The Class War Launched by America's Wealthiest Is Getting More Savage

[dreamdancer 0]

not good...

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When taxes went up under Clinton, median income rose, peaked at $52,587 in 1999, and then, after Bush cut taxes, declined. Keep in mind that this is median family income. In the '50s and '60s, family income was usually earned by a single person. Today, family income normally comes from at least two people.

At the same time, income for the richest soared. In 1979 the richest 1 percent of Americans earned 9 percent of all U.S. income. Now they earn 24 percent of all U.S. income. One percent of Americans earn nearly one-fourth of all the income in the country.

Then came the crashes of 2001 and 2008 and the recessions that followed.

The crash hasn’t changed anything. Things have become worse.

From 1990 to 2005, adjusted for inflation -- the minimum wage is down 9 percent, production workers’ pay is up only over 15 years 4.3 percent.

At the same time, the rich get richer:

Corporate profits are up 106.7 percent. The S&P 500 is still up 141.4 percent since 1990. CEO compensation is up 282 percent. Call it transfer of wealth. Or call it class warfare.

http://www.alternet.org/economy/149531/the_class_war_launched_by_america%27s_wealthiest_is_getting_more_savage/

stay away from moving propellers - they bite
blue skies from thai sky adventures
good solid response-provoking keyboarding

[CanuckInUSA 0]

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Then came the crashes of 2001

The crash of 2001? Don't you mean when the dot-com bubble began to burst. Sorry the dot-com bubble began to burst in 1999 not 2001.

Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

[dreamdancer 0]

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Then came the crashes of 2001

The crash of 2001? Don't you mean when the dot-com bubble began to burst. Sorry the dot-com bubble began to burst in 1999 not 2001.

that's very interesting. meanwhile as you stumble from tree to tree the rich are getting richer at our expense - can't end happily...

stay away from moving propellers - they bite
blue skies from thai sky adventures
good solid response-provoking keyboarding

[Belgian_Draft 0]

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Then came the crashes of 2001

The crash of 2001? Don't you mean when the dot-com bubble began to burst. Sorry the dot-com bubble began to burst in 1999 not 2001.

that's very interesting. meanwhile as you stumble from tree to tree the rich are getting richer at our expense - can't end happily...

Yeah, it's too bad you don't have the opportunity to make a better life for yourself, that you can't work smarter and earn more money, that you can't join that richest 1%.
Oh, wait, I was wrong.
You can.

HAMMER:
Originally employed as a weapon of war, the hammer nowadays is used as a
kind of divining rod to locate the most expensive parts adjacent the
object we are trying to hit.

[BlindBrick 0]

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The crash hasn’t changed anything. Things have become worse.

Don't know a thing about about the income gap, but if those two sentences are any indication, the education gap among the polarized is getting worse.

-Blind

"If you end up in an alligator's jaws, naked, you probably did something to deserve it."

[Bolas 5]

Most corporations are international so you'd need to compare US wages to world wages as well as US wealth levels to world.

Or if you want to make this data strictly US, you'd have to exclude any company that did business internationally.

Stupidity if left untreated is self-correcting
If ya can't be good, look good, if that fails, make 'em laugh.

[dreamdancer 0]

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Then came the crashes of 2001

The crash of 2001? Don't you mean when the dot-com bubble began to burst. Sorry the dot-com bubble began to burst in 1999 not 2001.

that's very interesting. meanwhile as you stumble from tree to tree the rich are getting richer at our expense - can't end happily...

Yeah, it's too bad you don't have the opportunity to make a better life for yourself, that you can't work smarter and earn more money, that you can't join that richest 1%.
Oh, wait, I was wrong.
You can.

you'll find 99% can't - and that rich 1% are getting richer at our expense. not a good template for social stability, have you read hg wells 'the time machine'?

stay away from moving propellers - they bite
blue skies from thai sky adventures
good solid response-provoking keyboarding

[dreamdancer 0]

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The crash hasn’t changed anything. Things have become worse.

