Top 1 Percent Of Americans Reaped Two-Thirds Of Recent Income Gains

Center on Budget and Policy Priorities:

Two-thirds of the nation's total income gains from 2002 to 2007 flowed to the top 1 percent of U.S. households, and that top 1 percent held a larger share of income in 2007 than at any time since 1928, according to an analysis of newly released IRS data by economists Thomas Piketty and Emmanuel Saez.

Read the whole story: Center on Budget and Policy Priorities

Comments

[Citizen4Justice]

This comment is pending approval and won't be displayed until it is approved.
I get this every time I post here.

[Citizen4Justice]

How about you give us the benefit of the doubt? Just warn then ban abusers and leave us alone.

[mravka]

This is arguably the most important article of the week and not only is it not the main story, it's been pulled off the front page and relegated to an oubliette. There isn't even a link to this page now. Why?

[Citizen4Justice]

I wonder the same thing myself. I've seen other stories about economic disparity also fly off the front page even though they were being inundated with comments.

Income Inequality Is At An All-Time High: STUDY
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/08/14/income-inequality-is-at-a_n_259516.html
(8000+ comments)

A happy serf is an ignorant serf.

[Citizen4Justice]

It seems that way to me too. This article also seemed so fit the pattern

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/08/14/income-inequality-is-at-a_n_259516.html

It received more than 8000 comments though.

[Citizen4Justice]

I tried to post 3 times, I give up. What friggin word trips the censor? Is it the article I linked?

[jonolennon]

You censored those comments? Are you kidding me?

[iowabest]

Bush's tax cuts worked great for the top 1% and created very few good jobs for the rest of us peons.

[mravka]

This is the true face of capitalism. Make no mistake, class warfare is alive and well in the 21st century. Karl Marx and Rosa Luxemburg warned us this would happen, but people didn't listen. 80 years of social progress and some form of equity, gone. Dismantled piece by piece starting with Thatcher and Reagan, those star acolytes of Milton Friedman, and continuing with accelerating intensity until its culmination in the disaster that was George W. Bush.

What many people fail to understand is that in an economic system based on greed, profit and growth at all costs, the only logical end result is the transfer of wealth from the many to the few. Every time this happens, the economy implodes. There is always a direct correlation between the two phenomena. The economy is not in crisis, the economy is the crisis.

[oldngrumpy]

excellent analysis - fanned

[Prakosh]

Let's please try to refrain from this kind of class warfare.

[oldngrumpy]

I, for one, think that it is healthy at this time in our economic history. The new economy has to be capitalized and the wealthy aren't going to do that until everything can be had at pennies on the dollar. We can''t continue to manufacture capital from thin air and the middle class no longer has any. Where else are we going to look?

[OkieMon]

class warfare is where the peasants and serfs drag the noblemen out of their castles and disembowl them....this is just polemics here....the wealthy always use inflammatory language to impress those of little grey matter.....

[ElPerro]

Class warfare is what the upper 1% have been conducting against the bottom 90% for the past 30 years.

[blacksmithn]

Check the graph. The rich have been waging class war against the rest of us for decades and, up until now, they've been winning, hands down. It's high time we woke up and learned to fight back.

[My-Two-Cents]

This is all facilitated by a corrupt system of government that serves only our elected officials in representing their corporate sponsors, and, it can only be fixed by the elected officials themselves. If you can manage to accept these two facts it’s extremely disheartening and it doesn’t paint a pretty picture for where we’re heading as a nation.

True it’s been like this for a long time, but the difference now is that it’s no longer so much about earning a living and trying to get ahead, it’s more about just trying to survive.

If it were as easy done as said, I think now would be a good time to start looking for another home, before they build the fences, and lock the gates.

[hl7]

What a surprise.

[kasinca]

We should tax them to high heaven, regulate the offshore investments, and restrict offshore investments. There is no reason that these companies and these wealthy people do well while theis country is in such a deficit state. It is like the war. Start the draft and the war will be over. Man up. Run this like grownups.

[OkieMon]

capitalism is nothing more than investing (using private dollars) by the private sector and socialism is investing (using tax dollars) by the govt.....socialism can be further subdivied into investing in corporations (like what bush did) versus investing in the people (like what we thought obama would do)......just by dollar amounts bush was thus the biggest socialist this country has ever known.....

[oldngrumpy]

What do you call it when private investment is replaced by borrowing from foreign governments and neglecting our infrastructure to the point of danger? I guess it's still socialism for the rich, since they were the only benefactors. Yep, Bush was a socialist, like pigs can fly. Socialism requires a minimum of social planning and fiscal responsibility across the board. I doesn't mean we no longer have classes, only that no one is ever in danger of dying because of their status.

Capitalism is the worst of people doing the worst of things and convincing the masses that it is in their best interest.

[mariah793]

I sure miss the 60's!

[oldngrumpy]

What was it like? I don't remember. ; )

[OkieMon]

do the wealthy believe they owe anything to the US????? i mean do they think they would be living these life styles if they had been born aborigines in the australia outback?????

[ElPerro]

Actually they do. They are deluded enough to believe that they are gifted, intelligent and industrious enough that they would be wildly successful no matter where or when they were born and raised. They give no credit to their nation, their culture, the economy or education systems for their successes, but they are the first ones to blame the government, environmentalists, "cass-warriors" and socialists whenever things don't go their way.

[OkieMon]

spot on.....

[OkieMon]

in reality their lives would revolve around digging in the dirt for scorpions for their daily meal......

[hl7]

You don't have to go very far up the income ladder to encounter this mentality. It is so pervasive I have even heard it from people who are clearly disabled who blame their own moral shortcomings for their predicament. I hazard to say this is the Fox target audience. Brainwashed. Those truly at the top cultivate this myth, but they know better.

[kasinca]

To hear them tell it, we owe them for being wealthy!

[TJCole]

We're a government of the bankster, by the banksters and for the banksters, not the people...!

An that's not gonna change under Obama either..

[OkieMon]

so what % of their income should the wealthy pay for the luxury of living in the US where possession of wealth is protected by 90% of our laws????

[oldngrumpy]

For those here who relate better to short and simple (conservatives), please take a second look at that graph. Now think about the economic conditions of America, the good times, during each of those periods. There is an obvious correlation between income disparity and the general condition of our economy. The best of times was also accompanied by a 73% top marginal tax rate, which was a "cut" from 90%. We have a model by which we can rebuild our economy and return prosperity to America. All we have to do is realize it and stop the top 5% of our population set policy. Did we really expect them to do what is right for their country? They are the spoon fed ivy league college crowd that will never know a real job or ever face financial problems. Of course they were going to s cr ew it up.