Are Widening Income Gaps a Problem in this Country?

code1211 said:

And yet there are more people making more money and living better right now both in this country and in the world than at any point in the history of civilization.

Are you asserting that greater wealth held by more and more people in all societies is bad because there are some who are even richer?

By simple observation, it is evident that my earning power is vastly improved over the earning power of a similarly unremarkable schmuck of the late 1900's.

Again, how is my earning power affected in any way by the income of the folks in the 1%.

Hint: It's okay to say that my earning power is enhanced by the income of the folks in the 1%.

The GDP of the world calculated in current dollars has increased by about 7700% since 1900. The world population has increased by only about 445% The global economic pie is constantly expanding and the reason is the top 1%.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gross_world_product

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_population

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Now do that same comparison from just one generation back, not over 100 years ago.

Compare, say, the 50s or 60 s to now.

code1211 said:

How is my earning power affected in any way by the income of the folks in the 1%?

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The 1% set the rules by which you work and they decide what your work is worth; that's how.

KevinKohler said:

Now do that same comparison from just one generation back, not over 100 years ago.

Compare, say, the 50s or 60 s to now.

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1950 compared to most recent:

World GDP is now 1907% of that in 1950.

World population is now 291% of that in 1950.

It doesn't really matter what years you take. The world GDP is growing faster than the world population.

Today's population compared to 2015 population: 106%

Today's GDP compared to 2014 GDP: 125%. (Sorry, the years don't line up on the most recent. One year of GDP growth, 2015, is omitted so the growth of the disparity is even more than shown which already defined an increasing pie for each person to get their slice.)

Your belief is not supported by the real world data.

jet57 said:

The 1% set the rules by which you work and they decide what your work is worth; that's how.

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The Antebellum South just called: they want their employment arrangements back.

In the world that I live in, 2017 USA, the employment contract is agreed to between the employer and the employee.

No chains and no locks on the cubicles. If I or anyone else wants to leave, we do so.

Perhaps you should investigate this option if you are as dissatisfied in your occupation as your posts indicate you to be.

It really requires nothing from you to quit beyond just quitting.

Starting your own business, hocking everything you have to start it up and hiring potential embezzlers and thieves to work for you requires courage, optimism and commitment.

Starting up your own business is also an option for you.

code1211 said:

The Antebellum South just called: they want their employment arrangements back.

In the world that I live in, 2017 USA, the employment contract is agreed to between the employer and the employee.

No chains and no locks on the cubicles. If I or anyone else wants to leave, we do so.

Perhaps you should investigate this option if you are as dissatisfied in your occupation as your posts indicate you to be.

It really requires nothing from you to quit beyond just quitting.

Starting your own business, hocking everything you have to start it up and hiring potential embezzlers and thieves to work for you requires courage, optimism and commitment.

Starting up your own business is also an option for you.

Click to expand...

Your abrasive suggestion may not be feasible. Many people in the US cannot just "change" jobs. Families, relocations, or whatever the reason. Also, over 51% of Americans work for large enterprises (defined as over 500 employees), and 14% work for medium (100-499). That's almost 65% of Americans, and that number has been on the rise.

code1211 said:

And yet there are more people making more money and living better right now both in this country and in the world than at any point in the history of civilization.

Are you asserting that greater wealth held by more and more people in all societies is bad because there are some who are even richer?

By simple observation, it is evident that my earning power is vastly improved over the earning power of a similarly unremarkable schmuck of the late 1900's.

Again, how is my earning power affected in any way by the income of the folks in the 1%.

Hint: It's okay to say that my earning power is enhanced by the income of the folks in the 1%.

The GDP of the world calculated in current dollars has increased by about 7700% since 1900. The world population has increased by only about 445% The global economic pie is constantly expanding and the reason is the top 1%.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gross_world_product

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_population

Click to expand...

I totally disagree with your first sentence, regarding the US, and the experts concur:

https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/st...ality-increasingly-its-the-rich-and-the-rest/

“When you look at the data, it’s sobering. Median household income when last reported in 2013 was at a level first attained in 1989, adjusting for inflation. That’s a long time to go without any gains,” said Jan Rivkin, the Bruce V. Rauner Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School (HBS).

Media_Truth said:

Your abrasive suggestion may not be feasible. Many people in the US cannot just "change" jobs. Families, relocations, or whatever the reason. Also, over 51% of Americans work for large enterprises (defined as over 500 employees), and 14% work for medium (100-499). That's almost 65% of Americans, and that number has been on the rise.

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Cannot? that's a pretty strong statement. Are they somehow prohibited or are they simply conducting a cost benefit study in their own situation?

I am not saying that people change a job willy nilly for no reason. I am only saying that the possibility exists. The possibility grows when the income or other features of a different job are significantly better than their current job.

When enough people exit any company, that company will need to replace them. The new guys may come in at a higher rate of pay. This recently happened where I work.

We are currently in a better and improving economy. This is the time to "test the waters" if you have any sense that you may want to or need to leave in the near future.

Even if the job search bears no fruit, the word may leak out that you're looking and the boss might preemptively start dealing to keep you.

On a different topic it was written: "Love knows not its own depth until the our of separation". Your boss may discover value for you that he just never thought about before you decided to leave.

