Fear of Clowns

This should be the third or fourth nail in the coffin for the American idea that people earn what they're worth. To me, it seems reasonable to believe the most talented among us could be 4 or five times more productive than the average worker, but government policy has allowed the upper class to be rewarded thousands of times over what they'd have earned had they not been unusually fortunate in their investment gambles or born into wealth in the first place. From the Wall Street Journal,

The wealthiest 1% of Americans earned 21.2% of all income in 2005, according to new data from the Internal Revenue Service. That is up sharply from 19% in 2004, and surpasses the previous high of 20.8% set in 2000, at the peak of the previous bull market in stocks.

The bottom 50% earned 12.8% of all income, down from 13.4% in 2004 and a bit less than their 13% share in 2000.

The top 1% "earn" almost twice that of the bottom 50% combined. In effect America is an aristocracy.

Labels: free markets, income inequality

// posted by Erik @ 10/12/2007 10:48:00 PM
permalink | email post: