US Inequality At Historic High! It’s Even Surpassing Roaring ’20s!!!
by TJ July 21, 2014 20 commentsUS Inequality At Historic High!
By: Tommy “Tj” Sotomayor
Recent survey shows inequality in the US is at its new peak. The richest 1 percent of the population received almost a fifth of the national households’ income in 2012, thus breaking the previous record set in 1928.
The gap between rich and poor in the US is wider than ever, according to research which uses preliminary 2012 US statistics for income. It’s an update to a comparative analysis tracing income figures back to 1913 and done by economists at the University of California, Berkeley, the Paris School of Economics and Oxford University.
“Indeed, the top decile share in 2012 is equal to 50.4 percent, a level higher than any other year since 1917 and even surpasses 1928, the peak of stock market bubble in the ‘roaring’ 1920s,” Berkeley’s Emmanuel Saez analyzes the new data in the article, posted at the University’s webpage.
The study shows measures taken by the US government to get the country out of the Great Depression efficiently contributed to curbing the growth of inequality. However, since the early 1980s the gap between the rich and the poor has been steadily increasing.
The Great Recession of 2007-2009 saw the richest being hardest hit with 36 percent of income loss, while incomes for the remaining 99 percent of the population it only diminished by 11 percent.
The wealthiest 1 percent was, however, quick to recover, capturing 95 percent of the income gains in the first two post-recession years. The 2012 data suggests the bottom 99 percent of the population has hardly seen any recovery so far.
“We need to decide as a society whether this increase in income inequality is efficient and acceptable and, if not, what mix of institutional and tax reforms should be developed to counter it,” Saez writes as a conclusion to his analysis.
The 2012 figures contribute to earlier reports on inequality surge in US, like the one issued by Pew Research Center in April, analyzing the period between 2009 and 2011. The study suggested only the top 7 percent of American households experienced an increase in their net worth during that time.
The United States Federal Reserve is quite aware of the increasing wealth gap and is investigating how the issue is affecting the country’s attempts at rebounding from the financial crisis of 2009.
“The large and increasing amount of inequality in income and wealth, which has been an ongoing development for decades, may have exacerbated the crisis and I think more research is required to determine whether it may also pose a significant headwind to the recovery from the crisis for years to come,” Fed Board of Governors member Sarah Bloom Raskin said in May.
20 Comments so far
Jump into a conversationDon’t get me started… Now THIS is why we must never charge another black person for anything. You know why? Because this happens. Inequality. Division. The object is not to start buying and selling from and to each other. The original aim was for us to SHARE resources, not sell them. You can argue all you want, but when you sell someone something you are creating an inequality between you and that person. Soon enough after time, the inequality gap gets bigger and you have poverty and death because of it. Let’s all just share resources. If white people wont do it, then at least we can trust black people to do it among each other, right?
Sounds a lot like socialism to me. There are countries like that. Move there and stop trying to change this one.
If you produce watermelons and I shit gold bricks, I want to look down a mountain at your house.
Hmmmm.. Ok you obviously a white boy so this message not for you. Only people with a united mindset. We will watch western society crumble under its own evil soon enough. We have a plan for you devil
I hope what you have is a STEM skill set and a resume full of applicable experience for me…and anyone else that may want to hire black folks.
Assume the rich really did live up on a mountain and looked down upon watermelon picking niggas. Is it your position that everyone should live at the base of the mountain, or that all mountains should be flattened? Is it not an option to start up the mountain yourself?
That’s why I’m here. I’m saying f*ck picking melons and I’m making my way up this damn mountain. I’m just trying to tell niggas what I took in my backpack and the sketchy people I’ve meet along the way.
…and surprisingly enough when you start making your way up the mountain, you’ll be surprised how soon you pass people who you thought were keeping you down at the base…those devils!
We live at the base of the tallest mountain in the world. Brother I’m just saying I think we can make it; maybe not to the top, but certainly put a dent in this b*tch for the next generation. Yelling to the top of the mountain is futile.
Sounds more like the anarchist response and less socialist. A problem is the administration of these responsibilities. Who will do it? For how long? Will it rotate or lead to a consolidation of power and an authoritarian government like North Korea, the former soviet union, cuba or its milder form in China? If that is the case then one economic system replacing another will amount to little as a system of repression will still be in place just under a different name.
