Thursday , 28 March 2024

New Report Confirms that "Occupy Wall Street" Has a Point Regarding Income Inequality in America

Of all the many banners being waved around the world by disgruntled protesters from Chile to Australia the one that reads, “We Are the 99%” is the catchiest. It is purposefully vague, but it is also underpinned by some solid economics. A report from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO)… confirms the contentions of the 99% that a system that works well for the very richest has delivered returns on labour that are disappointing for everyone else and that the people at the top have made out like bandits over the past few decades, and that now everyone else must pick up the bill. [Take a look at the graph which shows just how unequal income distribution is in the USA.] Words: 776

So reports The Economist online (www.economist.com) in edited excerpts from an article* which Lorimer Wilson, editor of www.munKNEE.com (Your Key to Making Money!), has further edited ([ ]), abridged (…) and reformatted below for the sake of clarity and brevity to ensure a fast and easy read. The author’s views and conclusions are unaltered and no personal comments have been included to maintain the integrity of the original article. Please note that this paragraph must be included in any article re-posting to avoid copyright infringement.

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The article goes on to say, in part:

A report from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) points out that income inequality in America has not risen dramatically over the past 20 years—when the top 1% of earners are excluded. With them, the picture is quite different. The causes of the good fortune of those at the top are disputed, but the CBO provides some useful detail on that too. The biggest component of the increase in after-tax income for the top one percent is “business income” as opposed to income from labour or investments (though admittedly these things are hard to untangle). Whatever the cause, the data [see the graph below] are powerful because they tend to support two prejudices.

  1. That a system that works well for the very richest has delivered returns on labour that are disappointing for everyone else.
  2. That the people at the top have made out like bandits over the past few decades, and that now everyone else must pick up the bill.

Of course it is a little more complicated than that but this downturn ought to test the normally warm feelings in America of the 99% towards the 1%.


*http://www.economist.com/blogs/dailychart/2011/10/income-inequality-america

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