US income inequality at record high

brianlux

Where does it all end? What can be done to level things out more?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-24039202

The income gap between the richest 1% of Americans and the other 99% widened to a record margin in 2012, according to an analysis of tax filings.

The top 1% of US earners collected 19.3% of household income, breaking a record previously set in 1927.

Income inequality in the US has been growing for almost three decades.

Overall, the pre-tax incomes of the top 1% of households rose 19.6% compared to a 1% increase for the rest of Americans.

And the top 10% of richest households represented just under half of all income in the year, according to the analysis.

Emmanuel Saez at the University of California, Berkeley, one of the economists who analysed the tax data, said the rise may have been in part because of sales of stock to avoid higher capital gains taxes in January.

Mr Saez wrote in an analysis that despite recent policy changes aiming at lessening income inequality, the measures were relatively small in comparison to "policy changes that took place coming out of the Great Depression".

"Therefore, it seems unlikely that US income concentration will fall much in the coming years."

ajedigecko

I stopped my American Nightmare.
I live below my means.

aerial

Berkeley, Harvard, Brown not trusting much of anything that comes from these places....

brianlux

ajedigecko wrote:

I stopped my American Nightmare.
I live below my means.

Yeah, I get that.

Change will not come fast or easy. It's not a bad idea to learn how to make do. I suppose it's possible to be poor and happy I have to say I was less happy when I lived in my vehicle and though I'm still not rich, I've learned to do well with what I have. It takes a lot of work to get there though- shopping carefully, buying only what you need or what is important, buying durable rather than shoddy even if it costs more in the short run (but most often saves $ in the long run), budgeting carefully, etc. But these kinds of things are not often taught in school or most homes. My niece posted a picture of a t-shirt recently that says on it:

"THINGS I NEVER LEARNED IN HIGH SCHOOL:

-How to do taxes
-What taxes are
-How to vote
-Anything to do with banking
-How to buy a car or house

BUT I'M SO GLAD I KNOW THE FUCKING PYTHAGOREAN THEOREM"

yosi

I don't think income inequality is the problem. The problem is lack of upward mobility/economic opportunity. I was speaking recently with a political science professor at Columbia who put it to me like this: if you're a poor person would you rather live in New York or Detroit? Pretty clearly the answer is New York even though there's way less income inequality in Detroit. The fact that a minority is vastly more wealthy than everyone else is only a problem if those in the less well-off majority are unable to improve their economic position.

Moonpig

aerial wrote:

Berkeley, Harvard, Brown not trusting much of anything that comes from these places....

Lol, there's a shock.

polaris_x

yosi wrote:

I don't think income inequality is the problem. The problem is lack of upward mobility/economic opportunity. I was speaking recently with a political science professor at Columbia who put it to me like this: if you're a poor person would you rather live in New York or Detroit? Pretty clearly the answer is New York even though there's way less income inequality in Detroit. The fact that a minority is vastly more wealthy than everyone else is only a problem if those in the less well-off majority are unable to improve their economic position.

income inequality is the symptom not the problem ... the problem is a system that facilitates this ... assuming one thinks it is a problem of which i do ...