Richest 1 Percent Account For Nearly All Of U.S. Recovery's Gains: Report - Polidicks

[img]http://i.huffpost.com/gen/522519/thumbs/r-1-PERCENT-INCOME-INEQUALITY-large570.jpg[/img] [release]Technically, the economy has been in recovery for two years. But it turns out the rich have been doing most of the recovering. In 2010 -- the first full year since the end of the Great Recession -- virtually all of the income growth in America took place among the country's very wealthiest people, says an economist at the University of California, Berkeley. The top 1 percent of earners took in a full 93 percent of all the income gains that year, leaving the other 7 percent of gains to be sprinkled among the vast majority of society. Those numbers come courtesy of Emmanuel Saez, the Berkeley economist who co-created a resource known as the World Top Incomes Database. Saez and his colleagues crunched the data on income growth from 2010, the most recent year available, and found that it was shockingly lopsided. While much of the country is simply treading water, with a growing number of people either edging toward poverty or already there, the richest of the rich seem to be coping nicely. Saez's findings suggest that even though the recession dealt a blow to the 1 percent, it did little to push the U.S. off the path it's been on for decades -- that of a vast and growing disparity between the richest and poorest citizens. Income for most workers has barely risen in the last 30 years, but the top 1 percent of earners have seen their income almost triple in the same amount of time. Economists and other experts say that could be the result of any number of factors, including the decline of labor unions, the explosion in capital gains during the middle part of the aughts, and tax policies put in place in recent years that favor the wealthy. In his State of the Union address this past January, President Obama called economic fairness "the defining issue of our time," perhaps mindful of the growing number of voters who say they can't even afford basic necessities like food. The wealth gap has been cited as a major concern for the nationwide Occupy movement, and research has suggested that income inequality might be associated with the kind of underwhelming economic growth the country has experienced for the past two years.[/release] [url=http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/05/1-percent-income-inequality_n_1321008.html]Huffington Post[/url]

Shocking.

Surprising.

wowing I mean how do people not see the wealthiest Americans as the problem?

stupefying

Yeah fuck workers and labourers, the wealthy rule supreme because they are superior or something...

[QUOTE=DesolateGrun;35012093]wowing I mean how do people not see the wealthiest Americans as the problem?[/QUOTE] Wow, I am the problem? Thanks

salivating. Hasn't the wealthiest always been the first to recover in past recessions? I guess it's just a sign that it's slowly going to get better, or collapse under itself entirely. No point worrying about it I guess. [editline]5th March 2012[/editline] [QUOTE=MBB;35012230]Wow, I am the problem? Thanks[/QUOTE] I don't think that [I]all[/I] wealthy Americans are pompous idiots who sit and sip their champagne while thinking about how to screw everyone else over. I also think that it's deeper than the rich people getting rich, but everyone is jumping to conclusions. We'll find out in the future I guess.

mutilating

the system works. It works.

cultivating

"B-b-b-but they're job creators!! Stop being filthy socialist swines!"

Oh look, a HuffPo article about class warfare.

Don't worry all that money from the [b]job creators[/b] will eventually [b]trickle down[/b] saving the economy from that [b]Socialist Democrat![/b]

[IMG]http://i.imgur.com/AUV56.jpg[/IMG]

Yeah, unless you're in that 1%, the recession [b]HASN'T ENDED[/b]. It's still as bad as ever and getting worse to the other 297 million people in this country.

That's the way the market works. The board game Monopoly is a perfect example of it, really. In the end, only one person is left with all the money. Money in a capitalist market funnels up, not down. You won't notice it over 20 or 30 years, but 50? 100? Stores like WalMart putting smaller ones out of the scene because they can't be beat, They're too big for anyone else to really compete, shit like that. It's what's happening now basically, and the real problem is is the huge conflict of interest that people who Run the country have with the wealth that they also have, and not wanting to part ways with some of it. And somehow the word Socialism is evil, bad, associated with the devil... The top 400 richest people in this country own more money than the lower 50% of the people in this country combined. And politicians aren't doing anything to change that, because they want to stay rich

[QUOTE=DesolateGrun;35012093]wowing I mean how do people not see the wealthiest Americans as the problem?[/QUOTE] Because somehow they've become content and even supportive of being ruled by the rich.