Definitely not. There will be no repression. The check and balance is the people who participate in the system of sharing. There is no one who will gain above any other. The centralizing authority will not have any gain over anyone. Resource inequality cultivates a bubble. Not only an economic bubble, but the bubble of the human spirit. Thereby the environment accommodates those who feel they are above others, and so manipulate division in order to get above. The problem with this is that it is a pyramid. It is unsustainable. The pyramid will fall. But, an alternative system of sharing resembles more a circle, instead of a pyramid. This circle is concentric; sharing the same cause, effort and productivity. This system will never allow the human spirit to bubble, but yet excitingly more beneficial. In the system of sharing, people will become more inventive and inspired to invent new products and materials for the community to benefit. The main incentive for each producer to produce is the compensation. The compensation is that every producer will receive a share of ALL products that are made by the network of the various and numerous producers.
I mean for real, who wouldn’t want to get paid in cotton? Who wouldn’t want to get paid in food? Who wouldn’t want to get paid in electricity? You can get paid in EVERYTHING you need as long as you share. If I am producing cotton, and you are producing watermelons, how are you going to get your cotton? I’m going to give them to you, as long as you give me some watermelons. But wait. You don’t need cotton only do you? No. You need electricity, other foods, bricks, steel and other materials. How are you going to get them? Read carefully: As long as you produce watermelons for the electricity, cotton, brick, steel and food producers, you will receive ALL of these products from these producers as compensation for your watermelon production. Isn’t that simple?
You would not be getting paid in cash. You would be getting paid in cotton, food and electricity. Not only that, but EVERY necessary product and supply that is produced within the whole group of suppliers. The only requirement is that you must produce at least ONE of the essential items that is needed in the producer group. It cannot be what someone is already producing. For instance, if you were to produce cotton, then you will be getting paid in food, electricity, bricks, steel, and fiber just for producing cotton. How easy is that?
And what is the straw that’s stirring this drink?
Mass immigration.
BINGO!
“Income” is a result of your influence on society. There is an inequality of influence that is reflected in income. People who can’t figure out how to more greatly influence and benefit society want to redistribute wealth; that is, until they attain wealth themselves.
The top 1% don’t speak of $ in the same terms we do. I think it is more of an idea to them.
The people hurt by non-ambitious free-loaders are the men that own a plumbing business, or a trailer hitch company, or a landscaping business, etc. Ironically they are the folks that try to employ non-ambitious free-loaders. 1 percent-ers don’t interview job candidates…
The article makes reference to wealth using income as an indicator, but wealth includes assets and resources that are not as easily taxed or traced as income. I believe the gap would be more apparent and dramatic if that were taken into consideration. Furthermore, our president officially declared the recession over in 2009 so apparently there is nothing to worry about.
One other thing. From the aricle above: “The large and increasing amount of inequality in income and wealth,
which has been an ongoing development for decades, may have exacerbated
the crisis.” The large and increasing inequality. . may have exacerbated the (economic) crisis?! Really? That statement is soooo passive and starkly implies greed. If greed was behind the crisis could it be possible that it was orchestrated? Possibly. I know quantitative easing by the federal reserve (printing money and “loaning” it to banks who were suppose to loan it to the people to stimulate the economy) did very little other than increase a fictional debt.
Amazing isn’t it? The elite print out money and pay themselves with it. Hardly any different in principle to a counterfeit operation.
Yes that’s the crazy part….that’s why they arrest the counterfeiters they don’t want them to catch up..smh
“The Great Recession of 2007-2009….”
Gotta stop you here. The Recession never ended. It’s just that things have been normalized now. Fewer full-time jobs, more part-time work means less stable income, more money spent on fuel to travel to those 2-3 part-time jobs needed to pay the bills/save money, no benefits/perks for part-time work.
The large and increasing amount of inequality in income and wealth, which has been an ongoing development for decades, may have exacerbated the crisis and I think more research is required to determine whether it may also pose a significant headwind to the recovery from the crisis for years to come,” Fed Board of Governors member Sarah Bloom Raskin said in May.
Meanwhile, where is the greatest concentration of wealth in the United States? Why, it’s in the D.C. Metro area! Isn’t that odd that the wealthiest areas in America are the ones closest to government? Why might that be, I wonder? Because the government, thanks to the regulatory powers it has seized for itself, gets to decide who wins, who loses, and who gets to play at the game of commerce? Because some people have figured out that it’s easier to have your friends in Washington regulate your competition out of business than to outcompete them?
And for the Federal Reserve to be “concerned” by “income inequality” (which is nonsense anyway) is laughable, as the Federal Reserve is the instrument that the federal government uses to rob the American people without their ever knowing it.
A resource base economy is the solution to this problem.
No, Economic calculations don’t work.
Then what works?
Voluntary free trade.
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