Widening Gap Between the Rich and the Poor.
39- rhamson
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Since the late 1990s, average incomes have declined 2.5% for families on the bottom fifth of the country's economic ladder, while incomes have increased 9.1% for families on the top fifth.
The result is that the average incomes of the top 5% of families are 12 times the average incomes of the bottom 20%. This is part of a report drawn from U.S. Census Bureau data collected from 1987 through 2006 and is one of the few to record income inequality on a state-by-state basis. The statistics show an ever increasing gap growing between the rich and poor and no ground being made up.
By failing to halt the middle-class shrinkage, the argument goes, the U.S. could allow itself to become a two-tiered society of rich and poor. Declares M.I.T. Economics Professor Lester Thurow: "Wherever one looks, one now finds rising inequality."
Can the American dream be less of a reality than ever before?
94- Luciendasky
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wow... that is scary
86- Madame X
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It's not an accident either. Look at some of the financial policies that are shoved forward. They're not stupid in Washington, they know exactly how economics works.
94- Ralph Deeds
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Wide income disparity could lead to lack of faith in and support for our democratic form of government. There already signs of growing disillusionment among the electorate. Our tax system is unfair and full of loopholes.
83- Bovine Currency
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Democracy at work, the majority wins! The most money decides who will lead the money.
Yup, you're either rich or poor now a day's! The so called "middle class" is a thing of the past!!
- 83
- Bovine Currency
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K Partin wrote:
Yup, you're either rich or poor now a day's! The so called "middle class" is a thing of the past!!
No suprises why welfare is so popular. There is enough wealth in the top 1% to pay the rest of us pittance for nothing. If I had to work for minumum wage the rest of my life I'd probably steal cars for a living. No moral conundrum as I see it.
99- Paraglider
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rhamson wrote:
The result is that the average incomes of the top 5% of families are 12 times the average incomes of the bottom 20%.
Yes. And if you looked only at that top 5%, I'd be willing to bet that inside that sample, the discrepancy is greater by far. In other words, most of that top 5% could be described as 'comfortably placed', while a small elite effectively own and control everything.
The situation in Europe is going the same way, though not quite as bad yet.
What is needed is for that 95% to understand the reality your figures describe, and to stop rehearsing the old left-right battles among themselves. Nothing can come of that. It's the screwed fighting the screwed, while the screw-drivers laugh at the circus. We're all in this together.I came on here today to see if I could find any indication of why, with our knowledge and technology, so much of the world is still living in overwhelming poverty (if it's true that it is). Reading this leads right back to seeing it as the result of corruption. I was hoping to find some organizational or geographical problem but looks like it's all back to lack of human unity for a better world.
paraglider, It's the screwed fighting the screwed, while the screw-drivers laugh at the circus.
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Very funny line, I love this!
And when you figure it at the world scale (we live in a planet)
you find out that it is worse.
And this state of things will be regulated on way or another.
It would be dreadful if it was regulated in the "bad" way...
92- prettydarkhorse
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TMinut wrote:
paraglider, It's the screwed fighting the screwed, while the screw-drivers laugh at the circus.
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Very funny line, I love this!LOL too,
hi all! I think that this is not only happening in an isolated case, it is happening worldwide, the rich also continue to become richer and the poor poorer, the world resourcse according to research is owned by 1 percent of the population. wealth distribution is the main issue in the 21st century- 83
- Bovine Currency
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prettydarkhorse wrote:
TMinut wrote:
paraglider, It's the screwed fighting the screwed, while the screw-drivers laugh at the circus.
--------------
Very funny line, I love this!LOL too,
hi all! I think that this is not only happening in an isolated case, it is happening worldwide, the rich also continue to become richer and the poor poorer, the world resourcse according to research is owned by 1 percent of the population. wealth distribution is the main issue in the 21st centuryI can't remember the exact figures or source but when I was studying at uni I remember an article saying it was about 1% of the population hold 99% of the wealth.
It's just that there are so many organizations, groups, and individuals that donate and volunteer to help but there doesn't seem to be a dent being made. Aren't there some whole areas of the world whose situation is better now after being focused on for help? Or did all the knowledge and supplies get preempted by the power wielding tyrants before the needy could avail themselves of it?
