Disparity in Income

[sleigh]

I would argue that income disparity has often been a cause of social unrest: when the gap between rich and poor becomes too large and too apparent, when more and more wealth is held in fewer and fewer hands, when all the power appears to be consolidated in the hands of a small elite, then eventually the lower class will resort to violence, and there is a danger of a society/government/empire falling apart completely.

Therefore, I found this article by Karl Smith rather disturbing. Here's a snippet of the text between the numerous charts and graphs...

"...we can see that the Top 1% has more than triple[d] its income with fairly steady growth since 1980. The middle and lower classes have seen only about a 15% increase in real income with all of those gains coming after the early 90s.

"What’s even more interesting to me is that the gains to the Top 1% seem to be steady and at first glance trend reverting. That is, there appears to be a consistent underlying rate of growth ever since 1980, with income rising above trend during booms and falling below during recessions.

"Plotting the trend line reveals that the Top 1% is seeing its income grow at roughly 4.2% per year in real terms."

I find the trends outlined in the article dangerous, and I wonder if we're approaching the point where the middle and lower classes will begin to become vocal, or even take more direct action.

What do you think?

Comments

[gerisullivan.livejournal.com]

Curiously enough, I was wondering about the possibility and likely timing of a revolt just over the weekend, right after reading that the top 2% of tax filers receive almost a quarter of the nation's income. (source) (http://robertreich.org/post/924181375/greenspan-rubin-and-herbert-hoover)

[lizziebelle.livejournal.com]

I keep wondering why the middle and lower classes keep voting for the people who keep giving all the breaks to the richest 1%.

[spaceoperadiva.livejournal.com]

I think it's because of the "rags to riches" trope in the American dream. A bunch of people believe or wish to believe that one day they'll make it big, and when they do they don't want the government stealing all their money.

I've known people to argue against estate taxes that would only be levied on estates 10x the amount of anything they could ever dream of inheriting and people not making ends me arguing for a 10% flat tax that would devastate their ability to feed their families.

Every one of these folks that I've met have been pretty far on the hard right, so I tend to think of this as a hard right ideology. I'm not certain that's true, though.

It has got me to the point of absolutely abhorring the "rags to riches" trope. I used to think it offered hope and inspired people to strive for more. Now I think it keeps people in poverty and destroys our social fabric by encouraging them to sign up for get rich schemes like Amway and also to treat the very wealthy as a protected minority.

[sleigh.livejournal.com]

Interesting point! We do have the rags-to-riches fable in our political mythology, which in turn skews the attitude of the public toward the 'special' treatment of the rich.

[lizziebelle.livejournal.com]

Hmm, I've never thought of it that way. I just assumed that they're buying the propaganda without ever thinking about how it *really* affects them. Wrap something in the American flag, and it's easy to pull the wool over their eyes.

[barbarienne.livejournal.com]

"You've got to remember these are just simple farmers. These are people of the land. The common clay of the New West. You know . . . morons."

It's despicable that so many of the wealthy have co-opted the forces of religion to create jingoism in order to increase ignorance, destroy thought, and convince stupid people to act--aggressively!--against their own best interests.

[netmouse.livejournal.com]

Yeah, and Have you seen this article by Krugman (http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/09/opinion/09krugman.html?_r=2&hp) about how communities are turning off streetlights and unpaving roads?

In the meantime we're continuing to spend billions in an undeclared war on foreign soil. People have their fading "no blank check for endless war" bumper stickers on their cars but are not demanding the government put domestic issues First.

Right or call your congresscritters and let them know you want to repeal the Bush-era tax cuts for the richest 2%. Write your local paper, call CNN.

Part of the problem is mass media is owned and operated by those richest 2%. And a lot of the middle class and poor consume their bread and circuses without seeing their cities crumble around them.