The 'L-curve' helps one imagine the degree to which wealth in the United States is inequitably distributed by policy and by design. The US population is represented 'stretched across a football field in order of income, from poorest, on the left, to richest. Imagine a stack of $100 bills 'representing each person's income.' For example: a stack one inch high represents a stack of one hundred dollars bills, i.e, $25,000. The red line on the graph represents the height of that stack compared to an American football field. "The red line in the first picture is the beginning of the U. S. income distribution. On the scale of the football field the line slopes gradually from zero on the left to less than 2-inches high at the 50-yard line ($39,000), to about 4-inches high at the 95-yard line ($132,000). On this scale the entire graph is less than one pixel high, up to this point. It is not until you are well past the 99-yard line that you hit the $1 million mark: a stack of $100 bills 40-inches high. There were over 144,000 people who turned in IRS returns in 1997 with adjusted gross incomes of $1 million or more." [See: Houston Independent Media Center, Wealth Distribution in the US http://houston.indymedia.org/news/2003/07/14100.php ] Although the US economy produces tremendous wealth, it is always accompanied in GOP regimes by tremendous poverty. The US, for example, was most egalitarian in the years immediately following WWII. During GOP regimes, income inequality increased and is, in fact, measured with the GINI index. Higher Ginis indicate greater levels of income inequality. These indices have been significantly greater in every GOP regime since World War II. Certainly --there is enough wealth to go around. Instead, wealth flows upward ---not down, as the propagandists of 'supply side' i.e. 'trickle down theory' would have you believe. The problem is systemic --the result of identifiable, right wing policies. The primary culprits are GOP tax cuts by Mssrs Ronald Reagan and Bush; the effect of those cuts have been the deliberate transfer of wealth first to the upper quintile and, most recently, to an increasingly tiny elite of about one percent of the total population [See: Dr. Daniel Weinberger, US Census Bureau Briefings; Also see: The Quarterly Journal of Economics: Income Inequality in the United States at the following URL: http://elsa.berkeley.edu/~saez/pikettyqje.pdf]. It's a PDF and cites academic and official, original sources of data.
As wealth is transferred to the very top with tax cuts for only the very, very wealthy and practitioners of 'corporate socialism', the masses are left to fight over the crumbs. There is no poverty in America that could not be addressed by simply addressing GOP tax policies --give aways -- which deliberately make the rich richer, the working class significantly poorer. If you are in the middle class now, don't kid yourself. Unless you stand to inherit a fortune of several billions from a rich and long lost Uncle, the chances are almost exponentially high against you. Chances are --you will NOT progress upward in this society. Moreover, this aspect of American society is the work of one party primarily: the GOP! The GOP is the party of a rich elites who have learned how to 'sell' a fairy tale: supply side economics, or, derisively --"trickle down theory". To sum it all up: wealth has never, does not, will not 'trickle down'.
...what does the Wealthy One Percent want? Answer: more wealth. Where will they get it? As with a tube of toothpaste, they're squeezing it from the bottom. Median paychecks have gone down by 5.9% during the current regime, but Americans in the bottom fifth have seen their incomes sliced by 20%.At the other end, CEO pay at the Fortune 500 has bloated by 51% during the first four years of the Bush regime to an average of $8.1 million per annum.Today's Pig is Tomorrow's BaconClearly --the GOP leadership has learned nothing from the Bush debacle. The GOP has learned nothing from the back to back debacles of Reagan and Bush Sr. The GOP is like the idiot doctor who tells his patient: just keep on doing whatever makes you sick!
Nine straight months of job losses, a collapse in consumer spending, growing home foreclosures, and few good signs for the future, all point, economists now say, to the fact that recession has overtaken the economy.It gets worse. As the utterly failed Bush debacle winds down, the GOP loots the nation, grabbing what has not been nailed down, grabbing whatever has not been already stolen and funneling to banks billions of dollars under the rubric of a bailout that has not bailed out anyone but those who are rich already!
Today, things appeared to get worse. The government released its quarterly GDP estimates showing the economy shrank by 0.3 percent. The collapse was fueled by the sharpest drop in consumer spending in 28 years, economist Josh Bivens of the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) told reporters on a teleconference after the report was released.
Bivens blamed the the contraction of consumer spending that led to the recession primarily on the collapse of the housing market.
In addition, government data revealed that state and local governments are struggling to make ends meet and dragging down economic growth, and labor income has also fallen over the past three consecutive quarters, Bivens said.
Consumer spending is linked to labor income, Bivens noted. People can only spend in the economy when they have good paychecks or credit. Since both income is falling and debt has many working families unable to continue to spend at the same rates, consumer spending has suffered.
--Recession is On, McCain Offers More Bush Policies
The 'bailout' --we were to suppose --would just 'trickle down'. But like all those other GOP 'trickle down' frauds, this one got hijacked by the privileged elites. I believe the money has been largely pissed away and stolen.
How much of that 700 Billion do you suppose has wound up in Switzerland or Lichenstein?
How much has been squirreled away for Bush's 'get away' to Paraguay?
In the meantime, how much of that money has already been given away to cronies as DIVIDENDS?
There is no rational defense of 'elitism'. GOP elitism is why we are where we are and where we are is NOT where we ought to be!
Half of the bank bailout is being paid out as dividends ! These bastards are shameless!Get a rope!U.S. banks getting more than $163 billion from the Treasury Department for new lending are on pace to pay more than half of that sum to their shareholders, with government permission, over the next three years.And in case you missed it two weeks ago: one of every ten dollars of the "bailout" is being used to pay bonuses! That's right - the bastards are getting $70 billion in bonuses for destroying the financial system and wrecking the economy.
Joe Nocera reported in The New York Times on an Oct. 17, internal conference call for senior employees of JPMorgan Chase, in which a Morgan Chase employee had the bad grace to ask,“Chase recently received $25 billion in federal funding. What effect will that have on the business side and will it change our strategic lending policy?”That would be a key question, wouldn’t it? Afterall, the whole purpose of the $700 billion bank rescue was to unfreeze the credit markets and get banks lending again.--Pissing away $700 billion
Enough of this crap is enough.
Tell the GOP to bugger off!
Tell the GOP that their 'contributions' to the demise of America are no longer welcome.
Tell the GOP that they have worn out their welcome!
Tell the GOP that putting another 'label' on the same old bullshit won't work anymore.
Tell the GOP to get 'outta' town, get lost, shut the fuck up, and don't let the door hit you in your sorry ass on your way out!