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Alyallen
Joined: 29 Mar 2004
Location: The 4th Greatest Place on Earth = Jeonju!!!
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 Posted: Fri Oct 12, 2007 5:49 am Post subject: IRS says rich getting richer: report |
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IRS says rich getting richer: report
Fri Oct 12, 2:48 AM ET
NEW YORK (Reuters) - The richest one percent of Americans earned a postwar record of 21.2 percent of all income in 2005, up from 19 percent a year earlier, reflecting a widening income disparity among different classes in the nation, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing new Internal Revenue Service data.
The data showed that the fortunes of the bottom 50 percent of Americans are worsening, with that group earning 12.8 percent of all income in 2005, down from 13.4 percent the year before, the paper said.
It said that while the IRS data goes back only to 1986, academic research suggests that the last time wealthy Americans had such a high percentage of the national income pie was in the 1920s.
The article cited an interview with President Bush, who attributed income inequality to "skills gaps" among various classes. It said the IRS didn't identify the source of rising income for the affluent, but said a boom on Wall Street has likely played a part.
http://tinyurl.com/2fhkyq |
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Pluto
Joined: 19 Dec 2006
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| Posted: Fri Oct 12, 2007 8:24 am Post subject: |
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So what? The rich are getting richer; it means there is more money to invest. There is nothing about the poor getting poorer. In fact, if trends continue, the poor will get richer too.
The poverty rate during th 1920's was over 40%, today it's at 12.4%.
At least within the US. |
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jinju
Joined: 22 Jan 2006
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| Posted: Fri Oct 12, 2007 1:35 pm Post subject: |
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| Is this Russia circa 1937 that we are complaining about people getting richer? |
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mindmetoo
Joined: 02 Feb 2004
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| Posted: Fri Oct 12, 2007 3:06 pm Post subject: |
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This tells us nothing.
Do you want 12% of a trillion dollars or 13.9% of 700 billion dollars?
So if the economy grows by 4% and you earn 1.9% less of it, you're still doing better.
A company grows by 50%. It gives its engineers 10% raises and its web developers 5% raises. The gap has widened but are the web developers suddenly worse off? If society provided no way to move up from secretary to web developer to engineer, this would be a problem. But liberal economies allow people to earn more through greater effort. |
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Fresh Prince
Joined: 05 Dec 2006
Location: The glorious nation of Korea
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| Posted: Fri Oct 12, 2007 7:22 pm Post subject: |
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| Quote: |
| The article cited an interview with President Bush, who attributed income inequality to "skills gaps" among various classes. |
How does one remedy a, "skills gap?"
Let's say someone working a blue-collar job assembling automobiles earns $20 an hour. They've worked at the plant most of their life and planned on retiring after 20 years. Suddenly they find themselves "laid off," because the company moves manufacturing to a country where they can pay the workers much less. Suddenly, this worker now has a "skills gap?" |
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sojourner1
Joined: 17 Apr 2007
Location: Where meggi swim and 2 wheeled tractors go sput put chug alugg pug pug
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| Posted: Fri Oct 12, 2007 9:09 pm Post subject: |
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| Fresh Prince wrote: |
| Quote: |
| The article cited an interview with President Bush, who attributed income inequality to "skills gaps" among various classes. |
How does one remedy a, "skills gap?"
Let's say someone working a blue-collar job assembling automobiles earns $20 an hour. They've worked at the plant most of their life and planned on retiring after 20 years. Suddenly they find themselves "laid off," because the company moves manufacturing to a country where they can pay the workers much less. Suddenly, this worker now has a "skills gap?" |
This is precisely what has been going on in the past 10 years in America. It means these workers are displaced and fall into a funk or they are able to retrain for a certification such as to be a mechanic, plumber, electrician, or other service technician. Some may go into driving big trucks. Often, state division of employment offices will help officially displaced workers (those officially laid off) by paying for a new certification training and testing.