- 83
- Bovine Currency
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TMinut wrote:
It's just that there are so many organizations, groups, and individuals that donate and volunteer to help but there doesn't seem to be a dent being made. Aren't there some whole areas of the world whose situation is better now after being focused on for help? Or did all the knowledge and supplies get preempted by the power wielding tyrants before the needy could avail themselves of it?
Unfortunetly, I don't think there is enough resources to make that dent. Even in affluent nations, the poorest people statistically produce more offspring, it is a survival mechanism. So the equation is multiplied to the point of say India where 30 years ago there were 700 odd million and I think now over a billion? How can an economy support that growth? The pirates in Somalia is another example.
100- Lisa HW
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Some results of studies or surveys don't seem to match what we see in "real life", but this one sure does. Anyone who lives among the middle-class can see the increasing challenges, whether that's being taxed and "living expensed" from "upper middle class" down to "regular middle class"; or having living expenses such that "regular middle class" gets pushed down to "barely middle class".
The very wealthy either never knew what it's like to work one's way to "very wealthy", weren't faced with insurmountable challenges (so don't know what they can be), or forget what it was like after a while. So, a lot of the people "in charge" and in power don't have a clue about how the middle class struggles. Low-income people can't do much for anyone (other than vote). That leaves a diminishing middle class that sees and feels what's happening with little power (other than voting) to change things, increasing demands on tax dollars because of increasing numbers of low-income people, and the knowledge that they need to make "big, big, bucks" and become very wealthy if they ever hope to not have to struggle. Some manage to accomplish that. Some just keep finding that staying middle class is harder than ever.- 83
- Bovine Currency
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I am not an anarchist, nor a terrorist but I do not have much sympathy for politics. In all of history, real change is a direct result of action, not voting action. Action. Like government go to war, sending citizens out to die, real change of living standards will only change when people fight with war. No amount of complaints, lobby, protest or academics will change the incestous rape of citizens by their dictators (not representative!). It is called civil war and it will come eventually.
- 83
- Bovine Currency
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Bovine Currency wrote:
I am not an anarchist, nor a terrorist but I do not have much sympathy for politics. In all of history, real change is a direct result of action, not voting action. Action. Like government go to war, sending citizens out to die, real change of living standards will only change when people fight with war. No amount of complaints, lobby, protest or academics will change the incestous rape of citizens by their dictators (not representative!). It is called civil war and it will come eventually.
I was just thinking about my little disclaimer 'i am not an anarchist, nor a terrorist.' I guess I wrote that because sometimes we are burdened by that mentality. Be critical but not too critical? Anyway, that is how I see it. I really do think that something needs to give. Not only in the US but all across the world. Something big will happen.
- 99
- Paraglider
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Maybe I'm ancient, but -
In the 60's when the statistic '7% of the people of this country (UK) own 84% of the wealth', we were so outraged that we set up the seven-eightyfour theatre company to spread awareness that extreme capitalism was taking over the economy. In those days, we were activists. Now, 50 years on, the elitists have 'leveraged' their position from 7:84 to something like 1:99. And we don't care? We fight each other? Why - because they have controlled the media. They tell our rightists to blame our leftists, and vice versa. And they laugh at our stupidity for acquiescing to their control.
It's time we got our act together. for the sake of the next generation. We're already a lost cause, but let's not pass it on. rhamson wrote:
Since the late 1990s, average incomes have declined 2.5% for families on the bottom fifth of the country's economic ladder, while incomes have increased 9.1% for families on the top fifth.
The result is that the average incomes of the top 5% of families are 12 times the average incomes of the bottom 20%. This is part of a report drawn from U.S. Census Bureau data collected from 1987 through 2006 and is one of the few to record income inequality on a state-by-state basis. The statistics show an ever increasing gap growing between the rich and poor and no ground being made up.
By failing to halt the middle-class shrinkage, the argument goes, the U.S. could allow itself to become a two-tiered society of rich and poor. Declares M.I.T. Economics Professor Lester Thurow: "Wherever one looks, one now finds rising inequality."
Can the American dream be less of a reality than ever before?
Thank you Ronald Reagan!
