The ‘mind-blowing’ surge of wealth inequality in America
One of the most understated issues in American political discourse is the surging inequality of income and wealth. The Nation has a chart that sheds light on what’s going on.
Notice that the level of inequality was higher by 2006 than even just before the Great Depression. You can bet that figure has risen after the ‘08 bailouts, which (necessary as it may have been to prevent a catastrophic financial plunge) essentially funneled money from poor and working people into the pockets of wealthy financial institutions that participated in the economy’s decline. Heads they win, tails we lose.
FDR’s Fed chairman Marriner S. Eccles explained in kitchen-table discourse why this matter is so damaging to the national economy: “As in a poker game where the chips were concentrated in fewer and fewer hands, the other fellows could stay in the game only by borrowing. When their credit ran out, the game stopped,” he said.
Business Insider has an excellent slide show that adds depth and breadth to this phenomenon. Here’s one graphic (via the Institute for Policy Studies) showing that in 2007 the top 1 percent owned over a third of the nation’s wealth while the bottom 50 percent had a measly 2.5 percent.
Here’s what Dennis Kucinich told me a couple months ago: “Every area of the economy is still about taking wealth from the great mass of people and putting it into the hands of a few. If you don’t have a economic democracy, you don’t have a political democracy.”
Perhaps that has something to do with it?
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(Here’s what Dennis Kucinich told me a couple months ago: “Every area of the economy is still about taking wealth from the great mass of people and putting it into the hands of a few. If you don’t have a economic democracy, you don’t have a political democracy.”) You are right to root of the problem. It is the wage-productivity gap. Pleease read Ravi Batra’s “Greenspan Fraud” I once respected D. Kucinich his vote on health-care deform was a vote for expediency not conscience. Our choice is clear to die on our feet or live on our knees.
Here’s what Dennis Kucinich told me a couple months ago: “Every area of the economy is still about taking wealth from the great mass of people and putting it into the hands of a few. If you don’t have a economic democracy, you don’t have a political democracy.”
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Isn’t that the truth. Plutocracy lives, we have seen the enemy and it is us.
[...] ….Business Insider has an excellent slide show that adds depth and breadth to this phenomenon. Here’s one graphic (via the Institute for Policy Studies) showing that in 2007 the top 1 percent owned over a third of the nation’s wealth while the bottom 50 percent had a measly 2.5 percent….Source: true/slant.com [...]
[...] Eines der am meisten unterschätzten Probleme in der amerikanischen politischen Diskurs ist die wogende Ungleichheit von Einkommen und Vermögen. Die Nation hat ein Diagramm, das Licht auf, was los ist. Beachten Sie, dass das Niveau der Ungleichheit Depression war höher als noch im Jahr 2006 kurz vor dem Großen. Sie können darauf wetten, dass nach der Figur hat [gestiegen. . . ] URL des Original-Artikel http://trueslant.com/sahilkapur/2010/04/09/the-mind-blowing-surge-of-wealth-inequality-in-america/ [...]
At least one of the many arms of the extra-rich needs to be handcuffed to something.
I wish there were some sort of international “how much of the earth you’re allowed to own” limit (OMG world government!). If we had unlimited space instead of this now-made-tiny planet, ok fine; slurp it up. But we don’t, and there’s an expanding global populace to share it with to boot.
And I’m perfectly happy with letting those who want it and can “achieve it” reach a nice limit of what I would consider still sickening amounts, but we’re dealing with extreme morbid obesity-style proportions of gluttony here right now, when too much is never even close to enough. If the aim is to have “class,” there certainly should be some sort of vulgarity factor too, but there isn’t. We are taught to worship these people, and some huge subset of those 2.3%ers do.
Part of this reminds me of the shortest Tolstoy story ever, “How Much Land does a Man Need?” – only these people aren’t getting the same ironic/comedic result.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/How_Much_Land_Does_a_Man_Need%3F
Historically, all over the world, whenever situations like this occurred it didn’t bode well for those who did the wealth grab. In some instances entire family bloodlines were made extinct. Good thing we are far more civilized.
