Where's Our Share?

[neoblues]

Of the Trillions of Dollars in growth in the U.S. economy over the last couple of decades? Sorry, none for you... it's reserved exclusively for the wealthy (and the rich will only be getting richer faster in the future).

Rich-poor gap widens
Paul Campos
May 2, 2006

Since the election of Ronald Reagan the wealth of the nation has more than doubled. Per capita, Americans are now 70 percent richer than they were in 1979. Where have these several trillion dollars of new affluence gone?

For poor people, the answer is clear: Essentially none of this wealth has come their way. Adjusted for inflation, the tenth percentile of after-tax family income is almost exactly the same today as it was in 1979 - about $13,500 (note this means that 30 million Americans live on even less). For the middle class, the situation is only slightly different. In 1979, the average middle-class family had an after-tax income of $38,000; today that figure is about $43,700, meaning that over the past quarter-century the average American family has seen its income rise by about $200 per year.

For our wealthiest citizens, by contrast, 25 years of Republican rule have made these very much the best of times. During this period, the average after-tax income of the top 1 percent of Americans has risen an astonishing 111.3 percent, from $298,900 to $631,700 per year (again, all these figures are adjusted for inflation).

"The top 1 percent of households have more wealth than the entire bottom 95 percent." (from Shifting Fortunes: The Perils of the Growing American Wealth Gap), and that was figured before the six years of Bush Jr...

Will we ever recognize this as being unacceptable?

[lumberjack_jeff]

1. The myth of a stagnant economy

The economy is booming - provided you sell a product that is sufficiently expensive.

In my area, the only and I do mean only, business that is hiring and doing well is a shipyard which builds >100' yachts. They build like five of these ugly, plastic-y ostentatious floating condos each year for the rich and famous. "The logical choice for complete enjoyment of the good life at sea"

... because it's logical to want a 120-ton pleasure boat with 130kw of onboard electrical generating capacity.

Every time I see one of these monstrous pieces of crap, I find it embarassing to be an american and a boater.