Media_Truth said:

I totally disagree with your first sentence, regarding the US, and the experts concur:

https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/st...ality-increasingly-its-the-rich-and-the-rest/

“When you look at the data, it’s sobering. Median household income when last reported in 2013 was at a level first attained in 1989, adjusting for inflation. That’s a long time to go without any gains,” said Jan Rivkin, the Bruce V. Rauner Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School (HBS).

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Are you saying it reached a peak in 1989 and then has stayed there?

The chart in this link says otherwise.

That aside, though, there are more people with more wealth alive today than at any other time in history.

The folks who left Europe in the 1700's and 1800's and came to the USA and eventually moved to the Great Plains lived in holes in the prairie until they were able to build something in the following Spring.

They did not leave Europe and then the East Coast because those had great situations for them. They were starving, victimized, wretches of poverty.

Today, even in "uncertain" times, there were no places or times that I'd rather be. I'm just an average schlub who really has lived a pretty good life in great comfort compared to the rest of history.

How about you? What time and place would like to be reincarnated into?

https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/MEHOINUSA672N

code1211 said:

Are you saying it reached a peak in 1989 and then has stayed there?

The chart in this link says otherwise.

That aside, though, there are more people with more wealth alive today than at any other time in history.

The folks who left Europe in the 1700's and 1800's and came to the USA and eventually moved to the Great Plains lived in holes in the prairie until they were able to build something in the following Spring.

They did not leave Europe and then the East Coast because those had great situations for them. They were starving, victimized, wretches of poverty.

Today, even in "uncertain" times, there were no places or times that I'd rather be. I'm just an average schlub who really has lived a pretty good life in great comfort compared to the rest of history.

How about you? What time and place would like to be reincarnated into?

https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/MEHOINUSA672N

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I'm glad you're happy. I guess trickle-down suits you.

Media_Truth said:

I'm glad you're happy. I guess trickle-down suits you.

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It's the only way that I have access to the economy.

If you are not the employer, you are paid by someone else. I happen to be an employee. Trickle down is the only way the money gets to me.

Where does your money come from?

code1211 said:

It's the only way that I have access to the economy.

If you are not the employer, you are paid by someone else. I happen to be an employee. Trickle down is the only way the money gets to me.

Where does your money come from?

Click to expand...

Not necessarily. There are employers who do not gouge the wages, benefits and bonuses of their employees, so that they can achieve top 0.01% status. I have worked for such companies. These bosses understand that they are only as good as their employees, and although they make a little more than their employees, it's not in the ridiculous 100:1 or 1000:1 ratio. It's not called "trickle-down", it's called "flow-down".

I'm semi-retired, but still do a little contract work.

Media_Truth said:

Not necessarily. There are employers who do not gouge the wages, benefits and bonuses of their employees, so that they can achieve top 0.01% status. I have worked for such companies. These bosses understand that they are only as good as their employees, and although they make a little more than their employees, it's not in the ridiculous 100:1 or 1000:1 ratio. It's not called "trickle-down", it's called "flow-down".

I'm semi-retired, but still do a little contract work.

Click to expand...

Do you have a link to the term "flow-down" as it applies to your post?

Media_Truth said:

The spending of the power of the lower and middle class has been decreasing for almost 45 years. Is this a problem in the United States?

A study from the Pew Research Center in December showed that middle-class Americans are no longer in the majority. Whereas in 1971 middle class Americans totaled 80 million, and lower- and upper-income classes combined equated to 51.6 million, the 2015 data looks far different. As of last year, 120.8 million adults were in the middle class, but this figure now takes a back seat to the 121.3 million combined lower- and upper-income households. Aggregate wealth for middle-class households is also shrinking according to Pew's research, from 62% of all wealth in 1970 to just 43% as of 2014.

https://www.fool.com/investing/gene...every-middle-class-american-needs-to-see.aspx

The forefathers of our country warned about these inequities:

This view, what James Huston, now humorously, called. "The republican theory of wealth distribution" — would hold clear sway in America’s early years. A democratic republic, Americans agreed, must ever strive to avoid, in Thomas Jefferson’s phrase, the “numberless instances of wretchedness” that inevitably arise whenever some hold far more property than others. Jefferson did acknowledge, that a completely equal division of property would be “impracticable.” But he believed deeply that “enormous inequality” had left humankind with “much misery.” A republic, Jefferson would write, “cannot invent too many devices for subdividing property.”

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2011/04/23/969608/-Founding-Fathers-and-Wealth

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Are Widening Income Gaps a Problem in this Country?
Yes and no.

For the Socialists of America Partei (SAPs) it is another opportunity to inject their class warfare politics. To attempt to divide.

There will always be wealthy and poor, and many people will be both in their lives. The Pareto Principle will not be extinguished... but exacerbated by Socialist ideas... just look at the Commi's... they had everyone equally miserable... except the elite.

On the whole, it is not a problem, unless you try to correct it by punishing the wealthy... which hurts those at the bottom... 8-years of Obama proved what should be obvious.

As JFK said... a rising tide raises all boats. The goal should be to elevate all income levels by providing opportunity (lower taxes, fewer insane regulations) and let people chose their way. Some will chose the sofa and a 6-pack, while others will toil 80-hours a week in pursuit of prosperity.