Posted on 01/20/2014 1:52:38 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
The reality of rising American inequality is stark. Since the late 1970s real wages for the bottom half of the work force have stagnated or fallen, while the incomes of the top 1 percent have nearly quadrupled (and the incomes of the top 0.1 percent have risen even more). While we can and should have a serious debate about what to do about this situation, the simple fact — American capitalism as currently constituted is undermining the foundations of middle-class society — shouldn’t be up for argument.
But it is, of course. Partly this reflects Upton Sinclair’s famous dictum: It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends on his not understanding it. But it also, I think, reflects distaste for the implications of the numbers, which seem almost like an open invitation to class warfare — or, if you prefer, a demonstration that class warfare is already underway, with the plutocrats on offense.
The result has been a determined campaign of statistical obfuscation. At its cruder end this campaign comes close to outright falsification; at its more sophisticated end it involves using fancy footwork to propagate what I think of as the myth of the deserving rich.
For an example of de facto falsification, one need look no further than a recent column by Bret Stephens of The Wall Street Journal, which first accused President Obama (wrongly) of making a factual error, then proceeded to assert that rising inequality was no big deal, because everyone has been making big gains. Why, incomes for the bottom fifth of the U.S. population have risen 186 percent since 1979!
If this sounds wrong to you, it should: that’s a nominal number, not corrected for inflation....
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
The entire article boiled down to one sentence:
“It sucks I am not one of them (the rich).”
This coming from a guy who is supporting the crony capitalism and government that is destroying the middle class.
Methinks Krugman hasn’t spent enough time at Walmart. If he had, he would see the undeserving poor and their character issues firsthand.
Krrugman’s net worth is 2.5 million.
Share the wealth (with me), Paul.
Profit is an ugly thing, except for the liberal getting profit, of course.
It was 10.5 before he started following his own advice.
Someone should point out to the mental midget that the rise of percentage at the bottom is because A) Government handouts have ballooned under BroncoBama giving the takers no reason to work for it and B) Double digit unemployment again thanks to Bronco’s economic policies and ZeroCare might just play a role in his calculations.
Why should we pay attention to anything a columnist or reporter says from the NY Times. Now if it was from the Enquiror we might be able to believe and trust in it, but the New York Times. come on?
An extremely wealthy woman showed me how to put on an upholstery package for my ‘68 Mustang today. While I was there she took several calls for two of her businesses. I’ve been there late on a Sunday and at 9:00 PM, she’s still transacting business. I’ve never worked as hard as her. She deserves every penny. (Incidentally, it was in the forties and her house heat is off. She only turns it on when it’s in the thirties.)
!
As I found out when working in sales, the more calls I made, the “luckier” I got.
There is noboby more undeserving than Krugman and his Nobel Prize.
You forgot BHO?
“She only turns it on when it’s in the thirties.”
I’m pretty thrifty, but I’d have to move to a warmer climate before I’d even consider this!!!! I cannot work sitting in front of a computer if its this cold. I’ve tried and failed :-). I’ll save money elsewhere :-).
I saw something this weekend that really brought this home to me. My kid's scout troop did an overnighter for some snow sports and a weekend at a cabin. One of the dads who is really active had to leave early because he was pulling a night shift on Saturday night. One of the other dads asked him where he worked and he was too embarrassed to say. He just answered that hope and change wasn't working out so well for his family. Turns out he has been pulling down a couple night shifts a week doing janitorial work because he got furloughed from his regular job.
This guy is really nice and puts on a brave face, but he is going through his late forties struggling to survive. All the while the admisitation is touting their ginned up employment numbers,
Think of this:
The Liberals Demand that we teach our children Evolution in school when they grow up and to think that Creative Design and Divine Intervention are a fantasy.
All at the same time they are paying some of those parents who have kids in the those same failing schools not to work, but instead they are using “Government Divine Intervention” to pay their parents to have more kids and not to work. All while taking money from the evolution winners of doing hard work.
How can Liberals be so blatantly schizophrenic that their own policies are an anathema to their supposed “ideals”....?
That is because the “ideals” are not “ideals” but a means to an end, instead they are a tool for their REAL ideal: That of lording power over in their colorful spiteful language the “masses”....
Nice another rich upper class white man lecturing us about the evils of wanting a better life.
Krugman is absolutely bankrupt intellectually.
Welfare, minimum wage, labor unions, big government, focusing on “income inequality” - these are all ideas rooted in Karl Marx. And anyone who wants these ideas is a Marxist - doesn’t matter if they call themselves “socialists” or “progressives” or “communists” or “columnist at the NYT”.
And what did Karl Marx want? What was his entire thesis of the Communist Manifesto?
Marx wanted the DESTRUCTION of the middle class. He HATED the middle class. He wanted their blood FLOWING in the streets.
Since that wouldn’t be feasible in a lot of places, he proposed the ideas above. He told his followers: implement high taxes. Push for regulations and labor unions. Fight “income inequality” using the power of the government.
That will destroy the middle class.
So here we sit in 2014. We’ve implemented all this Marxist drivel and Krugman is stunned that the middle class is taking it on the chin?
Give me a break.
Yeah - there is a widening divide between the rich and the poor because there’s nothing in between them. The middle class is being hollowed out.
But the middle class keeps voting for this...
The problem is poverty, without which democrats would lose all their power.
So his scam is to convince people that wealth is the problem.
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