The Rich keep Getting Richer, the poor poorer

That's what happens when a bloated centralized bureaucracy directed by corrupt politicians colludes with big corporations to preserve fat, pay-to-play government contracts, private monopolies, and oligopolies like the banking cartel known as the Fed, the military-industrial complex, and the medical-drug-industrial complex.
 
Inevitably- Conservatives will see this thread, spit on the facts and cry wealth re-distribution sucks. True, wealth distribution does suck. However- what is unique from wealth distribution is an uneven playing field- which the wealthy in this country clearly have. The evidence of this is stated above, and in another thread months ago that showed how much the upper 1% are pulling away from everyone else when viewed over decades in the US.

We are becoming a latin American country- and I have severe concerns about that. Our middle class, which is our strength, is losing ground and lessening. I don't want wealth redistribution- I want a fair playing ground.

1) Stop enabling wealthy investors to tax their income at 15% on carried interests

2) The AMT needs adjustment such that ALL people pay a minimum percentage of taxes on their income- say at 32% where most Americans pay.

3) Upper level incomes should return to their 1990's levels- levels that clearly do not inhibit growth and prosperity.
 
Globalization and American unions have driven good-paying blue collar jobs out of this country. Our lackluster levels of education have driven other jobs overseas or to foreigners.
 
showed how much the upper 1% are pulling away from everyone else when viewed over decades in the US.
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this group will always get richer no matter what type of government is in place unless its a complete totalitarian communist regime. these statistics have nothing to do with the middle class. The middle class is being destroyed because of globalization and the U.S. consumers desire for cheap goods. We are nowhere near 3rd world country status. Have you ever lived in Europe? Let me give you a hint. you will really miss a lot of things we take for granted here....like water pressure, cheap gas, affordable consumer goods and washing machines that work. Our government has destroyed our middle class or is destroying it. There is some really terrible poverty in London and the rest of the UK as there is in all the countries in Europe. You just have to get away from buckingham palace and hyde park.
 
Again, we have statistical manipulation, you guys are getting old!
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Generational poverty is caused by a lack of understanding of compounding growth or a lack of discipline not government policy.
 
Bevo Incognito,

How about we do this because this is the direction the Dems are wanting to go. How about everyone get taxed 100%. Let the government take what they need for their extended government. The money left over needs to go into a giant acct. Take the amount left over and divide by the population. Then send an equal amount of money to each person per month to live on. Would this satisfy you? Because we are a lot closer to this under Obama right now than capitalism.
 
I35,

Nobody is making the argument that you just made. You just built a strawman. Congratulations on knocking it over.

Care to address the article or the graph? If not, please start your own thread and not crap on mine.
 
If you have $100 and I have $1000.

We both put money in the bank at 5% interest for the year, what is the amount at the end of the year for each person.

$105 and $1050, right? The percent of the overall wealth pie is greater for the $1000 guy but they both increased their net worth the same percentage with no risk.

Without investing anything just by leaving the money in the bank the richer person is going to accumulate more wealth and faster by not doing anything.

It goes to common sense that they will accumulate more wealth as a group. Let's not look at it as Community or Commune think, think of it as an individual.

Anytime, anyone throws out statistics, which are very powerful, they are always manipulated to fit their argument. I would like for someone to come up with statistics and then formulate an opinion.

You can manipulate your statistics in your Class Warfare all you want.

Now let's look at the taxes for the two people above:

The $100 guy pays $0.30 or 6% and the $1000 guy pays $7.50 or 15%, do you want to talk about the percent paid or the whole dollar?

The same goes with your argument do you want to talk percentage growth or total dollar growth?

Not to mention, and I am not sure do we need to account for inflation, wait trying to keep it simple.
 
