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Posted by on Jan 22, 2013 in Blog, Politics | 5 comments

What Are Rich People Complaining About?

 

Rich People

 

Of the millions of Americans who watched President Obama’s sequel inauguration yesterday, one group above all others should be cheering the loudest.

And which group is that?

Poor people?  No.

The middle class?  No.

Blacks?  No.

Try this on for size — rich people.  That’s right, the richest of the rich.

 

The super-rich should be doing backflips right now.

Despite all the ridiculous rhetoric from conservatives, the rich have done exceedingly well during these past four years that President Obama has been in office.  In fact, the rich are doing better now, financially speaking, than ever before.  Rich people are making more money as a percentage of the national economy than even during the best days of former President George W. Bush’s two terms in office.

SEE:  INCOME INEQUALITY WORSE UNDER OBAMA THAN GEORGE W. BUSH

The report cited in the article above serves as an astonishing indictment of President Obama’s “progressive” image and should be a call for political activism to reverse the ceaseless tide of economic policies which consistently favor big corporations, banks, and the wealthiest Americans at the expense of the great majority.

I know — statistics tend to bore a lot of people.  But some figures can’t be ignored.  Consider recent stats which show the top one-percent of all earners accumulated a staggering 93 percent of all income gains in the United States during the two-year period from 2009-2010.  Read that again and then try to make a case that the American economic system isn’t rigged worse than a carnival game.  It doesn’t matter where you stand politically — these figures should be both frightening and embarrassing.  One would think they were plucked out of the era of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette rather than any industrialized nation in the 21st Century.

This dose of reality would be ugly enough to look at, without also having to listen to a constant barrage of lies and misinformation put out by defenders of the status quo.  Not only do working-class Americans have to suffer the economic hardships of an ongoing recession and high unemployment brought on by proponents of free markets and deregulation, but we must also endure the utter humiliation of having to listen to these leeches squawk about the current system supposedly penalizing those who benefit the most.

Of course, not all rich people are conservatives.  Not all rich people oppose President Obama.  On the contrary, he gets remarkably enthusiastic support from some of America’s economic elite.

But to listen to many rich people in America — which includes a sizable percentage of corporate executives, Wall Street types, bankers, and free-market advocates — you’re led to believe we’re headed on the path towards socialism.

Since the facts clearly demonstrate otherwise, there’s only one thing left to say.  Here’s a message to rich people who are upset with President Obama and his economic policies:  Shut up and count your earnings.

5 Comments

  1. Nolan, you misread those statistics. The top 1% make about 19% of income. That number is pretax and does not include as income any government payments to poor people, food stamps, EIC, etc., nor does it include employer benefits such as health care. In 1840 the top 1% made 10% of all income and there was no Federal income tax, government payments to the poor, or employer benefits.

    The 93% number is supposedly the percentage of the GAINS in everyone’s income, pretax and excluding the large tax cut that went to all working people, that went to the top 1%. I don’t think that number is meaningful but you may disagree.

    That being said, I think poor men in America are definitely getting the short end of the stick, but it’s not because of tax policy, it’s because of heavily biased family-law policies, drug prohibition, and affirmative action for women.

    • Thanks for reading and for the comments, Richard.

      I’ll respond in due time, perhaps with a follow up.

      That said, you were kind enough to give me your source on Facebook for a previous statistical question. Can you also provide something tangible which supports the notion that affirmative action for women causes income disparity between classes — which is what you appear to be saying.

      — ND

  2. No, I wasn’t clear. Affirmative action causes economic losses to the people being discriminated against and to society as a whole. I don’t think it has anything to do with income inequality, which I don’t think has changed much in post-industrial America if you include taxes, benefits, and welfare, as you must if your comparison is to be meaningful. It’s a poor statistic to be concerned with, anyway, since it doesn’t have any meaningful effect on anyone’s life.

    • After reading my text again, I see that it was written in a confusing way. Edit made to reflect the 2009-2010 figures refer to income GAINS.

      Obliged,

      — ND

  3. I think my record of expressing disappointments and concerns about President Obama is pretty clear. All you have to do is click the PRESIDENT OBAMA tag to the right, and you will see perhaps half-a-dozen essays critical of the Administration. Admittedly, I hold those I support to higher standards, which elicits a higher volume of criticism when they fail. Moreover, you won’t see professed liberals going on record to criticize their own as much as I do and have done.

    — ND

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