Great Gains for the Rich -- by Thomas Riggins

by: Thursday 24 September 2015

tags: , ,

The Rich get Richer, naturally.

According to the Economic Policy Institute, as reported by the Debs Foundation Newsletter (Fall 2015), the following figures represent  the real increase in income of the various levels of the U.S. population over the last 30 years: both Democrats and Republicans have controlled the government during this period.

The top 1% saw an increase of 153.6%

The next level, the 95 to 99% increased their income by 61.6%

Then the 90 through 94% went up 39.2%

That takes care of the top 90%. The super winners were the top 1%.

Now for the rest of us -- the bottom 90%: how much trickled down to us?

We got a wopping 17.2% increase in real income over the last 30 years no matter who was running the country. Is there any reason to think this disparity will be any less (or maybe more) over the next 30 years?

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  • Brother Riggins, there is indeed reason to think it will be maybe more, especially for the bottom(say the bottom 10% of the 90%).
    Exploitation is a dynamic process, and the more the super-rich takes, the more the super-poor gives in that exploitation, the more negatively violent the ripples through the whole gamut of the working class.
    Babies die(but we won't hear the right anti-abortionists complain about this exploitation and death), schools, hospitals, libraries, clinics, churches, mosques, synagogues, recreation centers, gyms, playgrounds and parks close, along with all government service centers, as the support systems of the great mass of peoples and workers die; disproportionately-especially those of color in our massive metropolitan areas do so.
    The great mass of peoples need jobs, income, peace and power to organize resources for people's benefit as one. In order to meet this need, the great transportation outlays, the concentrated finance power of the big banks-need not to be in the hands of the few-but in the hands of the many- the capacity to increase communications 10 fold in 1 quarter of a year for an entire region realized-a capacity now only hinted at in the working class struggling to pay for individual I-phones-the hardware and the monthly bill. With the international financial power to borrow against this great mass of property owned by the public and not private banking, could go without repaying borrowed capital for 6 generations-these are modest guesses at the possibilities, should the peoples own the amassed resources which have been forcibly channeled into private hands for at least two hundred of years.
    We need to change our system from one which fountains resources and profit up, to a watershed which channels resources down, so the great mass of peoples can grow, earn, learn, and live in prosperity and peace, in socialism and suffrage on this earth, in this United States of America, in the next couple of 30 years.
    This possibility is very real, and very different from capitalist, Nixon and Reagan trickle down from capitalist war theoretic lies, this application will transform disparity to prosperity for our peoples.

    Posted by E.E.W. Clay, 09/30/2015 10:49am (9 years ago)

  • Tom
    Assuming capitalism lasts another thirty years and fails to find another planet to exploit(preferably with some humanoid group to "employ" below galactic minimum wages, the answer is no, no, no. But cheer up, Tom, capitalism may be abolished in a great peoples revolution and then everything would change, starting with the production of goods and services for use and need. Or the capitalists may launch a nuclear war and there will be few around to care about real wages
    Norman

    Posted by Norman Markowitz, 09/25/2015 4:28pm (9 years ago)

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