Casual Observer 597 Posted March 9, 2012 Anyway, below is a link to a paper by Emmanuel Saez with plenty of interesting points to discuss. http://elsa.berkeley.edu/~saez/saez-UStopincomes-2010.pdf Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
kutulu 1,564 Posted March 9, 2012 How about some CliffsNotes, ya JackWagon? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Casual Observer 597 Posted March 9, 2012 How about some CliffsNotes, ya JackWagon? Skip to the graphs at the end? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
FeelingMN 273 Posted March 9, 2012 I'm not reading all that Casual. But here's a synopsis of this researcher's work: http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/blog/09/04/27/CongratulationstoEmmanuelSaez Casual, you say there are interesting points to discuss. What are they? From the parts I've skimmed through, the rich get richer while everyone else stays relatively the same, thus the reason the WH can tax the hell out of them. Screw that. What else is there worth discussing? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Casual Observer 597 Posted March 9, 2012 I'm not reading all that Casual. But here's a synopsis of this researcher's work: http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/blog/09/04/27/CongratulationstoEmmanuelSaez Casual, you say there are interesting points to discuss. What are they? From the parts I've skimmed through, the rich get richer while everyone else stays relatively the same, thus the reason the WH can tax the hell out of them. Screw that. What else is there worth discussing? Let's see if others read the article and post their takes and see where the thread goes (if anywhere). Yours is certainly one and there will probably be others that share your view. (I will commend you on the WH find. I saw Saez's paper posted at a financial site and didn't know the WH jumped on it so quickly). Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
FeelingMN 273 Posted March 9, 2012 Income inequality in the United States is at an all-time high, surpassing even levels seen during the Great Depression, according to a recently updated paper by University of California, Berkeley Professor Emmanuel Saez. The paper, which covers data through 2007, points to a staggering, unprecedented disparity in American incomes. On his blog, Nobel prize-winning economist and New York Times columnist Paul Krugman called the numbers "truly amazing." Though income inequality has been growing for some time, the paper paints a stark, disturbing portrait of wealth distribution in America. Saez calculates that in 2007 the top .01 percent of American earners took home 6 percent of total U.S. wages, a figure that has nearly doubled since 2000. As of 2007, the top decile of American earners, Saez writes, pulled in 49.7 percent of total wages, a level that's "higher than any other year since 1917 and even surpasses 1928, the peak of stock market bubble in the 'roaring" 1920s.'" Beginning in the economic expansion of the early 1990s, Saez argues, the economy began to favor the top tiers American earners, but much of the country missed was left behind. "The top 1 percent incomes captured half of the overall economic growth over the period 1993-2007," Saes writes. Despite a rising stock market, largely growing employment and a historic housing boom things were not nearly so rosy for the rest of U.S. workers. This trend, according to Saez, only accelerated during the George W. Bush's tenure as President: "...while the bottom 99 percent of incomes grew at a solid pace of 2.7 percent per year from 1993-2000, these incomes grew only 1.3 percent per year from 2002-2007. As a result, in the economic expansion of 2002-2007, the top 1 percent captured two thirds of income growth." http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/08/14/income-inequality-is-at-a_n_259516.html Bush! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Casual Observer 597 Posted March 9, 2012 http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/08/14/income-inequality-is-at-a_n_259516.html Bush! "Therefore, a significant fraction of the surge in top incomes since 1970 is due to an explosion of top wages and salaries. Indeed, estimates based purely on wages and salaries show that the share of total wages and salaries earned by the top 1 percent wage income earners has jumped from 5.1 percent in 1970 to 12.4 percent in 2007." Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, Bush, Clinton, Bush But, "The evidence suggests that top incomes earners today are not “rentiers” deriving their incomes from past wealth but rather are “working rich,” highly paid employees or new entrepreneurs who have not yet accumulated fortunes comparable to those accumulated during the Gilded Age. Such a pattern might not last for very long. The drastic cuts of the federal tax on large estates could certainly accelerate the path toward the reconstitution of the great wealth concentration that existed in the U.S. economy before the Great Depression" everything will be all right if the U.S. would just raise the Estate Tax Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
