Steagall and the Futures Modernization act sp ??allowed this to happen and Phil Gramm was involved in both. He is now a lobbyist for UBS -UGH. Also over the years 401 ks took the place of pensions which means that our pensions if any are our problem and not the problem of the Corporations. This is what privatization is all about making money for Wall Street and screwing the middle-class.
DJN
Politics-money
If you look at productivity, you will find that worker productivity has increased. However this gain did nothing for worker pay. All the productivity gains went somewhere else. Guess where.
http://www.facebook.com/novadust David Nova
this is GIGO. wrong conclusions follow from false assumptions.
you assume govt caused all inflation since 1971. you forgot big oil. rising fuel prices raised cost of producing goods and services and transporting them to market. it’s called cost-push inflation.
you also forgot that nixon devalued the dollar, a major contributing factor to the oil price rise as well as a psychological wound to the nation’s workers/consumers.
then you contradict yourself by citing artificially low interest rates, which actually began when inflation fell to very low levels to counter the risk that higher interest might trigger deflation.
also, the congressional research service released a study a couple months ago that concluded “Changes in income from capital gains and dividends were the single largest contributor to rising income inequality between 1996 and 2006. Changes in tax policy also made a significant contribution….”
with one exception (and a maybe), your (or should i say ron paul’s?) proposed fixes would harm the economy and the people of this country. the maybe exception is means testing social security: if done right it probably wouldn’t hurt. the main exception is troops: it would help to station a lot fewer in other countries and to stay out of unnecessary wars, imperial or otherwise.
Politics-money
proven with mf global. free money for banks gambling with government backup in case they lose their bets is un-acceptable. The money game and politics with and for money has taken us so far off course from a free society, it is probably going to take another worse financial crisis to get the country back on course for real democracy.
Politics-money
some are legitimate. Their descendents only get richer with no effort. The money automatically grows after the first few hundred million.
Politics-money
re-distribution has already taken place. It was re-distributed upwards over the past 20 to 30 years. Wait for real robots, workers will start to become the present day neanderthals. that’s evolution at work. It has become survival of the richest because we voters have neglected to watch what is happening to most of the money we all created and should be able to share and use as a tool in a democratic society.
Politics-money
it is admirable of you to ask. However, I doubt you could really know. 99.9% of us would wonder and sympathize but we would never, ever give up our wealth=power willingly. very difficult to give up the right to do whatever we want for a life of being tossed around by others you have to go to for money. Jesus or his writers explained what a rich man could do. not many ever actually do it. I don’t know of any who ever did. there may be some. It will take a sever financial crisis to change anything at all and then only at the margins. Making dollars compltetely worthless might be a start but many wealthy would still have european or swiss dollars. inequality such as exist now leads to civil unrest eventually.
http://www.facebook.com/novadust David Nova
actually, it looks like the top one percent’s incomes fell in 1993, then turned upward. maybe it was the learning curve: it took time to figure out how to gain most from stock options after clinton’s tax hike.
Politics-money
I was on call many, many days, nights, and weekends too. At retirement time the corporation decided to take away the medical benefit. Then a double financial crisis hit the 401k. I still have retirement but it is vastly changed and all the while the financiers and ceos got bigger bonuses. I am satisfied with what I have and the income I have. I would like to have more but really do not understand why anyone needs several hundred million dollars. That is greed and I admit freely to having that trait. However, we have let money worship take us too far away from equality that a real democracy should have. My opinion only of course.
http://www.facebook.com/novadust David Nova
may have been david stockman, raygun’s OMB chief. but notice in the graph that the effect didn’t kick into high gear till raygun’s last 2 years. maybe the 1986 tax reform raised corporate taxes enough to make the elite vote themselves big bonuses rather than let the govt get the money.
http://www.facebook.com/novadust David Nova
don’t forget the dollar devaluation of 1971. it’s likely much more significant than ending
direct convertibility of dollars to gold.
HMcH
I appreciate your compliment, and I agree that it’s not easy to be the camel that made it through. I’m not there yet, by a long shot. I hope there’s a way to put the enlightened back in self-interest. Gradylee is right that noblesse oblige hasn’t worked.