[QUOTE=DesolateGrun;35012093]wowing I mean how do people not see the wealthiest Americans as the problem?[/QUOTE] Well, it's kind of hard to [i]see[/i] them. What with the 10 foot concrete walls, automated gates, security patrols, and tinted windows they all live behind.

This almost sounds like an article+discussion about "The rich aren't paying this fair share wah wah wah!". Correct me if I'm wrong.

For everyone not in the "1%" the recession that has been declared "over" has been anything but. It certainly doesn't feel that way. You hear news all the time about how things are getting better, but it's simply not up to par, unemployment is still very high, etc. It comes as no surprise that the "1%" account for the lift in the recession status, but they're in a position where they aren't effected very much my recessions in the first place. This comes up every time there is a story about the rich being rich. People seem to loathe the rich, but that is one thing I do not understand, especially in situations like these. Yes they make more money than you, yes there is a big gap between the average joe and the rich, even a bigger one for the poorest of the poor. But that's no reason to hate them. Whenever I hear someone makes X millions of dollars, I don't think "that's gross,"" but rather I admire it, consider them very lucky, and I aspire to one day be in that position. It gives me hope that with hard work and dedication I can approach that level of success. Chances are if they earn that much, they've worked their way up to deserve that position, and they probably have a lot of responsibilities on their hands. Now I'm not saying corruption doesn't exist, it certainly does, but having such a strong disdain for "the rich" is absurd in my mind.

They took in more income. Sounds like they could use some more income tax.

I was not always like this. This means that there is a problem and a clear solution to the problem.

[QUOTE=person11;35017440]I was not always like this. This means that there is a problem and a clear solution to the problem.[/QUOTE] The solution is clear, but the means of reaching that solution are on the problem's payroll.

Maybe you should be thankful for all the evil big companies, because their services and products are the things that you all Americans live on, right?

[QUOTE=Bat-shit;35019253]Maybe you should be thankful for all the evil big companies, because their services and products are the things that you all Americans live on, right?[/QUOTE] I'm pretty sure companies like Microsoft or Wal-Mart are not the reason people are pissed at the rich. EDIT: Here we go. Watch this. [video=youtube;qqUGoVez8xg]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qqUGoVez8xg[/video]

[QUOTE=Bat-shit;35019253]Maybe you should be thankful for all the evil big companies, because their services and products are the things that you all Americans live on, right?[/QUOTE]We don't live off of their corruption and greed. Their bribery does not help us. Their thieving methods do not give back anything to us.

[QUOTE=Its_Helen;35012236]Hasn't the wealthiest always been the first to recover in past recessions?[/QUOTE] No. Jesus Christ, read the source, the actual report cites data going back to the fucking Depression.

it's those damn welfare mothers draining the economy, i'm telling you!!!

[QUOTE=Xenocidebot;35021893]No. Jesus Christ, read the source, the actual report cites data going back to the fucking Depression.[/QUOTE] I read the source. It doesn't change what I said. Before the great depression, the wealth gap between people rich and poor was at the greatest it had ever been, comparable to recent times. Once the depression hit, much of the wealth was lost on all levels, and income taxes were raised sharply on higher income earners, causing the wealth gap to drop. Bringing forth to what I was pointing out, The wealthy are always the quickest to recover in recessions because they simply have the wealth to do it. Impoverished people don't obviously get back on their feet the quickest. That's simply all I was pointing out. I don't know what [I]you[/I] think I said, but I know I didn't curse about anything or anyone, I'm not rich and I'm not poor.