PHOTOS, PAGE 1

       Editor and prime reporter is Doug Terry, a veteran television and radio reporter in   Washington, DC, (details below)

U.S. BECOMING A COUNTRY OF THE VERY RICH AND EVERYONE ELSE

Okay, folks, we know officially what has been said here on The TerryReport and in media around the country, many times: the rich in America are getting richer and the poor....you guessed it, are not doing very well. This is not a breaking news! development. Everyone who is paying attention knows this.

The latest evidence was compiled by the non-partisan Congressional Budget office. There will be more discussion of this report in the coming days, but we’ll cover some highlights.

Headline from the NY Times:

Top Earners Doubled Share of Nation’s Income, Study Finds

HERE are the bullet points, again from the NY Times:

 ** The share of after-tax household income for the top 1 percent of the population more than doubled, climbing to 17 percent in 2007 from nearly 8 percent in 1979.

 ** The most affluent fifth of the population received 53 percent of after-tax household income in 2007, up from 43 percent in 1979. In other words, the after-tax income of the most affluent fifth exceeded the  income of the other four-fifths of the population.

 ** People in the lowest fifth of the population received about 5 percent  of after-tax household income in 2007, down from 7 percent in 1979.

 ** People in the middle three-fifths of the population saw their shares of after-tax income decline by 2 to 3 percentage points from 1979 to  2007.

In case anyone is wondering, this is the main problem in America right now and it is what is driving our politics and social movements, like the tea potters and the Occupy Wall Street groups. Leaving aside the recession and housing bust, this is what it is all about The right and the left, the middle and the disinterested should all understand that we are fighting over whether this income inequality will continue and grow greater or whether the government will take action to slow it down.

Rick Perry wants us to give bigger tax breaks to the wealthy in the hopes that they will use some of the barrels of extra money they get to create jobs (he says nothing about good jobs with decent pay and benefits). The Dems on Capitol Hill, having conceded most of the major points to the Republicans, would still like to have some tax increases to help slow down deficit spending (forget paying down the debt itself).

As far as I can see, no one is really talking about the core issue of how America got to be a place where most of the population is barely keeping up with inflation while the top 20% takes in more money than the whole rest of the population combined. What happened? I have a good many ideas about this and will continue to post on the subject in the coming days.

Doug Terry, 10.26.11

CONTACT THE TERRYREPORT

       HOME PAGE

end