Pay Gap Between 1 Percent And Everybody Else Reaches Record

[ErikJ]

Source: AP

WASHINGTON — The income gap between the richest 1 percent and the rest of America last year reached the widest point since the Roaring Twenties. The top 1 percent of U.S. earners collected 19.3 percent of household income in 2012, their largest share since 1928. And the share held by the top 10 percent of earners last year reached a record 48.2 percent.

U.S. income inequality has been growing for almost three decades. But it grew again last year, according to an analysis of IRS figures dating to 1913 by economists at the University of California, Berkeley, the Paris School of Economics and Oxford University.

Last year, the incomes of the top 1 percent rose nearly 20 percent compared with a 1 percent increase for the remaining 99 percent.
But since the recession officially ended in June 2009, the top 1 percent have enjoyed the benefits of rising corporate profits and stock prices: 95 percent of the income gains reported since 2009 have gone to the top 1 percent.

That compares with a 45 percent share for the top 1 percent in the economic expansion of the 1990s and a 65 percent share from the expansion that followed the 2001 recession. The top 10 percent haven't done badly, either. Last year, they captured 48.2 percent of income, up from the previous record, 46.6 percent, in 2011.

Read more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/09/10/pay-gap-between-1-percent_n_3900373.html

[AnotherDreamWeaver]

1. K & R, n/t

[Scuba]

2. "The income figures include wages, pension payments, dividends and capital gains ..."

The income figures include wages, pension payments, dividends and capital gains from the sale of stocks and other assets. They do not include so-called transfer payments from government programs such as unemployment benefits and Social Security.

The "19.3 percent of household income" sounds low to me. The Koch brothers alone made ~ $30,000 for every man, woman and child in the country.

[Cryptoad]

12. CAn you say Plutocracy ??????

[muriel_volestrangler]

15. That would be about $9.3 trillion

$30,000 * 310 million = $9,300 billion = $9.3 trillion

I think you've misplaced a decimal point. I don't believe their income in one year was $9.3 trillion.

[Scuba]

16. You are correct, of course. They made about $10 Billion in a recently reported year.

Thanks for the correction.

[Hydra]

3. And it's going to keep getting worse

The 1% have no incentive to stop.

[FiveGoodMen]

6. It sure will

The farther it goes, the poorer are the poor.

When the poor will do ANYTHING for a day's bread, you've got slavery back.

And that's been the point from the start.

"The comfort of the rich depends on an abundant supply of the poor." -- Voltaire

[indepat]

4. Burgeoning income disparity is a right-wing wet dream aided and abetted by all three

major branches of government. Now someone please tell me a coup has not occurred.

[progressoid]

5. Whew.

Good thing we bailed them out.

[99th_Monkey]

7. For like the 35th year in a row. What's new? The Cannibal Class is winning. nt

[pampango]

8. Ouch! The 84-year-old Coolidge-generated record for income disparity is broken.

We knew it was coming, but it is a sad day.

Coolidge - followed by Herbert Hoover - and their republican congresses created this disparity with low taxes, weak regulations, high tariffs, restrictive immigration and weak unions. Low taxes along weak regulations and unions are true again today - perhaps why we have broken an 84-year-old record.

[ErikJ]

10. Then the 1929 Crash followed by the Great Depression.

Something tells me the worst is yet to come. Very low taxes on rich and weak regulations always lead to great income disparity and bubble economics.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

9. Yup, and all the people on CNBC are still screaming it's not enough.

[closeupready]

23. They are over-paid shills who are required to do that.

I doubt any of them actually believe it.

[steve2470]

11. conservatives everywhere rejoice ! nt

[Brigid]

13. Yep, and we all know what happened next.

Fasten your seat belts, everybody -- it's going to be a very bumpy ride.

[Kingofalldems]

14. Dems neeed to run on the 'America needs a raise' platform.

[durablend]

22. They would if they weren't rejoicing too

Don't kid yourself thinking otherwise!

[Uncle Joe]

17. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, ErikJ.

[Skittles]

18. they are getting all the raises and bonuses we used to get

[WillyT]

19. K & R !!!

[Thor_MN]

20. Personally, my workload just increased by 33%

My suggestions to remove some of the workload that only tangentially belongs to the app for which I am now the only developer fell on totally deaf ears. My manager barely acknowledged that everything is going to take longer. I'm expecting that come review time, this will be totally ignored. So in the meantime, careful logging of hours, bite my tongue and hope they don't ask for reviews of managers until after I get my review done.

[RDANGELO]

21. Raise the minimum wage and raise tarrifs. n/t

[Sunlei]

26. yes.

[Comrade Grumpy]

24. The class war is pretty one-sided. It's gettin' near time to eat the rich.

[olddad56]

29. I'm sure that they would taste good if cooked properly, but for me, just a little too rich.

[Doctor_J]

25. This is why many don't vote

and think they were lied to when one of the presidential candidates in 2008 promised CHANGE.

[Pterodactyl]

27. If only we had a Democratic president.