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CBO: Top 1% getting exponentially richer
Protestors participate in an Occupy Oakland rally Monday, Oct. 10, 2011, in Oakland, Calif. / AP Photo
The Occupy Wall Street movement has, for the most part, been formed around the idea that wealth distribution in America is unfair, and that the economic system is skewed to reward the already wealthy with the highest gains. A new report from the Congressional Budget Office appears to have confirmed that.
Specifically, it has confirmed that the rich really are getting richer.
Between 1979 and 2007, the top 1 percent of Americans with the highest incomes have seen their incomes grow by an average of 275 percent, according to the CBO study (PDF).
In comparison, the 60 percent of Americans in the middle of the income scale saw their incomes increase by just 40 percent during the same time period, according to the study, which was based on a combination of IRS and Census data.
To put the growing disparity of income distribution in a slightly different perspective: Between 2005 and 2007, the top one-fifth of earners in America earned more money than the bottom fourth-fifths.
The report declines to offer exact reasons for the growing income disparity, but acknowledges they are likely to include: Growing "superstar" salaries for actors, athletes and musicians; Changes in executive compensation; and the growth of firms in general.
Reports from the non-partisan CBO tend to get trumpeted by politicians who are supported by their conclusions, and dismissed by those who aren't, in a trend that crosses party lines.
The most relevant part of the report to the ongoing debt battle in Washington will surely be the argument, pointed out by The New York Times, that the government has done less and less to involve itself in redistributing the nation's wealth since 1979. That said, the report was careful not to draw a direct line between the growing income disparity and the lower rate of government wealth distribution.
"The equalizing effect of federal taxes was smaller" in 2007 than in 1979, as "the composition of federal revenues shifted away from progressive income taxes to less-progressive payroll taxes," according to an excerpt from the CBO report in the Times.
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1. The CEO of ALL MAJOR AMERICAN COMPANIES looking for a ways to save money for THEMSELVES and for POLITICIANS. They did research and find out that:
a) an IT software developer In India will cost only 24, 666 per YEAR wehre an
American in America will cost them over $110, 000.
b) an Admin (person who handles after sales issue of a product) will cost only 4, 000
per yr where an American will cost them 26, 880
(the above examples are only 2 jobs, there are thousands of have same less cost)
2.Those AMERICAN COMPANIES then LAID OFF 80% AMERICAN WORKERS, IN AMERICA.
3. Then those AMERICAN COMPANIES went to India & China and HIRED Indian and Chinese people IN INDIA and IN CHINA, not in America.
4. IN THIS PROCESS (OUTSOURCING), THESE COUPLE OF HUNDRED CEOS MADE THEMSELVES AND THE POLITICIANS OF AMERICA, CHINA & INDIA THE BILLIONAIRE.
5. DO NEVER FORGET THAT SAME ABOVE PROCESS, OUTSOURCING HAS MADE AND STILL MAKING MILLIONS OF MILLION AMERICAN JOBLESS, UNEMPLOYED ON EVERYDAY BASIS.
The only way to save American job is to make some kind of law that will permits no hiring outside of America unless the skill is not available in America.
Of course, we also need to stop the wars with every country in the world.
IF WE AMERICAN, DO NOT STOP HIRING IN INDIA AND CHINA, YOU AMERICAN WILL LOOSE JOBS AND ONE DAY THE AMERICA WILL BE OWNED BY INDIANS AND CHINESE.
The American companies who did the above are ..... General Electric, General Motors, Bank of America Corp., AT&T, J.P. Morgan Chase & Co., Citigroup, Verizon Communications, American International Group, International Business Machines, Procter & Gamble, Pfizer, Walgreen, Target, Boeing, State Farm Insurance Cos., Microsoft, Johnson & Johnson, Dell, PepsiCo, United Technologies , MetLife, United Parcel Service, Lockheed Martin, Merck, Goldman Sachs Group, Intel, Chrysler Group, Cisco Systems, Comcast, Abbott Laboratories, Coca-Cola, New York Life Insurance, FedEx, Aetna, Amazon.com, Honeywell International, Liberty Mutual Insurance Group, DuPont, Sprint Nextel, Delta Air Lines, Allstate, American Express, Google, Philip Morris International, Oracle
There is something wrong when CEO's, even those in companies with dire profit losses, even bankruptcies, receive salaries and bonuses in the upper tens of millions of dollars. That money does not just happen to be an excess of monies earned, profits, and someone has to be losing out, employees, shareholders, taxes, company re-investment, research, etc. This is what Occupy Wall Street is all about. The country cannot be expected to increase it's economic position and lower the deficit, if employment, financial world markets, consumer purchasing, don't increase proportionally. It will remain a stagnant economy drawing the country further into the hole of financial despair. Not a great situation for a country that used to be number one in the world.
Giving the wealthy tax breaks that the middle and lower classes do not receive and who many believe that doing so creates jobs is under a dark cloud of fallacy. Employment comes from demand for products and if the middle-class and poor have less discretionary income to spend just worsens an already bad situation. It is called killing the goose who lays the golden eggs.
Watch out, things can get much worse before, if ever, it gets better.
And so it goes..........
"Fight organized crime...re-elect no one!"
More income = Richer
Y'all ain't got a snowballs chance in Hell of defeating Obama! : )
That's just the way it is. It doesn't mean there is anything wrong with the fact they are getting richer, and other people aren't. It is simply a statistic.
Those most impacted by the economy, are those who aren't rich, in the first place, because they are the most impacted by job loss, and increased cost of living, as well as overspending.......and all Americans are guilty of overspending.......because Americans now want everything all at once.
All you have to do, to get the true picture of young people today......is watch HGTV house hunting shows. 90% of all the young couples, expect to have everything all at once, including a brand "new" quality of house, that needs nothing done to it, at all. They don't want to have to do any "work" to it.
That is a clear and concise demonstration, of how little young people are willing to work towards goals, a step at a time, or put any sweat into their lives, or do without something they want, until they can better afford it.
It is also a clear demonstration, of the mentality of the "occupy" movement.