Increasingly, we are seeing the privatization of profits and at the same time the socialization of losses, i.e. business profits
go into private pockets while the losses are borne by taxpayers. The most recent example is the 2007 recession where taxpayer
money bailed out the nation's biggest banks, insurance agencies, and General Motors. The executive boni from the preceding years,
however, stayed in private pockets. The result is a gradual shift in income from low and middle income earners to the top
percent on the income scale.
Read
about a recent example in the U.S. heartland.
In the News
7 November 2010:
The newest on rising income and wealth inequality in the U.S.:
- The richest 1 percent of Americans earn almost 24 percent of the nations income (up from almost 9 percent in 1976).
- The largest U.S. companies' CEOs' incomes:
- 1980: 42 times as much as the average worker.
- 2001: 531 times as much as the average worker
- From 1980 to 2005, more than80 percent of the total increase in U.S. incomes went to the richest 1 percent.
- Proposed tax cuts for the richest .1 percent of Americans:
- Under President Obama $61,000.
- Under a Republican proposal: $370,000.
Source: Nicholas D. Kristoph, New York Times.
30 October 2009: Financial industry profits averaged 1.2 percent of G.D.P. before 1988, but peaked at 3.3 percent in
2005.
Read the full story.
16 September 2009: More on poverty: Median household income fell in 2008 to $50,300 from 52,200 in 2007. Meanwhile,
from 2002 to 2007 the top 1 percent of households (those making more than $400,000 a year) received two-thirds of the nation's total
income gains.
Read the full story.
11 September 2009: 13 out 100 Americans live below the poverty level.
This is the highest poverty rate in 12 years. Read the full story.