Don't know a thing about about the income gap, but if those two sentences are any indication, the education gap among the polarized is getting worse.

-Blind

the rich don't like educated people (they're a threat)...

stay away from moving propellers - they bite
blue skies from thai sky adventures
good solid response-provoking keyboarding

[dreamdancer 0]

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Most corporations are international so you'd need to compare US wages to world wages as well as US wealth levels to world.

Or if you want to make this data strictly US, you'd have to exclude any company that did business internationally.

i don't see what your point is - the rich are getting richer the world over (and accelerating away from the rest of us). the us is just the extreme end. can't last. won't end happily...

stay away from moving propellers - they bite
blue skies from thai sky adventures
good solid response-provoking keyboarding

[dreamdancer 0]

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“Income distribution in the United States [has become] more unequal than in Guyana, Nicaragua, and Venezuela, and roughly on par with Uruguay, Argentina, and Ecuador.”

Take a look at that list.

Countries with wide income inequality don’t lead the world in research, technology, industry, and innovation. They’re unstable. They have large underclasses. They have high rates of crime. They have little opportunity.

In such countries the rich have disproportionate power. They take control of all aspects of society, especially government, the police, and the judiciary. They become self perpetuating.

If current trends continue, “The United States by 2043 will have the same income inequality as Mexico.” (Tula Connell, Mar 12, 2010, AFL-CIO Now.)

Countries with high levels of income inequality are third-world countries.

http://www.alternet.org/economy/149531/the_class_war_launched_by_america%27s_wealthiest_is_getting_more_savage/?page=entire

stay away from moving propellers - they bite
blue skies from thai sky adventures
good solid response-provoking keyboarding

[billvon 3,087]

>the rich don't like educated people (they're a threat)...

Actually, they do quite like them. They can use them to make money. Uneducated and incompetent people don't make good employees.

[loumeinhart 0]

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Call it transfer of wealth. Or call it class warfare

Sure. Because Johnny Depp, who according to Forbes, made 75million between 6/09 and 6/10 is engaged in CLASS WARFARE. His secret is this.. he takes money from the poor $10 at a time. He dupes the sheep into sitting through one of his movies for 10 bucks.

It's obvious that you want income and/or wealth (which are different) to be the same for everyone. I respect that. And when a country successfully implements income equality, I'm sure people like you will be moving there.

[loumeinhart 0]

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the rich don't like educated people (they're a threat)..

Yep. That's why nobody with a college degree gets a job.

Look at your computer mouse. Move the pointer around on your screen a little. Yea, now right/left click a few times. ..... It really is magic isn't it? Now walk outside and build a computer mouse from scratch. You can't do it! But someone else did, and they are probably very rich. But you don't like that they are rich. You want the fed.gov to take their money and give to people who take up space.

[dreamdancer 0]

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>the rich don't like educated people (they're a threat)...

Actually, they do quite like them. They can use them to make money. Uneducated and incompetent people don't make good employees.

actually, they don't. who wants an educated housekeeper, driver, gardener, shop staff etc... competent yes, but not educated - that would be a waste of their money and a threat to their authority.

educated people tend to make their own money - and keep it themselves. so too much education is a threat. hence the dumbing down of education in the us (and making it so expensive that only the rich can get it).

have you read the time machine? - an extreme example of the rich getting richer. and remember we're talking about an accelerating process here. a hundred years from now and it's possible that the top 1% will earn over half the world's income/wealth. a hundred years later 90%. not good....

stay away from moving propellers - they bite
blue skies from thai sky adventures
good solid response-provoking keyboarding

[dreamdancer 0]

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It's obvious that you want income and/or wealth (which are different) to be the same for everyone.

i'd like equality of opportunity - which the rich will never accept. they like the system tilted their way.

stay away from moving propellers - they bite
blue skies from thai sky adventures
good solid response-provoking keyboarding

[dreamdancer 0]

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But you don't like that they are rich.

i don't mine anyone being rich. as long as they earnt it - and didn't get it at my expense which is what is happening at the moment. you volunteer your own money to them - not mine thankyou...

stay away from moving propellers - they bite
blue skies from thai sky adventures
good solid response-provoking keyboarding

[loumeinhart 0]

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i'd like equality of opportunity - which the rich will never accept. they like the system tilted their way.

