the wealthy in the US now possess 40% of the entire wealth, and receive nearly 25% of the income. while the income levels of the wealthiest have gone up, the income of the middle class has remained the same and declined. for high school degree possessing men, income has fallen 12 percent in the last 25 years. there is thus a definite trend of wealth extraction from the middle and poor classes to be siphoned off by the wealthiest.
Explanations
Joseph Stiglitz (Nobel Prize laureate in economics; one of most well-known and well-published living economists)
Example. typical middle class young American: has degree, no job available, huge debt
Graphics
Colossal rise of bankers’ salaries:
Wall street bonuses
wealthy v. middle class income rise
Who saved on the Bush tax cuts?While the poor may have saved a few dozen dollars and the middle class a few hundred, the rich and ultrarich saved tens of thousands.
Your tax rate depends on where your money comes from When it comes to wealth, the middle class and poor work for their money; but the rich invest and get returns. But taxes on wages are higher under the Bush tax reforms than taxes on capital assets (stock trades, dividends, or real estate). So this giant loophole favors the wealthy by taxing these forms of wealth lower than regular wage earnings.
This chart compares the effective taxes paid by a janitor in NYC making 33k/year and an average Park Avenue tax filer, income 1.2 million/year.
Corporations pay less and less taxes, and keep the profits while the government runs out of money
Who gets all the money, or the trickle up theory
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