Income inequality — the difference between what the rich earn and what the middle-class and poor do — is higher in the United States than in other developed countries. It has widened over the past 30 years, unlike in most other developed countries. And, worryingly, it has grown wider during the recession, contrary to most economists’ predictions.
If they had a nose to the wind, they’d have known better.
Since the 1990s, the richest of the rich have pulled away from the merely wealthy, while the recession has made more and more Americans poor.[...]
The poor and the middle class seem to have something in common in the last decade: Neither experienced any income growth, despite the expanding economy.
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The hallmark of the last three downturns has been very anemic job growth after the recession ends, leading to high long-term unemployment and putting very little pressure on employers to raise wages for workers. It’s reasonable to expect middle-class income will be stagnant at best. Meanwhile, there’s no reason right now to expect the runaway gains are going to end for the rich.
They seem to be driven by the financial market and by the very good results we’re seeing in corporate profits. It could continue to be that companies won’t be hiring, even though they will pay their chief executives a lot and their stocks will boom. That means stagnation for the middle class, and income for the rich.
So, inequality is continuing to widen.
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One thing that is often missed is that it isn’t just tax rates. It is how well financial regulation works, how well we regulate CEO pay, how well we regulate corporate governance.
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It’s obvious that the extension of all the Bush tax cuts, including those for the very richest, will exacerbate this imbalance. But, we have seen that that issue is not going to be front and center in the midterms. You would think that Democrats would gain political ground by emphasizing the rising inequality, still rising. But democrats aren’t wiling to support tax increases at all.
Of course not. They’re not in the middle or poor class. And they’re obviously not very bright.
....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.
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