Are we living the American Dream in reverse? »
Posted by: bubba2 2 months, 3 weeks agoStudies have shown that rather than leading the world in economic mobility, America has become the most unequal nation in the western world. After you adjust for inflation, the wages of the typical American worker - the one at the very middle of the income distribution - have risen less than 1% since 2000. In the previous 5 years, they rose over 6%
Read Full Story at pbs.org
Join the Discussion 
+ Add Comment
Comments So Far: 39
-
0%
bubba22 months, 3 weeks ago
Today, a couple with two children has to work approximately three full-time minimum wage jobs just to make ends meet.
Our wages now adjusting for inflation, average wages are lower than they were in the 1970s. Our minimum wage, adjusting for inflation, is lower than it was in the 1950s, and why is it? One of the things going on is that income and wealth inequality have gone back to the 1920s. We are back at levels that we saw right before the Great Depression.
Reply-
0%
miklkit2 months, 3 weeks ago
That is a very scary fact given the monumental debt the republicons have saddled we the people with.
http://www.brillig.com/debt_clock/faq.html
Reply
-
-
-
0%
Teech2 months, 3 weeks ago
Hmmmmmm. I'm puzzled. Over the past years we have seen huge tax cuts for corporations, businesses, and the ultra rich, and total deregulation of most business activity, especially the finance business.
And we have enjoyed higher wages, full employment, unbridled prosperity for all, improved infrastructure, a soaring economy and improved medical and retirement benefits for American workers - right? Oh, and the 10 trillion national debt is simply a myth fabricated by those damn liberals. Guess it's gonna trickle down a little slower than Bush estimated?
Guess I'm looking at the wrong economic indicators.
Reply -
0%
donald512 months, 3 weeks ago
jk, you sure like chewing off your own foot, even with that split tongue!
Reply -
0%
Lurch2 months, 3 weeks ago
The govt did, and all the arsehole cronies who made off with millions have moved their money offshore while they tank the dollar so they can come back later and buy us up on the cheap.
Reply
-
-
0%
bubba22 months, 3 weeks ago
See also this story --
http://money.propeller.com/story/2008/06/15/ine...
Inequality in America, Democracy of the Greedy
The United States is the most economically stratified society in the western world. As THE WALL STREET JOURNAL reported, a recent study found that the top .01% or 14,000 American families hold 22.2% of wealth - the bottom 90%, or over 133 million families, just 4% of the nation's wealth.
Reply-
-
0%
obiefrommuskogee2 months, 3 weeks ago
Now you're talking.
As John Edwards said, the system is set up to reward wealth not work. In other words, those who make a living off investments pay only a tax rate of 15%, while taxes on actual work are much higher than that, say 28%.
Reply
-
-
-
0%
bigurn2 months, 3 weeks ago
Two comments come to mind here:
1) The disparity between the very rich and very poor has risen in America, but it's risen because of the huge boom in the wealth of average Americans. This opportunity is available to anyone, regardless of their station in life. Most of the rest of Western world is Liberal-to-Socialist, and they use taxation to equalize the outcomes of their respective populations. America is far more centrist, and believes in equal *opportunity*, and accepts that outcomes will differ for a variety of reasons.
2) Part of the reason that income on blue collar jobs has risen more slowly is because of the transition from a manufacturing economy to a service economy. Wages are lower, and this data hides it a bit.
Reply-
0%
1-2-Oscar2 months, 3 weeks ago
Your entire first paragraph is just so much bird-poop.
Thirty years ago, the typical American CEO made twenty times as much as the ordinary worker. American CEOs were not considered underpaid, though, because the ratio in Japan was 10 to 1, and in Europe it was 11 to 1.
Today, the typical American CEO makes 200 times as much as the ordinary worker. That is a principal cause of the disparity in wealth, not "the huge boom in the wealth of average Americans." If average Americans had indeed benefited from such a boom, the disparity between their wealth and that of their bosses would be much smaller. Is this great disparity necessitated by increased world competition? I think not--today, in Japan, the earnings ratio is still 10 to 1, and in Europe it is 11 to 1. We are paying the biggest salaries to the people who actually produce the least--in exchange for ....what?
Reply -
0%
bubba22 months, 3 weeks ago
Actually, the average pay of the average CEO is OVER 400 times the amount of the average wage-earner (80% of the working class in America).
All of the manufacturing jobs have been shipped offshore, and, yes, about all that is left is "service" jobs like fast-food, retail, janitorial, etc.
The very few rich elite are getting richer while the other 95% of the population are getting poorer because any sort of 'raise' they get in wages is more than wiped out by inflation.
Reply
-
-
0%
waveringhobbit2 months, 3 weeks ago
This is really sad. Whoever win the election, I hope that there will be a better change and the so-called American Dream and all its essence will be restored.
Reply -
-
0%
chuck-the-canuck2 months, 3 weeks ago
Except in probabilities similar to super lotteries, the "American Dream" hasn't been viable for quite some time. That isn't to say that it doesn't have it's die hard proponents.
The super rich never tire of expounding upon its virtues and the undereducated and gullible nibble at the self-serving lies like the sheep they have become.
Reply -
0%
TrueProgressive2 months, 3 weeks ago
Hey guys! Check out this story also on Propeller: FTA: "CEO Pay Chugs Up in '07 Despite Economy:" "As the American economy slowed to a crawl and stockholders watched their money evaporate, CEO pay still chugged to yet more dizzying heights last year, an Associated Press analysis shows. The AP review of compensation for the heads of companies in the Standard & Poor's 500 index finds the median pay package added up to nearly $8.4 million. That's a comfortable gain of about $280,000 from 2006."
And morons like "bigurn" want to tell us the wealth gap results from all of us "average" folks doing so well. Hey dude, take your head out of your butt, and quit smoking 'dem drugs. The rich are obscenely rich today, mainly because they don't pay the taxes they can afford to pay. It's kind of like the Carly Fiorina story, "I ran HP into the ground and all I got was this lousy T-shirt and 72 million bucks."
Reply -
0%
TrueProgressive2 months, 3 weeks ago
[Continuing with this post] And, the 98% of American people who are not anywhere close to "rich" will continue to support the rich until voters lose their fixation with corporate capitalism and embrace truly progressive (no pun intended) taxation and European-style social democracy.
Reply -
-
0%
chuck-the-canuck2 months, 2 weeks ago
When I was younger I used to follow hockey a lot closer than I do now. Now I just watch the playoffs. That being said, I don't see Toronto play very often. They haven't had a decent team in years.
Reply
-
Submitted By:
bubba2
I'm OUTTA here! The new format S-U-C-K-S! (Recent activity due to some online time while staying with my mother in the hospital ...)
========
I have ...
Also submitted:
- 1.0 - Christian Right Summit Still Wields Clout
- 2.7 - McCain's Palin Choice - Bold or Reckless?
- 1.0 - McConnell opposed USDA inspectors (Horse Protection Act)
- 2.7 - Pakistan women buried alive in the name of tradition
Related Articles:
Why not submit a story?
Also Propping This Article
TimALoftis
MidnightPrism
ciera-marie
berkeley
chuck-the-canuck
1-2-Oscar- donald51
david_nwpa
Bkumm
not2needy
Groups Watching This
No groups are watching this story. Why not share it with your group?
