Rich/Poor Income Gap Widening To Chasm

Evidence Shows Impact On Those At Lower End Of Wage Scale Continues To Grow

(CBS)  There have always been "haves" and "have-nots" in the United States, but over the past three decades, the gap between them has gotten a lot wider, statistics from congressional numbers crunchers show.

According to the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office, income for the bottom half of American households rose six percent since 1979 but, through 2005, the income of the top one percent skyrocketed - by 228 percent.

And, correspondent Benno Schmidt reported in The Early Show's "Early Wake-Up Call" Saturday, the impact of the growing disparity on the "have-nots," and even on small businesspeople, is being felt more and more.

Schmidt visited Adam Rames who, after 35 years, is saying goodbye to the only way of life he's known - his formerly thriving meatpacking business in New York City.

"I used to feed a lot of families," Rames told Schmidt. "I feel like I took care of the entire East Coast (with meat)!. I used to move 100,000 pounds a week. It's all gone."

Rames says he couldn't pay the rent when it tripled, couldn't pay pensions and retirement for the 15 workers he had to let go, couldn't keep up with gas and fuel prices, and couldn't afford supplies.

"In the past 16 months, I lost 40 percent of my business," he laments.

Now, he's headed for the unemployment line - and he's not alone.

This, while an upscale hotel goes up in his business' neighborhood.

Generations of working-class Americans came to that area of lower Manhattan to realize their dreams, Schmidt points out, and the meatpacking district is still thriving, but in a very different way.

Trendy boutiques hawk $7,000 jackets and $400 jeans made to look worn and old. Apartments trade for millions of dollars. Record oil profits and record Wall Street bonuses have driven out many who wonder where their tax breaks are.

A hard-hatted worker remarked to Schmidt that his money doesn't go very far in today's economy, and he lives paycheck-to-paycheck.

Many, Schmidt observes, can't understand the two economies: one for them, another for the super-wealthy or conglomerates.

Things are certainly "out of whack, out of balance for a lot of workers," New York Times reporter Steven Greenhouse, author of "The Big Squeeze: Tough Times for the American Worker," told Susan Koeppen on The Early Show Saturday.

"A lot of people think it's just them," he continued, "just you suffering from stagnant wages, but it's happening to millions of workers. It's happening for many reasons.

"One is globalization. Companies can move operations overseas, which helps them increase profits. Yet it also helps hold down wages for American workers. A second thing is there's pressure by Wall Street for companies to get their stock prices and their profits up, and that often causes them to push down wages.

"A third factor is that unions have become much weaker, and they don't have as much leverage on companies to increase those wages quickly. Another factor is health costs are soaring, and they're eating up part of the money that would normally go to wage increases."

"Many companies and investors on Wall Street," he explained, "want CEOs to maximize profits, maximize share prices, and that often translates into laying off people, downsizing, trying to reduce wages, trying to reduce benefits. So, unfortunately, too often the interests of Main Street and Wall Street are opposed."

About 70 percent of the economy is based on consumer spending, and that's presenting another problem, Greenhouse say: "What we're seeing now is gas prices soaring and debt levels soaring - a lot of Americans are not going out and buying so-called discretionary items like cars and flat-screen TVs, because people have to concentrate on buying food for their families and paying for health insurance and paying for utilities. So, right now, a lot of retail stores are hurting, and in turn, that's hurting a lot of American manufacturers.

"It's not unique to the United States because right now, worldwide, fuel prices are soaring. So, in Europe, in Japan, and the United States, consumers are feeling the squeeze. I think there's more inequality in the United States between the top and the bottom. It's not nearly as bad in Europe, (and) I think the people on the bottom and even in the middle here in the United States are being squeezed worse than in many other countries."

What can be done about it?

Possible remedies, Greenhouse says, include enrolling more low income students in college, increasing pay for lower-wage union workers, and revitalizing the manufacturing base.

"A little-known secret is that, over the past seven years, the United States has lost one in five manufacturing jobs," he said. "Those are usually jobs that pay good wages, middle-class wages, usually provide middle-class benefits on health and pensions, and the United States seems not to be paying attention to this huge problem that has lost 3.5 million manufacturing jobs, and I think the government and industry have to work together to figure out how to preserve jobs."

