U.S. Income Gap Widening

[Another Bill C.]

New York Times
U.S. Income Gap Widening, Study Says
By LYNNLEY BROWNING

Published: September 25, 2003

"The gulf is such that the richest 1 percent of Americans in 2000 had more money to spend after taxes than the bottom 40 percent."

"The richest 2.8 million Americans had $950 billion after taxes, or 15.5 percent, of the $6.2 trillion economic pie in 2000...."

"The poorest 110 million Americans had less, sharing 14.4 percent of all after tax money."

"In 2000, the top 1 percent of American taxpayers had $862,700 each after taxes, on average, more than triple the $286,300 they had, adjusted for inflation, in 1979.
The bottom 40 percent in 2000 had $21,118 each, up 13 percent from their $18,695 average in 1979."

"...findings from both studies suggested that in 2000, the top 1 percent had the largest share of the nation's total after-tax income since at least 1936 and probably since 1929."

"Both low- and middle-income people shared in the boom of the 1990's, while in the 1980's the bottom fifth experienced a decline in after-tax income...."

"The middle fifth had an average after-tax income of $41,900 in 2000, a rise of 15 percent both since 1979 and 1997...."

"...highest income Americans had grown richer from 1979 to 2000 both from gains in income because of economic prosperity and from tax cuts. Huge gains in executive pay were a significant factor...."

"From 1979 to 2000, the total federal tax burden for the top 1 percent dropped 3.8 percentage points, but for the middle fifth the decline was only 1.9 percentage points. Tax rates for the poorest fifth declined 1.6 percentage points."

[Occulus]

1. you will need to

edit this post for copyright reasons, or the mods will do it for you :)

[Brucey]

2. Middle income earners pay the most taxes,

if you count all taxes. The rich do best under every administration. At least some of the poor and middle income improved under Clinton.

[AP]

9. That's how the rich got rich -- tax cuts and transfers of wealth to them

which came from the middle class, whether in the form of the middle class being underpaid for their labor, or an outright transfer in tax revenues they generate into the hand of, eg, Haliburton execs.

[sam sarrha]

3. was the poorest 5th decline in taxes due to an overall decline in income?

I'm there... and cant find a job for more than $6 hr that lasts longer than the waiting period for company benefits.

[priller]

4. Read "Wealth and Democracy"

for the whole story on this. The book is rather statistics-heavy, but it's great for giving you some historical perspective on the way taxes have been set up in the country.

That Bushco is vastly reducing taxes on the top 1% is no secret. The twist this time around is that they're really trying hard to reduce as much as possible all taxes on UNEARNED INCOME -- capital gains, interest, dividends, inheritance, things like that. You guys that work hard for a living, pay up! You wealthy people that don't have to lift a finger, you get a free ride! I wish they would explain to me the "moral clarity" behind that kind of thinking. Of course, I know there is none.

[Ms. Clio]

5. Link???

Pretty please?

[republicansareevil]

8. found the link:

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/09/25/business/25POOR.html

[Ms. Clio]

13. many thanks!

eom

[leftyandproud]

6. NONE of these studies..

point out how individuals in these wealth levels are CONSTANTLY CHANGING!! Many of those in the upper class have failed and their businesses have gone bankrupt in recent years....They go down...and someone from the middle has a breakthrough and replaces them. All of these stats are misleading for this reason alone.

[BiggJawn]

11. And those of us at the bottom just STAY there....

Year after YEAR.

I got no sympathy for some "entrepreneur" who takes a shot and fails. Hell, if they didn't know there was a chance of going bust, then they DESERVED to bust, if only for the Hubris value.

Isn't that process called "Churn" or something like that?

We don't churn down here. Once in a while a decay bubble will throw one of us into the middle, but it doesn't last.

[AP]

16. A good economy requires people to take chances and to give them

a safety net in case they fail.

If you're a Democrat, you have to love the entrepreneur like Steve Jobs going up against Big Blue. That's where innovation comes from. Thats where wealth-creating income redistribution comes from. That's how you get progress and more social wealth.

In 19th C Britain, the biggest chance you could take was to move into the house next door to your parents and you took up the career your father had because if you took too big of a risk, you could end up in debtor's prison or starving. That's terrible for the economy. It causes wealth to accumulate at the top among people who already have it, and it slows down progress (and opens your economy up to a competition with a more liberal democracy, which you're going to lose).

Incidentally, one of the first things Bush cut was SBA funding. Big business doesn't like the SBA because sometimes when the little guy takes a chance and succeeds, it cuts into the profits of the big guys. The big guys want the world to develop at their slow, risk-free, profit-assured pace.

[AP]

15. Actually, class strafication has become more rigid in the last

20 years. People jump class less frequently. Bush's whole reason for being is to protect rich people from having to compete to stay on top.

[bloom]

7. This is the problem as I see it.

"The bottom 40 percent in 2000 had $21,118 each, up 13 percent from their $18,695 average in 1979."

It doesn't matter what the GDP or GNP or some other thing is - the incomes at the bottom are not going anywhere. Yet inflation grows.

[pschoeb]

10. When increase in hours worked are calculated, increase is less than 13%

for bottom 40%

This is household income, and doesn't take into account number of hours a household works compared with 1979 which is quite a few hours more, with many more dual income housholds. Lower increase is seen when looking at household income by hours worked. For example between 1989 and 2000 average households worked an additional 186 hours more per year, for a total of 3,719 hours. For our bottom 40% goup, that would be 5.67/hr as apposed to 5.29/hr so our 13% increase becomes 7%. I couldn't find clear data to use as far as increase in hours worked since 1979, but a report listed median income households work an additional 613 hours a year compared to 1979 which would be a roughly 17% increase in hours worked.

for more info on current income and tax distribution check out
http://www.cbpp.org/9-23-03tax.htm

Also check out http://www.inequality.org
This site has alot of great reports and actually has info that shows that there is not as much income mobility as people think, especially the top 1% which there is hardly any mobility at all(very few leave the 1% and very few enter).

Patrick Schoeb

[Nottingham]

12. This is a Sign that a Depression is coming

whenever the wealth of a nation is held in the hands of powerful men then a nation suffers a Depression

:bounce:

[sattahipdeep]

14. Words and music by John Lennon

As soon as you're born they make you feel small
By giving you no time instead of at all
Until the pain is so big you feel nothing at all
A working class hero is something to be
A working class hero is something to be

Well they hurt you at home and they hit you at school
They hate you if you're clever and they despise a fool
'Till you're so fucking crazy you can't follow their rules
A working class hero is something to be
A working class hero is something to be

When they've tortured and scared you for twenty odd years
Then they expect you to pick a career
When you can't really function you're so full of fear
A working class hero is something to be
A working class hero is something to be

Keep you doped with religion and sex and TV
And you think you're so clever and classless and free
But you're still fucking peasants as far as I can see
A working class hero is something to be
A working class hero is something to be

There's room at the top they are telling you still
But first you must learn to smile as you kill
If you want to be like the folks on the hill
A working class hero is something to be
Yes a working class hero is something to be