Posted on 10/13/2007 1:11:07 PM PDT by AuntB
Income disparity reaches highest since 1920s, paper reports, with recent Wall Street boom partly to blame.
The income gap between the wealthiest and poorest Americans grew to its widest level since the 1920s, according to a report published Friday.
Citing Internal Revenue Service data, the Wall Street Journal reported that the wealthiest 1 percent of all Americans earned 21.2 percent of all the nation's income in 2005, up from the previous high of 20.8 percent in 2000.
Conversely, the bottom half of working Americans earned just 12.8 percent of all the nation's income, down from 13.4 percent in 2004 and slightly lower than 13 percent in 2000.
While the IRS data only dates back as far as 1986, academic experts told the paper that the last time the rich had this large of a share of income was during the 1920s.
The figures, based on "adjusted gross income" which incorporates certain deductions such as contributions to individual retirement accounts, revealed that the income level for the tax filer in wealthiest 1 percent of Americans grew 3 percent to $364,657 between 2000 and 2005, according to the Journal.
At the same time, the median American income, however, slipped 2 percent during that same period to $30,881.
Academic experts told the paper that the income disparity among Americans was due a combination of factors including globalization and technical advances, which favor the most skilled workers, while the recent boom on Wall Street was also seen playing a large part.
(Excerpt) Read more at money.cnn.com ...
Something for the Democrats to rant and rave about during the election season.
Maybe the bottom half of americans would be a better off, and maybe a lot better off, if the Dem’s were kept from bringing in illegal aliens.
They’ll be okay as long as its Republicans bringing them in.
You're probably correct. It would be a start if we could stop republican leadership from insisting on the same.
the last time the rich had this large of a share of income was during the 1920s.
Sounds like a bullish sign, the 1920s were a decade of great economic growth and opportunity, particularly in relationship to the more egalitarian 1930s(which presumably had a less economic inequality).
I’m sure the dems will address this in next year’s election, and if elected will be able to drive down the economy sufficiently that it won’t be a “problem” any more.
The gap between the rich and poor is not at all important. What is important is what the poor are able to afford. The “poor” aren’t truly poor if they can afford to (a) own a car, (b) own a television, and (c) eat enough calories to be obese.
These types of articles are always written during the last days of a Republican administration. Note that this article doesn’t seem to focus on the 13.4% figure from 2003, when Clinton’s final figure from 2000 was 13%.
These types of figures are going to fluctuate. And believe me, if the figure were 17% next fall, it wouldn’t be deemed worthy of coverage.
Inflation, a function of the Federal Reserve’s longstanding policies, redistributes wealth from the poor to the rich by letting the rich use the money first when it’s most valuable. Our gap in wealth is by design in this country, and it is not conservative.
Stupid greedy government taxes raise prices on everything. From the loaf of bread to the gallon of milk, to a can of beans. Harming the poorest that dumbocrats pretend to care for. If they really cared they would cut out all taxes except for the ones needed to fund the military and fix the roads. Other than that PISS OFF RATS!
Are those mean nasty wealthy stealing money from the pockets of the poor? No?
Or are there millions of workers flooding in to do the work that Americans will not do for peanuts while they choose to live in conditions that the average American would not?
That cannot possibly be true, right?
and if it is then what is the dem solution? Why higher taxes and higher minimum wages, which both make everything more expensive, so the same cycle repeats itself at regular intervals and remains a political class war forever. Neat, huh?
Poor need to work harder.
Rich keep doing what make them rich. Poor keep doing what make them poor. Expect the gap to widen.
Geez, I’ve been hearing this ever since I was born - 55 years ago.
“Something for the Democrats to rant and rave about during the election season.”
Undoubtedly they will...but perhaps this is a development, if true, that we all should be concerned about.
Wonder if the median wage is getting pushed down more and more by cheap illegal immigrant labor than anything else. This is nothing more than class warfare though. Rich pay a larger portion of taxes than in 2000 (even though they — the ‘experts’ — said it would be the opposite if Bush’ tax cuts got passed when he was running in ‘00.
When we had the earthquake back in the 90s, some of the welfare offices were closed. The government had to scramble to totally recreate the welfare payments for the first of the month, which was only two or three days away. Instead of mailing them out like they generally did, they had to have people come in and pick them up.
Several times on television they showed the long lines of people waiting to pick up their checks. It looked as if more than 20% of those people weighted over 400 pounds. In addition it looked as if another 30 to 40% were over 200 pounds.
It’s impossible to know what the true stats were along these lines, but after seeing the lines, I was convinced that none of these people looked destitute, in desparate need of a meal or anything along those lines. And while I think that is good to a point, there seemed to be some clear evidence of people waiting in line who shouldn’t be there.
Illegal immigration is the cause.
No. It means that the American middle class that changed the world for the better and caused this country to prosper is disappearing. The poor and rich are getting their share,and then some.
The same 1% who earn 20% of the income pay 34% of the taxes. Seems “fair”.
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