Posted on 01/21/2013 11:58:19 AM PST by Sir Napsalot
Politicians typically talk about rising inequality and the sluggish recovery as separate phenomena, when they are in fact intertwined. Inequality stifles, restrains and holds back our growth. When even the free-market-oriented magazine The Economist argues — as it did in a special feature in October — that the magnitude and nature of the country’s inequality represent a serious threat to America, we should know that something has gone horribly wrong. ...
There are four major reasons inequality is squelching our recovery. The most immediate is that our middle class is too weak to support the consumer spending that has historically driven our economic growth. While the top 1% of income earners took home 93% of the growth in incomes in 2010, the households in the middle — who are most likely to spend their incomes rather than save them and who are, in a sense, the true job creators — have lower household incomes, adjusted for inflation, than they did in 1996. ....
Second, the hollowing out of the middle class since the 1970s, a phenomenon interrupted only briefly in the 1990s, means that they are unable to invest in their future, by educating themselves and their children and by starting or improving businesses.
Third, the weakness of the middle class is holding back tax receipts, especially because those at the top are so adroit in avoiding taxes and in getting Washington to give them tax breaks. ....
Fourth, inequality is associated with more frequent and more severe boom-and-bust cycles that make our economy more volatile and vulnerable. Though inequality did not directly cause the crisis, it is no coincidence that the 1920s — the last time inequality of income and wealth in the United States was so high — ended with the Great Crash and the Depression.
(Excerpt) Read more at opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com ...
Small minded slow thinkers can only blame the ones who get the tax breaks whilst ignoring the ones who give the tax breaks. CEOS and lobbyist do not write the tax code. Place the blame where it belongs, on the people you can remove by your votes.
“The worst form of inequality is to try to make unequal things equal.” Aristotle
balderdash
I say the greatest source of inequality in this nation is illegitimacy
A woman who elects to have a child or children without a spouse and economic partner faces a lifetime of being financially behind 2 parent households, and their children face a poverty of spirit that comes from not having 2 parents who love and support each other and their children and model it in their lives together as a family
Just walk through any minimum wage workplace and see the number of single mothers struggling to get by on marginal wages. I would bet a parent’s marital status affects their lifetime income more than their education level
North Korea is highly equal.
Explain that one, Joseph S.
Solve inequality without theft, jerk. I dare you.
It always boils down to theft with leftists.
The unequal tax burden that we are saddled with - 49% are not paying taxes or are taking tax credits that they never earned.
The unequal distribution of handouts aka "redistribution of my wealth". The same people that are not paying taxes are getting a free ride- everything from rent to cell phones, if you've worked to earn it, they want it too.
The unequal distribution of "stimulus" money and "get out of jail free cards" to companies that support the leftist agenda.
What would it take for Stiglitz’s of the world to acknowledge ‘our own gorvernment is holding back the recovery’?
From wiki: “.... one of the most frequently cited economists in the world,[7] and in 2011 he was named by Time magazine as one of the 100 most influential people in the world.[8]”
** Dr. Sowell is also a frequently cited economist, but of course those citings don’t count.
Stiglitz is unaware of the sad reality posed by the product of four generations of Pooblik Skruel Collective ‘graduates’.
Many of the grads are functionally illiterate, violence prone, have little to no socialization and richly deserve their Urban Feral” description.
Factor in a measurably lower I.Q. and nothing some Libtard bleats about will alleviate the deficit of those Urban Ferals.
The have a complete lack and utter disregard for history.. Lefties need to re-read “Animal Farm” by George Orwell.. That famous line “yes but some animals are more equal than others” comes to mind..
this equality crap talk, never works... mankind and the universe in general, is hardwired to compete, and that means : winners and losers.
Income = Net Work
Wealth = Net Worth
So why are we so hell bent on raising income taxes?
We could have recognized that when young people are jobless, their skills atrophy. We could have made sure that every young person was either in school, in a training program or on a job. Instead, we let youth unemployment rise to twice the national average.
Respectfully, sir, (1) How do you 'make sure' every young person is "either in school, in a training program or on a job"? Don't young persons have any say in this? (2) In school for what, in training for what? Are there going to be gubmint minders telling those young persons what they should learn and what kind of jobs they should or should not have?
Note to the author: Bull**** doesn’t feed the bull dog.
"Equality" is just another tool for overwhelming the system.
“Inequality Is Holding Back the Recovery”
In a blinding flash of leadership and inspiration, Columbia University and the New York Times announced that immediately, no one on the faculty or staff of Columbia or on the staff of the New York Times will be paid more than the National Median salary.
In solidarity with this courageous action, the Board of Regents of Columbia, the Board of Directors of the NYT and the owners of the NYT announced that ALL of their Bank accounts and investments in excess of $250,000 (Obama’s cut-off for “wealthy”) will be signed over to the US Treasury to be applied exclusively to payment of the National Debt.
Furthermore, all of their real estate holdings in excess of a 3,000 sq. ft. primary residence and a 1,500 sq. ft vacation home will be signed over to either The Salvation Army or Habitat for Humanity for transfer to poor families and the homeless.
The celebratory bonfire (simulated - carbon footprint, you know) will be held in Central Park Saturday, Jan 26, complete with S’mores and singing. Please bring your guitars, tambourines and sheet music for “Kumbaya”.
Actually, I tooo am an academic. But before I became one, I was an AF officer for 21 years. Maybe you missed the [/s] in my initial post. In any case, I am under no illusion that everyone is equal or, for that matter, that everyone has “equal” opportunity. Ideally, opportunity should be both fair and equal, but we don’t live in a perfect world....and never will.
I once had an after-dinner discussion with one of my colleagues on the subject of who could get a PhD in Computer Science. His assertion was that anyone could do it. At first I thought he was kidding, especially because so many students clearly have trouble with introductory programming and Calculus, I pointed out that the task required a degree of intelligent, motivation, and work-ethic that most people lacked. But he continued to insist that anyone could do it if they simply tried hard enough, After a while, it dawned on me that he was being totally serious, especially when the discussion started to get heated. It still floors me to think that someone who taught in the same Dept could have such a different view of reality when presented with similar experiences.
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