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It is just another straw in Obama's desire to create class warfare and divide this country. He wnats absolute government control in every aspect of your life and his "fairness" doctrine applies to everyone excpet for the select ruling elitist liberals.
As a middle class man I can honestly say we have so much more than our parents & Grand Parents.
The poor has not gained because they stay uneducated and on welfare. The welfare system sounds logical but just cripples the people and truly enslaves.
It is just another straw in Obama's desire to create class warfare and divide this country. He wnats absolute government control in every aspect of your life and his "fairness" doctrine applies to everyone excpet for the select ruling elitist liberals.
On the contrary. Instead of concluding that Obama is wrong and there is no income inequality. The study said that the OP cites said there is indeed income inequality but asserts a different reason:
Quote:
Income inequality increased in the United States not because the rich got richer, the poor got poorer and the middle class stagnated, but because the rich got richer at a faster rate than the middle and poorer quintiles and this mostly occurred in the 1980s
This is hardly a refutation of those who claim vast income inequality.
I already see 1 massive hole in this logic: household income for the middle class in the 70s was usually from 1 person. household income for the middle class today is way more likely to be from two people
Last edited by EddieB.Good; 04-13-2012 at 08:34 AM..
Those that have broken into the upper incomes brackets were at some point in time poor, struggling, middle income.
Those currently low-middle income will one day break into the upper income brackets...IF they have goals, a plan and work hard.
This has been the cycle.
How do you know that?
Studies have already shown that education and hard work are not the key to personal income growth at levels coming anywhere close to the gains of the top 1%.
College graduates have made only modest gains, and basically nothing after 2000; even advanced degrees weren’t giving anything like the gains we see for the top 1 percent (and the much bigger gains of the top 0.1 percent).
Yes, college grads have done better than non; but inequality in America is mainly a story about a small elite pulling away from everyone else, including ordinary college grads. And we’ve know this for a long time! There is no excuse for getting it wrong.
Studies have already shown that education and hard work are not the key to personal income growth at levels coming anywhere close to the gains of the top 1%.
College graduates have made only modest gains, and basically nothing after 2000; even advanced degrees weren’t giving anything like the gains we see for the top 1 percent (and the much bigger gains of the top 0.1 percent).
Yes, college grads have done better than non; but inequality in America is mainly a story about a small elite pulling away from everyone else, including ordinary college grads. And we’ve know this for a long time! There is no excuse for getting it wrong.
Again, why do you care if a "small elite" number of people "pull away" from you?
Why are you so jealous? Is it because you aren't smart enough to do it?
Some people look at income inequality and shrug their shoulders. So what if this person gains and that person loses? What matters, they argue, is not how the pie is divided but the size of the pie. That argument is fundamentally wrong. An economy in which most citizens are doing worse year after year—an economy like America’s—is not likely to do well over the long haul. There are several reasons for this.
First, growing inequality is the flip side of something else: shrinking opportunity. Whenever we diminish equality of opportunity, it means that we are not using some of our most valuable assets—our people—in the most productive way possible.
Second, many of the distortions that lead to inequality—such as those associated with monopoly power and preferential tax treatment for special interests—undermine the efficiency of the economy. This new inequality goes on to create new distortions, undermining efficiency even further. To give just one example, far too many of our most talented young people, seeing the astronomical rewards, have gone into finance rather than into fields that would lead to a more productive and healthy economy.
Third, and perhaps most important, a modern economy requires “collective action”—it needs government to invest in infrastructure, education, and technology. The United States and the world have benefited greatly from government-sponsored research that led to the Internet, to advances in public health, and so on. But America has long suffered from an under-investment in infrastructure (look at the condition of our highways and bridges, our railroads and airports), in basic research, and in education at all levels. Further cutbacks in these areas lie ahead.
None of this should come as a surprise—it is simply what happens when a society’s wealth distribution becomes lopsided. The more divided a society becomes in terms of wealth, the more reluctant the wealthy become to spend money on common needs. The rich don’t need to rely on government for parks or education or medical care or personal security—they can buy all these things for themselves. In the process, they become more distant from ordinary people, losing whatever empathy they may once have had. They also worry about strong government—one that could use its powers to adjust the balance, take some of their wealth, and invest it for the common good. The top 1 percent may complain about the kind of government we have in America, but in truth they like it just fine: too gridlocked to re-distribute, too divided to do anything but lower taxes.
The assertion that anyone who complains about societal inequality is "jealous" is either missing the point or intentionally dishonest. Bill Gates and Warren Buffett acknowledge that inequality is a problem in America and neither is jealous of other people's wealth.
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