Thread: Shocking Statistics: America's Income gap between the RICH & POOR

The great American obscene, In 1976 the richest Americans took only 9% of the wealth, the last 30 years their income has nearly tripled..The richest 1% own 1/2 the stocks, bonds & mutual funds...

Now all this disdain for Carter should be a little clearer.

This is a great example of the real class warfare that is taking place and who is winning the war.

the real reason people are more poor is because it's being taught to be the norm...we don't reward hard work and success and reward those who don't work instead...

Originally Posted by irish_2003

the real reason people are more poor is because it's being taught to be the norm...we don't reward hard work and success and reward those who don't work instead...

ah no, it's because of a fraudulent financial sector that has nothing except a negative effect on the real economy.

Originally Posted by Bowden

painfully obvious how this low wage neo-liberal consumption based economy has completely failed in the US. but it has succeeded at concentrating the nations wealth and political power in the hands of the few. and so many americans understand so very little about the subject, they just have no clue how bad the country's "future" is.

Originally Posted by irish_2003

the real reason people are more poor is because it's being taught to be the norm...we don't reward hard work and success and reward those who don't work instead...

You are correct. Just not in the way that you mean. Those that work hard are not being paid, think middle class, and those that do nothing or very little get rewarded, think extremely wealthy.

Originally Posted by Zaphod

You are correct. Just not in the way that you mean. Those that work hard are not being paid, think middle class, and those that do nothing or very little get rewarded, think extremely wealthy.

the wealthy pay for the "non working"

Originally Posted by Zaphod

You are correct. Just not in the way that you mean. Those that work hard are not being paid, think middle class, and those that do nothing or very little get rewarded, think extremely wealthy.

it's only the people that know exactly nothing about finance that think the top percentile actually earn all of that wealth. they have no clue about finance or economics at all, hence the opinions they hold.

Bowden OP,

I saw this last week.

This video has really gotten popular. The info is needed.

Where are we headed as a society in the US?

Down. Well, down for the 95% of us.

Originally Posted by Swiper

the wealthy pay for the "non working"

Most of the wealthy ARE non-working. Talk about your welfare cases.

Originally Posted by Zaphod

Most of the wealthy ARE non-working. Talk about your welfare cases.

it's their money whether people like it or not...it's time to back off condemning them...they earned it in one way or another...we need to stop the nanny state and handouts...handouts don't make someone middle class although the left will have you all believing it anyway...the low or no income class is the growing problem...until it's frowned upon enough in that culture to accept and abuse handouts, the problem will continue growing and never stop

Originally Posted by irish_2003

it's their money whether people like it or not...it's time to back off condemning them...they earned it in one way or another...we need to stop the nanny state and handouts...handouts don't make someone middle class although the left will have you all believing it anyway...the low or no income class is the growing problem...until it's frowned upon enough in that culture to accept and abuse handouts, the problem will continue growing and never stop

We have such unemployment because the so-called job creators aren't creating any jobs.

The Waltons didn't earn shit, BTW. They inherited.

Originally Posted by Zaphod

We have such unemployment because the so-called job creators aren't creating any jobs.

The Waltons didn't earn shit, BTW. They inherited.

living in a family of rich snobs is alot of work...they earned it

Originally Posted by irish_2003

it's their money whether people like it or not...it's time to back off condemning them...they earned it in one way or another...we need to stop the nanny state and handouts...handouts don't make someone middle class although the left will have you all believing it anyway...the low or no income class is the growing problem...until it's frowned upon enough in that culture to accept and abuse handouts, the problem will continue growing and never stop

If it's capital gains and dividend income they did not earn it by working for it.
It's passive income.
In example most of wealthy peoples income at the higher level is passive in nature.
They do not actually earn it by working for it..
The higher you go on the economic scale say at the 5% and up levels, usually less of your income is derived from actual work and more is derived from passive income flows.
A good example is Mitt Romney.
His current income is mostly passive income from capital gains and dividends.

Over the years the tax code has evolved through tax loopholes and intentional tax policy to devalue income derived from work, in favor of higher tax rates on ordinary income than on tax rates on passive income.
In example, the way the tax code was structured a hedge funds manager making 900k an hour, would pay a lesser tax on his income aka. 'carried interest' than someone making 60k a year through a salary aka. ordinary income.

More here:
Carried interest - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

"Carried interest' income fell under 'passive income' capital gains favorable tax rates.

This is one of the reasons why there is such an income inequity ratio that is illustrated in that video.
The tax code has contributed to it.

Originally Posted by Bowden

If it's capital gains and dividend income they did not earn it by working for it.
It's passive income.

So what's your point?

Originally Posted by Zaphod

We have such unemployment because the so-called job creators aren't creating any jobs.

The Waltons didn't earn shit, BTW. They inherited.

so what?

so they allowed their money to make them more money...that's the american dream...why hate on it? u can be rich if you REALLY WANT TO...problem everyone wants to win the lottery instead or have it given to them...i don't hate the wealthy...i hate the poor...it's like having a donut tire on the car...

Originally Posted by Zaphod

We have such unemployment because the so-called job creators aren't creating any jobs.

The Waltons didn't earn shit, BTW. They inherited.

ok...their ancestors earned it

lmao.. what difference does it make?

Originally Posted by Swiper

So what's your point?

The video illustrates the point.

