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Originally Posted by Rochard
What the fuck kind of bullshit you ram down our throats? You say nearly all income growth has gone to the top 1%, but from the same exact page you linked to it says...
So, um, pretty much everyone grew, including the bottom twenty percent?
There is nothing that I hate more than people who take stats and twist them into their version of the truth.
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I'm getting ready to take the kids out for Halloween so I can't write you a damn novel to help you understand this. I am going to say this though.
First of all, we are SUPPOSED to see increases in income as the economy grows. It's built into the system. If it weren't the average American couldn't afford to eat thanks to inflation.
And yes, I said nearly all income growth has gone to the top 1% and I meant it. What seems to have thrown you off is that they used this in % form and not actual dollars.
If someone was making $10,000,000 per year in 1970 and kept pace with the others in their bracket they would be making $37,500,000 in 2007.
A person making $12,000 in 1970 (bottom 20%) and saw an 18% increase in earnings by 2007 they would be making $14,160 per year by 2007. Do you have any idea how many variables go into that increase? For instance, how many times was minimum wage increased in the last 27 years?
You can't compare gaining 18% of your pissy ass check to someone making 275% more of the millions they already make. The amount of dollars difference is infinitely more.
I posted a chart to a % of income overall. If it had stayed on the same track from previous decades the average household income would look like this.
And what's even worse is the fact that real wages and salaries have actually decreased over the last few years.
http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/20...le-recovery/#h[]
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According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, average real hourly earnings for all employees actually declined by 1.1 percent from June 2009, when the recovery began, to May 2011, the month for which the most recent earnings numbers are available.
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And more about income growth going to the rich.
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In their newly released study, the Northeastern economists found that since the recovery began in June 2009 following a deep 18-month recession, ?corporate profits captured 88 percent of the growth in real national income while aggregate wages and salaries accounted for only slightly more than 1 percent? of that growth.
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You can argue and fight and accuse me of twisting numbers that you don't understand but it is clear and UNDISPUTED that the middle class and poor are taking an ass whooping and have been for some time. The rich are doing just fine, thriving in fact. If something doesn't change soon it is going to be devastating to the United States and could get to the point that it would be decades before you are able to do simple shit like hop online and charge people for porn subscriptions. They just won't have the money.