HMcH
Now you’re sounding like my kind of partisan, Grady — a hopeless idealist! Thanks for engaging me on the point of inherited wealth (I think they took your comment about my “gated community” off the site) — though you’re making some false assumptions about my motives and my position, I think your Jeremiad about the evils of the present system is needed, if only it could be heard. Did you read my comment about Marxism? I’m not yet the camel that made it through, but I am using my modest wealth (I’m not even on the Gates/Buffet scale) in service of justice and peace, as are Gates and Buffett, it seems. Am I due for some education here? Where do you see this “new appreciation of necessary labor and human rights” coming from?
HMcH
Oh, here it is; they edited it. I have no underlings, and I’m not looking to be a model for everyone else, though I am out to make a difference, at least locally (affordable decent housing). And, as you’ll see in my other response today, I’m not out to silence your voice. But this forum may be more than a mechanism for raving and venting frustrations: maybe we can begin to notice the assumptions we make about each other that reinforce the ideological polarization that’s killing us. Though it may sound condescending to you, I look forward to your response.
HMcH
Interesting: the Right idolizes a “strong national defense” — which could be seen as a government program for keeping soldiers employed!
Anonymous
Wow, great chart! I am reading Winner Take All Politics and it is a real page turner.
Anonymous
Agree, the top earners steadily climbed throughout both his terms and the bottom earners steadilt flatlined. Does he get a star for consistency?
Anonymous
I have been told other americans share your beliefs but no one ever suggested they actually lived in NJ. Thanks for the info.
Italiano
Sadly this country will wind up having a revolution. It always happens when the rich get it all. Hopefully I will not live to see the mess whill preceed the rebuilding of our society. For example, the people elected Obama becasue we thought he was “one of us”. The people wanted national health insurance and a single payer plan was necessary. What we got was a law that requires us to buy insurance from the same wealthy companies that put us in the mess we are in. Obama and the Democrats have proven then are no more “for the people” than the Republicans….so sad
a progressive in Seattle
In response to John D. in Branson: There was a huge redistribution of income in the 1030s after FDR was elected. Before that, we basically had no middle class, just the wealthy 1% and a lot of poor or near poor. FDR and the Democratic Congress that was elected in 1932 introduced a progressive tax system where the top marginal tax rate was about 90%. The intended consequences of this was taking money from the wealthy and using that money to start medicaid (health care for the poor), social security, unemployment insurance, and many other social and government programs aimed at helping start and keep a growing middle class. The intended consequences of this was the most egalitarian society in our history, years of a booming economy, lots of infrastructure development (including Eisenhower’s national highway system) programs to help the middle class get into college (and the veterans, too) etc. etc.
If you were born after this rosy time in our history you don’t know how good those years were. All you know is the 30 years we have basically had of Republican trickle down economics, which really means the top 2% take most of the money and the little that is left — the crumbs – get distributed to everyone else.
You can get educated about this if you watch Bill Moyers on Sunday night, and if you read to educate yourself. The level of ignorance in our society regarding politics and economics and how the middle class has been suckered for 30 years is amazing. And as others have said, by not learning and following our politics we had let this be done to us. So that today, the game is almost over as the amount of money that will go into the upcoming elections will show us how the wealthy now control our society.
Not Greedy
Who was the guy that told a grade school student to put a E on the end of the word “potato”. That same guy said the United States System of Government is the best system of governing that man has devised. When the United States has 10 times the air pollution as China and more than 50 percent of it population is obese, Sounds to me more like a system of destruction. This is all caused from one thing market greed. If I made one million dollars a year and I paid $500,000 in taxes and gave away $300,000 to charity I would have $200,000 to live on, I ‘d be living high the hog. You see, I don’t need 5 houses a yacht a jet etc. etc. etc…….
Fred Daniel
The program was great. However, one element was overlooked as a possible cause. In 1982 the SEC changed the definition of an “Accredited Investor.” Before 1982, a small company looking for investors simply satisfied itself a prospective investor had sufficient knowledge and experience in financial and business matters to evaluate the merits of the investment and the investor was able to bear the economic risk of the investment. After 1982, a prospective investor generally had to have a net worth in excess of $1,000,000 or make at least $200,000 annually, to be deemed Accredited.
From 1982 through today, all perspective investors not passing this test were “locked out” of private investments, unless they were company founders. (Should someone not accredited invest and lose their funds, the company would be required to repay all losses.)

