The rich get richer; the poor get poorer. What is your opinion on these statistics?
ByTaken from the article:
http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/30-statistics-that-prove-the-elite-are-getting-richer-the-poor-are-getting-poorer-and-the-middle-class-is-being-destroyed
The Rich Are Getting Richer
1 – As of 2007, the top 1 percent of all Americans was taking home 24 percent of the national income. This was a level that had not been seen since the days of the Great Depression.
2 – Incomes have been growing in the United States, but those at the very top of the pyramid have been gobbling up almost all of the income growth. According to Harvard Magazine, 66% of the income growth between 2001 and 2007 went to the top 1% of all Americans.
3 – Even official government figures bear out the fact that the rich are getting richer. An analysis of income-tax data by the Congressional Budget Office a few years ago found that the top 1% of all American households own nearly twice as much of the corporate wealth as they did just 15 years ago.
4- Most Americans have suffered during the last few years, but not the boys and girls down on Wall Street. New York state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli says that Wall Street bonuses for 2009 were up 17 percent when compared with 2008.
5 – Even as the number of Americans living in poverty skyrockets, the number of millionaires just keeps growing. In fact, the number of millionaires in the United States rose a whopping 16 percent to 7.8 million during 2009.
6 – The amount of money some of these Wall Street hotshots are making is incredible. Back in 2005, the top 25 hedge fund managers earned a total of 9 billion dollars. That would be bad enough, but even in these hard economic times the rich just keep getting richer. One year after the recent financial collapse the top 25 hedge fund managers earned a total of approximately $25 billion. That breaks down to an average of $1 billion each. The truth is that the United States has been experiencing uneven prosperity for quite some time and things just seem to get worse with each passing year.
The Poor Are Getting Poorer
7 – Government anti-poverty programs are exploding in size in response to the recent economic difficulties. USA Today is reporting that a record one in six Americans are now being served by at least one government anti-poverty program.
8 – Over 50 million Americans are on now Medicaid. That figure is up more than 17 percent since the beginning of the recession.
9 – The number of Americans in the food stamp program rose to a new all-time record of 40.8 million in May. That number is up almost 50 percent since the beginning of the recession.
10 – The number of Americans who cannot afford even the basic necessities is absolutely staggering. A whopping 50 million Americans could not afford to buy enough food in order to stay healthy at some point over the last year.
11 – Compared to other industrialized nations, the United States is doing very poorly. The U.S. poverty rate is now the third worst among the developed nations tracked by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.
12 – The saddest part of this is what we are doing to our children. According to one recent study, approximately 21 percent of all children in the United States are living below the poverty line in 2010.
13 – But the American people cannot provide for their families if they don’t have jobs. Today there are not nearly enough jobs for everyone. In 2010, it takes the average unemployed American worker over 8 months to find a job.
14 – Approximately 10 million Americans are currently receiving unemployment insurance, which is a number that is nearly four times higher than what it was at back in 2007.
15 – The truth is that we are creating a permanent underclass of Americans that cannot get jobs. The number of Americans receiving long-term unemployment benefits has increased over 60 percent in just the past year.
16 – Increasingly, the wealth of the United States is being held in fewer and fewer hands. One study found that as of 2007, the bottom 80 percent of American households held about 7% of the liquid financial assets.
17 – It is not a good time to be living in "the bottom half" in America. The size of "the pie" being divided up among those at the low end of the wage scale is becoming really, really small. In fact, the bottom 40 percent of all income earners in the United States now collectively own less than 1 percent of the nation’s wealth.
All opinions welcomed.
@Jimmuh: Good point, assuming of course that everyone starts out exactly equal.
The rich make mistakes just like the poor, but until the Federal Government quits supporting poorly managed businesses with our tax dollars and keeping the rich going the poor will never have a chance to get ahead. When the poor get into trouble all they get from the Feds is some money to put food on the table. The big boys from AIG, Citi bank and GM would be out on the street now if it were not for the helpful Feds. Until we let Capitalism have it’s natural checks and balances the poor will not have a chance.
10 Comments
September 29th, 2010 at 5:35 am
That just means the rich are getting ahead in life and the poor are getting lazier.
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PATRIOTIC CHRIST AMERICA
September 29th, 2010 at 5:57 am
This will lead to a revolution.
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September 29th, 2010 at 6:47 am
No, no, wait! It’s going to trickle down any second now, Reagan promised! haha
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September 29th, 2010 at 7:00 am
We should take a lesson from science. We should use the idea of convection. Money should be taken from the top to educate and prepare the bottom to move from poverty to middle class.
This will create a healthier and more sustainable society. The way things are headed right now with the rich getting richer is not sustainable. The poor will riot and not work to make the ultra rich continue to be rich
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September 29th, 2010 at 7:38 am
The rich make mistakes just like the poor, but until the Federal Government quits supporting poorly managed businesses with our tax dollars and keeping the rich going the poor will never have a chance to get ahead. When the poor get into trouble all they get from the Feds is some money to put food on the table. The big boys from AIG, Citi bank and GM would be out on the street now if it were not for the helpful Feds. Until we let Capitalism have it’s natural checks and balances the poor will not have a chance.
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September 29th, 2010 at 8:08 am
That’s Reaganomics for ya. Ruined things for a long time.
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September 29th, 2010 at 8:42 am
That phrase is just NOISE
Here’s the truth…. The Rich get richer and the poor stay just as poor as they always were!… and there’s NOTHING wrong with that.
Example… 2 guys get a job on the same day. 1 starts to contribute to his company’s 401K plan, the other guy doesn’t. For a few years, the 2 stay pretty similar in net worth. After 15 years, the guy in the 401K plan sees his wealth growing exponentially while his friend STAYS where he was.
Is the investor "rich"? Has he done anything "wrong", or was he simply smart enough to take some personal accountability to recognize the way "things" work when you want to better yourself.
Anyone using that "rich get richer, poor get poorer" line should just be quiet. They’re only proving how juvenile they are.
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September 29th, 2010 at 8:47 am
The rich are rich for a reason. They know when to save their money and know how to work hard for what they want, they have a lot of drive. People that are poor use the "excuse" path and have a hard time finding the drive they need to pull themselves out of the hole.
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September 29th, 2010 at 9:11 am
propaganda
catchy hype
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September 29th, 2010 at 9:23 am
Stats mean nothing without context.
How did someone become rich? How did someone become poor? All things equal, if someone becomes rich because of their own hard work, who are we to judge them? And if someone is poor because they made terrible life choices, why lift them up as saints?
Personal accountability for our own life is so important and if people don’t take responsibility to make themselves employable, they have nobody to blame but themselves.
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