Friday, December 01, 2006

How Democracy Dies

According to the Congressional Budget Office:

Between 1979 and 1997, income for families in the middle rose 9% from $41,000 to $45,1000.
Meanwhile, income for families in the top 1% rose from $420,000 to $1,016,000, a 140% increase.
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MISSION ACCOMPLISHED

5 comments:

BlackLabelAxe said...

So here's what we do about it:

Start your own company, and set your pay scales for equal profit sharing among all employees. Lead by example.

Of course that business model is a proven failure, but a very beneficial compromise can be made between equal profit sharing and the current model most companies use.

BlackLabelAxe said...

Also, there's always going to be a gap in income, because not all people are good at managing money. Most people aren't even good at it. Lots of people don't even want to deal with it at all, and even talking about it makes them uncomfortable. Some people make a hobby out of it.

The only thing that pisses me off more than ungrateful, disrespectful, and irresponsible holders of wealth is wealth envy.

B.L. Sabob: Not amused said...

actually, the post says nothing about how people MANAGE the money they have, it discusses INCOME disparity.

The cause of the income disparity is the government's policy toward those who make money via investments versus those who earn a living through their own labor.

BlackLabelAxe said...

The managing aspect is important because it causes most people to live much worse than their means should allow for.

Then they feel the need to cut corners and pinch pennies by shopping at places like Wal-Mart, which beats the bottom out of labor prices and healthy market competition, thus aggrevating the situation further.

The moral of the story is that uneducated consumers breed economic desparity.

I'm with you about the government helping out with certain rich people's irresponsible corporate wellfare. That is the enemy of small business, and it's a main reason why we have to slay this dragon that we call the IRS.

This tax code allows those shitbags to bankroll their campaign buddies without the rest of us ever knowing about it.

I'm in favor of taxing consumption, which is the only way to maintain a truly progressive tax. The Fair Tax is my favorite, because it can't be manipulated in any way to serve any special interests in any way.

B.L. Sabob: Not amused said...

but the ironic part of this is that if people weren't duped by advertising into purchasing unnecessary goods and services for the sake of status and comfort, the US economy would slow down and perhaps even crash. Our entire economy is dependent upon people who fill up their empty, insecure lives with materialism. In most of the world, citizens may wind up in fights over limited amounts of food. In America, they duke it out of Tickle-Me Elmo and Play Stations.

Remember, after 911 one of the first things Bush did was to implore Americans to go out and buy shit. That's what America is all about... crass commercialism and maniacal materialism.

There are a limited few in the merchant and middle classes who benefit from this. But the real lion's share of the spoils go to those in the upper 1% who make the vast majority of their income from investments, not work.