Major media ignores extent of concentration of wealth in US article

[EVDebs]

"Holiday Haul Goes to High-End Retailers as Income Gap Widens" by Nell Henderson of WashPost at http://peaceandjustice.org/article.php?story=20041222182642680
fails to fully explore just HOW FEW of these wealthy rich are expected to carry the US's economy, while the masses limp along. As a sop to common sense, Nell did manage to quote someone who said:

'"From the perspective of equity, this is no way to run an expansion," Bernstein said ( Jared Bernstein, senior economist at the Economic Policy Institute, a liberal think tank). "We ought to be able to have both growth and equity." '

No mention that wealth concentration in the US is something on the order of this:

"...The distribution of wealth in the US as
of 1998, the most recent information available that has been fully analyzed:

% of US Population % of Wealth Owned
==========================================================
Top 1% 38.1%
Top 96-99% 21.3%
Top 90-95% 11.5%
Top 80-89% 12.5%
Top 60-79% 11.9%
General 40-59% 4.5%
Bottom 40% 0.2%

from http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=2050 ""

I encourage DUers to investigate further and explore Kevin Phillip's book "Wealth and Democracy" for insights into how wealth concentration will eventually destroy this country, as it has Spain in the 1500s, Holland in the 1600s and Britain most recently.

Even finance guru Warren Buffett is arguing for HIGHER corporate taxes, and by imlication his wealthiest investors too.

Dems and progressives should be making this information a keep talking point !

[AP]

1. I'd like to cross-ref those %'s with the tax burden for those same %iles

It looks like the top 10% control about 70% of the wealth.

So, what's their tax burden? Isn't about 50%? So the bottom 90% pay 50% of the tax burden but only have 30% of the wealth? Uhm, that doesn't sound good. Perhaps that's part of the reason the rich have an easy time getting richer, and the poor have a harder time getting out of poverty?

No wonder the middle class is disappearing.

[candy]

2. There have got to be more recent stats on wealth.

I'm sure the gap is much wider.

[papau]

3. Excellent info - blows away the idea rich pay too much in tax

If richest 40% own 95.3% of everything, and do not pay 95.3% of the cost of government, then the tax system is biased against the poor.

[Lisa]

4. last year, someone posted a link to an interesting study ...

It showed how most people vastly underestimate the wealth concentration (e.g. thinking that they are relatively well off, when they actually are not, when compared to the top 5% or something). Anyone recall?