So regardless of the knowledge and experience of the prospective investor, only the richest 1% could enjoy these private investments, with their huge returns. Even today, our SEC has tightened the standard by deducting the value of the home from the net worth. And they are looking to raise the threshold, further limiting the pool of investors. Gone are the days the middle class are able to participate in private investments. So much for government looking out for the little guy.
Jonathan LG
Great program and great discussion about the enormous income redistribution towards the wealthiest 1%. It was especially illuminating in the extent to which this income redistribution was aided and abetted by government tax laws and regulations which favored the wealthy. However, I do not believe that the causes for those government policies were adequately analyzed. To say that it was caused by winner take all politics is particularly unsatisfying and un-illuminating. Policies to favor the wealthy do not simply arise from a more devisive political system with less compromise, which I assume is the gist of winner take all politics. It appears that there was a major shift in the underlying political and economic philosophy beginning around the time of Reagan from that which existed since FDR. In particular, Reagan famously proclaimed that government was not the solution, but the problem. That combined with the free market, libertarian philosophies inspired by Ayn Rand and implemented by Alan Greenspan combined to result in a unrelenting push, primarily by the Republican Party, but also in significant degree by Democrats, to decrease the role of government in the economy. That resulted in the constant push by Republicans to lower taxes in general and to lower them on the wealthiest under the trickle down economic notion that increasing the wealth of the wealthiest would lead to more economic growth. Add to that the extreme views of libertarians adopted and imposed on Republicans by the likes of Norquist and his no tax increase pledge and we developed a constant ideological push, which was immune from economic facts, for less taxes on the wealthy and less regulations on American business. It seems that this mindset and those philosophies and myths, which overwhelmed the country and resulted in the repeal of Glass-Steagal and other financial regulations under Clinton, are responsible for both the financial meltdown of 2008 and the increasing gap in the wealth of this country.
Bobby Fletcher
Gloria – Both the NY Times and USA Today did their own independent recount of the 2000 Florida ballots. They both agreed Bush won.
Bobby Fletcher
The real genesis of this mess was the creation of subprime lending by the Feds. Clinton legislation mandated that Fannie and Freddie push subprime lending even into the relatively small private mortgage markets. Fannie and Freddie own by far the vast majority of subprime loans. But for Federal wisdom, why would a bank loan money to someone who had a low chance of paying it back?
Bobby Fletcher
This analysis is economic junk science. Where is the breakout of the top 10%? Where is the breakout of the 90% into increments of 10% or 20%? If we did an actual complete analysis, we would see a very different picture. Instead, Moyers created an incomplete analysis that supports the current liberal talking points.
True science looks at all the data, then draws conclusions. Junk science like this draws conclusions, then tries to make the data fit the theory. BTW this is also how global warming (is it now called climate change?) has been created – try to make the data fit the theory.
HMcH
For an opposing view, see William Nordhaus in the March 22 issue of the New York Review of Books. Its not just liberals who psick and shape facts to fit pre-existing opinions.
Anonymous
There is nothing wrong with this comparison statistically. Trying to promote your republican agenda, eh. You’ll have to be a bit slicker to pass off your Heritage Foundation bunk in the future. The republican scam is over.
Roy & Jan Stacey
So? Manage what you HAVE not what you do not have. We are just a high school graduates, and at 60 just retired. We have no debt. We never earned BIG money in our lives. We managed to give away a bit, save a bit, and lived within our means. I can not change my fellow man’s greedy instincts, but I CAN devise the best ideas for self preservation, and that includes exercising my single vote. (It usually leans democratic, but not always). What class are we in? Who cares? We will live fairly well, with no anxious moments because of decent prior planning. They didn’t teach THAT in school by the way.
Roy & Jan in Wisconsin
Dnadanyi
Thanks
Dnadanyi
Who are you Ron Paul?
Dnadanyi
Unfortunately writing to “You Lie” Wilson or “waterloo” Demint is a waste of time. My vote only counted once when I lived in VA and that was when Allen lost due to his Macaca remark. My vote for Obama probably will not count either.
Dnadanyi
Gloria
I worry that another election will be stolen due to the identity requirements the right is imposisng. What is really scary is the loss of votes due to foreclosures thereby no addresses. To back track-it is difficult to secure a drivers license since 9/11. They would not accept my passport in VA even though a birth certificate is necessary to get a passport. They will not accept a birth certificate from a married woman due to name change. So one must remember where one secured one’s marriage license in order to write to them for a copy. This requires a computer. It took me one month to get my mother a passport because she was born at home before the bureau of vital statistics and lied about her age to her Doctors. Other people will have more daunting problems. Also the people who move to Florida who had been fellons but allowed to legally vote in their state will lose their vote in Florida even though their vote is legal. This is how Gore lost thousands of votes.
