Posted on 01/21/2014 8:08:58 AM PST by Kaslin
Income inequality -- the gap between the rich and poor -- is an issue U.S. presidents of both parties have spoken of for years.
President Clinton touted, toward the end of his term, that wages were rising "at all income levels" for the first time in decades. President George W. Bush, toward the end of his, pondered the best way to respond to income inequality, noting some policies "lift people up" and some "tear others down."
But perhaps no president has hammered the issue as emphatically as President Obama.
In his 2012 State of the Union address, Obama said: "The defining issue of our time is how to keep that promise alive. No challenge is more urgent. No debate is more important. We can either settle for a country where a shrinking number of people do really well, while a growing number of Americans barely get by, or we can restore an economy where everyone gets a fair shot, and everyone does their fair share, and everyone plays by the same set of rules."
But a look back shows that income inequality has grown, not shrunk, under the current president.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
Clueless........absolutely clueless...............abso-freaking-lutely clueless..............
Equalization of Opportunity Bill
See:
Should have been required reading in school, instead of “Death of a Salesman”.
Nothing beats Marxist Magical Musings.
All this talk about income inequality is nonsense. It comes right out of the liberal playbook.
Before World War II there was no middle class. There were poor - really poor and there were rich - really rich. And the poor barely had enough to eat.
They didn’t have welfare, food stamps and Section 8 housing. If people couldn’t feed themselves they became servants to get a roof over their head or they went to the poorhouse. A very small percentage of the population were middle class. Just look at the pictures of the soup lines. Look at their clothes. Look how thin they were.
This income inequality concept is the basis on which income distribution rests.
Given Oxfam’s well-documented history of fraud in furtherance of left-wing politics, you need to get the proof that they have any merit to what they are saying.
Here are the first two Google hits:
http://www.tax-news.com/news/Oxfam_AntiOffshore_Report_Shown_Up_As_Bogus____4705.html
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/crime/10127628/Oxfam-anti-fraud-chief-accused-of-fraud.html
Oxfam is a joke: wrong on Israel, global warming, abortion, Islam, capitalism, the usual suspects.
Oh yes there is. The "ever widening gap" is based on dubious statistics produced by liberal red diaper baby sociology professors and perpetuated by liberal foundations and politicians. Hard to believe so many here on FR would believe those data.
Read some history. Look at census data. Do some genealogy and see how many indentured servants there were and live-in servants. See how many people lived in rented places and how few were able to go to high school.
“Income inequality” is for getting votes. Nothing else.
Face it, Libs.
Your messiah is just about the biggest two-faced liar who has ever walked the planet.
See tagline for how we should respond to this Socialist meme.
Oxfam is a notorious anti-Israel, anti-West, group.
They are the charitable store front for the Communist party in Europe to give it the sheen of respectability, akin to how Media Matters puts out fake reports.
But George Bush had only 4% or so unemployment most of the time he was in office so jobs WERE being created.
I think the stat is that the 85 richest have wealth equivalent to the poorest 50% on the planet - still a doubtful stat and pretty meaningless.
You're talking about the 30's? This was at the peak of the depression.
Americans before that had been climbing the ladder like crazy and the middle class was expanded because all kinds of industries had taken off. FDR and Obama had the same philosophy: kill off the middle class so the poor can not feel so bad about themselves. The poor is where Obama's main voter base lies so jealousy among the poor toward the middle class keeps him in office. Thus, stoking it has always been in Obama's best interest.
“But George Bush had only 4% or so unemployment most of the time he was in office so jobs WERE being created.”
At the cost of manufacturing capability. And now, those involved like to point out that manufacturing pulls an economy out of recession.
Short term gain for long term pain?
Oh, here it is. Mission: Oxfam International is a confederation of 17 organizations working together to find lasting solutions to poverty and injustice.
That sounds so good! Could only be better if they found a way to include "Peoples'" in the name of the org.
This one is a little different....
Two Different Versions ...
Two Different Morals
OLD VERSION
The ant works
hard in the withering heat all summer long, building his house and laying up supplies for the winter.
The grasshopper
thinks the ant is a fool and laughs and dances and
plays the summer away.
Come winter, the ant is warm and well fed.
The grasshopper has
no food or shelter, so he
dies out in the cold.
MORAL OF THE OLD STORY:
Be responsible for yourself!
MODERN VERSION
The ant works hard
in the withering heat and the rain all summer long, building his house and laying up supplies for the winter.
The grasshopper thinks the ant is a fool and laughs
and dances and plays the summer away.
Come winter, the shivering grasshopper
calls a press conference and demands to know why the ant should be allowed to be warm and well fed while he is cold and starving..
CBS, NBC, PBS, CNN, MSNBC and ABC show up to
provide pictures of the shivering grasshopper
next to a video of the ant in his comfortable home
with a table filled with food.
America is stunned by the sharp contrast.
How can this be, that in a country of such wealth,
this poor grasshopper is allowed to suffer so?
Kermit the Frog appears on Oprah with the grasshopper and everybody cries when they sing,
‘It's Not Easy Being Green ...’
Occupy the Anthill stages
a demonstration in front of the ant's
house where the news stations film the SEIU group singing, We shall overcome.
Then Rev Al Sharpton’s assistant
has the group kneel down to pray for the grasshopper
while he damns the ants. The Reverend Al can not attend as he has contractual commitments to appear on his MSNBC show for which he is paid over two million dollars a year to complain that rich people do not care.
President Obama condemns the ant and blames
President Bush 43, President Bush 41, President Reagan, Christopher Columbus, and the Pope
for the grasshopper's plight….
Nancy Pelosi & Harry Reid
exclaim in an interview on The View
that the ant has gotten rich off the back of the
grasshopper, and both call for an immediate tax hike on the ant to make him pay his fair share.
Finally, the EEOC drafts the
Economic Equity & Anti-Grasshopper Act
retroactive to the beginning of the summer.
The ant is fined for failing to hire a proportionate number
of green bugs and, having nothing left to pay his retroactive taxes, his home is confiscated by the Government Green Czar
and given to the grasshopper .
The story ends as we see the grasshopper
and his lazy free-loading friends finishing up the last bits of the ant's food while the government house he is in, which, as you recall, just happens to be the ant's old house, crumbles around them because the grasshopper doesn't maintain it.
The ant has disappeared in the snow,
never to be seen again.
The grasshopper is found dead in a drug related incident, and the house, now abandoned, is taken over by a gang of spiders who terrorize the ramshackle, once prosperous and peaceful, neighborhood.
The entire Nation collapses
bringing the rest of the free world with it.
MORAL OF THE STORY:
Be careful how you vote in 2014 and 2016.
The strange thing is , that his agenda will be chosen once again by the electorate this year in November.
(Democrat gains in House and Senate)ubic
IMHO
Regarding the U.S., I would love to see opposing stats...Thanks!
Good question. Given the fact many of the super wealthy in CA are leftist.
Numerous sources have made the claim over the past 10 years or so. Feel free to post a link showing the gap is not expanding.
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