America takes notice of gap in incomes

Houston Chronicle) ^ | December 16, 2006 | MATTHEW BENJAMIN

[GodGunsGuts]

...

The portion of national income earned by the top 20 percent of households grew to 50.4 percent last year, up from 45.6 percent 20 years ago; the bottom 60 percent of U.S. households received 26.6 percent, down from 29.9 percent in 1985, according to the Census Bureau.

Meanwhile, average pay for corporate chief executive officers rose to 369 times that of the average worker last year, according to finance professor Kevin Murphy of the University of Southern California; that compares with 131 times in 1993 and 36 times in 1976.

...

[nopardons]

I will, as soon as you explain, in detail, what a "derivative" is, WITHOUT looking it up and/or CCPing what you find. Deal? :-)

[KevinDavis]

Yes.. I don't answer red herring questions.. Comrade.... Give me on reason why I should pay for overpriced American Union Made crap...

[A. Pole]

Examples:

Countries with very low stratification of income are Denmark, Japan, Sweden, Czech Republic, Finland, Norway.

Countries with moderate stratification are Lithuania, Sri Lanka, Kyrgyzstan Tajikistan, Australia, Algeria, Kazakhstan, Israel, Portugal.

Countries with higher stratification are Russia, China, Ethiopia, Guinea, Cambodia, Moldova, Ghana, Turkmenistan, United States, Pakistan.

Countries with very high stratification are Colombia, Paraguay, Bolivia, South Africa, Nicaragua, Brazil.

(The Gini Index)

The assets/wealth distribution is a different (although correlated) issue.

[KevinDavis]

So????

[A. Pole]

Much poorer? At least they have socialism with a face.

You seem to be confused. Poland is not a socialist country anymore. BTW, also before WWII and socialism, Poland was much poorer than USA.

[nopardons]

I'll point it out to you, just as soon as YOU explain "derivatives", in DETAIL, WITHOUT looking it up and/or CCPing what you find. Deal? :-)

[A. Pole]

So????

Just to provide some comparative data. I looked them up out of curiosity. You tell me if they indicate something.

[nopardons]

Still waiting for YOU to tell me all about the OTC stuff, "derivatives", the PINK SHEET, puts, calls, strips, straddles, and butterflies. :-)

All I hear is crickets. What's wrong, cat got your tongue, or are you talking about things you don't know anything at all about?

[nopardons]

You have a very wise father and apparently, the apple didn't fall far from the tree!

[KevinDavis]

That we are a richer country than those countries.. So??

[KevinDavis]

What is the glamour of working in the factory??? You work long hours in place with very little light for a paycheck that most of it ends up to the union.

We need to be looking towards the future, not the past.. That seems to be the problem with a lot of Americans...

[GodGunsGuts]

You keep bringing up unions. What does that have to do with anything? I'm saying we shouldn't be doing business with genocidal nations like the Soviet Union, Nazi Germany, Pol Pot's Cambodia, Vietnam, Red China, etc. But somehow, you would rather do business with them than with the non-genocidal nations of the world, to include your fellow Americans. That is one of the most cynical, un-American attitudes I have ever read...COMRADE.

[A. Pole]

That we are a richer country than those countries.. So??

The date show that you can have high stratification in a rich country like USA and even higher in a poor country like Colombia. And on the other end of spectrum, you can have low stratification in rich country like Norway and in a poor country like Belarus.

[KevinDavis]

Again stop it with the red herrings...

[KevinDavis]

Well I don't care....

[GodGunsGuts]

Sounds like you are trying to escape another one of your blunders. So are you admitting that the article never said that the poll is weighted to favor the Dems???

[GodGunsGuts]

China is most definitely RED, but it is not a herring.

[M. Dodge Thomas]

"The economy" has nothing to do with it.

Tell that to to a radiologist who has just completed 8-10 years specailized education, is 125K in debt, and discovers that her profession is in the process of being outsourced to India. Or a EE who's job has been outsourced to China. I know a patent attorney who spent 15 years building a practice doing specialized research for clients like Motorola and 3Com five years ago - he's temporally (he hopes) working the electrical aisle at Home Depot - the work is now done by Indian law students working for less than he's making per hour stocking shelves.

It took 18 months form the time outsourcing of his skill started to the time he had zero - zilch - no - clients..

We've barely even begun to see what's going to happen to this country as outsourcing makes it's way up the food chain.

[A. Pole]

In other words the high degree of inequality does not correspond to better or worse economic performance.

Whether society is more egalitarian/democratic or more aristocratic/oligarchical affects other areas of social life.

I would venture to say that large difference in wealth are more conducive to a monarchy while moderate differences are conducive to a republic.

[Cincinna]

Class warfare alert.