From Derrick Jackson, columnist for the Boston Globe, in yesterday's paper:'
'All we are left with is our aspirations in a game where the average share of the American dream is being spoiled. The Institute for Policy Studies and United for a Fair Economy, the two liberal think tanks that annually chart the gap between CEOs and workers, currently list the gap at 431-to-1, or $11.8 million to $27,460. That compares with a gap of 107-to-1 in 1990. If salaries of the average worker had kept up with that of a CEO, he or she would be making $110,136. Had the minimum wage risen at the same pace as CEO compensation, it would stand today at $23.01. The federal minimum wage of $5.15 has not risen since 1997.more....
In 1980, the gap was only 42-to-1. Where the spoils go are quite clear. According to 2005 federal data from the Congressional Budget Office, the share of America's income that went to the highest 20 percent of households increased from 45.5 percent in 1979 to 52.2 percent in 2003. The remaining 80 percent of American households all saw their share of the nation's income drop.''The higher you go in that top 20 percent, the more the rise in their share of the income. The top 1 percent of Americans saw their share of America's income zoom from 9.3 percent in the last quarter century to 14.3 percent. The top 10 percent saw their share go from 30.5 percent to 37.2 percent.''How [Treasury Secretary John] Snow thinks that 10 percent of Americans holding 37 percent of the income represents a sharing of the spoils is checkout-counter economics. His claim falls especially short considering that 46 of the nation's 275 largest companies, according to the Institute for Policy Studies, the United for a Fair Economy, and another liberal think-tank, Citizens for Tax Justice, paid no federal income tax in 2003. Eighty-two of the largest 275 companies paid no federal income tax at some point during 2001-2003 as the current President Bush cut taxes for the wealthy.''
...and the trend shall continue insofar as Americans continue to drown their miseries in the bible, and go on murderous rampages, blaming their fellow socio-economic class members for their dire predicaments. A truly tragic country with a disastorous future for the 'little guy.'
About Me
- Sophie
- United States
- My observations in this platform are reflections of rich life experiences, which include prolonged residency stays in an assortment of countries ranging from the U.S., Turkey and Belgium to Spain. I am a sociologist by training, and in my former life taught sociology at the community college level. However, as of late, I have taken a keen interest in scientific readings with the discovery that science might be better equipped to answer some of the most pressing questions about our beautiful, and yet perverse, universe.
6 comments:
You've cited an irrelevant study. American income disparity will always be great, because America permits the accumulation of wealth to a greater degree than other nations. Lop off the top millionaire classes, and you'll find that the income disparities are not that great, after all, and that average Americans enjoy a higher standard of living than Europeans.
What matters is if the middle class has increasing income levels, which it has, increasinly so.
finnpundit-
if america is indeed the land of 'middle class' - what on earth are you doing in a socialist democratic country?
secondly, if you define having two cars, three tv sets, and ten gazillion types of cereal as having a better standard of living, then you'd be right. if on the other hand, you factor in health insurance, paid vacation, low rates of crime, cost of living, and a rich social life, then europe takes the lead. sorry, bud.
Actually, you're wrong. All leading economic indicators point to the fact that America has a better standard of living, even in the area of health care.
But if you're only paying attention to cars and cereals, instead of comparative economic studies, then you'll never understand it.
Firstly: good question. Most of the time I spend outside of Finland, considering Finland's hostility to entrepreneurship, and anyone who wants to make money.
...then europe takes the lead.
Secondly: simply not true. You should base your observations on economic studies, and not on observations of who enjoys a more leisurely lifestyle.
The main reason Europeans can afford such things is simply because their welfare states are supported by exports to the lower-taxed American worker-consumers, who have more after-tax money to spend. In other words, the European welfare states cannot survive if they cannot exploit a group of workers who don't have a welfare state.
Oh my dear cosmic power, the Finnpundit strikes again! He is starting to get a celebrity status in his "beloved" Finland, with his unshakable conviction in the superiority of pure and unadulterated Capitalism. Of course, there is nothing wrong with that, but if anybody foolishly thinks that he could possibly see any other kind of philosophy to have any value, you would be wrong. I am quite sure that your under-aged kids would be hard at work in his coal mines if he could get away with it.
finnpundit,
Lecturing on these very issues was my bread and butter for 6.5 years in the second largest community college in the U.S. Sorry pal, but I dont need lessons from you in economics or sociology.
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