Ever since the Reagan Revolution, the 1% have gotten richer and richer at the expense of everyone else, especially the poor. New data show that the disparity is actually worse than previously thought. In spite of this, the only thing that has changed about Republican policy is that it has become even more draconian in its design to strip the 99% of wealth and drive us deeper and deeper into debt.
Income inequality surged onto the national political radar in 2011, as the 99 Percent Movement focused America on the fact that while the richest Americans’ incomes were skyrocketing, wages remained relatively stagnant for the lower and middle classes. American income inequality is now worse than it is in countries like Ivory Coast and Pakistan, and it may be even worse than it was in Ancient Rome.
That inequality has crushed the middle class and has perilous consequences for the American economy. It is also contributing to another problem: rising debt inequality. As income inequality has risen, the bottom 95 percent of Americans have fallen deeper into debt over the last three decades, according to a new report from the International Monetary Fund. The top five percent, meanwhile, have seen their personal debt reduced, CNN Money reports:
In 1983, the bottom 95% had 62 cents of debt for every dollar they earned, according to research by two International Monetary Fund economists. But by 2007, the ratio had soared to $1.48 of debt for every $1 in earnings.
The bottom 95% had incomes of roughly $160,000 or less in 2007, including capital gains.
And then there’s the top 5%. Their debt-to-income level actually fell during the same period, from 76 cents of debt for every dollar earned in 1983, to just 64 cents in 2007.
… [emphasis original]
Inserted from <Think Progress>
The article covers the effects well, but does not focus on causes or future expectations. For that, Rachel Maddow and Paul Krugman discuss income inequality and the Republican effort to increase it.
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The bottom line here is simple. Every penny Democrats spend to benefit the nation is a penny Republicans cannot give to a billionaire. Therefore, every Republican in office is one Republican too many!
8 Responses to “Income Inequality IS the GOP Plan”
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I watch Rachel Maddow everynight as I watched this video last night… She speaks for me….
Quite understandable.
Ialso watched last night and that graph you have displayed here was mind boggling. I didn’t realize there was such a pattern to the income divide.
So it seems as though the poor often vote in their worst interests. It must be the fear mongering the RepublicanTs are so good at.
That’s exactly it Patty. If the only people who voted for them were the ones they actually represent, they would have 10% max.
Paul Krugman — “Reverse the terrible things we have been doing these past 3 years …[Krugman talked about all the layoffs of teachers, firefighters, government employees etc] … right now is the time to be spending on useful stuff. It’s easy. We could do this if we had the political will and the intellectual clarity … 18 months from now we could be very solidly on the road to recovery.”
Very interesting graph from Rachel Maddow about the relationship between income inequality and the political polarisation or the lack of political will to deal with it. It seems that “income inequality creates its own political lever” which means that certain politicians, or perhaps all politicians to various degrees, are hard at it doing nothing as a way to protect the 1%. The Republican/Teabaggers have made this into an art form, bad art, but art form nonetheless.
“American income inequality is now worse than it is in countries like Ivory Coast and Pakistan, and it may be even worse than it was in Ancient Rome.” — Well we all know what happened to Ancient Rome — it rotted and decayed from the inside out, collapsing as a result of its own excesses.
The first step to correcting this situation is to vote every Republican/Teabagger out of office starting in 2012! Some go then, and the rest in 2014. It also means that the state governments have to be changed too if everyone is to do better.
Why go back to the 15th century socially and economically with the regressive Republican/Teabaggers when you can move forward with the progressive Democrats? This also means taking an active part in how the government works.
I find it interesting reading various posts that Americans like their freedom. But with freedom comes responsibility and that is the part where people fall down. People in general do not take seriously their own role in government — that of listening, questioning, suggesting, holding political feet to the fire. They go about their business until election time and then bitch and whine! Well get involved! Vote Democrat 2012!!! Vote Obama/Biden 2012!!! … and hold your Representative’s and Senator’s feet to the fire!
Lynn, if 50% of US voters knew 10% of what you do, this country would be better off.
It amazes me that so many in the lower and middle class continue to vote Republican and believe everything they hear on Fox news. The 8 years W was in office should have shown everyone how much inequality there is in this country.
Edie, I agree. Please see my reply to Patty.