To read an excerpt of "The Big Squeeze," click here.

[veteran72]

Man, I never saw this coming......Duuuuuuuuuhhhh....

[ddaryl1]

No kidding... You don''t say. So what are you going to do about it ? Nothing.. that''s what I figured. just remember America when people get more and more desperate there going to do desperate things to survive... Our government says watch out for teroists, what they don''t tell us is that we are going to be creating a breed of home grown terroists willing to do anything it takes because they have little to lose....

[lefeaoux]

All this speculation from everyone on WHY the economy stinks right now but the REAL problem remains un-addressed! BRING AMERICAN JOBS BACK TO AMERICA you morons! They gripe about unemployment, they cry about the economy and then turn around and send millions of jobs per year to Mexico, Canada, China, Taiwan, Afghanistan and the Philippines. What the heck do they THINK is going to happen when corporate America is allowed to send all our manufacturing jobs over-seas where they can exploit all the poor schmucks over there by making them work 14-18 hour days and pay them $28 per month for it.

[veteran72]

"Many, Schmidt observes, can''t understand the two economies: one for them, another for the super-wealthy or conglomerates."

It''s called Criminal Corporate Neocon Fascist Nazism.
It''s leaders are Shrub and Darth.
When confronted with the devistation they''ve brought to America and it''s Middle Class,
they respond with: "So"???

This is your Nation.
This is your Nation on Neoconism.
Any questions???

[ubrew12]

You know whats NEWS about this article?

That its NEWS to CBS!!!

[truthspeake2]

The current administration has made this perfectly clear...I just hope that none of my tax $$$ were wasted doing a study to gather this new found info, because I could have told them this for free!

[newz4i]

Rich/Poor Income Gap Widening = Bush economics.

[sgtrds]

The economic goal of the neoconservative movement is to have a tiny, but very wealthy and powerful upper class. A tiny tiny group of middle-class managers (read overseers). And a large lower class of basically serfs who work for the landed gentry of the new royalty.

[wdrussell1]

Wise up folks. This ''IS'' the Grover Norquist plan for America.
To create a feudal society of Princes and peasants.

[ubrew12]

If you look carefully at the picture that goes with this article, you''ll catch a clue as to why there is this ''chasm'' between rich and poor:

The rich on the left are all fit and trim and upright, while the poor on the right are overweight, hulking, brutes.

Fortunately, there are more rich than poor (3 to 2). I sure wouldn''t want to meet those poor guys down a blind alley.

[sblake63]

LOL the "have nots" will always complain. The poor dude lamenting over his meat packing business. His so called demise didnt happen instantly. Sounds like he didnt put away money for rainey day when he was moving 100,000 of meat lol.

You always hear democrats and their brainwashed follower say "most a are one paycheck away from being homeless". That is nonsense. The problem is that most people DO NOT SAVE their money for "hard times". They get a tax return, or other large sum of money and what do most of them do? Blow it within days or weeks.Then comes a lay off or illness and that person finds the nearest "sucker" news organization who will wont ask them any hard questions about their spending habits or life choices.

What we end of with is a news peice that makes it look like the "rich" screwed this poor guy etc etc. Sure we are hard times with gas and food prices. But if you find yourself not being able to pay rent, you either have some lousey spending habits or you should have received a better education. Stop blowing your cash on things you DO NOT NEED and most of the time you''ll be OK !

But instead some of you come on here and blame Bush, GOP, gremlins lmao.. or what ever for YOUR failures. Its funny how I see videos of people in poor areas being interviewed carrying around 300 dollar ipods and fancy phones, but you can bet big cash these people blame everybody for their so call poverty instead of their greatest enemy - their own self ....

[sgtrds]

This is class warfare and the elite are winning.

[hypnotoad72]

sblake63 - I''ve heard liberals also say "the rich get socialism; bailed out with our tax dollars. Meanwhile it''s free enterprise for the rest of us and damned if you lose."

What''s your take on their viewpoint?

[ubrew12]

sblake63 said: "you can bet big cash these people blame everybody for their so call poverty instead of their greatest enemy - their own self ...."

