Take a look at the 11 Charts presented in this Mother Jones article. Although Mother Jones is a progressive independent publication, statistics used are from reputable sources. The middle class barely exists anymore. The average income of the lowest 90% of Americans is less than $32,000. a year!
The first chart shows just how few people make enormous amounts of money. Even within the top 10%, the average salary is $164,647 (the approximate salary of Members of Congress). The gap between the bottom 90% and the top 10% then is $133,403. The gap between the wealthiest one-hundredth of one percent and the bottom 90% is a whopping $27,310,968. This doesn't even begin to account for amassed wealth at the top levels.... The amounts are mind boggling.
Household incomes for most of us have been stagnant for the past 30 years--we are getting nowhere. The wealthy though have done very well. The story is even bleaker when we look at after tax income. Most of us get less, the wealthy on the other hand have increased their share of the nation's wealthy by over 120%.
CEOs are now averaging income at the rate of 185 times that of the average worker! Other estimates put it at 263 times that of the average worker. This has fallen from 500 times in 2000. But, to put this in perspective, in 1980 executives made 42 times more than the average worker. You can see trends here.
You can investigate even more statistical analysis of wealth concentration in America by looking at G. William Domhoff's article, Power in America: Wealth, Income, and Power, from the University of California at Santa Cruz. Domhoff even compares the United States to other countries. The concentration of both wealth and income in the US is very high in comparison to other industrialized democracies.
Even Corporations, always whining about taxes now account for hardly any federal tax revenue--less than 8%. Is anyone mad yet?
6 comments:
The gap between the highest income and the average income is absurd. Hopefully the United States can recover from this to make the gap less then it is.
Social reform would help, but would only be a bandage. Welfare doesn't fix anything it merely provides a temporary solution to an ever-lasting problem. The nation's wealthiest must be responsible for their prescribed tax burden instead of getting ridiculous tax breaks while the middle and lower class pay roughly 30% of their income. Another way to combat the widening poverty gap is universal access to high speed internet. Communication->Business Opportunities=Lucrative Investments
Does anybody ever wonder why there isn't just a flat tax rate for everyone in the US? Sure it would mean that the extremely wealthy woudldn't get taxed as much as they probably should, but at leats it would be even across the board. The idea behind the 'land of opportunity" is that everyone who is able and willing can succeed in America, right? Well by that logic shouldn't everyone give up an equal share of their earnings? It just seems like another simple solution that makes way to much sense for anyone in Washington.
Unfortunately, there are far too many issues within our economic status, and it's going to take decades upon decades to fix (if it can even be fixed.) The flat tax rate would be a good idea if people weren't afraid of how "socialist" that sounds. Oddly enough, I do believe that could be rather helpful, or everyone just needs to pay their tax load and quit whining. There shouldn't be tax breaks for anyone, in my opinion, let alone those who make millions of dollars in a year.
The wealth gap is much to wide for a universal income tax. For example, everyone who is eligible to pay taxes pays $10,000 annually. For the lower class this may be crippling to their annual salaries. At the same time a person who is worth $50 million dollars is only contributing $10,000. Much of their taxable revenue that could be taxed with prescribed brackets isn't being utilized. A flat tax requires too much from the poor and too little from the rich because which ever class the tax burden favors the other class won't be efficiently contributing.
The fact that the top 20% control 85% of the wealth in America should be alarming to individuals. While most say these people earned their wealth due to time and effort put in and it is the American dream at its best, how American is it really. The wealth of corporations is on rise because of outsourcing to countries that have cheap labor and lax environmental regulations. According to the comparative advantage theory it is supposed to make our country run more efficiently but is it really? I personally would rather have the wealthy 20% pay higher in taxes, their income is going to useless materialistic possessions, three homes and six cars. The excuse for these individuals is that they create jobs, but in reality they are simply not for the American population. Disposable income in America is not used in the correct way. Europeans have less disposable income so they actually spend it on things that are necessary to live.
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