Thursday Night Charts & Graphs – Share of National Income By Wealth
September 20, 2012 6 Comments
Over at Mother Jones, Kevin Drum posted this graph of national income by wealth, asking why those who have so much are so angry.
DRUM: The last 30 years in the United States have been better for the rich than any time or place in human history. High-end incomes are up spectacularly. Tax rates are down. Welfare reform has been the law of the land for 15 years. Private sector unions are all but extinct. The wages that business owners pay to their employees have been virtually flat for more than a decade. For the rich, it’s been a golden age. And yet, America’s wealthy class nonetheless seem to be in an absolute fury. The looters want their money, the government is resorting to socialism, the president who rescued the banking industry hates them, and their tax dollars are all going to support a bunch of freeloaders and shirkers.
Where does this come from? Why are the very people who have done the best so angry? It’s mystifying.
I agree with his description of the situation, but not with his bewilderment. If Drum is looking for the logic, it’s quite simple. The wealthy want it all, and they can never have enough.
That’s why Romney was speaking from his heart at that secretly-recorded fundraising speech. His heart is located in his wallet, like the charitable Christian he is.
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rich get richer, poor get ….
According to this article on Salon, income inequality is worse now than it was in 1774!
It’s not like we didn’t already know there was a massive gap between the haves and the have-nots in this country, but for some reason that graph is still truly shocking.
I seriously appreciate a well-made graph! You can know something well, but making it visual can add both clarity and depth.
You can sure spot the Clinton years on that graph! Very informative. Thanks.
And I’m old enough to remember when the Republicans said that Clinton’s modest tax increase on the wealthy was going to destroy the economy…