I''ll admit, I''m not poor. I just want a better society that can only be paid for by taxing the rich appropriately, rather than letting them run roughshod over this nations economic and political landscape. I see what they have in Canada and Western Europe, and I selfishly WANT that here. They PROVE it can be done without going outside the bounds of a normal capitalism-oriented society.

You''re telling me to ''quit complaining and put my nose to the grindstone'', but I''m old enough to have known this country when it knew how to tax the rich and build a truer, more cohesive society. I miss that and I want it back. As for work, I''ll bet I work harder than you.

[sblake63]

But the rest of us don''''t have to worry - DickNBush and the Repugs assure us that we''''ll get all that trickle down! Though it seems I''''ve been waiting a long time for my share of that.

/



Posted by ImpeachNOW at 02:06 PM : May 03, 2008

__________________



Want some cheese with that whine cry baby? Sorry there will always be rich and poor. And EVERY time thru history when a government tries to tinker with people''s money and redistribute wealth you end of with failed systems - Remember the USSR? LOL.

Your colorful anti Bush, GOP remarks are insane lol. Check your facts most democrats in congress and the to socialists running for
office on their side are RICH. Think they care about you and they are going to take money from people such as themselves and "screw"
the rich for the "little man". Oh Pleaseeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee it wont change dude... Face it!

I am far from rich. But sitting here like you with visions of them at cocktail parties living it up doesn''t cause me to burn with rage. Dude it was like that in days of old and it shall NEVER change. Face it loll. Focus your energy on where your going to spend your eternity in the next world loll. Because you certainly shall NOT be changing anything in this one.

[sgtrds]

But the rest of us don''''t have to worry - DickNBush and the Repugs assure us that we''''ll get all that trickle down! Though it seems I''''ve been waiting a long time for my share of that.

Posted by ImpeachNOW at 02:06 PM : May 03, 2008

The trickle down theory is that if you give the very rich enough wine that eventually they''ll have to take a leak and the rest of us get to get trickled down upon.

[ubrew12]

sblake63 said: "Stop blowing your cash on things you DO NOT NEED "

What, like Wars in Iraq??

If we didn''t complain, I''d bet GW''d take the debt to $20 trillion. That, ALSO, is your money. Has it been spent on things you needed?

[husein_pasha]

And here it`s the same. The rich live in huge villas, the poor live in overpopulated refugee camps

[magoo2u1]

"sblake63 - I''ve heard liberals also say "the rich get socialism; bailed out with our tax dollars. Meanwhile it''''s free enterprise for the rest of us and damned if you lose."

I can tell you I think the statement is correct. Who is getting help in this mortgage mess ? Banks, wall street and investors. NO HELP FOR HOMEOWNERS. The rich are socialists/communist (give me a dna sample as you pee in this cup to keep ur job) and the rest of us are fed a fantasy of hard work or starve. It only applies to the bottom rungs of the ladder.

[husein_pasha]

haha, here the poor were communists. Now there is not communist movement here.

[glossypan]

$347,400,000 cost to the United States each day we occupy Iraq.

Money that could be spent providing jobs to Americans to rebuild our infrastructure.
Money that could pay for research and development of non-polluting energy sources, freeing us from our reliance on foreign oil - a very real threat to our national security.

[sgtrds]

"Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness."

This is class warfare and the people are losing.

[husein_pasha]

I`m from the urban middle class. I`m trying to become from the upper-middle.

[girlmiami]

We are in the worst recession. My job $45.00 an hour job with American Express was sent to India for someone now earning $8.50 an hour. Marketing - I have a mastor''''s degree. Why is the US government allowing this. So after 17 years I am unemployed for the first time in my life. Marketing

[veteran72]

Thursday, April 24, 2008

From The Wall Street Journal

Sunny Side of the Street

America''s wealthy see buying opportunities in sluggish real-estate market

By AMY HOAK
MarketWatch - April 16, 2008

CHICAGO -- Is now a good time to buy real estate? The size of your paycheck likely will play a big part in how you answer that question.

While many average Americans are skittish about the housing market, some of the country''s richest citizens see the current conditions as perfect for buying, according to the Annual Survey of Affluence and Wealth in America, released on Tuesday by the American Express Publishing Corp. and Harrison Group, a market research and consulting firm.