It will take great political will to narrow the margin back to post WWII levels. To do that, ownership of government has to be returned to the people. Neither corporations, lobbyists, special interest groups nor any other entity who cannot stand alone and cast a vote in an election should have the to right to control or have any access to any part of government that any single citizen doesn’t have. Corporations can’t be persons.
Plutocrats control the two political parties who control all of our political processes. They decide who will compete in an election and who will be supported. They have turned the democracy into the “Jets” v “Sharks” in suits. Its a farce but there is nothing funny about it.
A dam can only hold so much water and a balloon can only so much air. Who knows how much wider that gap can get before…
Thanks for putting this together Sahil. I seem to only see information on how much TAX the wealthy pay, neglecting to mention how much wealth they actually have.
For the life of me I can’t understand why americans can’t come to terms with the reality of their situation. Why are they so stuck in denial? How have the rednecks gained so much control? Is there any hope?
@ Craig Travis
There are two main reasons Americans don’t catch up with the truth. The most basic is that they are pitifully poorly educated in civics. I think it was the seventies when civics was abandoned in US high schools. Currently, Americans could not explain what a democracy is, nor a republic, nor civil rights, nor the Bill of Rights, nor say how US Congress members are elected, what is the electoral college, etc. etc. etc.
Second is that the overwhelming majority of us live with radio or tv on 24/7. It produces a constant tidal wave of propaganda about what is “right” to wear, eat, drink, think, admire, dislike, see, listen to, buy, covet, have, use, want, keep, etc etc. These are all consumer values that turn us into machines for generating money from our labor and turning it into capital for the corporations. That is the only function we have left. Reality shows, junk food, consumer electronics and new new new new new new new everythings (HD, cell phones, computers, mp3 players, endlessly).
Get someone you know to revolt against TV. Turn it off, Turn off the radio also. Then get them to get someone else to turn off the TV and Radio.
Take a service job and make sure every young person you know takes one as well; I’m talking low-wage crappy work with no raises and no commission and no chance of advancement. Watch how the rich treat you, and them. If you have no idea how we have become their serfs, this will make it abundantly clear to you. I am writing a book about working retail where I served the nation’s wealthiest — people from Greenwich and Scarsdale, the hedge fun boys and their wives, who behave as though they arrived at the mall in a sedan chair. It’s astonishing the contempt the wealthy have for those less materially endowed, but why wouldn’t they? The rest of us are some vague abstraction.
[...] ….Business Insider has an excellent slide show that adds depth and breadth to this phenomenon. Here’s one graphic (via the Institute for Policy Studies) showing that in 2007 the top 1 percent owned over a third of the nation’s wealth while the bottom 50 percent had a measly 2.5 percent….Source: true/slant.com [...]
[...] floating around here. Many of the people in that 47% range are hardly making any money at all. 50% of the US population holds only 2.5% of the wealth. The other 50% of the population have 97.5% of the money. The top 10% have 70% of our wealth. The [...]
[...] #Finanz #Infografiken http://trueslant.com/sahilkapur/2010/04/09/the-mind-blowing-surge-of-wealth-inequality-in-america/ [...]
[...] Business Insider has an excellent slide show that adds depth and breadth to this phenomenon. Here’s one graphic (via the Institute for Policy Studies) showing that in 2007 the top 1 percent owned over a third of the nation’s wealth while the bottom 50 percent had a measly 2.5 percent….Source: true/slant.com [...]
[...] if you knew that Business Insider, a financial management resource center, found that in 2007 the top 1 percent owned over a third of [...]
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[...] between the haves and the have-nots in the entire world. In 2007, the top one percent owned more than a third of the nation’s wealth— while the bottom fifty percent had to make do with just two and a half percent. And Congress [...]
[...] [...]
[...] but since the graphs at their link is broken we’ll use this blog post instead – The ‘mind-blowing’ surge of wealth inequality in America Business Insider has an excellent slide show that adds depth and breadth to this phenomenon. [...]
[...] like this, those raking in the cash should pay in proportion to the tremendous wealth they have. As of 2007 the upper 10% of the wealthy owned 71.5% of the nation’s wealth. The bottom 50% owned 2.5% of the nation’s wealth. In order for that to make sense in terms [...]