Aware reader
You lost me when you wrote ” on both sides of the isle”. If you don’t know the difference between “aisle” and “isle”, how much can you know about economics or politics?
http://www.notarypublicpreston.com/ Notary Public Preston
Income inequality is an indicator that you look at along with a lot of other information. Social justice is predicated upon everyone being free and equal moral persons with basic freedoms and a system where the only inequality that is tolerated is the kind that benefits everyone, i.e., society. There’s a good case to be made for a lot of inequality to provide talented people the incentive to use their talents for everyone’s benefit. But the levels we’ve seen are too extreme for the incentive story. Other nations have been able to maintain both economic growth and shared prosperity simultaneously.
http://www.notarypublicbromley-awilson.com/ Notary Public Croydon
Hi
Here are the facts once again; in the early 1980s the top 1% of incomes
received an 8% share of all earnings. Today, the 1% gets 20% of all
earnings. One half of a father’s income advantage passes to his son,
according to the President’s Report.
Regards
http://www.notarypubliccamden.com/ Notary Public Camden
ou need government to balance the inequalities in US compensation and
taxes. Even if you believe responsible companies can balance the
inequities of income through sustainability, charity and executive
compensation tied to worker wages, you still need government to change
the laws about corporate governance so companies like Ben&Jerry’s
can assure their values survive stockholders’ demands about pure profit
motives.
http://www.notarypublicealing.com/ Notary Public Ealing
Hello
I believe education and the surroundings one grows up in can make a HUGE
difference in where they end up. I think impoverished neighborhoods may
need some help in having better schools, but it should be a state and
local issue not a federal one. Govt not always does good job with fund
Regards
http://www.notarypublichackney.com/ Notary Public Hackney
Hi
Credit Alan Krueger, Obama’s Chairman of the Council of Economic
Advisors and Miles Corak, Canadian economist, and author of “Inequality
From Generation to Generation” for the Great Gatsby Curve. It’s a curve
that underscores the relationship between inequality and generational
mobility. A very frightening curve that requires policy attention.
Regards
http://www.belowtradeprices.co.uk/serve-over-counter.aspx Serve Over Counter
Income Inequality is not the issue of a single country, it can seen all over the world. It India casteism and income inequality is growing rapidly.. You post on the triggers of economic inequality is the prove of current status of our people..
David
Simplification. This graph indicates that a small portion of society has benefited more from the growth in wealth over the past decades then the larger portion of society and suggests that certain legislation has contributed, in part, to that divergence and that members of both political parties have participated.The conclusion then, is that wealth accumulation, in part, goes to the group that is in control of legislation. Not a lot of political philosophy here, but there is a lot of greed indicated.. This greed has been the cause of the end of many a government/society. So, regardless of which political party/philosophy one chooses we all need to consider whether this trend will contribute to a sustainable society or will lead to the destruction of it. Government creates the rules of the game of success. Those rules need to apply to a very broad base of society. Lately, these new rules have been doing the opposite, making it more difficult to enter the game. The red light of danger seems to be flashing.
Hmch
Anyone taking bets on whether equity wars will end civilization before global warming ends the planet?
http://www.facebook.com/sky.seaman Sky Seaman
Yes. Liberal wasn’t destroyed because it didn’t work, it was destroyed because it did work. And worked for the vast majority. It’s taken a concerted effort on the part of the wealthy right to destroy it and often was done with clever slogans: Governments the problem not the solution. On and on with little slogans one doesn’t need to understand Keynesian economics to understand. We are now so screwed.
http://www.facebook.com/VirtualAlberta Alberta C Hill
This is why we cannot have Romney in office. The next president has the opportunity to set the Supreme Court majority for the next 10 to 20 years. A liberal court will protect our rights, and hopefully overturn Citizens United.
