15 Mind Blowing Facts About Wealth and Inequality in America

[taught_me_patience]

The rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer. Cliché, sure, but it's also more true than at any time since the Gilded Age.

The poor are getting poorer, wages are falling behind inflation, and social mobility is at an all-time low.

If you're in that top 1%, life is grand.



Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/15-charts-about-wealth-and-inequality-in-america-2010-4#the-gap-between-the-top-1-and-everyone-else-hasnt-been-this-bad-since-the-roaring-twenties-1#ixzz0kcVdiQNV


http://www.businessinsider.com/15-charts-about-wealth-and-inequality-in-america-2010-4#the-gap-between-the-top-1-and-everyone-else-hasnt-been-this-bad-since-the-roaring-twenties-1

[maxsolomon]

1. trickle down worked as planned

a nation of rubes.

[Sherman A1]

37. Precisely

Agreed & Well Said. There is nothing that I can add to your comment.......except :toast:

[Cary]

53. The top 1% don't end up with everything by accident

I know some people in the top 1%. Nothing happens to them by accident.

It's amazing that people refuse to understand this.

[northernlights]

60. of course it's not by accident

it's because they're just such superior beings. and more important than us. :sarcasm:

[leftstreet]

2. Party like it's 1929 !!

:party:

[Greyhound]

23. Hokay!

:party:

[Echo In Light]

3. k/r

[lumberjack_jeff]

4. This is why I'm a Democrat. n/t

[Greyhound]

21. LOL!

:rofl:

[Xenotime]

43. No shit. It's a personal campaign to keep the rich from getting richer.

[SOS]

5. Kick

It's robbery, but the victim is so uninformed he doesn't realize he's been cleaned out (and by whom)

[RKP5637]

7. They pulled off the perfect robbery, and now the victims welcome them. n/t

[Sherman A1]

38. You can steal more with a briefcase than you can with a gun....

What song is the from?

[RKP5637]

39. "Gimme What You Got" - Don Henley

And so very very true.

[Sherman A1]

40. Thanks!

I can never remember them things!

[misanthrope]

55. Woody Guthrie said it like this:...

..."As through this world I travel, I've seen lots of funny men,
Some will rob you with a six gun and some with a fountain pen.
But as through this world you ramble and through this world you roam,
You will never see an outlaw drive a family from their home."

[RKP5637]

6. Nice job, Ronald, on the trickle down! Now let's gut Medicare, HCR, SS and any other benefits

these serfs have. Then we can enslave everyone... They never should have had anything anyway... It was all meant for us. And let's jack up those student loans, we don't want any of these serfs educated, we like them ignorant.
:sarcasm:

[laughingliberal]

9. Change! Yippee!

When the 'Reagan Democrats' came home, they should have left Reagan where they found him.

[RKP5637]

11. Definitly... In fact, I had a 'Reagan Democrat' tell me recently, and I am

absolutely serious, they said,"What we need is Ronald Reagan back to straighten this out." I died in my tracks... That, is sadly the mentality out there with some people... and another told me if we had more religion in government we would be a better country.

This country scares the hell out of me sometimes. The frying pan hasn't been good enough for some people, these want to bake right in the fire...

[Ignis]

14. Reaganomics: The gift that keeps on giving.

[taught_me_patience]

8. Slide #6: Real wages haven't increased in 50 years

horrifying statistic. Where have all of our productivity gains gone? Oh yeah... to corporate profits and not to the workers.

[whattheidonot]

10. Obama

Where is Obama? why is he not bringing this UP? This is serious stuff and we get a little jobs bill?

[RKP5637]

12. Obama is the DLC, not the old time democrats. I had the same question sometime

ago and some on DU explained it to me.

[laughingliberal]

13. I fear it's true and then some

Hell, even Clinton talked about the disparity of wealth and how the top had seen their incomes skyrocket while the rest languished.

[tango-tee]

36. I can imagine how that went,

you traitor! How could you possibly...?

Now that you have been appropriately schooled, you can see the light at the end of the tunnel. And it is not only a light, but a blinding explosion of mating galaxies in all colors of the spectrum! And you can be absolutely certain that this spectacle is not the light of the approaching locomotive as you may have feared in your lowly common-sense way. Really! Trust me!

I'm not even adding the sarcasm-thingy, my friend. Too damned tired for that.

[Greyhound]

17. Dancing with the one that brung him, or at least the one that bought his ticket. n/t

[Taitertots]

20. He has done nothing but advance policies that make it worse

He is rich and getting richer. Just like everyone else with powerful positions in government.

We get a jobs bill just large enough to keep lining their pockets.

[asdjrocky]

59. Where was Clinton? Bush?

Any of them. Get real man, it's the plan.

[Greyhound]

15. How do you think moving an entire nation's production capacity across

the Pacific was financed? You didn't think they paid for it themselves did you?

They took our money and used it to finance our destruction, and got paid huge profits to do it.

[taught_me_patience]

18. They also convinced many in the public

that it was "good for them".

[liberation]

31. I truly think that if there is ever a revolution in this country...

... it will be the poor raising up to defend the rich.

I truly think the elite in this country has managed to turn the direction of historical events, in regards to the explosive nature of huge inequalities in a society (which almost without exception lead to revolutions) because they have a tool which none of their predecessors had: a scientific approach to propaganda, and an almost total control of the message.


I am still trying to decide which one got it more "right" Huxley or Orwell. They truly saw the writing in the wall waaaaaaay back when.

[misanthrope]

57. You got one part right but to be more specific...

...when you mentioned the "tool none of their predecessors had," the number one toy in that box is quite plainly "television." That device has been used so nefariously, it's power is pretty frightening.