Seventy-seven percent of the wealthiest people surveyed think real estate presents a "real opportunity" right now. In the survey, "wealthy" meant having discretionary household income of more than $500,000 a year.


"$500,000.00 = Cost of new front door *** on
Cheney''s Dubai Waterfront Mansion....

[mbburch06]

"We are in the worst recession. My job $45.00 an hour job with American Express was sent to India for someone now earning $8.50 an hour. Marketing - I have a mastor''''''''s degree. Why is the US government allowing this. So after 17 years I am unemployed for the first time in my life. Marketing"

You have a Master;s degree but cannot spell Master;s ... Wow. CBS, where do you find these people?

[spinster2]

I don''t think a more powerful argument can be made for Clinton. The wine sippiing liberal are more concerned with proving that their not racist than the real issues facing us today, and blacks want one of their own above everything else.

Whether you like or dislike her, there is little doubt that she has the best grasp of the economy and what it will take to repair it of all the presidential candidates and this notion that the partys are somehow going to be brought togeather by a new messiah is a fairy tale for real.

[trvlr005]

People of this country should always beware of a net transfer of wealth to those who already have it, and away from those who actually work for it. This is but another reason to keep government as local as possible, for doing so immeasurably increases the chances for accountability.

Many Congressmen who lose their bids for reelection - and by inference, a slice of the good life - wind up as lobbyists with first-hand knowledge of government contract processes, power brokers in Congress and others who need to be wooed in order for them to continue their free-spending ways. Until we can keep jobs at home, so that people feel productive, our economy will continue to hemorrhage as it has these past seven years.

[trillion1]

I have yet to see them pass a law that has helped working Americans. Oil, drug, insurance and banks have been given a blank check to do what ever they want. Just keep voting those incumbents back in.

[flagship-usa]

There is only one(1) way to fix The problem here(USA)and abroad: Bring back the caps. Profits need to be caped, and government needs to do this right now!

[jn122736]

The first paragraph says it all.

%u201C%u201DThere have always been "haves" and "have-nots" in the United States, but over the past three decades, the gap between them has gotten a lot wider, statistics from congressional numbers crunchers show.%u201D%u201D

The New-republican trickle-down policy began with Reagan in 1981.

In the years following the great depression, the legislative branch (congress) passed, and the administrative branch enforced, new laws to break up monopolies and prevent their recurrence.

An income taxing system, that was based on the amount of income and increased proportionately, as income increased was instated.

An inheritance tax, high enough to prevent accumulation of wealth, based on the true fact that inherited money is income not a birthright.

Bankruptcy laws designed to protect the average American from loosing everything they have because of some unavoidable catastrophe.

ALL of these things have been overturned, changed, or simply ignored by the administration branch.

Reagan%u2019s trickle down policy was the beginning of the problem and it has expanded/tripled in less than 3 decades, doubled in the past 8 years.

The national Debt was less than $1trillion when Reagan started this destructive policy, and is now NINE times as great. It has doubled in the last 8 years alone.

Just the interest on the Debt now costs more than any other single item except that of the defense department (Military complex).

[hermitdave]

As George and Uncle Richard say "LET THEM EAT CAKE". As more and more of the middle class sinks down to the level of the poor class, the spoiled rich kid and his friends laugh and play. The era of the ruling class is here. The mega corp. rules.

[janiet3]

Hmmmmm -- I wonder. If somebody, anybody took GW and DC out in handcuffs, marched them naked out into the street, and then threw them under the jail, would all of us not be instantaneously peacably ecstatic?


Then, and only then, will there be a healing - economically, spiritually (?), globally. I''d just bet my bottom dime (that''s all I have) the entire world would be jumping for joy. Reckon?

[sgtrds]

janiet3

I know I''d help the economy, by having a huge party!

[janiet3]

Sgt., I don''t have much, but I''ll make the confetti and bring the last jug of Kool-Aid.

[excoachken]

Congratulations to George W. Bush for finally accomplishing what he set out to do in 2000. This was not by accident, but a carefully laid out plan of CARE LESS NESS! Nobody could have doneit better. And, look for more of the same if Americans are stupid enough to vote for Numbnutz McCain.

