Tag Archives: Inequality

Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?

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People who didn’t like Margaret Thatcher at all have driven “Ding-Dong! The Witch Is Dead” to the top of the charts in Great Britain (the British can be rude to their politicians, and good for them!).

In addition to writing the lyrics to that one, as well as “Over the Rainbow” (the actual title), Yip Harburg, born Isidore Hochberg, also wrote the words to this terrific song about the Great Depression. The music was composed by Jay Gorney, based on a Russian lullaby.

Bing Crosby recorded the most famous version back in 1931. This one is by James Crowley and the Top Hat Orchestra. It was released in 2011, in the continuing aftermath of the Great Recession.

If anyone in Great Britain records a new version of “The Witch Is Dead”, this would make a great flip side, if we still had flip sides. 

What the 1% Want from Washington

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I don’t think I’ve ever heard of an opinion poll targeted at the rich. But two political science professors did a survey of people in the Chicago area with an average net worth of $14 million. Their research found that:

“The biggest concern of this top 1% of wealth-holders was curbing budget deficits and government spending. When surveyed, they ranked those things as priorities three times as often as they did unemployment — and far more often than any other issue…. They were also much less likely to favor raising taxes on high-income people, instead advocating that entitlement programs like Social Security and healthcare be cut to balance the budget.“

“The wealthy opposed — while most Americans favor — instituting a system of national health insurance, raising the minimum wage to above poverty levels, increasing the Earned Income Tax Credit and providing a ‘decent standard of living’ for the unemployed. They were also against the federal government helping with or providing jobs for those who cannot find private employment.”

Which explains why so many politicians talk about reducing the budget deficit instead of stimulating the economy and helping the unemployed and underemployed. And why so many politicians want to cut Social Security and never even think about expanding it.

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-page-wealth-and-politics-20130322,0,3575694.story

$59 in 45 Years!

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In case there was any doubt about the growth of inequality in America, a new study based on IRS data shows that:

Corrected for inflation, the average annual income of the bottom 90% of workers in 2011 was $30,437. In 1966, the average was $30,378. That’s an increase of $59 in 45 years.

Meanwhile, the average income of the top 10% almost doubled, rising from $138,793 to $254,864, an increase of roughly $116,000, while the average income of the top 1% rose by $628,000. For the top 0.1%, the increase was $18 million!

More recently, since 2009, the top 1 percent received 81% of  the growth in income. The top 0.1% received more than 50% of the growth.

The wealthiest Americans are pulling away from the rest of us because income has shifted from labor to capital, and because of lower taxes on capital gains, dividends, estates, and other income that is especially important to people with a lot of money.

Policies that especially benefit people with high incomes could be changed (in theory). Yet, in the words of economist David Cay Johnston:

“It has become widely understood that we cannot balance our federal budget by raising taxes only on those at the top, because there is not enough income there, even if we taxed away everything the top makes. What is equally true is that we cannot increase tax revenue if the incomes of the vast majority keep falling [or remain stagnant]. That, however, has yet to become part of the debate on how to finance government.”

http://www.taxanalysts.com/www/features.nsf/Articles/C52956572546624F85257B1D004DE3FC?OpenDocument