US inequality at historic high, surpassing Roaring ’20s - Polidicks

[url]http://rt.com/usa/us-income-inequality-record-breaking-692/[/url] [IMG]http://rt.com/files/news/20/65/40/00/us-income-inequality-record-breaking.si.jpg[/IMG] [QUOTE][I]Fashionistas pose for photographs in front of a homeless man outside Moynihan Station following a showing of the Rag & Bone Spring/Summer 2013 collection during New York Fashion Week September 7, 2012. (Reuters/Lucas Jackson)[/I][/QUOTE] [QUOTE]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. [/QUOTE]

Additional sources: [url]http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-24039202[/url] [url]http://www.oregonlive.com/today/index.ssf/2013/09/income_inequality_top_1_percen.html[/url] [url]http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/09/10/pay-gap-between-1-percent_n_3900373.html[/url] [url]http://www.upi.com/Business_News/2013/09/11/US-income-gap-widest-on-record/UPI-38171378882800/[/url] [url]http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2013/09/11/323244/us-study-children-economic-inequality/[/url] [editline]11th September 2013[/editline] just so people doesn't go apeshit again, that said, anis, you really could have added some more sources and maybe just ditch RT due to the reaction it could cause especially when it's writing about the US.

So you're telling me those worst off are the one who's hit the hardest in a economy downfall, and also those to recover the slowest when it finally gets better? Oh glorious Capitalism, better dead than red, right? [IMG]http://filesmelt.com/dl/emot-9113.gif[/IMG] Poor people, bootlaces, [I]rabble rabble...[/I]

[QUOTE=Swebonny;42152181]Additional sources: [url]http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-24039202[/url] [url]http://www.oregonlive.com/today/index.ssf/2013/09/income_inequality_top_1_percen.html[/url] [url]http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/09/10/pay-gap-between-1-percent_n_3900373.html[/url] [url]http://www.upi.com/Business_News/2013/09/11/US-income-gap-widest-on-record/UPI-38171378882800/[/url] [url]http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2013/09/11/323244/us-study-children-economic-inequality/[/url] [editline]11th September 2013[/editline] just so people doesn't go apeshit again, that said, anis, you really could have added some more sources and maybe just ditch RT due to the reaction it could cause especially when it's writing about the US.[/QUOTE] Why not just ban for using RT as a viable source on worldwide news if the general populace of facepunch is so against it? I know you're just a mod in an oligarchy of mods, but still.

I am furiously masturbating using my copy of Atlas Shrugged right now

The wealth will trickle down eventually

Clearly the only way to remedy this is to send Matt Damon to space. [editline]11th September 2013[/editline] Also if the context of that first picture is true then that's absolutely disgusting.

What's wrong with RT?

[QUOTE=demoguy08;42152235]The wealth will trickle down eventually[/QUOTE] [QUOTE][IMG]http://filesmelt.com/dl/trickle-down-economics-cartoon1.png[/IMG][IMG]http://afeatheradrift.files.wordpress.com/2011/08/trickle-down.jpg[/IMG][/QUOTE] Take your pick.

so with the increasingly modern welfare spendings the united states have become more inequal than the pre welfare times get your shit together usa

Maybe the poor people should just work harder instead of wanting everything handed to them. My father was born in a poor family but instead of whining and spending his money on iphones and tvs he worked 3 jobs while going to college. With the saved up money he started a company and is now a millionaire!!!!!

[QUOTE=Kentz;42152591]so with the increasingly modern welfare spendings the united states have become more inequal than the pre welfare times get your shit together usa[/QUOTE] Welfare isn't solution to this problem. I am not saying welfare is bad or unneeded, this is just entirely different layer of the issue. Capitalism and free market, as it's currently standing and running in USA particularly (but to a degree globally), is inherently broken, unstable, dysfunctional, and bound to eventually collapse. That's a simple fact.

And hey, guess which side is the one with the actual power in running the country?

[QUOTE=Awesomecaek;42152630]Welfare isn't solution to this problem. I am not saying welfare is bad or unneeded, this is just entirely different layer of the issue. Capitalism and free market, as it's currently standing and running in USA particularly (but to a degree globally), is inherently broken, unstable, dysfunctional, and bound to eventually collapse. That's a simple fact.[/QUOTE] Some countries in Europe have no minimum wage, far less corporate tax than the US and are still more "equal" I don't necessarily think capitalism is the problem

The proletariat should invade Norway in a homegrown military coup. Then we can take all their excess money.

[QUOTE=Awesomecaek;42152630]Welfare isn't solution to this problem. I am not saying welfare is bad or unneeded, this is just entirely different layer of the issue. Capitalism and free market, as it's currently standing and running in USA particularly (but to a degree globally), is inherently broken, unstable, dysfunctional, and bound to eventually collapse. That's a simple fact.[/QUOTE] Nah, just tax the rich and put money into schools, healthcare and pensions for old people.

