The graph makes the disparities in “income growth” in the U.S. between 1996 and 2011 quite clear. Well, at least for those willing to see it. More importantly is the willingness, or not, to consider the reasons for the mindboggling differences, and the results for the “one inch” majority. At Real World Economics, David Ruccio [...]
Tag Archives | income inequality
Austerity and Income Inequality in Portugal, Switzerland and the USA
Portugal’s Streets Flooded With Message: ‘Austerity Kills’. Swiss Overwhelmingly Vote to Curb Executive Pay. Meanwhile, in USA! USA!, Electeds play sequential and contrived Grand Bargain / Fiscal Cliff / Super Sequestration games and much of the Electorate yawns. Much, but not all. First, about the citizen actions in Portugal: Over 40 cities across Portugal on [...]
Some Stuff I’d Like to Hear Seriously Addressed in the State of the Union, and Even Better, on a Day to Day Basis in DC
I can think of a lot of stuff I’d like to hear DC Electeds having serious conversations about. More unlikely yet, it would be cool if they’d take serious actions aimed at helping the majority – you know, that “99%,” – of people. I don’t expect to hear such things in the State of the [...]
Chris Hedges on ‘Debt Peonage’: That 1% – 99% Chasm Didn’t Disappear With the Corporate State Suppression of Occupy
“Stop beating the dead horse,” I was chastised when I kept paying attention to the Occupy movement beyond that sliver of attention deemed newsworthy. The movement evolved, still continues in various projects. I’ve never stopped paying attention. And for good, or really bad, reasons: the inequalities it helped reveal remain. Chris Hedges has also continued [...]
‘Failure of the American Conscience’ but ‘Walmart Workers Make History’
One of the best commentaries I’ve read regarding the Black Friday actions by Walmart employees and supporters is from Pam Spaulding, in Failure of the American conscience: Walmart reports record Black Friday sales despite 100-city worker strike. So, what does this say about the American people, the brain-dead consumers addicted to a one-day extreme low [...]
Fiscal Cliff & Shared Sacrifice: If You Build It, They Will Come
These were all built by and for those who will profit from them; our job is to come to accept what we’re told about them: deficit reduction; fiscal cliff; shared sacrifice; entitlements; Grand Bargain; austerity; disemployment (Lambert Strether’s excellent term); privatization; too big to fail. That’s just a partial list, of course. Feel free to [...]
An Election Eve Story: Responding to Superstorm and Electoral Disasters
This really isn’t a non-election story, just one from a practical, grass-roots, real life perspective, focused on people elections should be about. One consistent response from Electeds and those they serve to a disaster is making use of it to further their own, oligarchic, privatizing agenda. Electeds and those for whom they work will, to [...]
Walmart Strikes Spreading is ‘Unprecedented’ and a ‘Game-Changer’
Even if you never shop at Walmart, the corporate giant effects how you spend your money. Its sheer size gives it enormous influence. The strikes by Walmart employees, and those who work, for example, at distribution centers, face not only the corporate giant, but a giant who consistently and strongly fights union organizing. The number [...]
Census Bureau Findings: Poverty Rate Holds at Increased Levels
UPDATE: Released this afternoon, from Sojourners, “VIDEO: Obama, Romney Answer Faith Leaders’ Call to Address Poverty in Election.” See videos of Obama and Romney answering the question “what is your plan to address the problem” of poverty at the link, or in the related post here at TM. Today’s release by the U.S. Census Bureau, [...]
USA Ranks 28th Out of 29 for Income Equality
Via Real World Economic Review, the graph below is from Edward Fullbrook’s Decline of the USA. RWER quotes from an Al Jazeera review: Fullbrook’s book reminds us that there’s a rational order in the world – that countries can learn from one another’s experience in tackling social problems and challenges, and that by striving to [...]
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