You are talking about the bottom 60% who are basically, the very poor, the retired, and those with stagnant hourly jobs. if you eliminate the extremely poor, it is relatively flat, 1.2% less but because of lower inflation than 1983 and globalization (cheaper goods from asia), cheaper food, etc. the lower 60% are doing much better from a standard of living department then they were 30 years ago. of course, the graph includes the time in whch we lost more wealth as a country than any time in our history so that probably plays into it as well.

What is your solution, taxing the rich more wont solve anything, all it will do is make companies outsource more and move their money. we could do what south africa did, force the rich to stay or face losing their money.

we could redistribute more, but the government is already spending a trillion more a year then it is bringing in and taxing the rich 100% isnt going to do anyhting.

sounds like you are advocating taking the money for the poor by force?
 
It's interesting that they chose 1983 for their starting point and 2009 for their endpoint...

So, you start with a year right AFTER a recession endsand end with a year DURING a recession...I can't see any way that would skew things...
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Statistics, how do they work?
 
The crushing of the middle class is pretty complex and a lot of it is driven by forces outside the control of the United States. That said I think it pretty bizarre that conservatives expect to get a lot of traction for the idea that the responses to the rich getting richer and everyone else getting poorer is a tax policy that accellerates the issue. Let's face facts. No matter how rich the rich get, what they pay people to work for them is going to be determined by the market. High unemployment and the demise of unions gives greater leverage for those who control more economic power. The creative and entreprennurial class has never been a majority. God bless them for what they bring to the economy, but even they face a tough road when not enough folks have the income to buy what is new, beautiful and makes their lives easier.
Those unlucky enough to work with skills that can be replaced cheaply are going to be outside looking in, whether they be call center employees, engineers or construction workers who can be outsourced or replaced with illegals.
Corporations and the rich have more money than ever and the reason that's not resulting in great jobs here is because they are using economic leverage as human nature would dictate, and that is not creating secure, high paying jobs with great benefits when they can accomplish their goals by creating insecure, low-wage jobs with no benefits. Government may not be the whole answer, but neither is unfettered capitalism.
 
No, just take it out of their paychecks or ask them to write a check when they fill out their income tax return. I've paid taxes upwards of 30 years I've never been visited by a pistol-toting revenuer.
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I'm pointing out how data can be manipulated...

If someone was arguing about global warming and used 1998 as the starting point and 2000 as the endpoint and claim the earth was cooling rapidly, they'd be disingenuous, even though the data during that period would show a large drop in temperature...

So, to start your data AFTER a recession but end it DURING one, they're doing the same thing...picking a good year to start and a bad year to end. Why not pick 1982-2009? Then you'd have an apples to apples comparison. Or, 1983-2003, when we were coming out of the 2001 recession? Heck, 1983-2007 even, before we went in the recession...
 
So, person one makes an income. He drives a used car and does without the latest gadgets. He lives below his means and SAVES some of his money--to prepare for a possible future layoff, to possibly retire some day apart from government help or just out of good financial discipline. This guy's saved money is now in a bank allowing it to be loaned at multiplier factors, and benefiting all of the country. He has never been to Hawaii, but hopes to one day.

Person two has an income, although he switches jobs whenever he doesn't like them. He spends everything. He loves new cars, trading them in often and increasing debt. He gets the latest phones--often switching carriers, with a penalty, with every app, and wiis, and goes to concerts and signs up for gym memberships and buys $150 jeans and buys a ridiculous amount of junk for his kids--all on credit cards that he makes minimum payments on. Maybe he goes bankrupt and stiffs everyone. (Oh, and just before his bankruptcy, he goes on one last spending spree.) He's been everywhere. This guy's selfish irresponsibility tears down his community.

So, now, let's analyze it statistically. The first guy's deferred gratification is now an evil "increase in wealth" that must be shared with the poor second guy, who was a victim of the economy. In fact, guy one, over the 26 years of the study accumulated $XXX, representing all the consumption he deprived himself. Now, poor guy loves a statistic showing how unfair the disparity in wealth is, and loves a policy based on that statistic.
 
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