Ok, so to blast through your statement we can talk about all of the rich who started out poor right? I don't believe the 'system' was 'tilted' for Opera Winfrey. I mean do you even know her incredible story? Who gets to decide which rich people benefited from a "tilted system" and which people earned it??

How many sides does your mouth have LOL

[loumeinhart 0]

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you volunteer your own money to them - not mine thankyou...

That makes sense.

Make all of your purchases from poor people. If you ever buy something new be sure to research the company and know their CEO's salary.

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i don't mine anyone being rich. as long as they earnt it

and YOU get to decide if they really earned it or not...

[SpeedRacer 1]

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>the rich don't like educated people (they're a threat)...

Actually, they do quite like them. They can use them to make money. Uneducated and incompetent people don't make good employees.

actually, they don't. who wants an educated housekeeper, driver, gardener, shop staff etc... competent yes, but not educated - that would be a waste of their money and a threat to their authority.

educated people tend to make their own money - and keep it themselves. so too much education is a threat. hence the dumbing down of education in the us (and making it so expensive that only the rich can get it).

This makes no sense whatsoever.

Speed Racer
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[lawrocket 3]

[Reply]the rich don't like educated people (they're a threat)..

[turtlespeed 226]

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Then came the crashes of 2001

The crash of 2001? Don't you mean when the dot-com bubble began to burst. Sorry the dot-com bubble began to burst in 1999 not 2001.

that's very interesting. meanwhile as you stumble from tree to tree the rich are getting richer at our expense - can't end happily...

Yeah, it's too bad you don't have the opportunity to make a better life for yourself, that you can't work smarter and earn more money, that you can't join that richest 1%.
Oh, wait, I was wrong.
You can.

Not if you lack ambition and drive.

I'm not usually into the whole 3-way thing, but you got me a little excited with that. - Skymama
BTR #1 / OTB^5 Official #2 / Hellfish #408 / VSCR #108/Tortuga/Orfun

[lawrocket 3]

No, he's got ambition. But if the ambition and drive is to tear down others instead of build for himself, he's going to spend his life bitching that the system won't let him get ahead.

My wife is hotter than your wife.

[turtlespeed 226]

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No, he's got ambition. But if the ambition and drive is to tear down others instead of build for himself, he's going to spend his life bitching that the system won't let him get ahead.

Ah, I see, then what youy describe is an inability to focus his energy properly.

Come to thnk about it - I asked him about his taxes and he still isn't man enough to answer me.

I'm not usually into the whole 3-way thing, but you got me a little excited with that. - Skymama
BTR #1 / OTB^5 Official #2 / Hellfish #408 / VSCR #108/Tortuga/Orfun

[Belgian_Draft 0]

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you'll find 99% can't

Bullshit. Plain, simple bullshit.
That's a cop-out line if there ever was one. The fact of the matter is that most people want everything given to them. They expect everything to come easy. But you know what? Wealth doesn't come easy but to a very rare few, maybe 10% of the wealthiest 1% inherited their fortunes. The rest worked their asses off to get where they are.
You have the same chance to make it as they did. Only a small portion of people in the US are honestly limited by physical or mental issues from achieving wealth.

HAMMER:
Originally employed as a weapon of war, the hammer nowadays is used as a
kind of divining rod to locate the most expensive parts adjacent the
object we are trying to hit.

[lawrocket 3]

[Reply]and didn't get it at my expense which is what is happening at the moment.