The point as well is that people need to understand what is going on.
As to the fact that there is an escalating income inequality in the U.S.
The distribution of wealth is 'trickling up' at increasing rates towards the upper economic class.
The wealth is not 'trickling down' from the top, creating jobs and 'raising all boats' in the lower economic classes.
It illustrates perfectly as to how supply side economics has failed.
The wealth is staying at the top and the middle class is in decline as a result of it.

It also raises questions as to the future of capitalism as capitalism requires stable societies to flourish.
Rising income inequality can create unstable social conditions that result in increased attraction by the lower economic classes towards big government socialist solutions.

People need to understand why this situation is occurring, the impacts and results of it on society as a whole.
As it impacts everyone's lives and it will impact the lives of their children.
The result of this rising income inequality aka. trickle up, not trickle down, will lead to a poorer society as a whole.

Originally Posted by irish_2003

living in a family of rich snobs is alot of work...they earned it

No, they didn't. Quit making excuses for the people that hate you.

Originally Posted by Standard Donkey

ok...their ancestors earned it

lmao.. what difference does it make?

You guys go on and on about how they "earned" their money. They didn't.

The changing dynamics in the U.S. job market are also contributing factors in income inequality.
Capital is being reallocated globally outside of the U.S. to allow the highest return on capital investment to the 'wealth and job creators'.
As a result the jobs and wealth are not 'trickling down' in the U.S.

The majority of jobs being created now in the U.S. are low paying service jobs with low or no benefits that require onshore resources located in the U.S.
Companies like Wal-Mart in example.

Globalism is a factor in this changing job market dynamic resulting in income inequality as well.
U.S. manufacturing jobs paying middle class wages with benefits that used to be held by individuals with a high school diploma, are now located offshore in countries like China

The internet is a contributing factor as it has allowed resource allocations to be shifted from the U.S. to low cost resource locations.
Well paying jobs with good benefits that used to be held by college graduates, especially in the information technology sector have been offshored to low cost resource locations.

This is not all inclusive, however it illustrates again what is contributing to rising income inequality.


.

Originally Posted by Bowden

The video illustrates the point.

The point as well is that people need to understand what is going on.
As to the fact that there is an escalating income inequality in the U.S.
The distribution of wealth is 'trickling up' at increasing rates towards the upper economic class.
The wealth is not 'trickling down' from the top, creating jobs and 'raising all boats' in the lower economic classes.
It illustrates perfectly as to how supply side economics has failed.
The wealth is staying at the top and the middle class is in decline as a result of it.

It also raises questions as to the future of capitalism as capitalism requires stable societies to flourish.
Rising income inequality can create unstable social conditions that result in increased attraction by the lower economic classes towards big government socialist solutions.

People need to understand why this situation is occurring, the impacts and results of it on society as a whole.
As it impacts everyone's lives and it will impact the lives of their children.
The result of this rising income inequality aka. trickle up, not trickle down, will lead to a poorer society as a whole.

i'm talking about how you said they didn't earn it. why does that matter if they worked for it or inherited it? it's
still their money either way, so why does it matter how they got it?

And as far as the capitalism debate, that's not debatable because we haven't had capitalism. so how can you/they say it's the problem?

Originally Posted by irish_2003

so they allowed their money to make them more money...that's the american dream...why hate on it? u can be rich if you REALLY WANT TO...problem everyone wants to win the lottery instead or have it given to them...i don't hate the wealthy...i hate the poor...it's like having a donut tire on the car...

No one is hating on anyone.
As illustrated in that video the fact is that there is a rising income inequality in the U.S.

Income inequality means that capital is not 'trickling down' from the 'wealth and jobs creators', creating jobs and wealth in the middle class and 'raising all boats'.
It means that capital is 'trickling up' from the lower economic classes to the 'wealth and jobs creators' economic class and staying there.
The 'wealth and jobs creators' have been and are accumulating huge wealth under current regulations and the current tax code and the result of the current regulations and the current tax code is a sharp increase in income inequality in the U.S.

So the next time that a politician running for office starts stating canned supply side economic slogans like 'a rising tide lifts all boats' and spewing out anti regulatory and lower the tax rates on the 'wealth and jobs creators' political sound bytes, you can compare what they are stating vs what is really happening related to who is getting rich and wealthy and benefiting from current regulatory and tax rates and make an informed decision if you want to vote for them or not.
.

^^^ if lowering tax rates don't create jobs, do you think raising them will?

Originally Posted by Swiper

^^^ if lowering tax rates don't create jobs, do you think raising them will?

What makes you think it won't?

Originally Posted by irish_2003

it's their money whether people like it or not...it's time to back off condemning them...they earned it in one way or another...we need to stop the nanny state and handouts...handouts don't make someone middle class although the left will have you all believing it anyway...the low or no income class is the growing problem...until it's frowned upon enough in that culture to accept and abuse handouts, the problem will continue growing and never stop

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi..._1947-2009.png

you know absolutely nothing about finance. the US economy has gone from a nation that makes things to an economy that finances the transactions, providing sickcare and ass raping students.

Those closest to the production of money benefit from the lowest costs of that money. Earn the largest profits and becoming an increasingly larger portion of the economy, ultimately becoming oversized and parasitic on the system. Then the system collapses.

financial markets in the US are mostly unproductive and self-serving.

Originally Posted by Zaphod

What makes you think it won't?

how could it?