been saying it for years, the middle class is disappearing and joining the poor/lower class, the rich are getting richer, the poor poorer.
Soon we'll be working til the day we die, essentially as slave labor. Which is great if you're rich and in power, otherwise hell if you're not.
You are so misinformed. The US Government has been tracking this stuff for decades. The last decade that was just tracked ended in 2005. The poor are moving up in rank. Read and learn. Go to the Treasury department if you want the actual report. I have and its all true.
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Income Mobility
Listening to people like Lou Dobbs, John Edwards and Mike Huckabee lamenting the plight of America's middle class and poor, you'd have to conclude that things are going to hell in a handbasket. According to them, there's wage stagnation, while the rich are getting richer and the poor becoming poorer. There are a couple of updates that tell quite a different story.
The Nov. 13 Wall Street Journal editorial "Movin' On Up" reports on a recent U.S. Treasury study of income tax returns from 1996 and 2005. The study tracks what happened to tax filers 25 years of age and up during this 10-year period. Controlling for inflation, nearly 58 percent of the poorest income group in 1996 moved to a higher income group by 2005. Twenty-six percent of them achieved middle or upper-middle class income, and over 5 percent made it into the highest income group.
Over the decade, the inflation-adjusted median income of all tax filers rose by 24 percent. As such, it refutes Dobbs-Edwards-Huckabee claims about stagnant incomes. In fact, only one income group experienced a decline in real income. That was the richest one percent, who saw an income drop of nearly 26 percent over the 10-year period. The editors explain that these people might have been rich for a few years, had some capital gains, or could not stand up to the competition with new entrepreneurs and wealth creators.
The U.S. Treasury study confirms previous studies dating back to the 1960s, concluding, "The basic finding of this analysis is that relative income mobility is approximately the same in the last 10 years as it was in the previous decade." As such, it points to a uniquely American feature: Just because you know where a person ended up in life doesn't mean you can be sure about where he started. Most of today's higher income and wealthy did not start out that way.
What about claims of a disappearing middle class? Let's do some detective work. Controlling for inflation, in 1967, 8 percent of households had an annual income of $75,000 and up; in 2003, more than 26 percent did. In 1967, 17 percent of households had a $50,000 to $75,000 income; in 2003, it was 18 percent. In 1967, 22 percent of households were in the $35,000 to $50,000 income group; by 2003, it had fallen to 15 percent. During the same period, the $15,000 to $35,000 category fell from 31 percent to 25 percent, and the under $15,000 category fell from 21 percent to 16 percent. The only reasonable conclusion from this evidence is that if the middle class is disappearing, it's doing so by swelling the ranks of the upper classes.
What about the concentration of wealth? In 1918, John D. Rockefeller's fortune accounted for more than half of one percent of total private wealth. To compile the same half of one percent of the private wealth in the United States today, you'd have to combine the fortunes of Microsoft's Bill Gates ($53 billion) and Paul Allen ($16 billion), Oracle's Larry Ellison ($19 billion), and a third of Berkshire Hathaway's Warren Buffett's $46 billion. In 1920, America's richest one percent held about 40 percent of private wealth; by 1980, the private wealth held by the richest one percent fell to about 20 percent and has remained stable at that level since.
Demagogues duping Americans about stagnant and declining income give politicians justification to raise taxes and place regulatory obstacles in the path of risk-taking, productivity and hard work that will impede the enviable income mobility that has become a part of American tradition. Raising taxes on capital formation reduces the rate of capital formation. Raising taxes on income reduces incentives to work. Unfortunately, because so many Americans buy into the politics of envy, politicians have a leg up in enacting measures that cripple economic growth.
Walter E. Williams is a professor of economics at George Mason University. To find out more about Walter E. Williams and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate Web page at www.creators.com.
COPYRIGHT 2007 CREATORS SYNDICATE, INC.
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John Adams “The moment the idea is admitted into society that property is not as sacred as the laws of God, and that there is not a force of law and public justice to protect it, anarchy and tyranny commence.”
Ronald Reagan: 'Everybody that is for abortion has already been born'
"I never said I was worth it. I only said I wouldn't do it for less " William F. Buckley Jr.
Many. I'm curios though, If these events have a beginning, why are they begun?
It's said "The road too". People at least should know it's a road that leads too a destination. When people first start down that road why do they continue? They're most likely are people who's job it is to get people to go down the road, why don't people know them when they see them and just turn away.
What's missing from that cartoon is the end which is the beginning. When the country's resources are completely wasted from vise, a country that isn't simply walks up and takes it. The people then become like the cartoon.
What I hear most are people claiming the road starts here, when it started way back there. People are listening to someone who's already completely lost. They don't believe they are because there being paid and that's all that matters until the cartoon becomes reality.
The more we are given the more will be required. If your a leader in this country, lead wisely, the people will follow your lead. If you lead making deals with the government so will the people putting who in control? The leader could eliminate the government all together making deals with the people and then the people will follow making deals with the leader leaving who out of control? Class envy is tossed around, it's simply loathing. If the leaders loath the people what will the people do? Who will the largest voting block of the country turn too putting who in control? Any way you slice it it's up to the leader to make the move.
I see the price of oil is climbing not from demand like the BS that was pushed before, but from expected demand.
"The only reasonable conclusion from this evidence is that if the middle class is disappearing, it's doing so by swelling the ranks of the upper classes."
And yet government has grown dramatically. If it was as stated government would be shrinking as the people would turn from it.
been saying it for years, the middle class is disappearing and joining the poor/lower class, the rich are getting richer, the poor poorer.
Oh, thank God because I've been making more and more money each year!!! I must be getting richer and richer.. You know what I've been working harder and harder each year...Hum I wonder if that has something to do with my sucess?
BTW what does it feel like to sleep in your own bed each night, that's something I don't get to experience enough?
"The only reasonable conclusion from this evidence is that if the middle class is disappearing, it's doing so by swelling the ranks of the upper classes."
And yet government has grown dramatically. If it was as stated government would be shrinking as the people would turn from it.
Really, what exactly does the government do day to day that you turn towards it for help? I'll argue what has been growing are useless parts of government that have nothing to do with our day to day tasks. They are only there to do busy work, pass papers and suck up a pay check. You would never miss them if they were gone.
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John Adams “The moment the idea is admitted into society that property is not as sacred as the laws of God, and that there is not a force of law and public justice to protect it, anarchy and tyranny commence.”
Ronald Reagan: 'Everybody that is for abortion has already been born'
"I never said I was worth it. I only said I wouldn't do it for less " William F. Buckley Jr.
Location: land of the Lilliputians, In the state of insanity
Posts: 24,185
Quote:
Originally Posted by The Rev
Oh, thank God because I've been making more and more money each year!!! I must be getting richer and richer.. You know what I've been working harder and harder each year...Hum I wonder if that has something to do with my sucess?
BTW what does it feel like to sleep in your own bed each night, that's something I don't get to experience enough?
Yes you have. It gets harder and harder to get you down here to hunt.
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kaafir mushrik
Unintended consequences and God have one thing in common: Liberals don’t believe in either of them.
Yes you have. It gets harder and harder to get you down here to hunt.
You is so funny Cracka! Actually I’m in New Braunfels most of the month except for some meetings in Dallas, then I’m off to Seattle for a couple of weeks, but you know I’m always ready to kill a pig or two.
One of my CEO’s is on MLD and still has 8 more bucks to take before the end of Feb, he asked me to help him out when I get some time, but I can always squeeze some time to get down to your lake cabin and relax, it gives us a chance to laugh at Ole Corn Stalker..
Do you see any parallels ?