Of course, many younger adults graduate college to an ice cold job market who are already displaced worker out of matter of circumstatnce and are practically begging for a $9/hour no benefits job in a bar, a big box store, or upscale restaurant. When I graduated, I worked in a cubicle in a corporate office for Mercedes Benz Credit for $8/hour for 6 months that I so hated due to low pay, no career track, and hateful managers. The call center was in place only to deal with angry customers who could not be helped in the Bangalore India call center.
I then joined a mortgage broker and worked in their office for several months just when the real estate market was cooling off and interest rates were rising. Sales were decreasing and half of the senior loan officers left during my 3 months there so I had to leave too. I then went to sell premium clothing in a big box store for $9/hour and no commissions for nearly a year, while almost all of us had bachelors degrees and a few had earned their masters. The local mall Starbucks and Cheesecake factory restaurant also had all college educated staff. There were no good jobs nor nothing with a salary of just $25,000 a year with benefits. That is one pitifully lacking job market. You'd do better going to truck driving school for 3 weeks, going to the military, or going to a 2 year tech school. My 55 year old uncle with a bachelor of forestry degree joined the US Army 2 months ago and went on an 18 month assignment to Iraq for lots of coin after retiring from the Navy reserves due to making only $8/hour at a Lowes store in the plumbing department for 7 years. Anything associated with war, prolonging lives of aging baby boomers, and importing Asian goods is were it's at in America today. I am seeing a trend of small IT companies trying to bring programming jobs back onto American soil by locating in rural areas, but it's hard to say if the $3000 2 month MCAD school is worth it or not as India is cranking out IT grads at high rate to the point where they may not all be able to have careers. |
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Fresh Prince
Joined: 05 Dec 2006
Location: The glorious nation of Korea
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| Posted: Sat Oct 13, 2007 3:21 am Post subject: |
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That's an excellent point. I hadn't really considered that other than military, healthcare, and import/export there really isn't a good job market.
I remember talking to a full-time barista at a coffee shop one day. She had a Bachelors degree and was working full time for around $9 an hour too. She definitly didn't get health insurance either, only the management staff had benefits like health insurance. |
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mindmetoo
Joined: 02 Feb 2004
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| Posted: Sat Oct 13, 2007 4:37 am Post subject: |
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| Fresh Prince wrote: |
| Let's say someone working a blue-collar job assembling automobiles earns $20 an hour. They've worked at the plant most of their life and planned on retiring after 20 years. Suddenly they find themselves "laid off," because the company moves manufacturing to a country where they can pay the workers much less. Suddenly, this worker now has a "skills gap?" |
Yes. The skill a factory worker can do can be bought cheaper elsewhere. The consumer gets a less expensive car. The money saved can then be spent on a vacation to Florida. The worker in Florida now has a job. |
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Pluto
Joined: 19 Dec 2006
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| Posted: Sat Oct 13, 2007 9:06 am Post subject: |
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| mindmetoo wrote: |
| Fresh Prince wrote: |
| Let's say someone working a blue-collar job assembling automobiles earns $20 an hour. They've worked at the plant most of their life and planned on retiring after 20 years. Suddenly they find themselves "laid off," because the company moves manufacturing to a country where they can pay the workers much less. Suddenly, this worker now has a "skills gap?" |
Yes. The skill a factory worker can do can be bought cheaper elsewhere. The consumer gets a less expensive car. The money saved can then be spent on a vacation to Florida. The worker in Florida now has a job. |
That is almost exactly what my older sister did. She got laid off from her previous job so she went to grad school and got a Masters in Education. She moved to Florida and now has a decent paying reliable job in Florida with two months vacation.
This is from the Reuters article.
| Quote: |
| To make the top 1 percent of wealthiest Americans in 2005, a taxpayer had to earn at least $364,657. |
I don't even make 10% of that figure and I could really care less. In fact, I hope the rich get richer. It means more money to invest in our economy. Again, there is nothing in this article that mentions the poor getting poorer though the writer seems to insinuate that through a "widening gap."
It almost seems as if, oh I don't know, there is certain type of bias. |
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