In 2005, the bottom 50% of the US population got 13% of total income. Top 1% got 21%.

[Hannah Bell]

which is why we're now in our present unending Depression.


IRS data, 1986 v. 2005


Share of total income:

Top 1%: 11%, 21%
Top 50%: 83%, 87%

Bottom 50%: 17%, 13%

Average income tax rate:

Top 1%: 33%, 23%
Top 50%: 16%, 14%



Percent of income taxes paid:

Top 1%: 26%, 39%
Top 50%: 94%, 97%



http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-soi/05in05tr.xls


When too much money flows to the top, the rich "invest" it in frothy bubbles & conspicuous consumption.

You don't have any money, so why would they invest it in "businesses" there's no demand for?

Profit is king; in an economy where most of the money's at the top, the biggest profits come from crime.

To see what your future looks like under such a regime, think of latin american kleptocracies; wealthy estates surrounded by barbed wire & hundreds of shacks, with drug gangs in charge of the shack turf.

A tiny middle class which exists to serve the rich & sell basics to the peons at inflated prices.

[Hannah Bell]

1. My, this was up about 8 points higher last time i checked. Who are these people

at DU who think it's great when 1% of the population takes nearly double the share of total national income as the bottom 50%?

You unreccers are Democrats?

[Rosa Luxemburg]

2. I expect most of them (the 2%) don't pay tax on their offshore treasure chests?

[Hannah Bell]

3. yeah, i think these figures are *after* they stashed some of it away in swiss or cayman banks.

so you can figure the real percent of income they take is a bit higher.

Maybe 25% to the top 1%?

That would mean the bottom 50% really gets about 10% or something.

I don't know, I find it a shocking statistic that 50% of the population only gets about 10% of total income, less than 1% of the population.

As recently as the 80s, the bottom half still made more than the top 1%.

Really sad & a little bit frightening.

recs going down again. my my. which side are you on, dems?

[maryf]

9. Well as Leona Helmsley said:

"We don't pay taxes. Only little people pay taxes."

[Radical Activist]

4. Good thing Obama is making taxes more progressive again.

[hfojvt]

5. to see what your future looks like

check out the 3rd chart here http://www.koch2congress.com/5.html

fairly simple math 1986/1987 = 2006/2007 and so on.

[LooseWilly]

6. Slackers! - It's our own fault...

just ask any motivational seminar speaker.

;)

[blindpig]

7. k&r

[Starry Messenger]

8. I just sleep better knowing Larry Ellison still has his yacht.

:sarcasm:



"Co-owned by Larry Ellison, CEO of Oracle Corporation, and David Geffen of Geffen Records, Rising Sun carried a price tag of $200 million.

Built with the intention of surpassing Octopus in size, 453 feet long Rising Sun was built by Lürssen in Germany. Not only did Rising Sun surpass Octopus, the yacht is so big that it can’t even dock at most marinas—it exceeds their size limits.

With 82 rooms on five stories, Rising Sun’s living area exceeds 8,000 square meters. Rising Sun is totally pimped-out with onyx countertops, a gym, spa and sauna, Jacuzzi bathrooms and a private movie theater with giant plasma screen.

It also boasts an extensive private wine cellar, 3,300 square meters of teak-layered deck space, and a basketball court on the deck doubles as a helicopter pad."

[Hannah Bell]

11. wasn't it ellison who whined to the state of ca until his got his own personal proprty tax rebate?

[Starry Messenger]

15. San Mateo County.

Otherwise correct. That's where I live and teach so every time he squeezed, schools lost out. It was like the beginner's guide to capitalism for me, since I'd never really seen the direct effect of some greedy rich guy on our community before.

http://www.almanacnews.com/news/show_story.php?id=1835

Ellison wins 60% tax cut on Woodside estate
He will get a $3 million refund; school, town coffers are hit

by Marjorie Mader
Almanac Staff

Share
Woodside billionaire Larry Ellison will get an estimated $3.06 million refund from property taxes he's paid since 2004 on his 23-acre Mountain Home Road estate, while local schools and the town of Woodside will see their share of annual tax revenue drop as a result of a recent 60 percent reduction in the assessed value of the lavishly developed property.

The reassessment will hit the Portola Valley School District the hardest: The district estimates a drop of $250,000 to $300,000 in tax revenue beginning this year because of the change.

Mr. Ellison had appealed a determination by the San Mateo County assessor's office of the value of his 745 Mountain Home Road property, which includes a main house, a two-bedroom guest house, three cottages, a barn converted into a gym, a five-acre man-made lake, two waterfalls and two bridges.

<snip>

Octopus Holdings, represented by attorney William R. Bennett of Bennett & Yee in San Francisco, argued that the assessment should be based on "the cost to replace an existing property with a property of equivalent utility as of a particular date" <0x2014> an assessment that allows for discounting the value of many exotic features on the property, which is based on a Japanese emperor's 16th century estate, because they would have limited appeal to another buyer.

<snip>

Tim Hanretty, assistant superintendent of the Portola Valley district, calculates the impact as a $250,000 to $300,000 loss to the district in the 2008 tax year. The $300,000 figure translates into the cost of almost three teachers.

[SammyWinstonJack]

12. Wow.

:wow:

[maryf]

10. K&R

Tax the Rich.

[blindpig]

13. And then eat them....

it's much healthier that way.

[maryf]

14. Rich food gives me gas...

hhhmmm, maybe an energy solution there...

[Hannah Bell]

16. what does it mean when half the population has only 10% of national income?

what does it means for --

- the economy?

- politics?

- people's psychology?

- families?