[Vexatious Ape]

16. Smash and grab

Reagan started the whole operation with his trickle down, Clinton with his asinine deregulation, topped off with 8 years of the most grossly incompetent boger eating moron that ever slimed his way into office.

[SalviaBlue]

19. K & Highly Recommend... thanks!

[Greyhound]

22. K&R, just to piss off the fanatics. n/t

[UpInArms]

24. nice charts

k&r

[Crystal Clarity]

25. Thanks for the info T_M_P

:thumbsup:

I bookmarked the site

[taught_me_patience]

27. Welcome to DU

Glad you liked it. MSM completely ignores this type of data.

[Crystal Clarity]

46. Thanks

Glad to be here! :hi:

[craigmatic]

26. If any of the major dems were serious about ending wealth inequality they'd have already started

raising taxes on the rich and passed better labor union laws while dividing these too big to fail companies.

[Greyhound]

29. The inequality of wealth is really working out quite well for the "major dems". n/t

[applegrove]

28. A few years ago the USA was beside Mexico and Russian in terms of the equality index. Mexico is 1/3

rich and 2/3 poor. Russia has only been a capitalist country for 20 years.

[sam sarrha]

30. the bottom 80% americans only hold 7% of americas financial wealth >Link>>

http://sociology.ucsc.edu/whorulesamerica/power/wealth.html

[Starfury]

32. This is what conservatism is fundamentally all about - aristocracy

That's why there's the constant push to create inequality in America, to effectively create a caste system in our society.


Here's an oldie but a goodie:
What is Conservatism and What is Wrong with It?

Liberals in the United States have been losing political debates to conservatives for a quarter century. In order to start winning again, liberals must answer two simple questions: what is conservatism, and what is wrong with it? As it happens, the answers to these questions are also simple:

Q: What is conservatism?
A: Conservatism is the domination of society by an aristocracy.

Q: What is wrong with conservatism?
A: Conservatism is incompatible with democracy, prosperity, and civilization in general. It is a destructive system of inequality and prejudice that is founded on deception and has no place in the modern world.

These ideas are not new. Indeed they were common sense until recently. Nowadays, though, most of the people who call themselves "conservatives" have little notion of what conservatism even is. They have been deceived by one of the great public relations campaigns of human history. Only by analyzing this deception will it become possible to revive democracy in the United States.

(...)

[amyrose2712]

33. Sad. Some of the comments are just sad too. nt

[The Wizard]

34. Has the time come

for a "New Deal?"

[pattmarty]

49. I think it has come and gone.

[The Wizard]

35. self delete

[Canuckistanian]

41. This one blows me away

What if America was 100 people with $100? Who gets what?

[Martin Eden]

42. And still they scream CLASS WARFARE ...

... whenever a small tax increase on the wealthy is suggested.

The FACT is the rich have been waging and winning CLASS WARFARE since Reagan's presidency.


K&R

[liberation]

61. I heard someone say:

They only scream class warfare when we strike back...

[JonLP24]

44. K&R

:cry:

After I got done with that I clicked on 20 cities that never saw the recovery and there is Phoenix at #18. At least I feel a little better for not being able to find any permanent work in quite awhile as well.

[RuthK]

45. Distribution of Wealth

To be absolutely horrified, go to site:

http://sociology.ucsc.edu/whorulesamerica/

Click on "Wealth, Income, and Power" and page down to the pie charts showing the distribution of wealth and financial wealth. Income is one thing. The incredible wealth that lies behind it is unbelieveable.

What can be done? First of all, the Bush tax cuts for the rich should be immediately ended. Corporations that have moved off-shore (e.g. Exxon) should be taxed even though they have relocated in Central America. This would give us billions in revenue.

[Xenotime]

47. Thanks for all the 2005 and older data. How about where we are at today?

[pattmarty]

48. How many times have you heard a "pundit" say that the American.......

.......people are smart and they will pick the right candidate or make the right choice? I never wanted to believe Bill Maher when he said the American people are stupid, but I now have to believe it. Jesus, they are fucking dumb as a "Palin".

[fascisthunter]

50. and yet so many wonder why this country as a whole is on the decline

dumb asses

[olegramps]

51. Cry me a river!!!!

When 36% working class Americans belonged to unions it wasn't a coincidence that this was the period in which American workers enjoyed actually sharing in the wealth that was being generated. It was a period in which working class families only required one worker to provide for a family. It isn't a coincidence that union workers now account for only 6% of the work force and the workers are being paid whatever their corporate masters care to trickle down to them.

Sorry, but the workers screwed their selves when they bought the management's propaganda that unions were their enemy and that they would be well taken care of. When workers refused to oppose Reagan's union busting and trickle down economics rip off, the workers cooperated in their own destruction. This set the stage for the final coup d'etat when without a whimper their jobs were outsourced, pensions cut and health insurance canceled.

When the American workers finally realize that they can only expect fair treatment when they are united, then they will begin the share in the wealth of their labor. The only real hope for the workers is to demand that Democratic Party cut its ties to their corporate masters and once again demand fair treatment for the working class. If the Democratic Party fails to reform itself then workers should look to the existing labor leaders to form a party that represents their interest rather than being represented by nothing more than corporate boot lickers.

[IDemo]

52. Been posted a thousand times->

Once more won't hurt:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=acLW1vFO-2Q

[misanthrope]

54. The Reagan Revolution in action**nm

**

[swilton]

56. Class Warfare at its Best

[asdjrocky]

58. Reagan...Bush... Clinton...Bush... Obama....

Every single one is now equally to blame for this. They know it, the are in the middle of it, and they continue to aid the 1% while giving us only lip service.

Anyone had enough yet?

[Chemical Bill]

62. Thank you for this. n/t