Morning Joe
Love ‘em or hate ‘em, the Occupiers succeeded in creating a national dialogue on the haves and the have-nots in this country—or the 99% vs. the 1%.
The Nobel Prize winning economist Joseph Stiglitz explained today on Morning Joe how income inequality in the United States continues to grow unabated. (Video after the jump.) Here are a few of the depressing statistics he shared.
- The share of income going to the top 1% is twice as much as it was 30 years ago
- Incomes adjusted for inflation are lower than they were in 1997
- The median income of a full-time male worker is lower today than it was in 1968—almost a half century ago
“The United States now is the most unequal of all advanced industrialized countries,” he said. “Even more disturbing is we think of ourselves as the land of opportunity…but in terms of statistics – what are the chances, the likelihood of somebody at the bottom making it to the middle or the top?—we are the worst of any of the advanced industrial countries.”
Stiglitz, author of The Price of Inequality and Columbia University professor, noted there’s not “a single cause” for America’s troubling income divide, but he did cite predatory practices in the financial sector, outsized CEO pay packages, as well as some government policies, such as a lack of negotiation on drug prices.
“At the heart of this is inevitably politics,” Stiglitz added. “The problem is that our system has been shifting from what you might call one person, one vote, more to a system that is like one dollar, one vote. One of the fundamental things that we have to deal with is the political reality. There’s a vicious circle going on. As our economic inequality gets larger, those at the top have more political influence, they get to shape the politics.”
Stiglitz suggested there were two possible ways to break the cycle: (1) The people at the top begin to realize “we’re all in the same boat,” which leads to infrastructure, education, and technology investment. (2) The average American begins to understand they’ve “been sold a bill of goods”—of bad ideas.
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Probably shouldn't hold our breaths waiting for the first option of the 1% figuring we're all in the same boat.
What cracks me up in all this are the conservative poor/ middle class still waiting for the wealth to trickle down :D
Mika - you go girl. Sen. McCaskill, take it away. We all know what the people who are sabotaging you want: total control of the US economy. YOU CAN DO IT!
Republicans just hate it when we expose their continuing efforts to increase their already insanely rising wealth. It's only class warfare (according to them) when their successful attack on the working people is exposed.
GO WISCONSIN!
Shared on my photo blog from the heart of it all.
Porches of Dayton: Americana in the Midwest
americanadyt.blogspot.com/
As a relative have not, as someone who has fairly well eluded creative success to this point in life, let me just say that we, the have nots, are wising up to the big picture. We see the clearer contrasts that have been so successfully etched into the granite of American history. We understand the government, corporate, Wall Street, corporate media paradigm to a greater extent now. We know that the game is rigged from the top down. We even know that the few folks who point out that the system is rigged are most likely part of the system. We know that the folks at the top don't posess adequate magnifying lenses to even see the folks at the bottom of the pyramid beyone a faint blur. We know that we are part of the great exploited mass of humanity that the folks at the top of the pyramid lose sight of. We know that the greater American paradigm is that the folks at the top always take advantage of the folks at the bottom of the pyramid. It's the American way. The folks at the top of the pyramid are sky people. The folks at the bottom are ants.
NATURE’S BASIC LAW OF ECONOMICS STATES:
Posted on June 7, 2012 by jcarroll
There are only two kinds of resources: people and natural. All goods and services flow from the action of people resources on natural resources. Money is the medium of exchange of which there should always be a balanced supply. Article 1, Section 8, of the Constitution gives Congress three means to raise money: taxation, borrowing money and most important the right to coin and print money.
The question that should always be asked: what is it that needs to be done? If there are people resources and natural resource available, there is no excuse for not getting the job done. The lack of money is not a valid excuse.
To compare the National Debt to that of and individual is unjust. To have a National Debt in the first place is based on ignorance. The framers of the Constitution were not that stupid. They knew there should always be an adequate money supply, and they provided three ways in the Constitution.
The economic assets of America consists of more than one year of GDP or GNP. The economics assets of America are more like 213 trillion dollars. Multiply 14.6 times 14.6 that will give you a more accurate number of the economic assets of America. The total assets of the Federal Government is a quadrillion dollars. The deficit is a National Joke of small minded people.
Congress needs to be educated. They need to go to the Internet Free Press.
PEOPLE POWER PRICE CONTROL WILL BRING DOWN THE PRICE OF GASOLINE, FOOD AND BANK CREDIT CARD INTEREST. WE WILL TARGET THESE COLLECTIVE MONOPOLIES ONE AT A TIME. WE WILL TARGET EXXON MOBILE, WALMART SUPERMARKETS, AND BANK OF AMERICA. WE WILL SEND THE REST A MESSAGE. TARGETS: GASOLINE BELOW $3.00 PER GALLON, FOOD PRICES ON INDIVIDUAL ITEMS NOT TO EXCEED THREE PERCENT OVER LAST YEAR PRICES, AND BANK CREDIT CARDS NOT TO EXCEED 10 PERCENT. WE HAVE THE POWER. IT’S SO EASY. IT TAKES NO EFFORT. PEOPLE POWER PRICE CONTROL. THINK ABOUT IT.
Republicans say,”let the market control price.” The consumers are the market. People Power Price Control will show republicans how the market works. We will teach them not to devalue our money with a price marker, and then call it inflation- which is an euphemism for theft.