Paul Harris pulled together some interesting public facts from the US Gov's web site
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/columnists/story/0,,1792399,00.htmlhttp://www.firstgov.gov/Which I for one do not recall being mentioned in the media as being said by Dems of late. Is this because of a media black out - or do we just not mention economic facts that might upset our donors?
As Paul say's: "....this is not some argument against capitalism. Inequality is inevitable. It is a good thing. People need incentives. People need competition. People need markets. Some people will always be poor. Others deserve to be rich. But at the moment it looks like the rules of the game are being fixed in America in favor of the wealthy. The gap between rich and poor will only get wider...."
INTERESTING FACTS:
1. Over the past 25 years the median US family income has gone up 18 percent. For the top one percent, however, it has gone up 200 percent.
2. A quarter of a century ago the top fifth of Americans had an average income 6.7 times that of the bottom fifth. Now it is 9.8 times.
3. The wealthiest one percent of households now control a third of the national wealth. The wealthiest 10 percent control two-thirds of it.
4. The Rising Tide of Reagan/Bush/Hatch/GOP lifting all boats has been shown by history to be a lie. Between 1980 and 2004 America's GDP went up by almost two-thirds, making a part of the population quite wealthy, but leaving a world of no real increase in purchasing power for the worker, the working poor growing in numbers, and 37 million Americans living in poverty - and at 12.7 percent of the population, it is the highest percentage in the developed world.
5. The top 0.01 percent of households has seen their tax bite fall by a full 25 percentage points since 1980.