The Rich are Getting Richer, Faster: The Income Gap Widens

[feistydem]

Thank you Bush Fascists for the ever-widening gap between the top and the bottom.

Link: http://moneycentral.msn.com/content/invest/extra/P143548.asp?GT1=7824

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Rich getting richer faster

New studies spotlight a growing gap between top and bottom. The divide is widest in Arizona, narrowest in Wyoming.

By MSN Money Staff

Two new studies find the rich are getting richer at a faster pace.

A study released in late January, from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities and the Economic Policy Institute, found that the gap between the highest- and lowest-income families is significantly wider than it was 25 years ago.

And an analysis of income-tax data by Congressional Budget Office found that the top 1% of households own nearly twice as much of the nation’s corporate wealth as they did just 15 years ago.

The studies come among a growing push to increase the federal minimum wage of $5.15 an hour for the first time in nine years. Public advocacy groups have successfully lobbied for “living wage” reforms in 18 states and a number of cities, raising the minimum wage in some places as high as $12 an hour.

An employee working full-time at the federal minimum wage makes $10,712 a year. About 7% of the workforce earns a minimum wage.

“Growing income inequality harms this nation in a number of ways,” stated Jared Bernstein, a senior economist at the Economic Policy Institute and co-author of the income report. “When income growth is concentrated at the top of the income scale, the people at the bottom have a much harder time lifting themselves out of poverty and giving their children a decent start in life.”

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Remember, he calls them his BASE.

[n2doc]

1. Figures texas is #2 on list of biggest disparity

Place is like a third world country in some parts. I know, I lived near Corpus Christi for 7 years, The disparity between houses in different parts of town was amazing.

[feistydem]

2. 2 Bush states top the list. It must make mama proud.