http://twitter.com/SpecialAgentA George Bailey
If people take the time to read and consider the Powell Memo, then the last forty years of increasing greed and manipulation of truth starts to make more sense. The rise of Fox News and corporate media, the degradation of public school systems, the blatant disloyalty of political classes to the people they are supposed to represent, the realignment of the Rule of Law, endless militarization of the police, exaltation of the banalities of Ayn Rand (that one is so hard to swallow), the fervent embrace of globalization, stupid and unnecessary wars for poor people to die in (while the armaments industry profits), promotion of racism, all of it to choke the simple idea that somehow remains constant in the soul of the majority of citizens that yes, we are all in this thing called life together, I am my brother’s and sister’s keeper, truth matters, and it is moral, decent and good to follow such a path. We are manipulated and led by what psychiatry labels sociopaths and a sociopathic interpretation of free enterprise that says greed is good. And to maintain its hold, we are bombarded constantly and invasively with advertisements and want for things we don’t need and encouraged to live a meaningless life to enrich a narcissistic and soulless “elite”. Is it any wonder that this ignorance and yes, evil, is so desperate and shrill as to actually bankrupt the Republic (and exhaust the Earth) rather than consider reformation? Thank you Bill Moyers for continuing the fight for knowledge and truth. (Is it any wonder that you, PBS and Big Bird are all targets for Day 1 of a Romney administration? They can’t stand actual decent humanity, it makes them look bad!)
http://twitter.com/SpecialAgentA George Bailey
I feel your pain! The information is there, but you’d have to turn off the TV and actually read about history, economics and work your way to truth. And with the power of amusing ourselves to death, people no longer seem to have the capacity to do that! Our best educated also read books, figure out how corrupt the world is, then just ignore morality and compassion, embrace Ayn Rand to assuage their conscience, and use the corrupt system to enrich themselves! It’s madness and makes life meaningless if you happen to think and feel. And people don’t want to know, that’s the real kicker.
Doug
The part I love is when the 1% cries “class warfare” whenever anyone suggests raising their taxes, and they’ve wreaked class warfare on the middle-class for decades. I can picture them rolling on the floor laughing afterwards. The sheer audacity and cynicism of it is breath-taking.
http://www.facebook.com/people/Imani-Burrell/100002259534084 Imani Burrell
That will be the only party willing to take up the cause, so we better get them in and then start putting pressure on them to act.
http://www.facebook.com/people/Imani-Burrell/100002259534084 Imani Burrell
LOL!
Janet Harrington Shapiro
Kill Citizens United the downfall of democracy and the buyout of many of our Reps. It is simply greed exactly what brought our nation to its knees. Help put integrity back into running our government and get things accomplished,
Conserve
Watch Mr. Burn’s “Dust Bowl” documentary on PBS the weekend before Thanksgiving!
Ron Kockler
And yet over half of the US population thinks that the current Republican candidate for president, the guy who doesn’t want to be punished for being “successful”, will take the country in a better direction. One of us needs to figure out a way to wake up the American electorate, half of the bottom 90%, which doesn’t seem to get this, if anything is ever going to change. Does anyone know who that might be?
Lindi
Obama didn’t start two wars and spend the rest of his term lowering taxes for the rich! Obama doesn’t have hundreds of thousands of dead people weighting down his soul. Morally Obama is heads above both G W Bush and Romney.
Lindi
Republicans are the fatal problem! Bush lied and got us into the war in Iraq. He also got us entrenched in Afghanistan where no foreign army has won since 323 b.c. He also had a lot to do with crashing the economy in 2008 and then he just passed the whole ugly mess to Obama. After all that you have the nerve to say Republican can solve our problems? Oh, and lets not forget how they obstructed the legislature for the past four year so that our country was ground to a halt and valuable recovery time and money went unused. Republicans are a scourge upon the earth–the 11th plague from God! Perhaps he wants to smite us all via the Republicans!
Lindi
Constitutional Amendment from the demos?
cookiebaker
Have you sent this to any major media groups?
Grant
For tax purposes corporations may be “persons” but they cannot vote and therefore cannot be counted “persons” for political purposes. The Supreme Court has made a grave and destructive mistake here.
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1184449054 Don Fisher
Your arguments are precisely those that the super rich, the uber wealthy, send their agents out to spread… “please be fair with us.” And it’s a crock.
Your opening comment, to call someone a liar, set the tone for what you really are … a liar who uses the tactic of calling others a liar first to distract and redirect away from your lies that inveriably are going to follow.
The GD most certainly was not over, or even winding down when I was born.
And without The New Deal we would have had a work force available to pursue WWII and win.