[sgtrds]

Sgt., I don''''t have much, but I''''ll make the confetti and bring the last jug of Kool-Aid.

Posted by janiet3 at 03:19 PM : May 03, 2008

Ain''t wealthy myself, but I can spring for beer and cold cuts for a special occasion like watching Bush and Cheney go off to jail.

[janiet3]

Heck, Sarge. For that occasion I might just go into my piddling!! savings and spring for a couple bottles of good wine. I''d like to say "champagne", but that would totally break me.

[ontheleft]

Worker productivity has gone up 20% since 2000. That''s not just due to technology - it''s also due to workers taking on extra work when companies downsize.

The reward for this increased productivity? Wages in real terms have fallen since 2000.

[sgtrds]

Heck, Sarge. For that occasion I might just go into my piddling!! savings and spring for a couple bottles of good wine. I''''d like to say "champagne", but that would totally break me.

Posted by janiet3 at 03:25 PM : May 03, 2008

Naw, you save the champagne for their sentencing and execution.

[galloglas-2009]

Given what we are looking at, perhaps we should all clear our minds of Modern Dogma and ask ourselves this question:

Was the Economic Arrow of Time for the masses simply aimed at the wrong Engel(s) and thus is destined to miss its appropriate Marx?

We (and the wealthy) should remember that "To those to whom much is given, much may be taken away".

Shall we meet at the Bastille?

[galloglas-2009]

Given what we are looking at, perhaps we should all clear our minds of Modern Dogma and ask ourselves this question:

Was the Economic Arrow of Time for the masses simply aimed at the wrong Engel(s) and thus is destined to miss its appropriate Marx?

We (and the wealthy) should remember that "To those to whom much is given, much may be taken away".

Shall we meet at the Bastille?

[singingrick]

Modern "conservatism" is a morally and economically bankrupting philosophy that espouses the insane belief that the answer to every problem is to simply move money from the hands of the working class and put it into the ample pockets of the super wealthy. What we are seeing here is the result of conservative leadership.

[dudzim]

As the article notes, the evolution of this process can be tracked back three decades.

Who was president about 30 years ago? Which party has been in power during most of this period?

It is an artifact of the Republican economic policies advanced in the Reagan years - you could see it coming, if you cared to look.

The growing class disparity is presently intensified by the current, devastating economic policies of Bush.

And all the while, the middle class has been getting squeezed as well.

There will always be disparity ... but things are way out of proportion these days, and have been for too long.


M

[galloglas-2009]

Given what we are looking at, perhaps we should all clear our minds of Modern Dogma and ask ourselves this question:

Was the Economic Arrow of Time for the masses simply aimed at the wrong Engel(s) and thus is destined to miss its appropriate Marx?

We (and the wealthy) should remember that "To those to whom much is given, much may be taken away".

Shall we meet at the Bastille?

[galloglas-2009]

Given what we are looking at, perhaps we should all clear our minds of Modern Dogma and ask ourselves this question:

Was the Economic Arrow of Time for the masses simply aimed at the wrong Engel(s) and thus is destined to miss its appropriate Marx?

We (and the wealthy) should remember that "To those to whom much is given, much may be taken away".

Shall we meet at the Bastille?

[galloglas-2009]

Given what we are looking at, perhaps we should all clear our minds of Modern Dogma and ask ourselves this question:

Was the Economic Arrow of Time for the masses simply aimed at the wrong Engel(s) and thus is destined to miss its appropriate Marx?

We (and the wealthy) should remember that "To those to whom much is given, much may be taken away".

Shall we meet at the Bastille?

[drivelphobe]

Businesses should make their money by providing quality products, not by cutting wages on the employees. How shameful.

[lorinkundert]

Isn''t it great what our Socialist tax system has done for this country, The rich hide their money from the IRS while the middle class is destroyed and thrown into poverty.

[actornaught]

And this huge wave of redistributed wealth started with the reagan/neocon insanity called "trickle down", a concept that even the author abandoned almost immediately. What seems to be too unnoticed is that in order to get a little trickled on, the working stiffs of this country have had to "Shovel Up".

The middle class is getting hosed...