At the Top, a Recovery Now Finally Completed

[marmar]

from Too Much: A Commentary on Excess and Inequality:


At the Top, a Recovery Now Finally Completed
SEPTEMBER 14, 2013

The exceedingly comfortable who sit in America’s richest 1 percent have nearly fully regained the outsized share of the nation’s income they held just before the economy cratered five years ago.

By Sam Pizzigati


The future just keeps getting brighter for Americans with unique specialties.

Randy Stearns has one such specialty: “home-tech integration.” Stearns helps people install and maintain high-tech gadgets. But we’re not talking “geek squad” and hooking up home networks here. We’re talking rich people — and electronic toys that can cost more than houses.

Randy Stearns offers “24/7 white glove” service for clients who typically pay between $150,000 and $450,000 per project. These affluents get plenty for their money. Call Randy and you, too, could end up with a home monitoring system that sends out alerts whenever your wine cellar temperature rises too high.

Annual sales in luxury home-tech integration, Stearns estimates, are going to nearly double — to $3.7 billion — by 2016. He may be underestimating his potential market. America’s rich, two top economists revealed last week, are actually getting richer faster than almost anyone thought possible. ....................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://toomuchonline.org/at-the-top-a-recovery-now-finally-completed/#sthash.yl03hnEE.dpuf