The years of the Great Depression 1929–1939. The years of The New Deal …
http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/new_deal.htm Interesting the view of us the Brits had, eh? .
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1184449054 Don Fisher
LOL…. and you aren’t writing this in German or Japanese, I notice.
Grant
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/14/opinion/sunday/the-self-destruction-of-the-1-percent.html?pagewanted=all&src=ISMR_AP_LO_MST_FB&_r=2&
moneyisnottheobject
I am not a numbers person – but this certainly lumps 90% of people -into one tiny box – and the wealthiest arent even averaging out to be millionaires? and are droppingin their average – and just 1% – what figure does the 9% come out to be? 29 years of farming, 18 of clergy and my income has gone up and down, based on the price of impliments versus crops – milk, hay, corn, oats – and the whims of parish committees my income has gone up steadily over the years as did the price of items necessary for life – but not business – they seem to have skyrocketed in farming, but gone down in the business world – technology that is. I have one daughter working as a medical care provider and 3 indendent business men – all of them are just getting by and all work more than they should – schooling has also skyrocketed. I think these figures cannot clearly depict much of anything as of the top 4% so few are not even millionaires – so how many billionaires can we tax to pay for everything we need!
Heather Gray
red herring comment of the day
Barbara Curtis
Our democratic process and accountability has left the house. This should of been posted on the Whitehouse and Congress bulletin board everyday instead of the debt talley as a reminder who is suffering in this nation and that includes our children.
Canoeguy46
so this is good for the economy how…. and how does this supposedly create more jobs?
http://www.facebook.com/SaintMichaelangelo Michael Cruise
National pride and loyalty is for the peasant class. The United States, circa-1980s to present, is a nation that has morphed into one that places commerce and individual capitalism above all else, including country and fellow American. This is a product of center-right policies coming to fruition and we’re almost at the point of no return. The privatization of the world’s fresh water sources will be what ultimately breaks the camel’s back. It will be too late at that point.
Speak now or forever hold your peace.
http://www.facebook.com/SaintMichaelangelo Michael Cruise
If war were the answer, the middle class would be thriving at levels not before seen. In truth, what made WWII unique was that the country had not fallen into the clasp of vulture, crony capitalism yet and it was a time when the needs of the country were put first and all citizens sacrificed for the greater good. The United States has not experienced that since WWII. We don’t even pay for the wars we wage anymore; rather, we put them on the charge card for later generations to deal with and forget the sacrifice that was once expected at times of war in the way of tax increases. No, no. The great GOP machine lulled Americans into the belief that they could have their cake and eat it too.
How ya liking that cake now, America?
http://www.facebook.com/SaintMichaelangelo Michael Cruise
Wow, are you ever simple.
http://www.facebook.com/SaintMichaelangelo Michael Cruise
The difference between the two parties is that given the opportunity and minus the influence of dark money, the vast majority of Democrats actually want to do the work of the people as a priority. The same cannot be said for Republicans.
Timothy Ray
Both the New Deal and WWII provided abundant proof that John Maynard Keynes was right in advising FDR not to follow the scrimp and save approach of well intended Herbert Hoover, but to invest mightily in our economy to enable the poor to have wages to spend on necessities, thus funding small and large businesses to hire workers to service the customers, who will, in turn, continue to rev up the economy. University of Massachusetts at Amherst recently published online their research showing that civilian investments create jobs at an almost incredibly faster rate than “defense” spending. People who can read and think can understand that investment in a weak economy makes the wheels of commerce and industry spin. Understanding that war wastes trillions enables us to see that new solar panels and wind turbines turn hundreds of thousands into hundreds of billions. Coal and fracked oil and gas rob the earth and poison we who live on it and those to come. Waste from Nukes poisons the earth for 100 million years and puts us all in danger of darkness when solar pulses affect the earth’s magnetic field.
proletariate
notice: nobody cares.
Anonymous
You see that big lurch upwards in approximately 1988, that is just about when I realized the insurance companies were taking over the health-care system.
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1662747158 Nicholas Ventimiglia
I wish they parsed the information a little more. This chart fail’s because it commingles the plebeians with the slaves.
Anonymous
Inequality at the federal level is assured as long as over 20% of the population are disenfranchised, the senate and electoral college are in place, and the oversize congressional districts are in place (compared to the electoral quotient of 1789 of approximately 46,000).