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Income Gap Is Widening, Data Shows
New York Times ^ | March 29, 2007 | DAVID CAY JOHNSTON

Posted on 03/29/2007 9:08:56 AM PDT by jackmercer

Income inequality grew significantly in 2005, with the top 1 percent of Americans — those with incomes that year of more than $348,000 — receiving their largest share of national income since 1928, analysis of newly released tax data shows.

The top 10 percent, roughly those earning more than $100,000, also reached a level of income share not seen since before the Depression.

While total reported income in the United States increased almost 9 percent in 2005, the most recent year for which such data is available, average incomes for those in the bottom 90 percent dipped slightly compared with the year before, dropping $172, or 0.6 percent.

The gains went largely to the top 1 percent, whose incomes rose to an average of more than $1.1 million each, an increase of more than $139,000, or about 14 percent.

The new data also shows that the top 300,000 Americans collectively enjoyed almost as much income as the bottom 150 million Americans. Per person, the top group received 440 times as much as the average person in the bottom half earned, nearly doubling the gap from 1980..............................

(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: envy
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1 posted on 03/29/2007 9:08:57 AM PDT by jackmercer
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To: jackmercer

Illegal immigration is the reason.


2 posted on 03/29/2007 9:09:34 AM PDT by Brilliant
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To: jackmercer

Well, Putz Sulzberger spent $850,000,000 on his new office. That's quite a gap indeed.


3 posted on 03/29/2007 9:09:57 AM PDT by pabianice
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To: jackmercer

There ought to be a law . . . .







/heavy sarc


4 posted on 03/29/2007 9:10:00 AM PDT by BipolarBob (Yes I backed over the vampire, but I swear I didn't see it in my rear view mirror.)
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To: jackmercer

So what?


5 posted on 03/29/2007 9:10:07 AM PDT by Buck W. (If you push something hard enough, it will fall over.)
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To: jackmercer

All good news - reported as if it were bad.


6 posted on 03/29/2007 9:10:48 AM PDT by keat (You know who I feel bad for? Arab-Americans who truly want to get into crop-dusting.)
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To: Brilliant

Illegal immigration is the reason.


Yes, it both lowers the earnings of lower income people and raises the income of many higher income earners.


7 posted on 03/29/2007 9:11:02 AM PDT by freedomfiter2 (Duncan Hunter '08 Pro family, pro life, pro second Amendment, not a control freak.)
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To: Buck W.

So what? Do you read any history books?


8 posted on 03/29/2007 9:11:13 AM PDT by jackmercer
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To: jackmercer

You don't really believe this garbage, do you?


9 posted on 03/29/2007 9:12:05 AM PDT by Extremely Extreme Extremist (Remember, don't shoot food!)
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To: jackmercer

mastercard/visa to the rescue....they make everybody equal!


10 posted on 03/29/2007 9:14:18 AM PDT by sfvgto
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To: jackmercer

"Do you read any history books?"
Fax me your charm school diploma and then I'll answer your question.


11 posted on 03/29/2007 9:15:46 AM PDT by Buck W. (If you push something hard enough, it will fall over.)
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To: sfvgto

The implication of all these articles is that somehow rich greedy white capitalists are to blame. This is especially bad of course when a Republican is in the White House.


12 posted on 03/29/2007 9:18:53 AM PDT by TNCMAXQ
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To: jackmercer

Let them eat cake.


13 posted on 03/29/2007 9:19:15 AM PDT by HaveHadEnough
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To: jackmercer

This is just the NYT printing class warfare stories in the hopes that armed rabble will take to the streets for a new Socialist revolution.


14 posted on 03/29/2007 9:19:21 AM PDT by navyguy (We don't need more youth. What we need is a fountain of SMART.)
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To: jackmercer

If the government would just assign poor people to those well-paying jobs instead of constantly assigning rich people then maybe there would be some income equality around here, ya know?

See that's what did the Soviet Union in. They kept forcing Fuller Brush salesmen to be farmers and "poof"! no corn! If they would have just assigned FARMERS to be FARMERS it would have solved all their problems!

I believe the namesake in my tagline is working on this, however.


15 posted on 03/29/2007 9:20:06 AM PDT by VeniVidiVici (?El proletariado del mundo, une! - Xuygo Chavez)
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To: jackmercer
Without seeing the distribution for the other income groups, this data is meaningless and skewed. What a full disclosure the facts would show if that there has been growth in not only the highest income brackets, but also in the other middle and upper middle income brackets as well. The NYT is portraying this as if there were essentially only the very rich and very poor with no one in between. This is I'm sure to bolster liberal class envy and that the evil rich are just exploiting the poor.
16 posted on 03/29/2007 9:21:08 AM PDT by The Great RJ ("Mir we bleiwen wat mir sin" or "We want to remain what we are." ..Luxembourg motto)
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To: Brilliant

Stock market going up so much in the last few years along with Real Estate.

John


17 posted on 03/29/2007 9:23:59 AM PDT by Diggity
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To: keat
All good news - reported as if it were bad.

"Their incomes soared by about a fifth in one year, largely because of the rising stock market and increased business profits."

18 posted on 03/29/2007 9:26:32 AM PDT by scratcher
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To: Brilliant
The new data also shows that the top 300,000 Americans collectively enjoyed almost as much income as the bottom 150 million Americans.

Bottom line, the top 300,000 are producing as much value to the economy as the botton 150 million.

Or in other words the top 300,000 are carrying the ball for the rest of us.

19 posted on 03/29/2007 9:26:44 AM PDT by staytrue
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To: jackmercer

The first sentence talks about a person's 'share of the national income' implying there is a fixed national income and if someone gets a bigger share then someone else will get a smaller share.

See yesterday's thread "In defense of Income Inequality" from the Ayn Rand institute. http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1808176/posts


20 posted on 03/29/2007 9:26:59 AM PDT by TMD (Get Planned Parenthood out of our schools!)
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