General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region Forums'We were shocked': RAND study uncovers massive income shift to the top 1%
The median worker should be making as much as $102,000 annuallyif some $2.5 trillion wasnt being reverse distributed every year away from the working class.
Just how far has the working class been left behind by the winner-take-all economy? A new analysis by the RAND Corporation examines what rising inequality has cost Americans in lost incomeand the results are stunning.
A full-time worker whose taxable income is at the medianwith half the population making more and half making lessnow pulls in about $50,000 a year. Yet had the fruits of the nations economic output been shared over the past 45 years as broadly as they were from the end of World War II until the early 1970s, that worker would instead be making $92,000 to $102,000. (The exact figures vary slightly depending on how inflation is calculated.)
The findings, which land amid a global pandemic, help to illuminate the paradoxes of an economy in which so-called essential workers are struggling to make ends meet while the rich keep getting richer.
We were shocked by the numbers, says Nick Hanauer, a venture capitalist who came up with the idea for the research along with David Rolf, founder of Local 775 of the Service Employees International Union and president of the Fair Work Center in Seattle. It explains almost everything. It explains why people are so pissed off. It explains why they are so economically precarious.
https://www.fastcompany.com/90550015/we-were-shocked-rand-study-uncovers-massive-income-shift-to-the-top-1?
Demovictory9
(32,423 posts)Guy Whitey Corngood
(26,497 posts).
erronis
(15,185 posts)Usually they just publish a whole lot of dense papers that some DoD type can use to justify another way to kill or spend money.
Too bad these think-tanks siphon off some good talent with mega-salaries and reward them with publishing contracted pieces.
In my limited history and knowledge, this has been happening since the 1930s. But it probably happened since the apes started writing on clay/papyrus.
Solly Mack
(90,758 posts)lagomorph777
(30,613 posts)Solly Mack
(90,758 posts)Kid Berwyn
(14,808 posts)Blue_true
(31,261 posts)the decline of the American auto and steel industries.
Sherman A1
(38,958 posts)Hit the nail on the head.
Kid Berwyn
(14,808 posts)Cutting federal corporate profits tax from 48% to 32%. Similar story for wealthy individuals, who saw top rates go from (from memory) 70% to 28% and capital gains on stock transactions go from 50% to 28%.
And Uncle Sam started spending on the military like crazy. So, the rich got richer. And the conservatives ever since have claimEd theres no money for schools, hospitals, jobs, housing and everything else in a civilized society.
Details on how Red Ink Ronnie killed the Middle Class:
https://www.salon.com/2014/04/19/reaganomics_killed_americas_middle_class_partner/
Warpy
(111,175 posts)reducing the top marginal rate from 90% to 70%. That top rate was there to prevent the rapid growth of plutocracy.
The Rand report put a dollar figure on it: $42,000 a year for the average worker. That's what having a plutocracy has cost each and every one of us. Think about what you could have done over the last couple of years with that 807.69 per week. Upi cpi;d jave afforded health insurance not tied to a job you hate, your kids could have gone to college without debt, you might even have been able to save for retirement.
That's what conservatives in both parties have cost us. Never forget it. Never.
Blue_true
(31,261 posts)could capture more of a companys earnings cash flow for their own pockets. The outcome was lack of investment in innovation, workers and manufacturing plants, setting the stage for the industrial core rot to start in the 69-70 time period. Reagan just stomped on the knife that had already been inserted into the body of American society.
Warpy
(111,175 posts)That 90% top marginal rate had done a lot of stifle naked greed in the executive suites. Back then the game was having the corporation buy the Lear jets, the vacation properties, hire the chefs for the executive dining facilities, and letting the greedheads have their perks that way. Lowering the marginal rate meant they could go for the money without shoving themselves into a confiiscatory tax bracket.
It started the ball rolling on the Gilded Age we have now.
Wellstone ruled
(34,661 posts)I Q above room Temp figured this out a long time ago.
Sherman A1
(38,958 posts)As we know there are many who do not pay attention and struggle everyday unaware of the reasons behind their plight. I believe that anything that helps explain the reasoning behind what is going on to be helpful.
smirkymonkey
(63,221 posts)LonePirate
(13,409 posts)Chief among them is the carried interest loophole and the deferred compensation/stock options income for corporate executives. Put Warren or Sanders in charge of federal tax law and well soon see changes.
irisblue
(32,933 posts)DanieRains
(4,619 posts)And carbon while yer at it.
DanieRains
(4,619 posts)In case you didn't know it.
LakeArenal
(28,806 posts)catrose
(5,061 posts)It explains almost everything. It explains why people are so pissed off. It explains why they are so economically precarious.
YA THINK?
edhopper
(33,491 posts)to find gambling in Casablanca.
Wounded Bear
(58,605 posts)hoover shitloads of cash upwards to the 1%.
FakeNoose
(32,599 posts)japple
(9,809 posts)And you're right. It is doing what it was designed to do.
miyazaki
(2,239 posts)Yavin4
(35,423 posts)JHB
(37,157 posts)NRaleighLiberal
(60,009 posts)TygrBright
(20,755 posts)BeckyDem
(8,361 posts)The entire GOP must be replaced and Citizens United overturned.
zentrum
(9,865 posts)..that gambling has been going on in this establishment."
Evolve Dammit
(16,702 posts)iluvtennis
(19,836 posts)1968 minimum wage: $1.65
2020 minimum wage: $10.30
liberalla
(9,227 posts)I never heard it stated that way before... stunning.
Y E A R L Y !
pecosbob
(7,533 posts)Semi-skilled wages in this country are the same as they were in 1980. Trickle down was actually vacuum up.
Dr. T
(97 posts)is about to become very real for these snobby f**kers when nobody can afford to buy the things that the workers produce. Much as I hate Henry Ford, the idea that the people who produce the products should be able to buy the products needs to make a return to the corporate boardrooms.
Boomerproud
(7,943 posts)Never mind. I know the answer.
aggiesal
(8,907 posts)So I was making $27,000 in 1984
If he's right, then a college graduate in ...
1999 = $54,000
2014 = $108,000
2020 = $151,200
Imagine a college graduate with a Bachelors Degree making $151,200
at their first job in 2020.
paulkienitz
(1,296 posts)TheDemsshouldhireme
(172 posts)covering this story? Seems like a huge story.
Sherman A1
(38,958 posts)but, I watch very little TV.
johnnyfins
(812 posts)Greedy Motherfuckers
Beartracks
(12,801 posts)And Democrats didn't do it. But progressive policies and priorities could have prevented it.
========
Aussie105
(5,334 posts). . . . then Unionism was given a bad name.
Sherman A1
(38,958 posts)Grins
(7,199 posts)All true, but there is more. This clip was sent to me in 2007 from a friend. I was busy, saw it was an hour long clip, decided that was too much time, so I would watch the first 10-minutes and then move on to other things.
After 10-minutes it was so damn good I gave it another 10-minutes. Then another. And another. Watched the whole damn thing! Absolutely fascinating.
At the time I did not know of the speaker, but I never forgot her after this clip.
Sherman A1
(38,958 posts)A good one to listen to. Thanks for passing this along.