The pie of the economy is supposed to be getting bigger making everybody richer. I'm not seeing that anymore.

Raise the god damn minimum wage to 10 dollars an hour.

[QUOTE=Kentz;42152968]Some countries in Europe have no minimum wage, far less corporate tax than the US and are still more "equal" I don't necessarily think capitalism is the problem[/QUOTE] There's a zillion variables to take into account, but it doesn't matter in the end. Show me a country where the distance is actually decreasing over time.

I feel as if the whole country is walking on thin ice right now. There's a push for equality, but no strong action. It's really unnerving.

Ahhh welcome to the good ol' Us of A, it is the best with the rich being greedy bastards to have almost half the wealth and asking more from the poor.

Well to be honest, the average median on life quality for people today is probably better today than it as in the 20s. The gap has widened considerably, but there's also probably less super poor.

[QUOTE=Swilly;42153058]Raise the god damn minimum wage to 10 dollars an hour.[/QUOTE] Raising minimum wage won't really fix anything. Sure it will give people on minimum wage a small boost for about 6-8 months, but then inflation will rapidly adjust upward and completely offset if not turn upside down any benefits it gave them. The same was true for past minimum wage increases. It gave a brief boost to minimum wage workers, but the sudden extreme inflation negated almost all benefits they gave. Businesses with employees aren't going to take the extra overhead hit from having to pay their workers more, they're going to figure some way to offset the cost, which usually entails increasing the cost of their services. So when minimum wage goes up, you can expect everything to get more expensive as a result.

[QUOTE=GiGaBiTe;42153409]Raising minimum wage won't really fix anything. Sure it will give people on minimum wage a small boost for about 6-8 months, but then inflation will rapidly adjust upward and completely offset if not turn upside down any benefits it gave them. The same was true for past minimum wage increases. It gave a brief boost to minimum wage workers, but the sudden extreme inflation negated almost all benefits they gave. Businesses with employees aren't going to take the extra overhead hit from having to pay their workers more, they're going to figure some way to offset the cost, which usually entails increasing the cost of their services. So when minimum wage goes up, you can expect everything to get more expensive as a result.[/QUOTE] Costs are already going up. Middle Class families can't pay for shit like they could back in the 70's. Hell, lower class and middle class families made more money in the 70's then they are now. The value has gone to shit, its not my fault corporations can't fucking figure out that paying more isn't a bad thing. Investing in your own damn economy is not a bad thing. And if you give people higher wages, they'll have more spending money to buy things. The fuck are are you smoking?

[QUOTE=demoguy08;42152235]The wealth will trickle down eventually[/QUOTE] Like a tar drip...

You adjust it so that it inflates a certain percentage each year, keeping up with inflation. This will not only propell the poor into the middle class which ultimately means more chances at a better life.

[QUOTE=Swilly;42153451]Costs are already going up. Middle Class families can't pay for shit like they could back in the 70's. Hell, lower class and middle class families made more money in the 70's then they are now. The value has gone to shit, its not my fault corporations can't fucking figure out that paying more isn't a bad thing. Investing in your own damn economy is not a bad thing. And if you give people higher wages, they'll have more spending money to buy things. The fuck are are you smoking?[/QUOTE] Raising minimum wages won't solve poverty. Yes raising wages means people can buy more things. You just don't realize that prices are going to rise as well and you will more or less end up back at stage 1.

[QUOTE=Bradyns;42153476]Like a tar drip...[/QUOTE] [url]http://www.nature.com/news/world-s-slowest-moving-drop-caught-on-camera-at-last-1.13418[/url]

so why is neo con economics so much more popular in America compared to pretty much every other first world country ever? Cold War? Isolationism?

[QUOTE=GiGaBiTe;42153409]Raising minimum wage won't really fix anything. Sure it will give people on minimum wage a small boost for about 6-8 months, but then inflation will rapidly adjust upward and completely offset if not turn upside down any benefits it gave them. The same was true for past minimum wage increases. It gave a brief boost to minimum wage workers, but the sudden extreme inflation negated almost all benefits they gave. Businesses with employees aren't going to take the extra overhead hit from having to pay their workers more, they're going to figure some way to offset the cost, which usually entails increasing the cost of their services. So when minimum wage goes up, you can expect everything to get more expensive as a result.[/QUOTE] High prices and low wages are the same thing. Businesses aren't exactly paying more money due to moderate raises because effectively the real wages remain the same because the value of money is falling. Maintaining consumer power keeps the economy going 'round. [QUOTE=The Baconator;42153590]so why is neo con economics so much more popular in America compared to pretty much every other first world country ever? Cold War? Isolationism?[/QUOTE] Roosevelt tier liberal economics were kinda good shit but smart people too are forgetting what history has taught us. Neo liberalism is a massive step back in the development of economical theory and practice. edit: and of course total laissez faire (which everyone from adam smith was wary about) [I]is[/I] good for [I]some[/I] people so the idea is subsidised thru media and astroturfed heavily.