I'm making no political statements here, but.... I wonder if this is happening in all industrialized nations?
"Citing Internal Revenue Service data, the Wall Street Journal reported that the wealthiest 1 percent of all Americans earned 21.2 percent of all the nation's income in 2005, up from the previous high of 20.8 percent in 2000.
Conversely, the bottom half of working Americans earned just 12.8 percent of all the nation's income, down from 13.4 percent in 2004 and slightly lower than 13 percent in 2000.
While the IRS data only dates back as far as 1986, academic experts told the paper that the last time the rich had this large of a share of income was during the 1920s."
Walden wrote:You saying we're fixing to have another great depresion?
If you go by trade cycles (Kondratieffs) we are overdue. Mind you, the opening of the global trade markets slightly changed the rules.
But yes, the indicators are that the filthy rich have once again managed to get their sticky fingers on so much loot they are overdue for an attack of paranoia, and will refuse to invest in anything, in case they might lose some.
YES. We are on the verge of a depression. And not just an American/European depression. A complete, thorough, proper international recession. We'll be feeling this one from Vanuatu to Popacatapetl, Singapore to Timbucktu. Start laying-in baked beans and bog-roll now.
anniemcu
--- "You are what you do, not what you claim to believe." -Gene A. Statler
--- "Olé to you, none-the-less!" - Elizabeth Gilbert
--- http://www.sassafrassgrove.com
Its true you know. A depression is coming. In Canada we are all happy that our dollar is on par with America, but what many people don't realize, is that our economy is so ingrained with U.S.A.'s now, that it is only a short matter of time until out economy gives out as well. And not just Canada either, Globalization has caused it that most (if not all) countries are going to feel it.
Its a global phenomenon. Any country-specific solutions will only cause the very rich in that country to leave that country or move their accounts off shore.
The gap is even wider in other countries. China had zero billionaires a few years ago. Zero. Now there are over a dozen. How do you think the peasants and factory workers that earn $50 a month, feel about that in their "worker's paradise?" China already had their revolution, and at that time killed most of the rich people or drove them off, and seized all their property, now the problem is returning. What next for them?
Depressions are scary. What's worse is the antidote that was discovered during the last couple of 'em. Don't believe it's not being orchestrated as we speak. (OK, there's my political statement).
Charlie Gravel
“I am so clever that sometimes I don't understand a single word of what I am saying.”
― Oscar Wilde
Tell us something.: "Tell us something" hits me a bit like someone asking me to tell a joke. I can always think of a hundred of them until someone asks me for one. You know how it is. Right now, I can't think of "something" to tell you. But I have to use at least 100 characters to inform you of that.
Looks to me like there has been a massive transfer of wealth from the lower classes to the upper-most.
At what point are there enough people with nothing to lose to rise up with their pitchforks and torches? I suppose it's when that last spoonful of sugar is replaced with that final shovel full of sh!t.
~ Diane
Flutes: Tipple D and E flutes and a Casey Burns Boxwood Rudall D flute
Whistles: Jerry Freeman Tweaked D Blackbird
fancypiper wrote:It's funny, but it is never reported that the poorest are more rich than before and the number of millionaires has increased greatly.
A rising tide lifts all boats.
Not all boats.
The trend is actually toward a greater number of poor, a greater number of rich, and a rapidly shrinking number of middle-income workers. This is a very hard trend to sustain, and the root of a lot of anxiety among economists, (not to mention middle-income families).
Charlie Gravel
“I am so clever that sometimes I don't understand a single word of what I am saying.”
― Oscar Wilde
Well let's see, my parents were kids during the "Great Depression". Dad lived alternatively in a coal camp in WV and his grandparents tiny mountain farm in NC when there was no work for his dad in the mines. He told me once that they sometimes had very little food. Mom lived on her parents farm which was totally self-sufficient except for stuff like coffee, sugar and salt. She said they didn't know there was a depression.
I've got enough left of our farm to raise a really big garden and a couple of cow/calf pairs for milk and beef....
and I do fear the predictions may be right....
"Let low-country intruder approach a cove
And eyes as gray as icicle fangs measure stranger
For size, honesty, and intent." John Foster West
There have been people screaming and whining that another depression is about to begin ever since the last one ended. There may well continue to be "adjustments" but have you ever noticed that when something goes awry with the markets, steps are taken to ensure that particular foible isn't allowed to happen again? Even if someone wanted to engineer a depression (possibly for income tax purposes?), I suspect there are enough checks and balances in place to prevent that sort of thing reaching the extent it did in the 30s.
djm
I'd rather be atop the foothills than beneath them.
